If you have ever attended a mass at St. Ann’s University Parish on St. Stephen Street, you understand the concern over the church closing its doors. You know why it’s a loss, not just for the Catholic community at Northeastern — but the spiritual community of Symphony.
And if you have ever attended St. Ann’s you know exactly why it’s most likely different than the church services you attended when you were a child. It is different because he makes it different, because he reaches out to college students, because he makes church – gasp – fun?
He is Father John Unni.
Joining St. Ann’s a few years ago, Unni made an immediate impact on those that passed through the doors. He makes every single person feel welcome: Catholics, Protestants or any person of faith. His services are funny and uplifting. And perhaps most amazingly, he gets college students interested in going to church.
The Boston Archdiocese is going through a well-documented dark period. Seventy churches around the state are closing their doors, and Northeastern is not the only community to suffer a loss. And although losing the actual building is a sad and tragic thing, the thought of losing Unni may strike deeper into the spirit of NU.
According to 2003 statistics from the Northeastern data base, of the 42 percent of full time undergrads who marked a religious preference, close to half of them said they were Catholic, making this closing hit particularly close to home. St. Ann’s closing down will displace hundreds of parishioners, some who may think if Unni isn’t there, it isn’t worth going to church at all.
Right now Unni is a Catholic chaplain at Northeastern University, one of two, and holds office hours at the Newman Club, the Northeastern Catholic student organization. The Boston of Boston owns his current living space, across the street from St. Ann’s. And despite the fact that he may still hold services once a week at St. Cecilia’s Church off Massachusetts Avenue, the whole feeling that St. Ann’s was NU’s church and Unni, NU’s priest, might leave forever.
In this day it is very difficult to find someone who speaks to the heart of the college generation, someone who inspires and understands young people. Although we wouldn’t suggest Northeastern buy the church, allowing it to remain open, we do hope they would consider doing everything in their power to keep Unni around as a permanent and paid member of the Northeastern staff.
Just the same as not letting a top professor go, Unni cannot be seen as dispensable.
