American Catholic Historical Association - Boston

As Mom and Dad got back to school in the new year, I remained on vacation for one additional week, and took the opportunity to attend the annual meetings of the American Historical Association and the American Catholic Historical Association, which were held concurrently in Boston from January 6-9.

I drove up to Boston and stayed at the conference hotel attached to Boston's convention center, just blocks from Newbury Street and the Boston Public Library. I had a very nice view from my room of the First Church of Christ, Scientist complex.

Before the conference began, I did a little walking tour which included the shops of Newbury Street and the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, the Catholic cathedral of Boston. My friends in the Notre Dame School of Architecture will have to help me with this, but it struck me that the towers were a bit odd: they either need true steeples, or need to have the current tower roofs removed and to be left as towers.

Anyway, even more disappointing was the fact the cathedral was locked at three o'clock on a weekday. Only the Eucharistic chapel on the side of the cathedral remained open for visitors. I understand the concern about security and insurance, and I'm glad at least the Eucharistic chapel was open for people to stop in and pray, but I couldn't help see the locked doors as a sad statement about one of the nation's once-great archdioceses.  Granted, this isn't a true downtown cathedral in quite the same way as New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles, but those cathedrals are always open.

I very much enjoyed the conferences I attended, and also had fun socializing with a number of colleagues from Catholic University and from Notre Dame who were also attending the weekend's events. I particularly enjoyed a foray into the North End for an Italian dinner with friends from CUA.  That evening, we were even treated to a nice little snowfall:

On Sunday I drove back to Staten Island for one evening, and then completed the drive to D.C. the next morning for the start of classes. Since I've been back, we've also had some snow here in Washington - though not nearly as much as in New York, Boston, or South Bend. I'll keep praying, though!