Lol .... never heard this before. Did they leave on their own or did O'Connell send in reinforcements to help them with their baggage?
Wel, the quote is sort of apocryphal, and I've forgotten all of the details, but the gist of it is along these lines:
When Archbishop William (Gangplank Bill) O'Connell first took over the Archdiocese of Boston (some time before he became Cardinal O'Connell), there was a religious order here that highly displeased him for some reason. They had apparently buried their dead on the grounds of the seminary. Soooo...after informing them of his displeasure, the archbishop ended his fulminations against this order by saying "Get out of my diocese, and take your dead with you!"
To this day, there is a large, sunken-in area of the seminary grounds; this is supposed to be the spot where the order's former members were laid to (unpermanent) rest.
Is it true? I dunno. I've heard from true believers, and I've heard from others who say the whole thing is hogwash based on his rather brusque personality. Excellent line though! One the current occupant of the office of archbishop may want to dust-off for real-life use, when it comes to several "Catholic" orders around here...
Why, if he'd do that, and rescind his order to close my church, we'd be on the best of terms indeed!...