BOSTON (AP) — Archbishop Sean O'Malley met with 600 priests Tuesday to outline plans to close parishes — a move he acknowledged was accelerated by the $85 million sex abuse settlement.
"I want the Catholics to realize we are family, and we must see ourselves as something bigger than our own parishes," O'Malley said.
With declining church attendance, a shortage of priests and a struggling financial condition, he said the Boston archdiocese is left with no choice but to close parishes.
The archbishop said he does not yet know how many or which churches will be closed.
O'Malley met with the priests to discuss the parish closings, gay marriage and the church's settlements with hundreds of clergy sex abuse victims. It was the first time in at least a quarter of a century that a Boston archbishop has met with all the priests in the diocese.
O'Malley told the priests to urge their parishioners to contact lawmakers and fight efforts to legalize same-sex marriages in Massachusetts. The state's highest court last month ruled that it is unconstitutional to bar gay couples from marriage and gave the Legislature 180 days to rewrite the state's marriage laws to provide benefits for gay couples.