BOSTON — Nearly one-fifth of the parishes in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston will be closed, church officials said Tuesday, a convulsive restructuring caused partly by declining church attendance and increased financial problems that were exacerbated by the clergy sex abuse crisis.
In what may be the biggest loss of parishes by an American Catholic diocese at one time, 65 of the archdiocese's 357 parishes will close by the end of the year, compelling thousands of Catholics to find parishes in other neighborhoods and in some cases other towns.
"I wish there were some way that all of these wonderful houses of life and prayer could remain open and alive and full," said Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley at a news conference. "But there is not."
In a grave tone, O'Malley said, "The alternative to this exercise would be that we would experience a continual decline in some areas of our archdiocese, closing parish after parish, school after school, outreach program after outreach program, all because the archdiocese would be unable to subsidize these entities. Furthermore the archdiocese would be faced with the serious reality of not being able to meet its pension and medical fund obligations for its employees. This we cannot allow to happen."
Catholic parishes are being closed around the country, as dioceses struggle with a shortage of priests, changing demographics and deteriorating church buildings.
But in the Boston archdiocese, the number of closings is so high it will affect many of region's 2 million Catholics, with parishes being eliminated in nearly a third of the 144 cities and towns that make up the eastern swath of Massachusetts.
"I don't know of an announcement in the past that has been as sweeping in terms of a percentage of parishes in any archdiocese that have been announced to be closing at one time," said R. Scott Appleby, director of the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism at the University of Notre Dame.
The pain of the parish closings is especially sharp here, coming on the heels of the long and painful sexual abuse scandal, which forced Cardinal Bernard F. Law to resign in late 2002, and led to the removal of at least 25 priests amid hundreds of allegations of abuse. The crisis, which alienated some parishioners and donors from the church, only accentuated the need to close parishes.
Many parishioners and priests were distraught.
"Why us?" said Mary Walsh, 77, whose lifelong church, St. Catherine of Siena in the Boston's Charlestown neighborhood, will be closing. "I'm angry, and I didn't want to be. I said, 'Please God, don't let me be angry,' but it's human nature."