CATHOLIC CHURCH Priests learn the fates of parishes in closings

Abuse by priests has contributed to shrinking attendance.
DEDHAM, Mass. (AP) -- The priest stood in front of his flock, holding the fate of his parish in his hands. Ripping open the plain white envelope, he began to read a letter inside aloud.
People gasped, burst into tears, shook their heads in dismay and a few booed as the Rev. Stephen Josoma announced the directive from Boston Archbishop Sean O'Malley: The St. Susanna Parish must be closed.
Silence fell. Then a young parishioner piped up defiantly, "It ain't over yet, O'Malley," drawing a chorus of affirmation from the church basement crowd. Roman Catholics at dozens of churches around Massachusetts had to cope with similar feelings of disappointment, sadness and anger as the Boston Archdiocese announced Tuesday it would close 65 of its 357 parishes.
Reason for closings
The closings were brought on partly by the Roman Catholic sex abuse scandal that has aggravated already shrinking Mass attendance and weekly collections. O'Malley also cited a decrease in the number of active Catholics, changes in population and aging priests.
Before O'Malley announced the decision in an afternoon news conference, parishes learned their fates in envelopes delivered around the time of morning Masses.
"Today is not an easy day for the people of the Archdiocese of Boston," O'Malley said. "The alternative to going through 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. ... This we cannot allow to happen."
Seventy parishes in all will be affected by the downsizing, but five new parishes are being created through mergers. Another five churches will remain open as worship sites, but they'll be maintained by neighboring parishes and their membership will be merged with those other churches.
Good news for some
Some churches that had appeared to be in jeopardy received good news and rang their bells joyously. But at many others, parishioners had to cope with bad news. "How do you go home now and tell your children? ... They've been praying hard that the church stay open, and now how do you tell them?" said Toni Benhaim, a parishioner who works part-time in the office at St. Anselm Parish in Sudbury, which will close. "This is just moving people around like chess pieces, and people don't like that," said Mary Hogan, a parishioner at St. William's in Boston.