House Church Talk - shutting the doors in Boston

[Robert L. Moseley]

I don't know the source for the story below nor do I know the point that you
are attempting to make in placing it before us.   Are we to be sad or glad
to see so many Christless "churches" go out of business or are we to exhibit
some other emotion???   Just a question...

Bob Moseley, from the hills of Texas


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "forwarded" <forwarded at housechurch.org>
To: <House Church Talk  at housechurch.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 26, 2004 11:47 AM
Subject: House Church Talk -  shutting the doors in Boston


>
>        Boston Archdiocese to Shut 60 Churches, O'Malley Says (Update3)
>
> May 25 (Bloomberg) -- Boston's Roman Catholic archdiocese will close 60
> churches in eastern Massachusetts over the next four months and reduce
> the number of its parishes from 357 to 292, the most extensive cutbacks
> in the U.S. in at least three decades, Archbishop Sean O'Malley said.
>
> The cuts announced today don't include at least 10 parishes targeted for
> closure last year in the cities of Lawrence and Lowell, an archdiocesan
> statement said. When added to other previous and announced closings, the
> Boston area will have lost 122 parishes since 1985, surpassing the 78
> Chicago eliminated from 1975 to 1995.
>
> ----------------
>
> The cuts, driven by financial needs and a priest shortage, reflect a
> shift in the Catholic church in the U.S. Northeast and Midwest from
> serving mostly large families in urban areas to a more suburban,
> gentrified version of itself, said Bernard F. Swain, a management
> consultant who worked with eight groups of Boston-area parishes during
> the closing process.
>
> "The suburbanization of Catholicism is a major feature of recent American
> Catholicism, as it was a feature of Protestantism a couple of generations
> before," Swain said.
>
> Deficits
>
> Swain said Boston's archdiocese, which has 2.1 million members, was
> probably overbuilt in 19th and 20th centuries.
>
> O'Malley said one-third of the parishes are running deficits and many
> more need repairs. In Boston, the bill to fix the facilities would be
> $100 million, and the archdiocese doesn't have cost estimates for the
> rest of the churches in the five eastern Massachusetts counties with 144
> communities that it serves.
>
>
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=aLtUXmdftAvg&refer=to
> p_world_news
>
>