Archdiocese in Boston Plans to Lose 65 Parishes
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BOSTON — The weight of a priest shortage, shrinking collections and the clergy sex abuse scandal combined to force Boston’s archbishop to announce Tuesday that his Roman Catholic archdiocese will lose 65 parishes by year’s end.
The archdiocese, the nation’s fourth largest with more than 2 million Catholics, now has 357 parishes.
“Today is not an easy day for the people of the Archdiocese of Boston,” Archbishop Sean Patrick 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.”
The abuse scandal, which began more than two years ago in the Boston Archdiocese, has contributed to these money woes. Donations have dropped in some dioceses, while others have seen abuse-related costs rise.
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