60 Boston Parishes Could Face Closure

BOSTON — Cardinal Bernard Law is suggesting that as many as 60 of the 387 Catholic parishes in the Boston area will be closed during the next decade.

Although overall church membership is healthy at about 2 million, Law said, people are just too busy to attend services regularly. At his annual convocation in March, he noted that “however precious to us our parishes may be, it is imperative that we not absolutize them in planning for the future.”

Law cited several reasons for closing parishes. Among them: a 2% annual decline over the last five years in regular attendance at Sunday Mass and, by 2005, a predicted drop in the number of diocesan priests from 573 from 738.