N.Y. Archdiocese Will Close 10 Parishes
By GABRIELLE BIRKNER,
Ten parishes will close and another 11 will be merged under a realignment plan announced today by the Archdiocese of NewYork.
Bishop Dennis Sullivan, who has led the realignment effort since 2005, said the archdiocese has no plans to sell off church real estate. He said the buildings of closed or merged parishes would be repurposed as chapels or as offices and meeting halls for local Catholic groups.
A shift in Catholic population from New York City and lower Westchester to the Upstate Counties of Orange, Putnam and Dutchess necessitated the restructuring, Bishop Sullivan said during a press conference at Cathedral High School on East 56th Street in Manhattan.
Mary Help of Christians on East 12th Street and Our Lady Queen of Angels on East 113th Street, both in Manhattan will close, as will St. John the Baptist de LaSalle on Staten Island and St. Mary in the Bronx. Our Lady of Vilnius, near Manhattan's Holland tunnel entrance, will also shut down, though its closing was not part of the official realignment effort, church officials said.
The archdiocese will also close four parishes in Westchester County and two parishes upstate. No timetable was given for the reorganization, and church officials would not speculate on when the parishes marked for closure would be officially shut down.
In addition, 11 parishes — six in Manhattan, three in the Bronx, one in Staten Island, and one upstate. — will be merged with nearby parishes
Five new parishes, including one on Staten Island, will be established as part of the reorganization effort, which was initiated by Edward Cardinal Egan in 2003."I think this is going to make us a much healthier and much more love filled diocese," Cardinal Egan said at the press conference.
Nine archdiocesan parishes originally considered for closure or for a merger, including Manhattan's St. Joseph on the Lower East Side, St. James near City Hall, and Church of the Guardian Angel in Chelsea, were spared. Our Lady of Esperanza on West 156th Street is among four churches still under review.
No school closings were announced yesterday, though nine were shuttered in June as part of the restructuring effort.
There are more than 2.5 million Catholics living in the Archdiocese of New York, which includes Manhattan, Staten Island, the Bronx, and seven suburban and upstate counties.
