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Boston Archdiocese Announces 1st Group Of Parish Collaboratives
The Archdiocese of Boston has identified the first churches that it's including in a massive reorganization, as 28 parishes are being grouped into 12 so-called collaboratives.
The churches grouped together are in the same communities or nearby. Pastoral planning director Paul Soper says parishioners won't see dramatic changes.
"The church will still be there," Soper said. "It will still have its own Mass schedule. It will still have its own finances, even though the finance council is a joint finance council."
But the collaboratives may be headed by different priests than are currently at the churches; all priests will be asked to resign and the archdiocese will assign a pastor to oversee the collaborative.
The restructuring is an effort to revitalize the archdiocese because it's seen a decline in Mass attendance and priests.
Here's Phase 1, with 28 parishes into 12 collaboratives:
- Saint Mary (Brookline — a standalone)
- Sacred Heart (Middleborough) and Saints Martha and Mary (Lakeville)
- Sacred Heart and Our Lady Help of Christians (Newton)
- Saint Luke and Saint Joseph (Belmont)
- Saint Mary, Saint Theresa and Saint Andrew (Billerica)
- Saint Mary, Saint Margaret and Saint John (Beverly)
- Saint James, Saint John, Immaculate Conception and Saint Anne (Salem)
- Saint Mary of the Angels (Roxbury), Saint Thomas and Our Lady of Lourdes (Jamaica Plain)
- Saint Jerome and Immaculate Conception (Weymouth)
- Saint Lucy and Saint Monica (Methuen)
- Our Lady of the Assumption and Saint Maria Goretti (Lynnfield)
- Saint Mary and Sacred Heart (Lynn)
This article was originally published on January 10, 2013.
This program aired on January 10, 2013. The audio for this program is not available.