Closings spur church to warn on weddings

Hoping to avoid a nuptial nightmare, the Archdiocese of Boston is asking priests throughout the region to help brides and grooms whose weddings must be relocated because their churches of choice are closing.

The archdiocese has instructed every pastor and parish administrator in the region's 357 parishes to submit a schedule of upcoming weddings, as well as other important events, such as anniversary celebrations. And priests have been instructed to prepare to help displaced couples find churches where they might celebrate their big day.

"We're very sensitive to the fact that brides and grooms have set dates and have made long-range plans for weddings," said the archdiocesan spokesman, the Rev. Christopher J. Coyne. "We've asked every parish to give us a sense of weddings and other major liturgical events that would need to be moved if a parish closes, so we can get a sense of the lay of the land and how we can help people find parishes."

Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley plans next month to announce a significant, but unspecified, number of parish closings in response to diminished attendance at Mass, enrollment at seminary, and contributions to church coffers. Last week, O'Malley invited all pastors to send him a letter describing anything they want him to know about reconfiguration and their parishes.

The closings, which are expected to take effect over the the summer and fall, will affect churchgoing Catholics in a number of ways, but few more central than the relocation of the place where sacraments -- the main rites through which Catholics believe they experience the power of God -- take place. Marriage is one of the church's seven sacraments and one whose importance O'Malley has emphasized repeatedly this year, as he has campaigned to preserve marriage as a heterosexual institution.

It is not clear how many weddings will be forced to move because of the church closings, because the archdiocese has not yet chosen which churches to close. And many churches that are targeted for closure are likely to be churches that celebrate few weddings. But pastors say that many couples will be affected. Most parishes require couples to schedule weddings at least six months in advance, and many plan much further in advance.

Some couples are not sure how to proceed.

Francis P. Collins, 44, grew up in Gate of Heaven parish in South Boston; his fiancee, 37-year-old Susan Nee, grew up in neighboring St. Augustine parish. Both parishes were recommended for closure by the vicar who helps oversee South Boston parishes for the archdiocese.

Collins said he and Nee are delaying their wedding plans. "We can't plan anything until we find out which church is closing; we just have to wait and see," he said.

Priests at some parishes that might close say they are steering couples away from their churches or at least encouraging them to make backup plans. "If a bride calls wanting to get married here, I can't promise that there'll be a church in the fall or next year, so I have to be fair to them," said the Rev. Paul V. MacDonald, pastor of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Church in Scituate. "In one case, I suggested they might contact a neighboring parish and set a tentative date there."

The Rev. Daniel J. Crowley, administrator of St. James the Great Church in Wellesley, is taking a similar approach. He said one couple is scheduled to be married in his church in September, and he has been helping the couple book a backup church in Wellesley or Weston.

But some parishes are forging ahead.

"I've spoken with couples booking in 2005, and I've said there's a possibility we may not be in business then, which they understand because they've been reading the paper," said the Rev. Clifton M. Thuma, parochial vicar at St. Brendan Church in Dorchester. "But this is their parish -- one of them is from here -- and they've made a decision to get married in the church. Everyone is proceeding as if their church is going to be open."

Michael Paulson can be reached at mpaulson@globe.com.