Jesuits say they'll close Boston urban center
South End church faces financial woes
The Jesuit Urban Center, a predominantly gay Catholic congregation in Boston's South End, will close at the end of July, and the landmark church in which services are held will be put up for sale, the Jesuit religious order announced yesterday.
The Rev. Thomas J. Regan , the superior of the New England Jesuits, said in an interview that the rationale for the closing is purely financial. He said that the order, long associated with education, has become financially reliant on the salaries paid to priests who teach at Boston College, the College of the Holy Cross, and Fairfield University -- all Jesuit schools -- but that as many of those priests retire or die, the order is being forced to cut back on its activities.
Regan said that he had received no pressure from the Vatican, the Jesuit headquarters in Rome, or the Archdiocese of Boston, to close the church, and that the sexual orientation of the worshipers played no role in his decision.
He said that the Jesuits would continue to welcome gays and lesbians to worship at St. Ignatius of Loyola , the parish they oversee in Chestnut Hill, and that there are two other downtown congregations that have been reaching out to gay Catholics, the Paulist Center on Beacon Hill and St. Anthony Shrine, operated by the Franciscans, near Downtown Crossing.
Regan also said members of the congregation may choose to worship at the nearby Cathedral of the Holy Cross, also in the South End, but many gay Catholics are likely to balk at that option because the cathedral is the seat of Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley , who has been an outspoken opponent of same-sex marriage.
Regan described himself as "incredibly disappointed" but said he had no choice.
"A lot of people are still in the church because of the Jesuits," he said. "We do not want to abandon these people. But there's a spirit among this group, and I think that's going to be lost, and that's very sad."
Worshipers were informed of the planned closing after Mass yesterday. Some reacted with disappointment and others with anger.
"I, and my friends, while not surprised, were saddened," said Dr. Juan Jaime de Zengotita , who has worshiped at the Jesuit Urban Center for four years. "This comes after a few years of rough times for gay Catholics, with Vatican and local episcopal declarations that have not been so friendly. I don't know what will be the future of gay ministry."
The decision to close the Jesuit Urban Center comes nearly seven years after the Jesuits fired a nun and a priest from the Urban Center because the nun, Sister Jeannette T. Normandin , was allowed to help perform two baptismal rites for adopted sons of gay male couples.
The Jesuits at the time said that the violation had nothing to do with the sexuality of the children's parents, but that baptismal rites, except in emergencies, are to be performed by priests.
Two years ago, the Jesuit order, under pressure from the Vatican official who is now Pope Benedict XVI , forced the resignation of the Rev. Thomas J. Reese , the editor of America magazine, after Reese was criticized for publishing articles that questioned the Vatican's writings on issues including same-sex marriage.
Regan said that the Urban Center now costs the order $350,000 a year to support, and that its only significant remaining activity is one weekly Mass attended by 150 to 200 people.
Furthermore, he said the building in which congregants at the Urban Center worship , the Church of the Immaculate Conception, needs $4 million to $8 million in work. The congregation that worships at the Jesuit Urban Center generates about $2,400 a week in collections.
The Italian Renaissance Revival -style church, dedicated in 1861, was designed by Patrick Charles Keely, the same architect who designed the cathedral. Both Boston College and Boston College High School were founded on the site, which also served as a regional Jesuit seminary in the 19th century.
In 1991, after a lengthy and bitter battle with preservationists, the Jesuits won a precedent-setting ruling on religious freedom from the state Supreme Judicial Court allowing the order to gut the church's interior despite the city's attempt to protect the design by declaring it a historic landmark.
The New England Jesuits continue to operate a number of ministries. In addition to the three Jesuit universities, the Jesuits operate two Nativity middle schools, in Boston and Worcester, and are affiliated with five high schools, including Boston College High School. The Jesuits also run a retreat center in Gloucester.
Of the 342 Jesuit priests in New England today, about 110 are retired; at Boston College, 44 percent of the Jesuits in residence are age 70 and older. The Jesuits spend $10 million a year on the Campion Center, a home for retired priests in Weston.
Michael Paulson can be reached at mpaulson@globe.com.
(Correction: Because of an editing error, a quotation in a story in yesterday's City & Region section about the closing of the Jesuit Urban Center was rendered incorrectly. Dr. Juan Jaime de Zengotita, a worshiper at the Jesuit Urban Center, referred to "local episcopal declarations that have not been so friendly," meaning declarations from local Catholic bishops who oppose same-sex marriage. He was not referring to bishops of the Episcopal church, who have supported same-sex marriage.) 