Church aide puts closures at 80-85

A top aide in the Archdiocese of Boston has been privately telling audiences she meets with that she expects 80 to 85 of the 357 parishes to close this year.

Kathleen Heck, a special assistant at the archdiocese's chancery who is a top lay official overseeing the parish closing process, told a group of preservationists Wednesday of her expectation, according to participants in the meeting.

In an interview yesterday, she called the number "speculation," but said she has been using it repeatedly with various groups she has met with and that it has not been disputed.

Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley's spokesman, the Rev. Christopher J. Coyne, said Heck "misspoke," and that "the decision has not been made as to which parishes will close and how many."

"The archbishop has not even sat down yet with the recommendations from the various groups and the comments from the presbyteral council," Coyne said.

However, other officials, who agreed to be interviewed if they were not identified, said Heck's estimate is a reasonable one.

On Tuesday O'Malley finished three days of consultations with the presbyteral council, a group of 47 priests and bishops, and plans to make his final decisions about which parishes to close over the next week or so. He is scheduled to announce his decisions May 25.

Coyne said 144 of the 357 parishes were recommended for possible closure by a church organization -- a cluster of local parishes, a vicar, a regional bishop, or a central committee of laypeople -- but that the actual number closed will be lower.

The archdiocese has released the names 37 of the 144 parishes recommended for possible closure; the Globe and other media outlets have named about 100 of the others based on parish bulletins and interviews with priests and parishioners.

Coyne said the final number of parishes to be closed is still under discussion, but that "it's going to be a fairly substantial transformation of the archdiocese."

Heck said that although she does not know what O'Malley will decide, she believes that for the archdiocese to achieve "financial peace and sustainability" it will need to close 80 to 85 parishes. She said that if O'Malley closes substantially fewer parishes, the archdiocese would have to go through a similar closing process next year or the year after.

David H. O'Brien, who was hired by the archdiocese to oversee the disposition of the closed parishes, accompanied Heck to the meeting with preservationists, but offered no opinion on how many parishes would be closed.

"We're going to be closing a bunch, that much I know," O'Brien said.