O'Malley backs off closing Peabody-Salem parish

In a series of moves aimed at resolving the controversy over parish closings, Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley yesterday agreed to keep open a Peabody-Salem parish that had been slated to close and agreed to give a Brighton neighborhood organization 60 days to put together a formal bid to purchase a closed parochial school building in Oak Square.

Also, members of a commission appointed by O'Malley spoke with protesters occupying Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in East Boston, which closed last October, and asked the protesters to consider reopening the church as a chapel that would offer regular Masses in Italian. The protesters said the proposed Mass schedule was unacceptable.

The moves come as O'Malley is trying to wrap up the parish closings process, which has consumed the Archdiocese of Boston for more than a year. O'Malley, citing a shortage of priests, parishioners, and worshipers, has closed 62 of 357 parishes since last summer, but has faced considerable controversy in the process. Eight parishes remain occupied by protesters.

O'Malley said yesterday that he would keep open St. Thomas the Apostle parish in Peabody, but that over the ''next few years" he wants to combine St. Thomas with a neighboring parish, Our Lady of Fatima. He said parishioners at the two churches would be asked to come up with a recommended process for becoming a single parish.

St. Thomas the Apostle, established in 1927, was included in a list of planned closings issued by O'Malley on May 25, 2004. But on Dec. 23, as parishioners prepared to occupy the building in anticipation of a Jan. 9 closing, O'Malley rescinded the closing date and said he would reevaluate the plan.

Our Lady of Fatima, also in Peabody, was established in 1965 as a mission to Portuguese Catholics and now also serves Brazilian immigrants.

O'Malley acted yesterday in response to a recommendation from the Meade-Eisner Commission, a lay-dominated advisory group he appointed to review the controversial closings decisions. The group -- which is still considering the status of closed parishes in Framingham, Sudbury, and the Squantum section of Quincy -- is expected to issue its final recommendations later this week.

Also yesterday, O'Malley and his aides met for 35 minutes with the leadership of the Presentation School Foundation, a Brighton organization that wants to buy the building formerly occupied by a parochial school, Our Lady of the Presentation. The archdiocese, which had wanted the building for church offices, agreed to negotiate with the neighborhood group after O'Malley's decision to close the school two days early to circumvent a possible protest sparked angry criticism.

In a joint statement, the archdiocese and the neighborhood group said they had agreed that the foundation would have 60 days to submit a bid, including a purchase price and a description of intended uses. The archdiocese has expressed concern about the possible use of the building for a school because it does not want to lose students from a nearby parochial school; the foundation wants the building not only for use as a school but also for after-school programs and adult education.

Kathy McCabe of the Globe staff contributed to this report. Michael Paulson can be reached at mpaulson@globe.com.