[Alex Murphy]

The announcement had long been expected. For more than two years, archdiocesan officials have been studying how to deal with a growing shortage of priests, coupled with the changing demographics of the archdiocese, which in its entirety stretches from Staten Island in the south to the Catskills in the north. Some churches in the northern suburbs have been bulging at the seams, while others in the city have struggled to get by, often requiring large financial subsidies from the archdiocese.

You can't argue with changing demographics. Still, this is a sad commentary on the state of affairs in NY (and elsewhere).

[Antoninus]

Every time a bishop has to do this, he should wear sack-cloth and ashes for a year afterwards as a sign of his abject failure to increase the flock. If he has to do it more than once in his tenure as bishop, he should be forced to resign in disgrace.

[Salvation]

Sad -- NY City is where the catechesis, churches and schools are needed most.

[steadfastconservative]

While I sympathize with people whose parishes are going to be closed, it does not make sense to keep parishes open that do not have enough members to keep them going. Diocese in almost every major city in the U.S. are facing the same demographic issue: Catholics are moving out of cities and into the suburbs. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, most Catholics lived in cities. Often, each ethnic group would have its own parish, so it was quite common to have a church on almost every street corner. However, the situation has now changed. The ethnic groups that built these parishes have moved out of the cities, and non-Catholics have moved into these areas. City parishes that used to be thriving are now almost empty.

It is sad but it doesn't look like the Archdiocese of New York has much choice.

[Coleus]

I have yet to hear or read a sermon, read an op-ed, read a letter to the editor about the subject of vouchers or tuition tax credits from any bishop, priest, or religious clergy. I've also read very little about abortion and nothing about the IVF procedure.

Yet, I continually read from the USCCB, bishops, priests, religious clergy about liberal UN initiatives, supporting the UN, the school of the Americas, illegal immigration, the homeless and other very-liberal and social-justice causes.

They've advocated for every social program in the world which needed to be paid by the taxpayers, the middle class, those who normally would send their children to Catholic schools if they had some disposable income left over.

They reap what the sow.

[HitmanLV]

My old parish (St Anthony's in downtown NY W Houston/Sullivan) stopped doing its annual street festival a few years back and at that point I knew it was the end. A couple of years later they closed my old grammar school (on McDougal).

I was pleased to not see St Anthony's on the list of church closings or mergers, but it's got to just be a matter of time at this point.

A shame.

[Clemenza]

About time. Manhattan is filled with Churches now surrounded by secular yuppies.

Build Churches where your coreligionists actually live.

[Cicero]

With any review like this there will always be a few mistakes, which I hope they correct. But I think this basically makes sense.

There are many reasons for the closings. The priest shortage is mentioned. But several other factors are probably more important. One is the disappearance of the old ethnic neighborhoods. Little Italy has gotten smaller. Little Germany has virtually disappeared. There are more blacks and fewer Catholic ethnics. Most of the Irish and Italians have moved to the suburbs.

A lot of young blacks like the kid in the picture have profited from going to Catholic parochial schools. But they are not Catholic themselves, and somebody has to pay for these schools. The NY state teachers unions have been especially vehement against any kind of voucher system, and the liberal judges have frequently shot them down. Same with the hospitals. Catholic schools and hospitals are serving mainly non-Catholics, and that can't continue unless somebody is willing to pay for it.

There are plenty of thriving Catholic churches in NYC. I attended Our Lady of Victories church down on Wall Street, and it was great. But other churches are nearly empty and simply don't support themselves--maintenance, heating bills, and all the rest of it.