The old urban areas are simply going to have to close some parishes - they don't have the population to support them any more.
Even in Atlanta, where we have a lot more Catholics than we used to, there are some downtown parishes that need to go. The downtown has lost its resident population almost completely -- almost nobody lives south of Five Points and very few north of there until you get up to Peachtree & Alexander. Immaculate Conception will stay even though it has no real parish population -- it's reinvented itself as a noontime church for the office workers. But I think sooner or later the Archdiocese is going to have to do some reconfiguring.
Like the former parishioner, I'm glad the building is being used as a church (I wonder did they deconsecrate it already?)
Here is another article on this:
Boston church buys Our Lady in Stoughton: City’s largest black church pays $3M for closed Catholic facility
By Patriot Ledger staff
STOUGHTON - The Jubilee Christian Church in Boston has bought the closed Our Lady of the Rosary Church and rectory for $3 million.
The sale was recorded March 17.
A spokesman for Jubilee Christian Church couldn’t be reached for comment about the church’s plans for the property.
Our Lady of the Rosary, which opened in 1958, closed in February 2005 as part of the archdiocese’s consolidation plan stemming from a shortage of priests, money and declining attendance.
Some parishioners wondered which Stoughton church would close - Our Lady of the Rosary or St. James.
Boston Archbishop O’Malley, who was recently elevated to cardinal, decided in December 2004 to close Our Lady of the Rosary on Park Street when officials found structural problems with the building. The estimated cost to fixed the building was reportedly $500,000.
Town meeting a year ago rejected a plan to rezone the property.
The planning board had proposed designating all of the church’s property at the corner of Park and South streets as a business district. Much of the land is zoned for residential use.
The Jubilee Christian Church located on Blue Hill Avenue in Boston’s Dorchester section is the largest inner city congregation in New England, according to its Web site.
It is headed by Bishop G.A. Thompson, who is founder and senior pastor.
Bishop Thompson is former pastor of the Shawmut Community Church of God in Boston's South End.
He and his wife, Pastor Yvonne Thompson, later founded the New Covenant Christian Church, which is now called the Jubilee Christian Church.
The church’s Web site states Bishop Thompson was given a vision to establish ‘‘a house of worship that would transform the city of Boston spiritually, economically, socially, educationally, politically, and culturally - by any godly means necessary.’’
The Jubilee Christian Church reportedly has more than 4,000 active members and ministers to nearly 5,000 during three Sunday services.
Bishop Thompson is presently the president of the Black Ministerial Alliance of Greater Boston, the largest African-American clergy association in New England that serves more than 30,000 people in the Boston area.
Copyright 2006 The Patriot Ledger
Transmitted Wednesday, April 05, 2006