U.S. Catholics pray for more priests

By Jason Szep

WELLESLEY, Massachusetts (Reuters) - The sign outside St. James Church in the affluent Boston suburb of Wellesley sums up Catholicism's deepening struggles in the United States.

"Still searching for a priest," it reads. Another sign affixed to its thick doors pleads: "Save St. James."

Facing dwindling congregations, shifting demographics and a drain on cash from settling sexual abuse lawsuits, Roman Catholic churches are shuttering at a quickening pace in a traditional stronghold, the U.S. Northeast.

The trend underscores a growing problem facing the U.S. Catholic church: too many parishes in the Northeast and not enough for growing Hispanic populations in the Southwest.

In Massachusetts, the Diocese of Worcester -- which covers New England's second-largest city -- shut five parishes in July. The neighboring Diocese of Springfield said in August it would shut 10 more parishes and nine buildings by January 1.

Camden Diocese in New Jersey said in April it would close nearly half of its 124 churches within two years. Dozens of parishes in New York state are being shut.

Bishops cite a number of reasons -- from rising heating costs to aging priests and the steady decline of the Irish and Italian immigrants who transformed Boston from overwhelmingly Protestant to largely Catholic in the mid 19th Century. Today, Mexicans are the top immigrant group in the United States, bringing an influx of Catholics to the Southwest.

"Our present infrastructure isn't sustainable," said Msgr. John J. Bonzagni, director of pastoral planning at the Diocese of Springfield, which expects to have 25 fewer priests in just seven years.

COST OF ABUSE

The trend also suggests that scars from the six-year-old clergy abuse scandal may be deepening rather than fading.

The scandal has cost U.S. Catholic archdioceses $2 billion, and it is not over. In May, a former altar boy who accused a priest of molesting him 30 years ago won an $8.7 million jury verdict against Vermont's Diocese of Burlington. A judge put a $10 million lien on the diocese's headquarters.

More than 850 parishes nationwide have shut since 1995 -- the majority since 2000, according to figures compiled by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University, a Catholic university in Washington.

The sign outside St. James Church in Wellesley, a suburb 12 miles west of Boston, reflects an extreme case.

St. James was one of more than 60 parishes shut by the Archdiocese of Boston in a reorganization that began in 2004, two years after many U.S. bishops were found to have moved priests known to have abused minors to new parishes instead of defrocking them or reporting them to authorities.

But many of its parishioners refuse to leave. Each Sunday, about two dozen gather in its half-century-old pews for services led by lay people, praying for the arrival of a priest who can convince the archdiocese to keep the church open.