News
2007-04-20
Jesuits closing
Boston church that serves many gays
A Roman Catholic
religious order is closing a Boston church with a
largely gay congregation, citing cost pressures.
A Roman Catholic
religious order is closing a Boston church with a
largely gay congregation, citing cost pressures.
The Jesuit Urban
Center in the city's South End will close at the end of
July, said the Reverend Thomas Regan, the superior of the
New England Jesuits.
The sexual
orientation of many in the congregation did not play a role
in the decision, and there was no pressure from the
Vatican or the Boston archdiocese to shutter the
church, Regan said.
The order has
become financially reliant on salaries paid to members who
teach at Boston College, College of the Holy Cross, and
Fairfield University—all Jesuit
schools—but as they retire or die, the order is
being forced to cut back on its activities, he said.
About one third
of the order's 342 priests in New England are retired.
“A lot of
people are still in the church because of the Jesuits,''
Regan said. ''We do not want to abandon these
people.... There's a spirit among this group, and I
think that's going to be lost, and that's very sad.''
The Jesuit Urban
Center costs the order about $350,000 a year to support,
and its only significant remaining activity is a weekly Mass
attended by 150 to 200 people who generate weekly
collections of about $2,400, Regan said. The building,
the Church of the Immaculate Conception, was dedicated
in 1861 and needs $4 million to $8 million worth
of renovations, he said.
Jesuits will
continue to welcome gays and lesbians to worship at St.
Ignatius of Loyola, a parish they oversee adjacent to Boston
College, Regan said. (AP)
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