Approximately twenty percent of churches in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany will be closed or merged in the near future, including parishes in Columbia County.
Diocese spokesman Ken Goldfarb told ccSCOOP on Wednesday that a report, more than two years in the making, will be made public later this month by Bishop Howard Hubbard. The report, entitled “Called to BE Church,” will detail the recommendations of various local planning groups from across the fourteen-county diocese. Thirty-eight panels reviewed parish resources, membership, debt, and various other parish activities and data. In June, the panels, composed of lay Catholics and priests, made suggestions to Bishop Hubbard about which churches should merge or close
While Goldfarb declined to detail or release any information about those recommendations, at least four Columbia County parishes have been rumored to be involved in the report.
Parishioners at St. Mary’s of the Nativity Church in Stuyvesant Falls and Holy Family Church in Stottville—two churches that already share a priest—have discussed a merger. There has also been a discussion within the Catholic community of Columbia County that a merger might also involve St. John’s Church in Kinderhook and St. James’ Church in Chatham. In the latter discussion, two of the four worship sites would remain open, though nothing specific has been stated. “The writing is on the wall,” said one longtime Columbia County parishioner who expects his church to close.
“We are not releasing any details of what is in the report,” Goldfarb said.
The “Called to BE Church” process is the Albany Diocese’s way of addressing the shift in demographics and other issues, such as a shortage of priests in the United States.
“This [process] is similar to what has already transpired in every other diocese in the Northeast,” Goldfarb said.
Goldfarb said Bishop Hubbard will announce the date for the release of the report “very soon” and that the report itself will be detailed by the end of the month.
Church closings are nothing new to Columbia County. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, two parish churches—Sacred Heart and Our Lady of Mount Carmel—were closed in the City of Hudson, causing legions of Catholic faithful to protest but to no avail. Some of those communicants have since broken free of the diocese, purchasing a former restaurant on Route 9 in Greenport and recruiting their own priest who does not report to the bishop.
