WINCHESTER, Mass. (AP) – Catholics attending pre-Christmas Mass on Sunday said they were resigned to parishes closing in coming months, calling it a necessary – if sad – step for Archbishop Sean P. O’Malley.

“I do believe it is the right thing to do, but it has to be done carefully,” Alice Scanlan, 69, said after Mass at Saint Eulalia Parish in Winchester. “People’s attachment to a parish is like their attachment to a family.”

O’Malley, who celebrated Mass as Saint Eulalia, did not mention parish closings.

He told a gathering of about 600 archdiocese priests last week that he would close dozens of parishes because of declining attendance, a shortage of priests, and the archdiocese’s dire financial situation following the clergy sex abuse crisis.

No specific churches have yet been selected for closure, but the parishes most likely to be closed are those that have been unable to support themselves financially and have had to rely on the archdiocese for subsidy, according to several priests who attended the meeting.

Older churches in need of upkeep are also considered likely targets, as are urban churches in cities with multiple Catholic churches. While O’Malley has not said how many will be shuttered, priests estimate it could be as many as 50 or 60, or about 15 percent of the 360 parishes in the archdiocese.

The church cannot lose focus on its primary missions, Scanlan said.

“We need to have the wherewithal to take care of the poor,” she said.

Parishioners at St. Joseph church in Waltham, where some Masses are celebrated in French, said there’s been talk at the church about parish closings. Before Mass on Sunday, parishioners on nearby streets walked from their homes for the morning service.

It would be a shame if St. Joseph closed, said Debbie Chiasson. She attended Mass with her son, Alex, on Sunday.

“I think some people would be lost, especially a lot of the older people who have been coming here for years,” she said.

Church usher Al Johnson, a native French speaker who has been attending St. Joseph for 39 years, comes for the Mass in French. Waltham has six Catholic churches, and at least two within a mile of St. Joseph.

“I would feel bad if St. Joseph had to close,” he said. “I guess we’d have to find another church.”

Archdiocese leaders have said that savings from closing churches would not be used to help pay for an $85 million settlements with alleged victims of clergy sex abuse.

About 540 victims have been allocated between $80,000 and $300,000 each under the agreement reached with the Archdiocese of Boston in September, though specific numbers for each victim weren’t available. Ten people have elected to press on with lawsuits.

Larry Greco, of Arlington, who attended Mass at St. Eulalia on Sunday, said he hopes that any closings won’t get in the way of Catholics’ ability to “worship comfortably and close to their home.”

But the church, he said, must be fiscally responsible.

“I pray for guidance about how best to do that,” he said.