BOSTON (AP) – Josephine Ritchie was in tears at a recent parish meeting to discuss the potential closing of at least one of the Roman Catholic churches in her close-knit South Boston neighborhood.

“I can’t even talk about it without welling up,” she said. “It’s just so sad.”

Ritchie was baptized at St. Augustine’s, a 136-year-old church built by Irish immigrants like her parents. When her family moved to the nearby Gate of Heaven Church, she made her First Holy Communion and Confirmation there. She was married there. With her husband, Bob, she raised four children at Gate of Heaven, and educated them in its school. Now, her granddaughter and a dozen of her grandnieces and nephews attend services there. She hopes future generations of her family will, too.

Although she is particularly fearful that Gate of Heaven will close, Ritchie said she would feel almost as sad if another of the seven churches in the neighborhood shuts its doors.

“God bless all the parishes of South Boston,” she said in her speech to parishioners.

But Ritchie acknowledges it is probably too late.

Boston Archbishop Sean O’Malley has outlined a plan to close or consolidate an unspecified number of the 357 churches in the archdiocese, citing low Mass attendance, a shortage of priests and the inability of the archdiocese to subsidize churches because of budget problems caused in part by the clergy sex abuse crisis, which has led to about $90 million in settlements with victims.

Church leaders in the 80 geographic clusters of the archdiocese have until March 8 to turn in their recommendations on which churches to close. O’Malley, who will make the final decisions, has said the first wave of closings could come by June 1.

“A lot of people are afraid,” said the Rev. Robert Casey, pastor of two South Boston churches, Gate of Heaven and St. Brigid’s.

“Their concern is – if my parish closes, where am I going to go and what is it going to be like?”

For parishioners like Ray Flynn, the former mayor of Boston and U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, the impending closings are difficult to fathom in a neighborhood where the church once meant everything. He recalls a time about 50 years ago, when his father, a dock worker, and his mother, a janitor, would go to the 7 a.m. Mass every morning at St. Peter and Paul’s Church.

“This was the center – the church, the Catholic school, the school hall – this was the center of the community, not just for Catholics but for the entire community,” Flynn said.

But those days are over. The 155-year-old church Flynn’s parents attended closed several years ago and was converted into 36 luxury condominiums. Flynn worries that more churches in South Boston could also be transformed into upscale housing for the young urban professionals who have already gentrified parts of the neighborhood.

Low attendance figures and the costs of renovating old church buildings – two of the criteria O’Malley has said he will use to decide which churches to close – argue for closing at least one, if not more, of South Boston’s Catholic churches, which include five neighborhood churches and two churches built to serve Lithuanian and Polish immigrants.

Casey, who recently briefed parishioners on data he gathered for the archdiocese, was surprised by the low weekly attendance and donations.

“The total collections (for all the churches) was $14,000 for a week. The Mass attendance was extremely low,” Casey said. “I think that hurt a lot of people, especially the elderly, because it brought out to them what’s happening to their churches.”

Only about 4,200 of an estimated 24,200 Catholics in South Boston attend weekend Mass. In some churches, attendance is extremely low. At St. Augustine Church, only about 300, or 6 percent of nearby Catholics, go to weekend Mass. At St. Monica’s, weekend Mass attendance averages 122 people, or 8 percent of the neighborhood’s Catholics.

In the archdiocese overall, about 15 percent of Catholics attend weekly, according to figures from an October 2003 count released last month by the archdiocese. Attendance is down 15 percent since the abuse crisis broke in early 2002, accelerating a decades-long decline, the archdiocese said.

Buildings at St. Augustine’s, a magnificent church built in 1868, need more than $6 million in repairs. At Gate of Heaven, which opened five years earlier, more than $5 million is needed. The church, almost destroyed by an 1895 fire, was rebuilt in the Gothic style, with Roman brick, brownstone trimmings and stunning stained-glass windows.

While the high costs of upkeep for St. Augustine’s and Gate of Heaven have some parishioners worried that they will be targeted for closure, the two churches have the most baptisms, marriages and funerals of any of the churches in South Boston – a factor O’Malley has said could help keep churches open.

Flynn says he hopes the decisions aren’t made strictly by the numbers.

“The point I think is equally compelling is the contribution that the church makes to the community,” Flynn said. “I’m talking about the coffee get-togethers, the Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, CYO for boys and girls, the various ministries the churches perform – these are real human factors I think need to be factored into the equation.”

Kathleen Heck, the archdiocese official who is coordinating the massive reconfiguration, said special ministries, the needs of immigrant groups, and schools will be considered along with the hard numbers.

“The first step the clusters should be looking at is what does our cluster get done?” Heck said. “How many kids do we confirm in a year? How many nursing homes do we cover? How many youths are served by our youth groups? How many outreach programs do we have to the needy?”

Casey said the South Boston parishes hope to come to a consensus. But he acknowledges that “no one wants to see their own parish close.”

The decision is bound to be painful in a neighborhood known for its pride in its churches, most of which were built more a century ago by poor, Irish immigrants.

“For the Irish to see these churches going up one after another, it was like carrying a banner in a sense because you could see the steeples and they were a measure of pride,” said Thomas O’Connor, a Boston church historian.

“Not only were these churches being built, but they were splendid churches. These were poor immigrants, yet they came up with the money. They would give everything just to have that church built,” O’Connor said.

Some South Boston parishioners have accepted church closings as inevitable.

“Does it make me sad? Yes. But it’s a necessity,” said Frank Doyle, 62, a retired MBTA inspector.

“It’s almost like a business now. If it’s not being supported, it closes,” said Doyle, who attended St. Brigid’s Church as a child, then was married in Gate of Heaven Church and had his own three children baptized there.

“There are a lot less people coming to church now. What else can they do?” Doyle said.

Flynn, outspoken on Catholic issues, acknowledged that he will push for his own church, Gate of Heaven, to remain open. But he said he believes closing any of the churches in South Boston will drive people out of the city.

“That’s why people stay here,” he said. “They want to continue to be part of the tradition they grew up in and that their parents grew up in.”

AP-ES-02-14-04 1340EST