LEWISTON – Keeping all five of Lewiston’s Catholic churches open could outspend parish savings within a year, forcing leaders to lock church doors unless big changes are made.

“We have more property than we can afford,” Monsignor Marc Caron warned Tuesday night at a meeting to discuss the money crunch. “And we don’t have the income to meet the gap.”

Since January, local Catholic leaders have been talking about closing two churches: St. Patrick’s and St. Joseph’s, their rectories and selling or renting the former Dominican priory at 27 Bartlett St., adjacent to the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul.

No decision has been made. Caron plans to make a list of recommendations this summer and Bishop Richard Malone and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland will decide a course by this fall.

Tuesday’s meeting is part of a series of discussions between the parish leaders and local churchgoers. Caron figured he had met with about 125 people so far.

Meetings are planned Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. at St. Patrick Chapel and Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at Holy Family Hall and Trinity Junior High.

“We want to know, ‘Is there something else we should do?'” Caron said.

He offered a computer slide show that portrayed a parish with too few people and too little money for an aging collection of churches.

In the past 10 years, the number of Catholics in the city has fallen by about one-third, from 21,000 in 1999 to about 14,000 today, he said.

The numbers have made the money situation particularly dire.

In 2008, the parish ran at a deficit, forcing its leaders to spend $180,000 from its unrestricted savings, Caron said. This year, the deficit is likely to surpass $200,000, he said.

At that rate, those unrestricted savings could be gone by the end of 2010, Caron said.

“I wish we had more time, but we are running out of time,” he said.

In some cases, such as with the two church rectories, the buildings are already unused. But the churches all have their devoted members.

“It’s emotional for people,” Caron said.

Church member Normand Meservier listened to the monsignor’s presentation and shrugged when it was over.

“This is reality,” he said. “These are numbers we have to accept.”

He has had to accept such realities before. For 30 years, he attended St. Mary’s Church in Lewiston’s Little Canada neighborhood. He was married there. But under the weight of its financial situation – the grand building needed millions of dollars in renovations – he watched the diocese sell it for $1.

“You don’t like it, but you accept it and move on,” he said. “We don’t want to see any property go.”

Ray Mathieu, who has attended Holy Cross Church all his life, said he wished there were another answer. Perhaps the church could begin a fundraising effort to meet the gap, he said.

He wished there was a way to avoid the closure of both of the traditionally Irish-American churches. Mathieu also worried that closing churches may send a bad message to Catholics.

Caron said it concerned him, too. Yet, he insisted he is not discouraged. “We’ll get by,” he said.

Numbers in money or attendance are poor measures of a church’s success, he said. There are better ones.

“We’re in the business of faith,” he said. “What we’re worried about is the faith of the people.”