BOSTON (AP) – The Archdiocese of Boston for the first time on Tuesday reversed its decision to close a parish, saying it will keep open a church in a fast-growing area of Plymouth.

Archbishop Sean P. O’Malley also announced that St. Bernard Parish in Newton, officially closed on Oct. 25, then granted an extension, will reopen and enter a period of re-evaluation with three other Newton parishes to determine if one should eventually close.

The announcement follows months of resistance, including round-the-clock vigils at St. Bernard and seven other of the 83 Roman Catholic churches the archdiocese planned to close or consolidate. The closures announced in May come in response to declining attendance, a shortage of priests and financial pressure caused in part by the clergy sex abuse crisis.

O’Malley said the changes involving five parishes grew out of consultations with an external committee he formed to find ways to improve the reconfiguration process.

“In keeping with my commitment to study the impact of new information on previously announced parish closing decisions, I have modified the reconfiguration plans for Newton and Plymouth,” O’Malley said in a statement issued minutes before the changes were announced by diocesan officials to parishioners.

The archdiocese said in a statement that the decision to reverse the closure of Blessed Kateri Tekawitha Parish in Plymouth came about because of “a better understanding of the dramatic residential development and corresponding population growth in Plymouth.”

The archdiocese said the church’s facilities on the west side of the town south of Boston “have the capacity to grow to provide for the needs of the Catholics of West Plymouth in the years ahead.”

In Newton, St. Bernard, along with Corpus Christi, Mary Immaculate of Lourdes and St. Philip Neri, will “enter into a period of re-evaluation and to provide recommendations within the next year.”

St. Bernard’s will immediately resume operations as a fully functioning church.

O’Malley said new information about how parishioners are divided among parishes in Newton and neighboring communities prompted the move to review the closure.

O’Malley will appoint two priests to be administrators for the four affected Newton parishes during the reconsideration period and will make “a recommendation for providing pastoral care in an ongoing and stable manner,” the archdiocese said.

Several of the churches scheduled to close have argued the process is flawed because it has resulted in the closing of vibrant and financially healthy parishes.

While many have shut down quietly as scheduled, parishioners in eight have refused to leave the buildings by holding round-the-clock vigils. While the archdiocese has not taken action against any of the parishioners holding vigils, a 69-year-old man was arrested last month for refusing to leave a closing parish in Winchester. On the archdiocese’s recommendation, prosecutors did not charge the man.

The first parish to start a round-the-clock vigil, St. Albert the Great in Weymouth, celebrated the 100th day of that sit-in with a series of events on Dec. 5.

Tuesday’s announcement marked the first reversal of a decision to close a parish, but not the first time the archdiocese has considered such a move.

On Nov. 15, six churches were granted extensions delaying plans to shut them down.

The extensions, which came at the request of pastors, were granted so the archdiocese could better explain its process, and to make the transition to new parishes smoother.