San Francisco Archdiocese Announces 13 Church Closures
SAN FRANCISCO — The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Francisco has released a long-awaited list of 13 churches and parishes it plans to close in a consolidation effort. The list includes one church founded nearly 150 years ago.
The closures, recommended by an archdiocese commission, affect one out of four of San Francisco’s Catholic parishes. Archbishop John Quinn is expected to approve most of the recommendations.
“The closure of churches and the merger of parishes is inevitable,” Msgr. Fred Bitanga told his congregation at St. Joseph’s Church. It is one of the churches the archdiocese said will be closed.
The archdiocese said it will decide later what to do with the closed churches.
One church on the list, St. Patrick, was founded in 1851 and serves a large congregation including the Filipino community, business people and tourists. Among others to be closed are St. Boniface, which serves immigrant communities in the city’s Tenderloin District, and Old St. Mary’s in Chinatown.
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