Officials for the Boston archdiocese said that part of the reason for parish reconfiguration was to recover money for the pension fund for returned lay church employees. Note that this isn’t the priests’ retirement fund.
They also say that the problem isn’t unique to the archdiocese and they’re right. A lot of pension funds are experiencing similar difficulties, seeing that the stock market hasn’t returned as much on investment in the last few years, and considering that people are living longer. They expect to raise $20 million to $25 million.
Of course, this won’t help change some people’s minds that the only reason their parishes were chosen for closing is their real estate value. For the record, I don’t buy it. I think most people over-estimate both the relative value of the physical property of their parish as well as its spiritual health.
