Jesuits say they'll close Boston urban center. Mostly gay South End church faces financial woes

[Ian David]

By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff | April 16, 2007

The Jesuit Urban Center, a predominantly gay Catholic congregation in Boston's South End, will close at the end of July, and the landmark church in which services are held will be put up for sale, the Jesuit religious order announced yesterday.

The Rev. Thomas J. Regan , the superior of the New England Jesuits, said in an interview that the rationale for the closing is purely financial. He said that the order, long associated with education, has become financially reliant on the salaries paid to priests who teach at Boston College, the College of the Holy Cross, and Fairfield University -- all Jesuit schools -- but that as many of those priests retire or die, the order is being forced to cut back on its activities.

Regan said that he had received no pressure from the Vatican, the Jesuit headquarters in Rome, or the Archdiocese of Boston, to close the church, and that the sexual orientation of the worshipers played no role in his decision.

He said that the Jesuits would continue to welcome gays and lesbians to worship at St. Ignatius of Loyola , the parish they oversee in Chestnut Hill, and that there are two other downtown congregations that have been reaching out to gay Catholics, the Paulist Center on Beacon Hill and St. Anthony Shrine, operated by the Franciscans, near Downtown Crossing.

More:
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/04/16/jesuits_say_theyll_close_boston_urban_center/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+City%2FRegion+News

See also:

Jesuits closing Boston church that serves many gays
http://www1.whdh.com/news/articles/local/BO49252/