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	Diocese Orders Church Mergers in Greene, Columbia Counties The Daily Freeman January 17, 2009 http://www.dailyfreeman.com/articles/2009/01/17/news/doc4972433147f5d196414606.txt ALBANY — Mergers announced on Saturday by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany will affect six churches in Columbia County and two in Greene, and another two in Greene may be merged a year from now. Also, one church in Delaware County will close. The diocese, in a prepared statement, said the decisions about these and numerous other churches were the result of 600 meetings over 2-1/2 years that included input from more than 10,000 Catholics in a 13-county area. In Columbia County: • St. Mary’s in Hudson and Resurrection in Germantown will merge by July 1, with both to remain open. • St. John Vianney in Claverack and St. Bridget’s in Copake Falls will share a pastor and conduct a feasibility study, to be completed by Dec. 31, on a possible merger and worship site. • Nativity/St. Mary’s in Stuyvesant Falls and Holy Family in Stottville will merge by Dec. 31, with both to remain open. In Greene County: • Immaculate Conception in Haines Falls and Sacred Heart in Palenville with merge by July 1, with both to remain open. • St. Patrick’s in Catskill will complete a feasibility study of parish facilities by Dec. 31. At that time, the diocese will revisit a possible merger with St. Patrick’s in Athens. In Delaware County: • Our Lady of Good Counsel Mission Church in Roxbury will close immediately. THE DIOCESE cited four primary reasons for the planned mergers and closings: • Most cities in the diocese have lost between 25 and 39 percent of their populations since 1960. • Suburban areas in the diocese have grown by 50 percent or more during the same period. • There are likely to be fewer than 100 diocesan priests serving the diocese’s 132 parishes within five years. In the 1960s, there were about 400 priests in the dioceses. • Many of the multiple urban and ethnic parishes built just a few blocks from each other in the early 20th century are now underused. “THERE IS NO question that the closing of parishes is a difficult and painful process for the people of the parish,” Bishop Howard J. Hubbard said in a prepared statement. “All of the people involved in this process empathize with the painful adjustments that will be required.” Hubbard noted that the church where he grew up, St. Patrick’s in Troy, is among those being closed. THE ROMAN Catholic Diocese of Albany covers the counties of Albany, Columbia, Delaware, Ful-ton, Greene, Montgomery, Otsego, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady, Schoharie, Warren and Wash-ington. Ulster and Dutchess counties are in the Archdiocese of New York.
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