Six Roman Catholic parishes in West Philadelphia will become three by the end of the month under a plan the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced Sunday.
The mergers, which will involve new pastoral appointments, are part of a broader restructuring by the financially strapped archdiocese as it struggles with declining attendance at city churches, demographic shifts, and a diminishing supply of priests.
At three of the churches involved - St. Callistus, Our Mother of Sorrows, and St. Ignatius of Loyola - Mass attendance dropped between 2007 and 2011, along with marriages and baptisms. Fewer than 100 people now attend Mass at Our Mother of Sorrows each weekend.
