BALTIMORE — Cars poured into the parking lot of Archbishop Curley High School.
In one of them: Frances Gast. She's attended Saint Francis of Assisi Church since 1950 - it's on a list of churches slated for potential closure.
"It’s a very active parish, in a really good neighborhood, with a very active school," Gast told WMAR.
The Archdiocese of Baltimore is hosting a series of meetings this month - part of a process to formulate their 'Seek the City' plan. It could consolidate parishes in Baltimore city and county from 61 to 21.
The public comment meeting took place inside Archbishop Curley High School. News cameras were not allowed inside - folks shared feedback on how they would be affected by the plan, signing up to have, per parish, speakers for a few minutes at a microphone.
The feedback will be taken back to the Archdiocese.
Bishop Bruce Lewandowski told WMAR declining attendance and deferred maintenance for church properties are among the culprits for the potential closures.
"I think from what we get in the feedback, and what we’re getting already, we’ll get a clearer sense of these decisions, whether we should move forward with them as they are, whether we should tweak them a little bit, maybe some of them should be reconsidered," Lewandowski told reporters prior to the meeting.
"The idea here is constructive criticism, that we want to hear from folks real practical consequences, of if this became a decision, what would your life be like? How would it change?" Lewandowski added.
A final decision has not been made yet; the Archdiocese says comments made at Thursday night's session will be taken into account.
The next meeting will be on Tuesday at Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Baltimore at 6:30pm, and will no longer be at Our Lady of Victory in Arbutus.
