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CAROL LOLLIS

St. John Cantius on Hawley street in Northampton.

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CAROL LOLLIS

St. John Cantius on Hawley street in Northampton.

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CAROL LOLLIS

St. John Cantius on Hawley street in Northampton.

Reaction was varied across the Valley Sunday as Catholics learned which of their churches would close or merge by the end of the year and which would survive under the Springfield diocese's reorganization plan.

They've been facing the possibility of losing their houses of worship for months, so the announcement this weekend that six churches in Northampton, Easthampton and Hatfield were among the 19 slated for closure throughout the lower part of the Valley left many in a state of resigned melancholy.

But, at Easthampton's three churches, many were shocked at the news, especially those who attend Sacred Heart of Jesus, whose members say they were led to believe their parish would be saved from the chopping block.

"Everybody just gasped when they said it," said Dolores Ivory, of Easthampton. "It was like a bomb went off."

The Hampshire County churches to close in the coming months include three in Northampton - Sacred Heart on King Street, St. John Cantius on Hawley Street and Blessed Sacrament on Elm Street. Additionally, Easthampton's three churches will be consolidated into one, and in Hatfield, two churches will be combined into one.

No changes are planned for churches in Amherst, Hadley, Belchertown, Haydenville and Granby. In South Hadley, the diocese recommends keeping two churches open for the next two years.

Maria Cartin-McKenna, who has attended Immaculate Conception in Easthampton for the last decade, said there was very little reaction when her priest read the announcement during Sunday Mass.

"This is reality," she said. "There are fewer parishioners, fewer priests ... we've known about it for a while."

But, across town, parishioners at Sacred Heart of Jesus were a bit more fired up.

"People are naturally disappointed. It's not a happy situation, but it's something we have to go through," said Roman Kubacki, a 55-year member of Sacred Heart.

He noted that much remains to be decided and, despite this weekend's announcements, nothing is finalized.

News of the closings and consolidations was announced Saturday during services and in a televised address by Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell. They come as the numbers of Catholics and active priests in the region have declined. Some recent figures show that membership has dropped by 100,000 over the last decade, to about 220,000 in the Springfield diocese.

"This is not easy for any of us, but especially it is not easy for those whose beloved churches will close," McDonnell said in a televised address Saturday.

Many parishioners knew the changes were coming, as part of a reorganization plan that has been under way by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield for the past four years. In all, 19 churches are expected to close in Hampshire and Hampden counties and consolidate into new parishes over the next several months, many under a new name.

"In many places, there are name changes," said Mark E. Dupont, a diocesan spokesman.

Catholic churchgoers in Northampton will consolidate into a single parish at St. Mary's of the Assumption near Smith College and Our Lady of the Annunciation in Florence when the three other downtown churches close at the end of November, according to the diocese.

The latter church will serve as a chapel and is expected to be renamed. One set of ministers will serve parishioners interchangeably at both locations, according to the diocese.

The changes in Northampton should not come as a complete surprise, as a lay group has been communicating with the diocese and earlier identified the needs of the city's practicing Catholics.

"In Northampton, there has already been a consensus of agreement as to what they needed," Dupont said.

In Easthampton, all three of the city's Catholic churches will close at a still-undetermined date with one parish emerging to serve the Catholic community. However, the diocese's final report notes these changes should occur as soon as is "practical."

Dupont said the diocese's pastoral planning office will be working with parishioners from Immaculate Conception, Notre Dame Du Bon Conseil and Sacred Heart of Jesus churches to determine which will reopen as a single parish under a new name.

"We're going to give them a little more time to work through it," Dupont said, of Easthampton parishioners. "We want people to have a sense that they've been heard in the decision."

Many of those parishioners felt blindsided by the announcement and say the diocese ignored the joint recommendations their churches made after two years of study. The recommendations made by the 36-member committee called for merging Immaculate Conception and Notre Dame, but allowing Sacred Heart, with its rich Polish heritage, to remain on its own.

Ivory said the bishop's office indicated it had accepted such a plan. At Sacred Heart, the Rev. James Sipitkowski read a letter from the bishop at Sunday's Masses, but Ivory said it lacked detail and reasons why decisions were made.

"Nobody knows what happened," said Ivory. "This for us came right out of the blue."

That lack of communication is one problem for John Sheehan, a member of Immaculate Conception in Easthampton and chapter leader of Voice of the Faithful.

Sheehan said he was disappointed that the bishop seemed to follow recommendations laid out in a study completed in 2007 by John Mullin, director of the Center for Economic Development at the University of Massachusetts, even though the committee created by the three churches spent considerable time and effort over the last two years to put together its own set of recommendations based on feedback from parishioners. The Mullin report said the town's three parishes should be merged into one, and be overseen by two priests. "Basically, he (McDonnell) repeated what the Mullin report said, even though we had spent countless hours on committees," Sheehan said.

In April meetings with diocese officials, Sheehan said, the Easthampton parish committee asked for an independent financial audit of all three parishes to help its members make recommendations, as well as an audit of the church's property, land and other assets. The requests went unanswered, he said.

In the end, Sheehan stresses better communication and more transparency are needed, especially given the number of Catholics who have been "walking on egg shells wondering what's going to happen," he said. "There is a tremendous amount of interest throughout the diocese."

In Hatfield, St. Joseph's and Holy Trinity churches will consolidate into a single parish under a new name by the end of November, according to the diocese's plans. As in Northampton, parishioners in this town have been working for some time with the diocese. Dupont said the consolidation of parishes in Hatfield should not be as challenging as that in Easthampton.

Once the churches are closed and vacated, the diocese plans to put them on the market. Unless a particular parish has outstanding debts with the diocese, the proceeds from these sales will be used to serve Catholics in the respective communities where the properties were sold.

The diocese's pastoral planning committee's final report on the reorganization is posted on the Web at diospringfield.org and iobserve.org, as is a video of the bishop's televised address.