The Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield cannot deconsecrate and sell three shuttered churches, the Vatican’s highest court has decided, in a ruling that leaves the diocese in possession of sacred buildings it no longer wants.
The decision by the Apostolic Signatura, disclosed this week by the Springfield Diocese, could have implications for Boston, where parishioner groups over the summer filed appeals to Rome in a last-ditch effort to block Cardinal Sean O’Malley from deconsecrating six closed churches around Greater Boston.
The Springfield decision, and other recent Vatican rulings on church closing appeals have generally affirmed the authority of local bishops to merge parishes and close churches.
But recent rulings suggest that Rome is drawing a line at selling churches, said Peter Borre, head of the Council of Parishes, which advises parishioner groups fighting to reopen churches.
“The message is a bishop may merge, close, and reconfigure, but the sacred buildings must remain as sacred Catholic buildings,’’ he said.
Last summer, O’Malley decided to remove the sacred standing of six churches that have been closed for about seven years so that they may be marketed and sold.
The decision to deconsecrate the churches-known in Vatican language as relegating the buildings to profane use-affected several churches in which parishioners have protested for years in around-the-clock vigils. The archdiocese has tolerated the protests as canon law appeals have dragged on in Rome.
A spokesman for the Boston Archdiocese declined to comment on the Vatican rulings because they concern another diocese.
In Western Massachusetts, Bishop Timothy McDonnell of Springfield now must figure out what to do with three closed churches. St. George and St. Patrick in Chicopee and St. Stanislaus Kostka in Adams were closed more than two years ago. A parishioner group has occupied St. Stanislaus in a protest vigil.
“While parishes have been merged, the church buildings can’t be sold,’’ said Monsignor John Bonzagni, director of pastoral planning for the Springfield Diocese, in an interview. “As sacred sites they need to be left alone or used for some sort of sacred or religious purpose. We couldn’t turn them into warehouses or something.’’
Maintaining closed churches is expensive, he said. The diocese has spent more than $200,000 on utilities and other costs at St. George and St. Patrick since they shut down.
He said the churches were not closed for financial reasons, but the diocese had anticipated using proceeds from real estate sales to support its newly merged parishes.
“That option seems now to be foreclosed,’’ said Bonzagni. “Now what we’ve got are bills as opposed to the possibility of income. So it’s an issue; a pastoral issue as well as a financial issue.’’
The pastors of the merged parishes will confer with pastoral and financial advisers, and with the diocese, to figure out what to do with the three church buildings.
“The possibilities go all the way from do nothing, let them sit there, which is problematic because you’re still paying light, water, and heat,’’ said Bonzagni.
Another option is to use the church buildings occasionally, perhaps with a Mass every few months, for special events, or for funerals of former church members, he said. Most of the faithful who attended the churches have moved on and become established in other church communities, so a return to regular weekly services is unlikely, he said.
The ruling came from a panel of the Apostolic Signatura, and the Springfield Diocese has a small time window in which to appeal to the full court, he said. He said it seems unlikely the high court would reverse its own panel, and the diocese is leaning against more appeals.
The ruling “doesn’t make much sense,’’ Bonzagni said, “but we got a decision from the highest body so we got the clarification we were looking for. Now we have to figure out how to live with it.’’