Nearly one in five Americans identifies as Catholic, yet many dioceses across the country have closed or consolidated parishes this year due to declining mass attendance, fewer people taking priestly vocations and rising maintenance costs. The plan anticipates reducing the number of priests in the archdiocese from 85 to 55 by 2040 through retirements and ordinations. After parishioner pushback, Cardinal Joseph Tobin said in March that the review would be extended for further study amid a priest shortage and declining attendance. “In the northeast, you find a Catholic Church in literally almost every single town,” David Polli, a New Jersey native and FOCUS missionary at Clemson University, told Just the News on Thursday. “But the parishioners tend to be very old in most areas, with attendance declining and taking a hit after COVID.”