It’s happening in more dioceses around the country, and the New York Timesthis morning looks at the impact that parish closings is having on Camden, New Jersey:

Eleanor Medany remembers when South Jersey was in thrall to Roman Catholicism. There was a church every mile, or so it seemed, and priests were as common as Chevrolets. Churches like her own, Most Holy Redeemer, were built by parishioners who showed up, hammer in hand, and who hosted countless spaghetti fests and tea bag sales to buy the kneelers and the windows.

That was in 1958. As the years passed, Most Holy Redeemer took root in this town about 20 minutes outside of Philadelphia. The congregation grew fast, and in 1961, members built a school behind their unassuming church to educate their children in the faith.

But next month, Most Holy Redeemer Parish will offer its final Sunday Mass. After that, the building will go mostly unused, reflecting an era of dwindling churchgoers and vanishing priests.

“There is so much blood and sweat in that church,” said Mrs. Medany, who raised four children in the parish, including Deptford’s current mayor, Paul Medany. “We have a church here we busted our humps for. It’s gorgeous and we love it. And we are very upset.”

Most Holy Redeemer is one of 124 parishes in the Diocese of Camden that by year’s end will be merged and whittled to about 70. It is a vast, and painful, undertaking for the area’s 500,000 worshipers.

The Camden consolidation is part of a wave of diocesan retrenchments in the Northeast; just last week, for example, the Diocese of Rockville Centre on Long Island announced that it would offer buyouts to 1,500 workers. But given Camden’s reduction of parishes by 40 percent or more, few other plans have been as far-reaching. The Diocese of Albany announced last year that it would merge or close 20 percent of its 164 parishes. In the Diocese of Buffalo, a bit more than 25 percent of the parishes will no longer offer regular worship. And in the Diocese of Allentown, in Pennsylvania, the figure is 31 percent.

“Other dioceses are not going through pain at this level,” said the Rev. Robert Kantz, Most Holy Redeemer’s administrator.

Check the link for more about why this happening.