Under a proposal outlined by the pastor of St. Martin de Porres parish, which also includes St. Ann’s in Neponset, St. Brendan’s church on Gallivan Blvd. would be closed while the adjacent parish school would remain open. The proposal is still subject to approval from Cardinal O’Malley, but the pastor, Rev. Chris Palladino, said last weekend that the roughly $3 million in maintenance needs at the church building has forced his hand.

“As your pastor, I am not going to kick the can down the road any longer,” he wrote in a letter published in the church bulletin last weekend. “The parish is struggling with poor attendance and mounting debt. St. Brendan church is estimated to need nearly $3,000,000 in repairs with even more in needed upgrades.”

He added: “We must face reality that the church is beyond our ability to fix and most certainly beyond our capacity to pay for… We cannot expect our young families or prospective parishioners to worship in a church that is in such disrepair.”

If St. Brendan’s does shutter as a worship space, it will be a deep cut to hundreds, perhaps thousands of families from that section of Dorchester, for whom the parish church has long been the center of weekly, if not daily life. But it will not come as a complete surprise, either. A succession of church leaders have telegraphed the likelihood of a closure for several years now.

In 2018, parishioners met throughout the summer to probe the worsening financial straits that parish leaders warned could result in potential closings. An audit of finances and activities showed declining revenue amid a dip in Mass attendance at both churches, coupled with a heavy debt burden tied to operating and maintaining the aging buildings. The deferred maintenance trouble was particularly acute at St. Brendan’s and was unlikely to get better, since the dual parish was continuing to fall deeper into debt.

“The cash flow is impossible to meet,” wrote the two priests who were then in charge, Fr. Brian Clary and Fr. Robert Connors. “Despite being as generous as they can, those who attend can’t support all the expenses of a parish. Hard decisions are necessary.”

Losing St. Brendan would be just the latest in a cascade of closures that have battered Catholic Dorchester in the last 15 years. In 2004, the archdiocese closed St. William’s church on Dorchester Avenue (it was absorbed into a newly named parish— Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, housed at the former St. Margaret’s church on Columbia Road) as part of a sweeping diocesan consolidation. St. Kevin’s school closed its doors in 2008 and the church of the same name that once stood next door in Uphams Corner has since been replaced by an apartment building. St. Matthew’s church on Stanton Street closed last year and the building is likely to be re-developed, possibly beginning in the new year.

And what will become of the church on Gallivan Boulevard— and how long might it take for an actual shutdown to happen? That’s not yet clear. In his communication to parishioners, Palladino said that his recommendation for the “consolidation of our worship sites” would be on the agenda of the parish council this week with more “listening sessions” likely to come after that.

“I ask for realistic dialog and not anger,” Palldino wrote, closing his letter with this appeal: “And please pray for me.”