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 most intense reductions are occurring primarily in the Midwest and Northeast, specifically in Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.

Weekend Mass — in which practicing Catholics are, by some accounts, obligated to attend — ended at 76 churches across 30 counties in northeast Iowa over the weekend of July 11-12. This followed the revelation that attendance fell 46% over the past 20 years in the Archdiocese of Dubuque, which is currently undergoing a restructuring process that will consolidate its 160 parishes into 24 pastorates. The plan anticipates reducing the number of priests in the archdiocese from 85 to 55 by 2040 through retirements and ordinations.

Declining rates of Catholics participating in Mass

“In the last 20 to 30 years, Midwestern Catholicism has declining rates of Catholics participating in Mass,” said Kristy Nabhan-Warren, a professor of religion at the University of Iowa. “So, various archdioceses across the Midwest, and country, have had to make some really hard decisions.”

At least 58 churches in southeast Michigan — potentially as many as 90 — out of 200 total parishes may stop holding weekend and Sunday Mass and consolidate this year due to declining attendance, millions of dollars in unfunded building costs and fewer men entering the priesthood, said executive director of parish renewal for the Archdiocese of Detroit, Rev. Mario Amore, in June. The archdiocese is currently reviewing draft restructuring plans, which are slated for finalization by April 2027.

Diocese of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania permanently closed seven churches

Additionally, just last week, Bishop Andrew Cozzens of the Archdiocese of Crookston announced that seven churches in northwest Minnesota will stop holding Sunday Mass for the same reasons: low attendance and a priest shortage. With this change, the total number of parishes will decrease from 65 to 58. Cozzens estimates roughly 800,000 out of the state’s 1.2 million Catholics reside in his archdiocese, he told Just the News in an interview.

The Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania on March 12 permanently closed seven churches, also relegating some Delaware County properties — notably, St. Hedwig Church and Immaculate Conception Church — to non-theological use in January and July of this year, respectively. Five churches in Missouri also closed this year due to vandalism, merging and property transitions, maintenance issues and more.

In June 2025, the Archdiocese of Newark in New Jersey launched a review to consider potential consolidations or closures of some of its 211 North Jersey churches. Some parishes are slated for consolidation as soon as 2027, according to church officials. 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. Then in June, he gave an update that the review had "entered a new phase."

“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.” FOCUS is the Fellowship of Catholic University Students, a national Catholic collegiate outreach and lay apostolate.

Declining enrollment and financial challenges to Catholic schools

While attendance at daily Mass is common where he’s from, the culture is not as charismatic and youthful as it is in other places, Polli continued. He said New Jersey’s parish merging in 2025 was a “huge thing” and “sad given the super rich history of NJ Catholicism” — specifically in terms of the large number of Irish, Italian, Polish and Spanish Catholics rooted in the area.

Also in the northeast, the Diocese of Burlington in Vermont saw seven parish realignments this year, Bishop John McDermott announced in January, with Sunday Mass canceled at St. Anthony — St. George Catholic Church. New York’s Diocese of Syracuse announced the merging of four churches into one in mid-June, and Bishop Robert Joseph McManus said on May 28 that one Massachusetts parish would close and two others merge; the changes took effect July 1.

In America's southwest region, declining enrollment and financial challenges led to the closing of two New Mexico Catholic schools in June, according to the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. Several parishes in Oklahoma were forced to merge, and Corpus Christi monastery in El Paso, Texas, closed its doors after 59 years in April for unknown reasons.

Katherine Pugh is a reporter for Just the News. Follow her on X for more coverage.