Facing Mounting Financial Strain, Oakland Catholic Diocese Will Close 13 East Bay Churches

CASTRO VALLEY, CA — The Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland will close 13 churches across the East Bay as it continues to face financial strain brought on by hundreds of child sexual assault lawsuits and declining attendance.

"I deeply understand the sacrifice this will require," Bishop Michael Barber said in a letter posted to the Diocese website on Wednesday. "We cannot allow nostalgia and sentimentality to hold back the message of the Gospel."

Seven churches in Oakland will close. The remaining churches that will close are in Castro Valley, Alameda, Fremont, Crocket and Walnut Creek, according to the report.

In addition to mounting financial sustainability of some schools and parishes, the diocese is seeing an all-time low in priests, along with a decline in mass attendance and Catholic school enrollment, Barber said.

"The status quo is not sustainable nor is it serving God’s people," Bishop said. "We have successfully closed worship sites in the past."

The diocese filed for bankruptcy three years ago after more than 300 lawsuits were filed against it between 2019 and 2022, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

It currently is facing about $100 and $500 million in liabilities, according to the San Francisco Chronicle

Here is the full list of the churches closing:

• Mary Help of Christians, Oakland
• Our Lady of Guadalupe site at Blacow Road, Fremont
• Our Lady of Lourdes, Oakland
• Sacred Heart, Oakland
• St. Albert the Great, Alameda
• St. Andrew Kim Korean Pastoral Center, Oakland
• St. Augustine, Oakland
• St. Barnabas, Alameda
• St. Paschal Baylon, Oakland
• St. Patrick, Oakland
• St. Rose of Lima, Crockett
• St. Stephen, Walnut Creek
• Transfiguration, Castro Valley