NORWICH – There will be no closures or mergers of Chenango County’s Catholic parishes in the near future, Diocese of Syracuse officials said Monday.

After announcing over the weekend that St. Paul’s and St. Bartholomew’s in Norwich would remain open, the diocese confirmed that St. Malachy’s, Sherburne, St. Joseph’s, Oxford, Immaculate Conception, Greene, St. Theresa’s, New Berlin, St. John the Evangelist, Bainbridge, and St. Agnes’ Mission, Afton, would not be closed anytime soon, either.

Father James Lang, diocese director of Pastoral Planning, said Chenango County’s rural makeup poses physical challenges to restructuring at this time. Mainly, he says it’d be difficult to ask or expect area parishioners to travel the distance and terrain to another house of worship if their church were closed.

“It’s the rural factor,” said Lang. “You have different challenges because you are a rural county. We’re trying to identify those challenges and be sensitive of them.”

In May 2007, more than 30 parishes and missions in the diocese – mostly in urban areas – were ordered to close or merge as part of an unprecedented campaign to offset a declining priest population and adjust to changing demographics. At that time, plans for Chenango County were put on hold pending discussions with the Diocese of Albany about sharing priests. Those discussions ended in the spring without resolution, Lang said. He would not elaborate why, but said priest levels are as such that Chenango County can remain as is.