Yahoo! News - Holy Condominiums, Batman!

Churches Selling As Luxury Condominiums
By DENISE LAVOIE, Associated Press Writer

BOSTON - When St. Peter and Paul's Church was sold to a developer, there was a lot of resistance in South Boston. Not only was the beloved church closing, it was being turned into something that was an anathema to the working-class neighborhood: luxury condominiums.
As the Boston Archdiocese prepares to put 60 churches up for sale, developers and real estate brokers predict they will be scooped up and converted into condos because the market is hot for trendy, distinctive real estate.

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This is a fascinating story. It seems that all the publicity about priestly dalliances with young parishioners has cut into church attendance and funds, which has led to church closures. What to do with empty churches? Sell them to developers. This should lead to some interesting community dynamics. The area residents are used to thinking of the place as their church. The yuppies who now live there think of it as, let's say hypothetically, Priestly Acres, with the coolest hot tub in the neighborhood. Hard to reconcile those two perceptions, don't you think?