CHENANGO COUNTY – Whether the news is good or bad, Catholic parishioners in Chenango County should know by mid-April what the future has in store for their churches, a letter from Bishop James Moynihan of the Diocese of Syracuse stated Sunday.

Chenango County currently has eight Catholic parishes and is one of the 32 pastoral care areas that are being evaluated after submitting reconfiguration proposals to Syracuse in November.

“We anticipate announcing our responses to your proposals by mid-April,” Moynihan said. “We do not expect to have decisions on all of the pastoral care areas, but will do our best to inform you of exactly what needs to take place and where we need to be by that mid-April point.”

In the City of Norwich, controversy arose nearly a year ago when the bishop announced via letter that one of its two churches – St. Paul’s or St. Bartholomew’s – would most likely have to close. Many believed Moynihan directed the closure at St. Bart’s, and parishioners immediately formed the Committee to Save St. Bartholomew’s in an effort to fight the decision. In the months that followed, a joint proposal was created for St. Paul’s and St. Bart’s that outlined their future as collaborative partners.

The pastor for both churches, Father Douglas Cunningham, said that based on Sunday’s letter, he knows as much as anybody about the status of St. Bart’s.

“The middle of April,” he said. “That’s all I know.”

Cunningham and St. Bart’s attorney Tom Vitanza announced over the summer that they were 99 percent sure the church would remain open, based on financial clauses left in two separate trust funds.

It was previously announced that St. Bart’s and St. Paul’s would undergo an audit in either February or March, after some parishioners called for financial transparency amidst the closure controversy.