BOSTON (AP) – Two parishes selected for closure by the Boston Archdiocese have been granted reprieves, Archbishop Sean P. O’Malley announced on Saturday.

St. Bernard in Newton, originally scheduled to close on Oct. 25, will remain open until further notice to allow additional meetings between the archdiocese and parishioners, O’Malley said in a statement. The archdiocese plans to establish a later closing date for St. Bernard.

St. Mary of the Angels in Boston’s Roxbury neighborhood, also scheduled to close this month, will stay open an additional two years so it can provide assistance in reducing neighborhood violence. The Jesuits have agreed to continue staffing the parish for the next two years.

The decision to delay the closings was made by O’Malley with input from the reconfiguration review committee recently formed by the archbishop to examine the church closings. But critics charged the move was a public relations effort aimed at staving off more sit-ins at closing parishes.

“My hope is that by delaying the closing of St. Bernard’s we will be able to provide additional assistance to the parishioners who are finding this process particularly difficult,” O’Malley said. “At St. Mary of the Angels, the archdiocese desires to provide a pastoral presence in the surrounding neighborhood in light of recent increase in crime and concern for the well-being of local residents.”

St. Bernard, a 130-year-old parish with a congregation of 1,300 registered families, was selected for closure even though it’s larger than two nearby Catholic parishes, and that puzzled some parishioners, said its pastor, the Rev. Paul Kilroy.

Despite the reprieve, Kilroy said he believes the parish will still eventually close.

“I think the archdiocese feels that perhaps there wasn’t as much communication about the reasons behind (the closing) as there should have been,” Kilroy said. “They are reaching out to us now to clarify why we are closing.”

St. Mary is located in a largely minority section of the city and celebrates some Masses in Spanish.

In a statement, the Rev. David Gill, pastor of St. Mary’s, said, “We are pleased to have the opportunity to serve our church community and the larger neighborhood in whatever ways will be most helpful.”

The reprieves granted to St. Bernard and St. Mary do not offer hope for parishes that are already officially closed, even those where round-the-clock vigils are being held, said Colin Riley, a spokesman for parishioners at St. Albert the Great in Weymouth. St. Albert was officially closed on Sept. 1, but some parishioners have been occupying the church since then.

Some parishioners at St. Bernard had been considering a similar sit-in, he said.

“This announcement by the archdiocese is just to prevent the beginning of another vigil,” Riley said.

“This is nothing but a PR ploy,” he said. “It’s a charade. Our parishioners are not going to be fooled by nonsense.”

Nothing but a complete overhaul of the reconfiguration process is acceptable, Riley said.

At the most, O’Malley’s move to delay the closing of two churches is acknowledgment that there are problems with the process, said Peter Borre, co-chairman of the Council of Parishes, a newly formed group of 10 churches that have either closed or have been selected for closure.

“It seems to us to be an acknowledgment that the reconfiguration process has been very flawed,” Borre said. “If this is the beginning of a series of positive steps, it’s a welcome change in the actions of the archdiocese. If however, this is an effort to pre-empt a vigil on the part of parishioners at St. Bernard, this is not a useful step.”

In May, O’Malley announced a massive restructuring of the archdiocese that included the closure or consolidation of 82 parishes. He said the reduction was needed because of declining Mass attendance, a shortage of priests and a financial crisis caused in part by the clergy sex abuse scandal.

While most parishes have closed quietly, others have resisted, including three that are staging high-profile sit-ins.