By Pat Loeb

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput is seeking to sell the large estate in Overbrook where he lives. Word of the sale comes as a blue ribbon commission prepares to recommend the closing of dozens of parish schools.

A source in the archdiocese says the proposal to sell the archbishops’ residence has been presented to the priests’ counsel and the finance counsel and now has only to be approved by the Vatican.

The eight-plus acre estate has been home to the archdiocese chief since 1935 but the source says the bishop does not want to continue to live in such splendor when he is about to ask area Catholics to accept sacrifices in the educational system.

On Friday, a blue ribbon commission makes a report on the future of the archdiocesan system and is expected to recommend that as many as a fifth of parish elementary schools close. The commission has been meeting for a year to come up with a comprehensive plan for the system– to avoid the annual round of cuts that have become a feature of the archdiocese for the last decade.