BRAINTREE (AP) — The Boston Archdiocese says it raised $1.2 million at its annual dinner to benefit the Clergy Funds, which pay for the care and well-being of its priests

The archdiocese said more than 1,300 people attended the 4th Annual Celebration of the Priesthood dinner Wednesday at the Seaport World Trade Center in Boston.

The archdiocese currently has about 700 priests, about 250 of whom are retired.

The Clergy Funds were established in the 1970s to cover health care costs for active priests and retirement costs for senior priests.

Joesph D’Arrigo, the fund’s executive director, said the fund will have a surplus this year, after running deficits of greater than $10 million annually for many years.

He called it a “remarkable turnaround” and credited the priests, parishioners and the archdiocese’s benefactors.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.