15 Buffalo parishes would merge with other churches

Nearly half of Buffalo’s 32 Catholic parishes will be merged with other parishes under a plan proposed Thursday by Diocese of Buffalo officials.

Among the 15 churches slated to close following recommendations made to clergy and lay leaders of the city’s parishes are: St. Mark and Holy Spirit in North Buffalo; St. Anthony of Padua and St. Michael in downtown Buffalo; and St. Martin de Tours and St. Thomas Aquinas in South Buffalo.

The Rev. Bryan Zielenieski, the diocese’s vicar for renewal, unveiled the recommendations at a meeting at St. Anthony of Padua Church, a week after diocese officials announced that in the county’s eight dioceses, more of 50 parishes will have to be merged and 75 churches and places of worship have been closed, as part of efforts to better adapt its properties to a shrinking Catholic population and a declining number of priests.

St. Mark School will remain, according to the recommendations, which covered only parishes located in the city, plus St. John Gualbert, located in Cheektowaga, near the Buffalo border. The Saint-Jean Gualbert church should close its doors and the parish will be merged with the Saint-Stanislas church according to the plan.

Other buildings that will close in accordance with the recommendations are: Holy Spirit and Holy Rose of Lima in North Buffalo; SS. Columba-Brigid; Our Lady of Perpetual Help in the former first parish; Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the west side; St. John Kanty in the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood; and St. Bernard in Kaisertown.

An estimated 100 people, including priests, deacons and parish administrators, attended Thursday’s meeting.

Bishop Michael W. Fisher cited the diocese’s growing shortage of priests, declining Mass attendance, aging congregations and ongoing financial pressures in his Chapter 11 bankruptcy case as reasons for the effort. massive restructuring.

“No decision will be easy and every decision will be painful. We do not take this lightly,” Fisher said in a video recording about the restructuring process posted on the diocese’s website.

Fisher said the staff reductions were necessary to keep the diocese “viable and vibrant for the future.”

Parish families will have the opportunity to review the diocese’s recommendations and either agree with them or suggest other possibilities for consideration by July 15. Final plans will be announced by September 1.

Diocese officials are expected to meet Friday with priests, deacons and lay leaders from parishes in northern Erie County, including the towns of Tonawanda, Amherst and Clarence. And four more meetings are planned next week with representatives from parishes in southern Erie County, Niagara County and Genesee and Wyoming counties.

The diocese currently has 115 diocesan priests available to parishes. That number will decrease to 70 by 2030 and 38 by 2040, according to diocese projections.

At the same time, nearly three out of five parishes in the diocese reported a negative net operating balance, with many parishes devoting a significant portion of their funds to building maintenance.

Diocese officials also said nearly half of parishes are reporting fewer registered households, baptisms have declined steadily at 59% of parishes and marriages in Catholic churches declined by a quarter between 2020 and 2023.

Another risk for the diocese and its parishes is a potentially massive bankruptcy settlement with 900 plaintiffs who say they were sexually abused as children by priests and other diocese officials. The diocese said it was prepared to offer $100 million to settle the claims.

The plan revealed Tuesday follows a small wave of church closures announced earlier this year, when three parishes were deemed financially insolvent and lacking enough sacramental ministry to continue. An elementary school operated by one of the insolvent parishes, St. Andrew Church in the town of Tonawanda, is also closing. St. Andrew Parish will celebrate a closing mass on June 30. A final mass has also been set for Aug. 10 at St. Lawrence Church on East Delavan Avenue. All Saints in the Riverside section of Buffalo will also close.

The diocese also put its Main Street headquarters on the market for $9.8 million, as well as Christ the King Seminary in the city of Aurora and the Buffalo State Newman Center on Elmwood Avenue.

In a process known as the “Road to Renewal,” the diocese in 2022 began consolidating 160 parishes into 36 families to better distribute a limited number of clergy.

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