A new round of heartbreak for Buffalo-area Catholics

“I know there’s a lot of emotion right now. Have that emotion,” LaMarca, a priest in the Roman Catholic community in the Tonawandas family of churches, said in a Facebook video.

LaMarca joined his parishioners in their grief, as the Diocese of Buffalo announced Friday that two of its churches — St. Francis of Assisi, 73 Adam St., town of Tonawanda, and St. Jude the Apostle, 800 Niagara Falls Blvd., North Tonawanda — are expected to close as the diocese struggles with declining church attendance, aging priests and financial problems.

Other churches recommended for closure by the Diocese of Buffalo were:

• Child of Prague, 921 Cleveland Drive, Cheektowaga

• St. Benedict, 1317 Eggert Road, Amherst

• St. Andrew, 1525 Sheridan Drive, Town of Tonawanda

• Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, 157 Cleveland Drive, Cheektowaga

• Blessed Sacrament, 263 Claremont Avenue, Town of Tonawanda

• St. Andrew Kim Mission, 9 O’Hara Road, Town of Tonawanda

• St. Pius X, 1700 North French Road, Getzville

• Our Lady of Peace, 10950 Main Street, Clarence

The closure of St. Andrew Church and School was previously announced in February, but the other proposed closures were made public for the first time on Friday. Also recommended is the closure of St. Augustine, a secondary house of worship affiliated with the Church of the Good Shepherd in Pendleton.

Parish communities of churches recommended for closure would be merged with other parishes where churches would remain open. For example, St. Andrew Kim Mission, a Korean Catholic church, will merge with St. Leo the Great.

Friday’s proposals were expected and will pose challenges, said Joe Hejaily, SS parish administrator. Peter & Paul Church in Williamsville, said after leaving the meeting.

“Church is about faith, not buildings, and that’s what we need to focus on,” Hejaily said.

SS. Peter & Paul will remain open as recommended and will welcome parishioners of the Child of Prague. Also remaining open will be St. Benedict School, which will continue to operate at its Eggert Road campus. In addition to St. Andrew School, other elementary schools in the Northern Vicariate of Erie will also be open for the 2024-2025 school year.

Diocese officials said last week that more than 50 parishes across eight counties will need to be merged and up to 75 churches and houses of worship will be closed to bring diocesan infrastructure into line with a smaller priesthood and population of Catholics who are decreasing and do not attend masses. as often and giving less.

They began making specific recommendations this week, proposing Monday to close eight churches and houses of worship in parts of the Southern Tier and announcing Thursday that 14 churches in Buffalo and Cheektowaga should be closed.

The Rev. Bryan Zielenieski, who is leading the restructuring effort, met Friday at St. Leo the Great in Amherst with priests, deacons and lay leaders from 25 parishes in northern Erie County and southern Erie County. Niagara.

Plans to close in Buffalo, where two dozen parishes were merged between 2007 and 2011 as part of an earlier downsizing known as the “Journey in Faith & Grace,” drew rapid outcry from many parishioners.

But LaMarca said the diocese’s decisions are “not predetermined.” Parish families have until July 15 to either accept the diocese’s proposal or present an alternative plan.

LaMarca invited Tonawanda-area parishioners to share their thoughts at two meetings this week:

• 1 p.m. Wednesday at Our Lady of Czestochowa in North Tonawanda

• 6:30 p.m. Thursday at St. Amelia’s in Tonawanda

“No one is going to like the decisions we make,” LaMarca said. “We can’t have parish against parish. We can’t go against them. We can’t have that.”

Bishop Michael W. Fisher urged Catholics to understand that today’s diocese is not the same as it was 30, 20 or even 10 years ago, and that the immensity of buildings and properties parishes is not sustainable.

“Even though we may feel emotionally attached to a specific church building, it is Jesus we worship,” he said in a video recording posted on the diocese’s website. “It’s important to remember that you don’t go to church, you are the Church. You and I, we the Catholic people. We are the Church together.”

Fisher cited the diocese’s growing shortage of priests, declining Mass attendance, aging congregations and ongoing financial pressures in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy case as reasons for the massive restructuring effort. Donations in many parishes plummeted after the diocese filed for bankruptcy protection in 2020 and the Covid-19 pandemic separated the faithful from weekly Mass attendance for several months.

And the diocese is still dealing with the aftermath of a clergy sex abuse scandal that spawned hundreds of lawsuits under the Child Victims Act and subsequent bankruptcy.

But even without the abuse scandal and bankruptcy, the diocese and its parishes faced challenges attracting and retaining members amid growing nationwide disinterest in organized religion.

“This is a necessary step that we must take. The people who are surprised by this announcement, I don’t know where they’ve been for five to 10 years,” said Tonawanda Town Supervisor Joseph Emminger, whose son, Chris, is a Catholic priest.

Emminger said the priest shortage in the diocese has been widely publicized and will get worse before it gets better.

“When they say there will be 38 or 40 priests in the next 15 or 20 years, there will be other closures after that. This is not the end. It’s simple, mathematical,” he said.

Emminger said it’s not all bad news. With fewer churches, the diocese may be able to fill them again.

“I’d rather have engaged, active churches – fuller churches, but smaller numbers – than have all these buildings and all these expenses and not have the people to support them,” he said. declared.