‘Harsh realities’: Diocese of Buffalo announces final list of parish mergers, closures

CNA Staff, Sep 11, 2024 / 15:32 pm

The Diocese of Buffalo, New York, this week revealed the final list of parish closures and mergers it will undertake in order to address years of shrinking budgets and declining church attendance.

Buffalo Bishop Michael Fisher had announced in May that an estimated 34% of the diocese’s parishes would be merged in a process of “rightsizing and reshaping.”

The bishop said the mergers — part of the diocesan “Road to Renewal” program — were necessitated by a shortage of priests, declining Mass attendance, aging congregations, and financial difficulties brought on by clergy abuse lawsuits.

In a press release this week, the diocese said it would see “a total of 118 worship sites remain open” following the merger review. 

“The diocese currently has a total of 196 worship sites that include 160 parishes and 36 secondary worship sites,” the release said. “Going forward the diocese will see 79 parishes and 39 secondary worship sites remain after the merger/closure process.”

The diocese said in its news release that it had met with its vicariates throughout August and considered several dozen “counter proposals” to its initial merger plan. Those suggestions “resulted in changes to 26 of the 36 families of parishes’ initial recommendations.”

Fisher in his release said the Buffalo Diocese is facing “harsh realities” including “a decline in Church attendance, the decline of those pursuing a life in ordained ministry, [and] the rise of secularism and shift away from the parish as the defining center of Catholic identity.” 

The bishop also cited “the horrendous toll that the sexual abuse scandal by clergy and others has inflicted on parish life and the personal faith of so many; most especially on those who have been forever harmed in body, mind, and spirit.”

The Road to Renewal initiative “has been about reinvigorating Catholic faith, more fully optimizing parish and diocesan resources, and increasing the impact of our varied ministries among the countless who benefit from them across western New York,” the bishop said. 

“The ultimate goal is for all parish families to be and remain vibrant communities of faith, focused on their evangelizing mission and serving the abundant need all around us.”

Father Bryan Zielenieski, the diocesan vicar for renewal and development who is also leading the Road to Renewal program, said the high number of changes to the initial recommendations “reveals the true openness and collaboration in our effort to craft a diocesan roadmap for the foreseeable future.”

The Buffalo Diocese isn’t the only U.S. bishopric undertaking major closure and merger plans to address dwindling Church resources and attendance.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore announced its own merger plan for the city of Baltimore earlier this year, while the Archdiocese of St. Louis has been undergoing a similar process, as has the Archdiocese of Seattle.

Local activists and Catholics have been working recently to save some religious sites in Buffalo, meanwhile, as the merger plan has progressed.

The historic St. Casimir Parish in Buffalo has been struggling to stay open while facing tens of thousands of dollars in bills that threaten to close the nearly-century-old structure. Parishioners and advocates have been working to raise funds to keep the parish open.

The organization Preservation Buffalo Niagara, meanwhile, announced earlier this year that it was launching a “Save Our Sacred Sites” campaign, one aimed at “funding and submitting local landmark applications for churches within the city of Buffalo” that it said are at risk of closure by the Diocese of Buffalo.

Members of the Buffalo Preservation Board voted last week to designate several local parishes as city landmarks. Those designations are currently before the Buffalo City Council.