Catholic Diocese of Buffalo officials say the numbers are simply unsustainable.
Facing a rapidly declining number of priests and its Chapter 11 bankruptcy were two of the main reasons given for the diocese’s recent recommended church closures and parish consolidations.
“It’s a tremendous undertaking,” said Joe Martone, the communications director for the diocese, of its Road to Renewal effort. Locally, the diocese announced 11 planned mergers and closures in its Niagara and Orleans county parishes this week.
Over its eight-county coverage area, the diocese maintains 160 parishes. Martone acknowledged keeping that number is unsustainable.
Even more recommendations for church closures and mergers have come in the past two days, with 24 announced across Chautauqua, Cattaraugus, Genesee, and Wyoming counties, part of the effort to reduce the number of churches to 106, a decrease of 34%.
Among the many issues diocese officials say they are facing is a priest shortage. According to Martone, the diocese currently has 115 priests, with that number expected to go down to 70 by 2030 and to 38 by 2040.
“We are constrained by the number of priests,” Martone said, with the diocese expecting to ordain only one new priest this year and no more to be ordained for another two years. Even priests that have retired are helping out with Masses.
Other reasons for the parish restructurings are the diocese’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, occurring in the wake of its sex abuse scandals and subsequent lawsuits filed under New York’s Child Victims Act, and the overall decline in mass attendance. The proceeds from selling church properties, after covering diocese expenses, will go towards settlements for those abused by priests.
For the proposed changes among Family #34, encompassing the Lower Niagara River communities, the recommendations came from a Niagara/Orleans vicarage meeting in Ransomville this past Monday. That meeting also recommended changes for other parishes in the two counties.
St. Peter’s in Lewiston would merge with St. Raphael’s in Niagara Falls, with that Macklem Avenue property planned to be sold. Immaculate Conception church in Ransomville would also change families from #10, based around Lockport, to Family #34, based around the Lower Niagara River communities. This family expects to only have one priest servicing these churches and St. Bernard in Youngstown by 2030.
Martone said the families felt Immaculate Conception’s switch would be a more logical connection of parishes.
“A lot of these decisions are location dependent” Martone added, with the Lower River Communities expected to have only one priest by 2030. “We’re just making it practical for the priests to do masses.”
Other recommended changes the Buffalo Diocese announced this past week for Niagara and Orleans counties include:
• Merging St. John de LaSalle on Buffalo Avenue with St. Vincent de Paul on Military Road.
• Merging Divine Mercy on Niagara Street with St. Mary of the Cataract on Fourth Street.
• Closing Our Lady of Mount Carmel on Independence Avenue.
• Closing Our Lady of the Rosary worship site in Wilson.
• Merging All Saints on Church Street in Lockport with St. John the Baptist on Chestnut Street.
• Closing the St. Joseph’s campus in Lockport.
• Merging St. Jude the Apostle in North Tonawanda with Our Lady of Czestochowa.
• Closing the Good Shepherd campus in Pendleton.
• Merging St. Stephen in Middleport with Holy Trinity in Medina.
• Merging St. Mark in Kendal with St. Mary’s in Holley.
The impacted parishes have until July 15, when the next list of changes will come out, to either accept the changes or offer alternatives. If one church closure is not accepted, another such closure would have to be proposed.
The diocese will then work through these proposals before the final recommendations are released on Sept. 1.