Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The groundwork has been laid out for the Buffalo Catholic Diocese to move forward with its "Road to Renewal" plan.
After several weeks of comprehensive and collaborative planning involving clergy and laity across its eight-county region, the Diocese of Buffalo announced on Tuesday its plan to reshape its parishes and worship sites across Western New York.
The Diocese currently has a total of 196 worship sites that include 160 parishes and 36 secondary worship sites. Under the framework established in the "Road to Renewal" plan, the Diocese will see 81 parishes either close or merge, while adding three more secondary worship sites to be left with 79 parishes and 39 secondary worship sites.
This all comes as part of an upcoming merger/closure process over the coming months across the region.
Related
"The Diocese of Buffalo, like diocese across our nation and around the world, have had to deal with the very same harsh realities - the decline in church attendance, the decline of those pursuing a religious vocation to the ordained ministry, the rise of secularism and shifts away from the parish is that defining center of Catholic identity, and of course, the horrendous toll that the sexual abuse scandal by clergy and others has inflicted on parish life and the personal faith of so many, and most especially on those who have been forever harmed, body, soul and spirit, "said Bishop Michael Fisher during a press conference on Tuesday at the Buffalo Catholic Center downtown. "Without question. We could spend days discussing these factors in larger societal developments, and understanding how it is that we got to where we are today. But the fact is, for the Diocese to fulfill the spiritual and physical needs of the Catholic faithful, we must face these realities squarely without any illusion or false expectations that we have some kind of divine rescue plan. We call upon divine assistance in all that we do."
Bishop Fisher says the "Road to Renewal" plan has been about reinvigorating Catholic faith, optimizing parish and diocesan resources, and increasing the impact of varied ministries across Western New York.
"The ultimate goal is for all parish families to be, and remain vibrant communities of faith focused on their evangelizing mission and always serving those in need. I believe we have developed a blueprint that will now enable us to better fulfill that ongoing mission and work," Bishop Fisher added.
In meetings held with the Vicarates between Aug. 12 and Aug. 22, 52 counter proposals were presented from 30 Families of Parishes to a diocesan review team, which resulted in changes to 26 of the 36 Families of Parishes’ initial recommendations proposed in June.
Meanwhile, six of the Families of Parishes accepted the initial recommendations.
Among the highlights of some of those 26 changes in the initial June recommendations include:
- In Family No. 20 in North Buffalo, the initial recommendation was proposed to have two parishes - Assumption Parish and St. Margaret Parish. In the final decision, Assumption Parish and St. Mark Parish will remain open, with St. Margaret to be used as a secondary worship site.
- In Family No. 12 in Batavia, the initial recommendation was proposed to keep open both Resurrection and Ascension Parishes. Following the counter proposal meeting, the final decision changed to merge Ascension Parish with Resurrection Parish, and have St. Maximillian Kolbe Parish in Family No. 13 join Family 12, and serve as a secondary worship site.
- In Family No. 3 in the Dunkirk/Fredonia area, the initial recommendation was to have Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Silver Creek and Holy Trinity, Dunkirk, as the remaining parishes serving the area. In the final decision, Our Lady of Mount Carmel and Holy Trinity will remain, but St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, Dunkirk, will be included as a secondary worship site.
"We knew data, we knew statistics, we knew locations, but the counter proposals really filled in the lines for us on a lot of things," said Rev. Bryan Zielenieski, Vicar for Renewal and Development, who leads the Road to Renewal effort in Buffalo. "When we looked at some information about sites that maybe we weren't fully aware of - ministry, ministerial needs in specific families of parishes, something with a school that we needed to learn more about, how [a] family needs to adapt what the initial recommendations were - we took those very seriously moving forward, because it's coming from the people themselves. Now, obviously you can't make everyone happy in that counterproposal process, and so the team, along with the bishop, had to weigh that out based on our data, based on the information, new information that was presented. How do you balance that so that the community feels heard, making sure that we've taken that into consideration, and then craft the decision from that?"
The Families of Parishes will now work to decide the timeline for mergers/closures within their respective families. That work is expected to begin soon with the merger/closure process to be concluded by Pentecost in June 2025.