10 suburban Catholic churches in Erie, Niagara counties slated to be closed by Buffalo Diocese (2024)

Ten Catholic churches in northern Erie County and southern Niagara County would close under plans revealed Friday to clergy and lay leaders in those parishes.

The churches the Buffalo Diocese recommended to be shut down were:

• Infant of Prague, 921 Cleveland Drive, Cheektowaga

• St. Benedict, 1317 Eggert Road, Amherst

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

• St. Aloysius Gonzaga, 157 Cleveland Drive, Cheektowaga

• Blessed Sacrament, 263 Claremont Ave., Town of Tonawanda

• St. Francis of Assisi, 73 Adam St., City of Tonawanda

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

• St. Jude the Apostle, 800 Niagara Falls Blvd., North Tonawanda

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

• Our Lady of Peace,10950 Main St., Clarence

The closure of St. Andrew Church and School already had been announced in February, but the other proposed closings were made public for the first time on Friday. Also recommended for closure is St. Augustine, a secondary worship site that's affiliated with Good Shepherd Church in Pendleton.

Parish communities in the churches recommended for closure would be merged into other parishes where churches remained open.

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

"Church is about faith, not buildings and that's what our focus has to be," Hejaily said.

SS. Peter & Paul will remain open under the recommendations and take in parishioners from Infant of Prague. Also staying open is St. Benedict School, which will continue to operate at its Eggert Road campus. Aside from St. Andrew School, other elementary schools in the Northern Erie Vicariate also will be open for the 2024-25 academic year.

Diocese officials said last week that more than 50 parishes across eight counties will need to be merged and as many as 75 churches and worship sites closed to get diocesan infrastructure back in line with a smaller priesthood and a population of Catholics that’s shrinking, not attending Masses as frequently and donating less.

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

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

Plans for closures in Buffalo, where two dozen parishes were merged between 2007 and 2011 as part of a previous downsizing known as "Journey in Faith & Grace," drew a swift outcry from many parishioners.

Bishop Michael W. Fisher has urged Catholics to understand that today's diocese is no longer the same as the one from 30 or 20 or even 10 years ago, and the vastness of parish buildings and properties isn't sustainable.

"While we may feel emotionally attached to a specific church building, it is Jesus we worship," he said in a video recording posted to the diocese website. "It is important to remember that you don't go to church, you are the church. You and me, we the Catholic people. We, together, are the church."

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

And the diocese is still struggling with fallout from a clergy sex abuse scandal that prompted hundreds of Child Victims Act lawsuits and the ensuing bankruptcy.

But even without the abuse scandal and bankruptcy, the diocese and its parishes were facing difficulties attracting and keeping members amid a growing disinterest nationwide in organized religion.

“This is a necessary step that we have to get through. People who are surprised by this announcement, I don’t know where they’ve been for the past five to 10 years,” said Joseph Emminger, Town of Tonawanda supervisor.

Emminger said the diocese’s priest shortage has been well publicized and will get worse before it gets better.

“When they say there’s going to be 38 or 40 priests in the next 15, 20 years, there’s going to be more closures after this. This is not the end of it. It’s simple math,” 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 in number – than having all these buildings and all these expenses and not having the people to support it,” he said.