15 Buffalo parishes to merge with other churches as diocesan restructuring begins (2024)

Nearly half of the 32 Catholic parishes in Buffalo will be merged into other parishes under a plan proposed Thursday by Buffalo Diocese officials.

The 14 churches slated to close under recommendations made to clergy and lay leaders of city parishes are:

• St. Mark, 401 Woodward Ave.

• Holy Spirit, 91 Dakota St.

• St. Michael, 651 Washington St.

• St. Martin of Tours, 1140 Abbott Road.

• St. Thomas Aquinas, 450 Abbott Road.

• St. Rose of Lima, 500 Parker Ave.

• SS. Columba-Brigid, 75 Hickory St.

• Our Lady of Perpetual Help, 115 O'Connell Ave.

• Coronation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 348 Dewitt St.

• St. John Kanty, 101 Swinburne St.

• St. Bernard, 414 S. Ogden St.

• All Saints, 127 Chadduck Ave.

• St. Lawrence, 1520 East Delavan Ave.

• St. John Gualbert, 83 Gualbert Ave.

The Rev. Bryan Zielenieski, vicar for renewal for the diocese, unveiled the recommendations at a meeting inside Mother Cabrini Social Center at St. Anthony of Padua, a week after diocese officials announced that across the eight-county diocese more than 50 parishes will need to be merged and 75 churches and worship sites closed, as part of efforts to better align its properties with a shrinking population of Catholics and a diminishing number of priests.

St. Mark School will remain, according to the recommendations, which covered only the parishes located within the city, plus St. John Gualbert in Cheektowaga near the Buffalo border.

An estimated 100 people, including priests, deacons and parish trustees, attended Thursday’s meeting.

Zielenieski said a handful of church buildings proposed to remain open will be put on a "watchlist" and re-examined in about a year, including St. Casimir, 160 Cable St., in Kaisertown and Holy Cross, 345 Seventh St., on the West Side.

Bishop Michael W. 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.

“No decision will be easy, and every decision will be painful. We do not take this lightly,” Fisher said in a video recording about the restructuring process that’s posted on the diocese’s website.

Fisher said the downsizings were necessary to keep the diocese “viable and vibrant for the future.”

Families of parishes will have an opportunity to review the diocese’s recommendations and either agree with them or propose other possibilities for consideration by July 15. Final plans will be announced by Sept. 1.

Diocese officials are set to meet Friday with priests, deacons and lay leaders from parishes in northern Erie County, including the towns of Tonawanda, Amherst and Clarence. And four more meetings are scheduled next week with representatives of parishes in southern Erie County, Niagara County and Genesee and Wyoming counties.

The diocese has 115 diocesan priests available to staff parishes. That number will decline to 70 by 2030 and to 38 by 2040, according to diocese projections.

At the same time, nearly three out of every five parishes in the diocese reported a negative net operating balance, with many parishes spending significant portions of their funds on building maintenance.

Diocese officials also said that nearly half of parishes are reporting fewer registered households; baptisms declined steadily at 59% of parishes; and marriages in Catholic churches were down by a quarter between 2020 and 2023.

Also looming for the diocese and its parishes is a potentially massive bankruptcy court settlement with 900 claimants who say they were sexually abused as children by priests and other diocese officials. The diocese has said it is prepared to offer $100 million toward settling the claims.

The restructuring discussed last week followed a small flurry of church closures announced earlier this year, when three parishes were deemed financially insolvent and lacking enough relevant sacramental ministry to continue. An elementary school run by one of the insolvent parishes, St. Andrew Church in the Town of Tonawanda, also is closing. St. Andrew parish will celebrate a closing Mass on June 30. A final Mass also has been set for Aug. 10 at St. Lawrence Church on East Delavan Avenue. The closure of All Saints in Buffalo’s Riverside section also was made public a few months ago.

The diocese also has put its headquarters on Main Street on the market for $9.8 million, along with Christ the King Seminary in the Town of Aurora and the Buffalo State Newman Center on Elmwood Avenue.

As part of a process known as “Road to Renewal,” the diocese in 2022 began grouping 160 parishes into 36 families as a way to better distribute a limited number of clergy.