Diocese to reduce WNY Catholic parishes by a third

‘The Diocese of Buffalo is facing multiple challenges including a significant priest shortage, declining Mass attendance, aging congregations and ongoing financial pressures brought about by our Chapter 11 filing.’ – Bishop Michael W. Fisher

Kimberly Stawicki took this photo in September 2023 of St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Medina reflected in the Canal Basin.

BUFFALO – The 8-county Diocese of Buffalo today announced a plan to reduce the number of parishes by 34 percent in the eight-county region, which includes Orleans.

Bishop Michael W. Fisher said the parish mergers follow a comprehensive and collaborative planning process through the Road to Renewal division.

“The Diocese of Buffalo is facing multiple challenges including a significant priest shortage, declining Mass attendance, aging congregations and ongoing financial pressures brought about by our Chapter 11 filing,” said Bishop Fisher. “This plan resulted from the lessons learned as we brought parishes together in the parish family model and determined rather quickly that scaling back the number of parishes would best allow us to use our limited resources to help reenergize a spiritual renewal in the diocese.”

The actual number of parishes merged will not be determined until clergy and parish leadership have an opportunity to review recommendations to be proposed. The priests may either agree with the recommendations, or present an option for an alternative parish (or parishes) within their family for merger, according to a news release from the Diocese. The decisions will be made between Aug. 15 and Sept. 1.

“These difficult changes associated with our renewal allow limited resources to be directed to the greatest needs in our community,” Bishop Fisher said. “The work of the Holy Spirit within our diocese and the support of the Western New York community has been an incredible blessing.”

The Road to Renewal groups the current 160 parishes into 36 Families of Parishes which were announced in December 2021.

Soon, pastors will be provided with detailed materials to lead consultations within their Family of Parishes. Once the parishes to be merged are identified and approved, the process to begin merging those identified parishes is expected to begin this fall, the Diocese said.

“To make the recommendations that will be presented to pastors, we examined parish demographics, sacramental participation, and financial support,” explained Rev. Bryan Zielenieski, Vicar for Renewal and Development, who leads the Road to Renewal effort. “We also looked at the variations of our urban, suburban and rural parishes because factors like poverty rates, availability of transportation, proximity and limited resources impact overall parish long-term vitality.”

Some of the grim data from the Diocese includes a 49 percent decline in registered households across the 8-county region, 59 percent of parishes with a negative net operating balance, 59 percent of parishes experiencing a steady decline in baptisms, 24 percent decrease in marriages from 2020 to 2023 in the Diocese, and the average age for priests is 76, with 63 percent of the priests between the ages of 65 and 70.