BUFFALO, NY - In just two months, the Buffalo Roman Catholic Diocese is scheduled to close ten elementary schools. The Catholic Church hopes the plan will increase enrollment at the schools that will remain open.
But, there are still many questions and a lot of uncertainty about the plan, which has left the diocese in the position of attempting to answer those questions, while moving in a direction that's frustrating to many parishioners.
"As we've indicated, there's no change in the plan," said Bishop Richard Malone Tuesday.
This was also, the overall message Bishop Malone has been sending to families and priests of the Buffalo Diocese, about the plan to close the schools. The diocese hopes the plan increases average enrollment in Catholic schools that will remain open. On Monday, the Bishop invited all priests of the diocese to talk about the closings.
The diocese says out of the 380 active and retired priests in the diocese -- about 50 priests attended the meeting.
"Not just the pastors of the schools that are closing, but pastors of the schools that are going to grow now because of the influx of students and other priests who were just interested," Malone said.
Since the closure plan was announced, Bishop Malone says he's met with priests of the schools that are scheduled to close, and that, future meetings with school leaders will be held.
"That's something we're going to be doing periodically - not just about school closings. I'm going to have periodic open meetings, forums with the priests, so they can bring up all kinds of topics and I can bring up topics of concern to them," Malone said.
Still, some parishioners are trying to keep their schools open.
"They're taking away opportunities for parents to have their children educated in a Catholic school and that's the bottom line," said Mark Saltarelli, a parishioner, who has joined an appeal to keep the St. Francis of Assisi school open.
Families at three schools are appealing the decision to close their schools. Appeals have also been filed by families at St. Bernadette in Orchard Park and St. Mary of the Lake in Hamburg.
The Vatican is reviewing the appeals and could decide to allow the schools to stay open. There's no timetable on when the Vatican will respond to the appeals.
Families say the diocese's plan will cause transportation issues and force students who prefer a Catholic education to attend public schools.
