BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Buffalo Diocese is in financial trouble, and it’s relying on more than prayer to get out of it.
On Tuesday, the diocese announced plans to merge 34% of its 160 parishes over the next year as part of its “Road to Renewal” program.
It comes amid record-low attendance numbers, an ongoing priest shortage and the church’s financial troubles, stemming from 900 alleged cases of sexual abuse. Diocese employees estimate that the abuse cases will amount to a $100 million-dollar settlement.
“We are not the church we were 40 years ago, 20 years ago, 10 years ago, let alone five years ago,” said Bryan Zielenieski, Vicar of Renewal and Development. “We are a changing entity.”
Buffalo is just the latest to make a move of this sort nationwide, joining other cities like Cincinnati, Columbus and Baltimore to also announce significant mergers in recent years due to financial hardships.
However, when the hardships began years ago, the Diocese of Buffalo originally said it would not close any churches.
“One of the first things that was mentioned is that the renewal was not about closing parishes,” Zielenieski said. “Circumstances have changed. We shouldn't have said that the way we did when we started the process.”
The diocese has not yet released a list of which parishes are merging, but said parishes will have the chance to contest any decision before they are final and make a case for why they should or should not merge.
“We might not know all the circumstances and factors that every parish community has before them,” Zielenieski said.
But both the churches that do merge and the ones that don’t will still be expected to contribute.
“All of our parishes, all of our entities, we are going to need to participate in order for us to emerge from Chapter 11,” Bishop Michael Fisher said.
Fisher would not reveal how much it will take from each.
A final list of these mergers will be made public by Sept. 1, and the closures are expected to take place between October and June.
Related Video: