RAMSONVILLE, N.Y. (WKBW) — Another round of recommendations from the Buffalo Catholic Diocese took place Monday, on which churches may close or merge as it works to cut its total parishes by roughly 30%.
Monday night's meeting was held in Ransomville for the Niagara and Orleans family parishes.
While at Monday night's meeting, 7 News' Pheben Kassahun learned another seven churches may be on the chopping block.
She gave a voice to two sides involved in this complicated and sometimes controversial process.
You will get thoughts from one of the diocese officials leading this Road to Renewal plan and a parishioner who said it can be upsetting, to watch this all unfold.
"It's kind of disheartening to see the churches being closed. We feel like we're churchless. We have no church to go to," Albert Hornung of Niagara Falls said.
Hornung is a parishioner who came to the meeting but did not realize it was not open to parishioners.
After he was turned away, Kassahun was able to speak to him about his concerns.
"We bounce around to actually 2-3 different churches," said Hornung. "You feel like you always wanted to get up and go to church, see your priests, have mass, enjoy the day and now you don't know what church you want to go to."
Catholic Diocese of Buffalo Renewal Development Vicar Father Bryan Zielenieski shared what concerns he heard in the meeting, many saying they are worried about the church properties, what will happen to their facility, parishioners, those considered poor and marginalized and their food pantries.
"We used a lot of different metrics. So, we used metrics of contributing households, registered households versus the number of sacraments that are being made. We looked at the conditions of buildings. We looked at their infrastructure, can they house larger congregations, we looked at what are their demographics. Is the population in the area generally growing, shrinking, is it older, is it younger. We start looking at the proximity of the parish locations to one another. What is the maximum of numbers that we get to drive someone to get to church," Father Zielenieski said.
He added that getting smaller is imperative so that the diocese can better manage and focus on its mission.
"We're so focused on infrastructure and maintenance and facilities that we often times sacrifice the mission of who we are as a Catholic church. That's a generic statement. That's certainly not specific to all of our communities but we need to make sure that we are evangelizing, reaching out, letting people know why the church is still relevant today, helping to bring them the services that they need and outreach opportunities that are available," Father Zielenieski said.
Father Zielenieski emphasized that Catholic schools will remain open for the entire diocese for the 2024-2025 school year.
Here are the recommendations for Niagara/Orleans Vicariate:
Family #10
- St. John the Baptist, Lockport
- All Saints, Lockport – merge with St. John – close St. Joseph campus
- Immaculate Conception, Ransomville – move to Family #34
- St. Patrick, Barker – move to Family #10
- St. Brendan on the Lake, Newfane
- Our Lady of the Rosary worship site, Wilson
Family #11
- St. Stephen, Middleport – merge with Holy Trinity, Medina
- St. Mark, Kendall – merge with St. Mary’s, Holley
- St. Mary, Holley
- Holy Family, Albion
- Holy Trinity, Medina
Family #34
- St. Raphael, Niagara Falls – merge with St. Peter, Lewiston
- St. Peter, Lewiston
- Accept Immaculate Conception, Ransomville, into Family #34
Family #35
- Divine Mercy, Niagara Falls – merge with St. Mary of the Cataract
- St. John de LaSalle, Niagara Falls – merge with St. Vincent de Paul
- St. Vincent de Paul, Niagara Falls
- St. Mary of the Cataract, Niagara Falls
- Holy Family of Jesus Mary and Joseph, Niagara Falls – Our Lady of Mount Carmel site to close
