Seven more Catholic church closures recommended, this time for northern Niagara and Orleans counties (2024)

Buffalo Diocese officials on Monday recommended the closure of seven churches in Niagara Falls, Lockport and other parts of northern Niagara and Orleans counties – the latest wave of announcements aimed at reducing a footprint of buildings that’s too large for a shrinking local Catholic population to support.

The proposed closings, unveiled at Immaculate Conception Church in Ransomville in a meeting with clergy and leaders of 16 parishes, would bring the total number of worship sites recommended so far to close to 39, with more closings expected to be announced Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in other areas of the eight-county diocese.

The closure recommendations for the Niagara/Orleans Vicariate were:

• All Saints, 76 Church St., Lockport

• St. Stephen, 19 Vernon St., Middleport

• St. Mark, 16789 Kenmore Road, Kendall

• St. Raphael Parish (St. Teresa of the Infant Jesus Church), 3840 Macklem Ave., Niagara Falls

• St. John de LaSalle, 8477 Buffalo Ave., Niagara Falls

• Divine Mercy, 335 24th St., Niagara Falls

• Our Lady of the Rosary, 359 Lake St., Wilson

Parish communities in those churches will be merged into nearby parishes, as diocese planners try to reshape the area’s makeup of congregations to face a future with an aging membership and far fewer priests. For example, St. Raphael in Niagara Falls is recommended to merge with St. Peter in Lewiston, while St. Stephen in Middleport would merge with Holy Trinity in Medina.

It’s the most sweeping restructuring in the diocese since a plan known as “Journey in Faith & Grace” was launched in 2007 and resulted in the merger of about 100 parishes and closing of more than 70 worship sites. Diocese officials have said repeatedly that the recommendations are not set in stone, and families of parishes will have an opportunity propose other possibilities for consideration by mid-July. Final plans will be announced by Sept. 1, with mergers and closures anticipated to be completed by 2025.

Parishioners already have started pushing back against some of the recommendations, such as the controversial proposals that would keep two successful parish schools in operation at their current sites in Buffalo and Amherst but close the churches, St. Mark and St. Benedict, so that they could be used more for school purposes. St. Mark parish would be merged into St. Margaret parish and use the church on Hertel Avenue, while St. Benedict would be merged into St. Leo parish and use the church on Sweet Home Road, according to recommendations for Buffalo and Northern Erie County parishes that emerged last week.

Diocese officials have been examining data from all 160 parishes, including three-year averages of registered households, contributing households, net operating balance trends and four-year averages of numbers of sacraments performed. They’ve also looked at property conditions and geographic locations in making their determinations. Bishop Michael W. Fisher and other diocese leaders announced on May 28 the possibility of merging 54 parishes and shuttering 75 churches and worship sites, and the Rev. Bryan Zielenieski, vicar for renewal and development for the diocese, has been meeting with groups of clergy and parish trustees since June 3 to spell out more of the details.

Zielenieski met first in Olean and recommended closing eight churches and worship sites in the Southern Tier East vicariate, which includes parts of Allegany and Cattaraugus counties. He then announced proposals for 14 church closings in Buffalo and 10 closures of suburban churches in northern Erie and southern Niagara counties.

The diocese has 115 diocesan priests available to staff 160 parishes 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 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, with as much as half of them coming from parishes and schools that would join in the settlement to ward off their own lawsuits.

The Rev. Mark Noonan, who leads a family of five parishes in Niagara and Orleans counties, said those congregations having been working together for months to grow and create new energy in the face of a downsizing of properties. He will now lead efforts either to implement recommendations to close two worship sites or to present an alternative to the diocese

"We know that there's sacrifice that will need to be made and we're prepared to do that," Noonan said at a news conference in May with Fisher and Zielenieski announcing the diocese's plans for a restructuring.

"Sometimes having too many buildings and properties, some of which are unused even, can soak up a lot of time and resources and energy, which are limited. ... It can limit our ability to focus on other things, like our mission and growth, where we need to grow more."