Six months from now the Buffalo Catholic Diocese will look much different with dozens of churches set to close or merge by June.
This is part of what the bankrupt diocese calls its Road to Renewal plan, but parishioners across our region continue to ask us to elevate their voices against these changes.
WKBWI met with two parishioners at Sacred Heart Church in Bowmansville, giving a voice to their concerns for the future of their church.
“We didn’t make this mess. We can’t fix it,” said Julie Monheim who is a parishioner at Sacred Heart Church.
Many parishioners across the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo remain uncertain about the future of their churches and Monheim is one of them.
WKBWMonheim told me she doesn’t want to “criticize the diocese” but recently learned her church is now on a “watch list.”
“And this watch list gives us a criteria for us to fulfill, in order to remain, what? I’m not sure, to remain open or to continue having Masses. I don’t really know what the answer to that is,” Monheim explained.