The protracted efforts of the Diocese of Buffalo to merge and close parishes while simultaneously assessing the parishes to raise money for the settlement of abuse claims are running on parallel tracks. Neither of those tracks, however, is a road to renewal.
The mergers and closing, the Diocese has said, are a necessity created by lower attendance at religious activities as well as the shrinking number of priests who are available to say mass. The former issue is the result of thousands of individual decisions of Catholics, particularly young people. The latter issue could be ameliorated to some degree by adjusting the manner of providing religious services.
Craig Speers, who has long been actively involved with parish efforts particularly at St. Michael’s in Buffalo, noted in a recent letter to Bishop Michael Fisher “that the diocese has access to many hundreds of deacons, nuns and Eucharistic ministers who can hold Eucharistic prayer services throughout the diocese in order to address the needs of the faithful, thus negating any alleged priestly shortage.” Such arrangements, of course, would require the leadership of the Diocese to accept that reality and act creatively. Such actions would come with some operational and maintenance expenses that the parishes would need to manage…