Joe Schiro remembers a time when you could drive around the Niagara Street area of Niagara Falls and find at least half a dozen Roman Catholic churches with active parishes supported by dedicated and faithful church-goers.
“You had six churches in a nine-mile radius,” he said. “All those churches were full and the schools were full.”
Schiro, a parishioner at St. Mary of the Cataract on Fourth Street in the city, said it’s sad in many ways to see so many of those once-thriving church buildings now sitting empty and to know more Roman Catholic churches in the Falls may soon join them under a consolidation plan announced Monday by the Diocese of Buffalo.
Four churches in the Falls made the list of closures and consolidations. While the list has yet to be finalized, the diocese announced that it intends to close Our Our Lady of Mount Carmel on Independence Avenue. Other parishes would shut down as part of mergers as follows: St. John de LaSalle on Buffalo Avenue with St. Vincent de Paul on Military Road, Divine Mercy on Niagara Street with St. Mary of the Cataract on Fourth Street and St. Raphael on Macklem Avenue with St. Peter’s church on Center Street in Lewiston.
With the diocese facing a significant challenge in finding new priests and given the current state of its finances amid Chapter 11 bankruptcy and numerous lawsuits filed in the wake of the clergy sex abuse scandal, Schiro believes the restructuring, while difficult, is necessary. Ultimately, he hopes it will prove to be beneficial for the parishes that remain.
“It makes financial sense,” Schiro said. “They have to make the hard decisions and people don’t want to hear this. Am I sad to see this happen? Yes. But I’m not sad because it will strengthen these other churches with numbers.”
While buildings and parishes are important, Schiro said he thinks it’s more important for Catholics to remember what’s most important at times like these: Maintaining faith and supporting their church through these difficult times.
“I think people will adjust once the initial shock is over,” Schiro said. “If you are a Catholic and you believe in your faith, it’s just a building. You are going to pray anywhere. The masses are the same across the whole world. Nothing’s really changing but the location.”
Another change the diocese recommended was merging St. Raphael’s on Macklem Avenue with St. Peter’s on Center Street in Lewiston.
The listed justifications are that St. Raphael has a negative net operating balance, is located in an area that is accessible to other parishes, and would rightsize the area of this diocese church family, given that the church is located in Niagara Falls.
From St. Raphael, St. Peter’s is a 9-minute drive and St. Mary of the Cataract in downtown Niagara Falls is a 10-minute drive.
The St. Peter’s parish also encompasses St. Bernard’s church in Youngstown.
Representatives from St. Peter’s and Immaculate Conception churches did not wish to comment, with St. Raphael’s not returning requests for comment.
St. Peter’s Facebook page posted Monday night that along with merging these parishes, other recommendations for Family #34, which encompasses lower Niagara River communities, include the entire St. Raphael property being sold and taking in the transfer of the Immaculate Conception parish in Ransomville from the Central Niagara Catholic Family into the family. The diocese projects one active priest for this parish family by 2030.
The list of local Catholic churches to be closed as part of a recommended consolidation plan grew on Monday as the Diocese of Buffalo announced the addition of eight more sites, including six in Niagara County and two in Orleans County.
The updated plan also recommends in Lockport the closure of the St. Joseph campus on Market Street and the merger of All Saints on Church Street with St. John the Baptist on Chestnut Street. It also recommends St. Stephen in Middleport be merged with Holy Trinity in Medina and St. Mark in Kendall to merge with St. Mary’s in Holley.
The diocese also announced the closure of the Our Lady of the Rosary worship site in Wilson.
Additions to the parish closure and consolidation list followed last week’s announcement that the dioceses intended to close nine suburban churches in Erie County. The earlier closure list included one Niagara County parish, St. Jude the Apostle in North Tonawanda.
All of the potential closures are part of what the diocese calls its “Road to Renewal,” a plan for consolidating parishes and closing churches that was announced in 2019 amid declining church attendance and support as well as a decline in the number of available priests. The diocese has also filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy as part of a financial restructuring effort in the wake of the clergy sex abuse scandal that led to the filing of hundreds of lawsuits under New York’s Child Victims Act.
Dioceses officials said the actual number of parishes merged will not be determined until clergy and parish leadership have an opportunity to review the recommendations that have been proposed. According to the diocese, clergy and parish leadership may either agree with the recommendations or present an option for an alternative parish (or parishes) within their family for a merger. Those determinations will be made between Aug. 15 and Sept. 1, the diocese has said.
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