Rightsize and Reshape Recommendations

June 7, 2024

Dear Catholic Community of Buffalo, North,

As you already know, the Diocese of Buffalo announced on Tuesday, May 28th a plan to merge approximately 34 percent of the diocese’s 160 parishes. On Thursday, June 4th, the priests, deacons and trustees from all the families of parishes in the Buffalo Vicariate (region), met with the Diocese of Buffalo Renewal Team to discuss recommendations for the “Rightsize and Reshaping” plan for the Buffalo region including our Catholic Community of Buffalo, North (CCBN) Family.

We understand that these are major changes that we will all be going through together in a very short period of time and these recommendations may be very upsetting to process for many of us, if not all. Our Family of Parishes Leadership Team (Trustees and Clergy), in collaboration with our other Family of Parishes committees, will review the feedback you provide with the recommendations from the Diocese to make a decision on whether to sign off on the recommendations as is or develop a family-wide counterproposal. Any counter proposal must be submitted by July 15th. 

Projections are showing that by 2030, our family will be left with only one priest.

Based upon scoring and metrics, it is recommended that the family rightsize and reshape this family evaluating the following recommendations:

• St. Mark Parish is recommended to merge with St. Margaret. St. Mark school will remain open. The parish property will still house St. Mark school and adaptive reuse of the church and rectory for school purposes can now take place.
• St. Rose of Lima parish is recommended to merge with St. Margaret.
• The entire campus of St. Rose of Lima will be sold.
• All Saints is already in process of merging with Assumption.
• The entire campus of All Saints will be sold.
• Holy Spirit parish is recommended to merge with St. Margaret.
• The entire campus of Holy Spirit is to be sold.

Justification

1. St. Mark School is in need of additional room and the ability to expand services to utilize church and rectory space will allow the school to grow.
2. St. Mark Parish has a negative net operating balance and does not have the facilities to accommodate family activities.
3. The decision to merge St. Mark parish is also a strategic move to strengthen Catholic education in that area and move parish activities to St. Margaret.
4. St. Rose of Lima parish has negative registered and contributing household trends. The location of this parish is not convenient as it is located off the main streets of North Buffalo in a neighborhood community.
5. For the projected number of priests to minister in this family, rightsizing the number of locations for administration is important and reflective of these decisions.
6. Holy Spirit merging with St. Margaret is a strategic move as their locations are so close to one another and the facility at Holy Spirit is not handicap accessible. Faith formation and central offices can be located between the properties of Assumption and St. Margaret.

A formal process for collecting your feedback is being developed as we work toward evaluating the recommendation. As more information becomes available, we will continue to keep you all informed. In the meantime, feel free to reach out with any questions, concerns, feedback or suggestions. Inquiries can be emailed to [email protected] or call any of our offices.

May God Bless You All,