By Jay Tokasz
Buffalo News
February 20, 2008
http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/280529.html
Despite a minuscule chance of success, parishioners of St. Mary Catholic Church in Lockport and St. Adalbert in Buffalo have filed formal appeals to keep their churches open — and members of at least three other area parishes are seriously considering the tactic.
If history is any guide, the appealing Catholics are facing extremely long odds.
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| Parishioners of St. Adalbert Basilica in Buffalo filed an appeal last July, following Bishop Edward U. Kmiec’s announcement that the parish would merge with St. John Kanty. Photo by |
"Pretty close to zero," Charles Wilson said of the success rate of parish closure appeals.
Canon law offers little recourse for people seeking to save churches from closure, said Wilson, executive director of the St. Joseph Foundation, a nonprofit organization that represents lay people in ecclesiastical disputes.
"I wish that were not so," Wilson said. "It's the lay parishioners who are asked to pay the bills. Why shouldn't they have at least some say? I'm terribly sorry church law does not provide more protection for parishioners."
Until 1983, parishioners didn't have an avenue within church law to question a closing at all. Appeals by laity of a bishop's decision were made possible by a change in the Catholic Church's Code of Canon Law in 1983.
But Wilson and other experts could cite only a single instance since then in which a closing in the United States was overturned at the Vatican level. In 1992, the Vatican's supreme court, called the Apostolic Signatura, found that procedural errors had occurred when Cardinal Joseph Bernardin closed St. Rocco parish in Chicago in 1990.
Bernardin had not properly consulted with his council of priests prior to the closing. The parish was ordered to be restored.
The reversal was short-lived, however. Bernardin simply returned to consult with the priests council and closed the parish again.
"Basically, the best they can hope for, even if the Vatican sides with them, is a postponement of the inevitable," said the Rev. Thomas Reese, a Jesuit priest who has written several books about the Catholic hierarchy and the workings of the Vatican.
"The Vatican will only review the procedures used by the local bishop," Reese said. "They're only going to look at did he follow proper, canonical procedures?"
The Catholic Church has tens of thousands of parishes around the world, making Vatican officials reluctant to meddle in the decisions of local bishops who know their dioceses better.
"They cannot pass judgment on the viability of every parish that some bishop decides to close," said Reese.
St. Mary parishioners have been advised by their canon lawyer, Philip C.L. Gray of Hopedale, Ohio, not to discuss the appeal, and Gray did not return telephone calls to comment.
Three other Lockport-area parishes involved in the merger came together as one two weeks ago, but St. Mary will continue as it is while the appeal is being considered, diocesan officials said.
"The diocese has no desire to antagonize anyone in this," said Sister Regina Murphy, diocesan director of research and planning and a member of the strategic planning commission that is overseeing Journey in Faith & Grace, the diocesan restructuring effort. "They have a canonical right, which we acknowledge and respect."
An appeal begins after a bishop has issued a written decree of parish suppression. Affected parishioners have 10 days from learning of the decree to appeal the closure, in writing, to the bishop, who then has 30 days to consider the appeal.
If the bishop doesn't change his mind, parishioners may proceed to the Vatican's Congregation for Clergy with their appeal.
In addition to St. Mary Church, parishioners at Holy Trinity and St. George in Niagara Falls and Transfiguration in Olean have indicated that they will consult or already have consulted canon lawyers about possible appeals.
"We have all of our papers ready to go, but we can't do anything until [the diocese] gives us a date [of closure]," said Susan Fox, a parishioner of Transfiguration parish, which is slated to merge with two other parishes in the Southern Tier. The diocese wants to turn the Transfiguration Church building into an oratory, where only special Masses would be held.
Fox knows an appeal is a long shot, but "you can't just give up," she said. "To have [the church] just sit there empty, when there are 350 families that want to attend it . . . Nobody can understand."
Parishioners of St. Adalbert filed an appeal in July 2007, following Bishop Edward U. Kmiec's announcement that the parish would merge with St. John Kanty.
The Vatican's Congregation for Clergy upheld the bishop's decision in December, with the diocese stating that merger plans will move forward.
But some of the appealing parishioners said that they planned to take their complaint to the Apostolic Signatura and that the diocese's statement was premature.
"We are still appealing, and despite what the diocese is saying . . . we are not closing at this point," said Stanley A. Kowalski Jr., a parish council member.
Kowalski accused the diocese of misleading area Catholics.
"With their misdirection, they're certainly confusing the issue . . . they're encouraging people to migrate away from the parish," he said.
Stymied by the Vatican appeal process, parishioners in the Diocese of Toledo, Ohio, and the Archdiocese of Boston turned to civil courts for relief. In Boston, cases ruled upon so far have been decided in favor of the archdiocese. The Toledo cases have yet to be ruled upon.
Civil courts, however, generally are reluctant to intervene in the internal affairs of religious organizations.
Contact: jtokasz@buffnews.com
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