BUFFALO (NY)
Buffalo News [Buffalo NY]
December 31, 2024
By Jay Tokasz
Decrees issued by Bishop Michael W. Fisher to close or merge Catholic parishes in Western New York make it clear that the sale of parish properties could help fund a settlement in bankruptcy court of hundreds of sex abuse claims against the Buffalo Diocese.
Diocese officials have been reluctant to spell out publicly how they intend to raise enough money in settling nearly 900 claims that accuse diocese priests and employees of abusing minors decades ago.
[PHOTO: “Additionally, due to our need to amass a substantial sum of money to settle numerous civil claims in Federal Bankruptcy Court,” a decree from Bishop Michael Fisher (above) reads, “the possibility of alienating this property has also been suggested.” – Derek Gee, Buffalo News]
But language in Fisher’s decrees indicates some parishes may have been tabbed for merger so that the proceeds from the sale of their church buildings can be used toward settling claims – just as some parishioners had surmised when the diocese first began announcing parish mergers in June.
A merger decree issued Dec. 17 for St. Benedict parish in Eggertsville, for example, notes that the diocese gained a “more realistic picture of the financial and sacramental situations” through a process known as “Road to Renewal” that grouped parishes throughout the diocese into “families.”
But the decree merging St. Benedict into St. Leo parish in Amherst also highlighted the diocese’s ongoing bankruptcy case, which will mark five years at the end of February and already is among the lengthiest diocesan Chapter 11 reorganizations in history.
Chief Judge Carl L. Bucki of U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of New York on Wednesday said he will consider adding a second mediator to help jump-start stalled settlement talks in the Buffalo Diocese Chapter 11 case.
“Additionally, due to our need to amass a substantial sum of money to settle numerous civil claims in Federal Bankruptcy Court,” the decree reads, “the possibility of alienating this property has also been suggested.”
Under Catholic canon law, alienating is selling or otherwise transferring ownership of a church for another purpose.
Even though St. Benedict Church was to remain open as a “secondary worship site” under the diocese’s current merger plan, leadership of the merged parish ultimately will decide whether that happens. The decree stipulates a merger date of May 19.
St. Benedict parishioners worry that the decree language leaves the door wide open for their church, located in a prime location at Main Street and Eggert Road, to be sold to the highest bidder, with proceeds from the sale, along with the parish’s considerable savings, being used toward a settlement fund.
The same language is in Fisher’s decree from Nov. 12 to merge St. Bernadette parish in Orchard Park into SS. Peter & Paul in Hamburg, effective May 1.
Cheryl Bentley said she’s prepared to testify in court about being sexually abused by a Catholic priest four decades ago.
The diocese owns several valuable properties, including a former seminary it recently sold for $4.2 million. Proceeds from those sales will be used toward settlement. Parishes are separately incorporated religious not-for-profit organizations, and the diocese does not own parish churches or other parish properties.
Still, under the current decree, St. Bernadette also would become a secondary worship site, at the discretion of the SS. Peter & Paul pastor and parish trustees, who answer to the bishop.
Parishioner Eugene Hanitz said it confirms what parishioners suspected from the moment St. Bernadette was first identified for closure: that the diocese views the property as valuable real estate it can sell for a healthy profit.
St. Bernadette has a healthy financial bottom line and is among the most vibrant and active parishes in the entire diocese, with 1,200 people attending weekend Masses and more than 50 parish ministries, said Hanitz, a member of the parish since 1981.
“The diocese is grasping at straws. It’s a land grab,” he said. “That is the only rationale that one can come up with to have plans to shut down St. Berandette’s and make it a secondary worship site.”
The closing of St. Michael Church, a fixture in downtown Buffalo, is being postponed while parishioners prepare a Vatican appeal of the Buffalo Diocese’s plan to merge the parish and sell the church.
Parishioner Bob O’Connor said Fisher’s decree was “a bunch of religious legalese designed to mask the fact that the Diocese of Buffalo, which hid the sins of so many priests for so many years, needs to sell off the valuable land upon which St. Bernadette’s sits.”
“It is, and always has been, about money,” he added.
Diocese officials have said that the marketability of properties was considered in their decisions on which churches to close, but it was not a primary factor.
The diocese announced final plans in September to reduce the number of Catholic churches in eight counties from 196 to 118 by June. Mergers would cut the number of parishes from 160 to 79.
The mergers and closings are necessary because of an intensifying priest shortage, declining Mass attendance and weakened finances in many parishes, according to diocese officials.
Monsignor Charles A. Klauder, who made St. John the Baptist Church in the Town of Tonawanda one of the largest parishes in Western New York, was quietly put on a list of clergy with “substantiated” claims of sexual abuse of children.
But the Chapter 11 bankruptcy case looms large, as well, as the diocese faces growing pressure to settle nearly 900 sex abuse claims. The diocese’s lawyers have said the diocese and its parishes can offer $100 million, with perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars more coming from insurers.
And yet, the diocese has just $31.7 million in cash, investments and other assets, not including real estate, according to financial statements filed with the bankruptcy court.
That means most of the funds will need to come from parishes.
Any funds from a parish merging into another must first be used to pay off existing debt, including anything owed to the diocese, such as regular parish assessments, Legacy Retirement Fund contribution and a “future assessment of a contribution to the Catholic Family’s portion of our Chapter 11 Federal Bankruptcy settlement,” Fisher said in a separate letter to Rev. James D. Ciupek that accompanied his decree for St. Bernadette.
Diocese officials have not detailed how much individual parishes will be required to contribute to a settlement fund, or what formula will be used.
The diocese so far has sent out about 37 merger decrees and 25 decrees to close church buildings, said spokesman Joseph Martone.
Parishioners of at least three churches – St. Michael in Buffalo, Ascension in Batavia, and St. Bernadette – have submitted formal appeals asking the Vatican to overturn Fisher’s decisions.
St. Bernadette shipped its appeal, accompanied by 1,100 parishioner signatures, on Dec. 23 to the Papal Nuncio’s office in Washington D.C. It is expected to arrive at the Vatican by Jan. 8, Hanitz said.
Parishioners started a separate non-profit corporation to raise money for any legal expenses connected with the appeal, he said.
- Jay Tokasz, Reporter