Diocese of Buffalo evaluating changes to parish closure/merger recommendations

The Diocese of Buffalo announced it is evaluating changes to its initial parish closure/merger recommendations after receiving counter proposals during meetings with families of parishes.

The diocese announced in May that it would be shutting down 34 percent of its parishes and 38 percent of its worship spaces as it looks to "right size and reshape."

Diocese of Buffalo is closing parishes; 34 percent of parishes will be merged in plan to 'reshape'

In June, the diocese released a list of parishes that were recommended to close/merge, which you can find here .

Over the last few weeks diocese leadership has been meeting with families of parishes who have been presenting counter proposals to its recommendations.

According to the diocese, it is now evaluating changes to its initial recommendations in 26 of its 36 families of parishes after receiving the counter-proposals.

As originally planned, the official list of recommendations was supposed to be released on September 1 but the diocese said since additional time is needed to evaluate changes the final announcements will not be made on September 1. Instead, they will be out later in the week or the week after.

"I appreciate the patience of our faithful as we work diligently to decide on the future number of parishes in the Diocese of Buffalo," Bishop Michael W. Fisher said.