Photo by Howard Owens
Still hopeful that there’s a way to save Ascension Parish from closing next month, Connie Bruggman worked this week to correlate the nearly 250 affidavits from members to prepare for an appeal to the Diocese of Buffalo.
“I'm correlating all these affidavits now; they want them in chronological order, and I put them all alphabetically, thinking that will probably be the way to do it. And we have to have three copies of each, so we have, it's close to 250, so I just finally got them all copied. They have to go in with the appeal. We're hoping to have it going by Friday because it has to be within ten days that it’s filed with the diocese,” she said Monday, a day after learning about the Diocese’s decree to close Ascension on Nov. 22. “We’re hoping that our appeal will be taken and that we will be saved, is what we're hoping for. So, it's happened in other states that have had this issue, and the appeal has gone through. So we're hoping that it will show that we are willing to take care of our church and fund it, you know, use it and take care of it.”
She’s been collecting signed affidavits as part of a core group of members, Friends Ascension, working to fight the Road to Renewal plan to close and merge Ascension into Resurrection Parish. The affidavits, also called procurator mandates, are still being collected until Friday. They may be obtained at the group’s social media page.
After a decree was read in church this past Sunday, the group posted the letter with the statement:
“At the close of Mass today a letter was read pertaining to the future of Ascension Parish. This letter was to be made public. The feeling was one of sadness and grief that was felt throughout the church as parishioners exited. Our resolve is to not give up and an appeal will be submitted. Please continue to pray and support us as we work together to keep Ascension Parish open.”
A group from St. Brigid’s Parish in Bergen is following a similar process of appeal since that parish is also facing closure and merge with Our Lady of Mercy in Le Roy.
The Batavian contacted St. Brigid’s office in an attempt to talk to someone about that appeal effort; however, the message was conveyed to Father Scott, who returned the call.
He emphasized that “no priest wants to do this” to a church family.
“And seeing the people that they care about hurting,” he said. “You know, it’s a very difficult process for everybody, and yet they seem to think that the Diocese is somehow enjoying this or something. They make it sound as though it’s a vicious attack against them. And while it may seem that way, no bishop or priest is interested in doing these things, it’s not something that we want.”
If the bishop does not reverse the decision to close, the parish can then file an appeal to the Vatican, he said, which is “delaying the closure, but may not save it” from eventually being closed. In fact, if the Diocese follows the process correctly, “the Vatican is going to respect the decision of the bishop to keep things closed,” he said.
“And just because it’s appealed doesn’t mean that it’s going to work, and they’re going to keep the church open. I think that that’s something that a lot of people don’t quite understand, is you’re asking them to look at the process, and if there was a problem with the process, sure, you keep the church open, but the Diocese could reinitiate that process, correcting what they did wrong,” he said. “So it’s delaying the closure, but it may not save the church from closing eventually, I think.”
He cited the lower number of sacraments—no first communions in 2023—given at Ascension Parish or St. Brigid’s versus other more robust sites, including 25 at Resurrection in Batavia, and that 75% of St. Brigid’s congregation is an older community of age 66 and up, with no weddings since 2017.
He said it’s not just a matter of selling the building for money or the lack of priests but also about the low number of sacraments performed at the sites chosen to be closed. The Diocese has also apparently considered getting the most bang for its buck.
“We’re supposed to be splitting expenses, and St. Brigid’s pays 18% of the secretary's salary, 18% of the bookkeeper's salary and 20% of the priest’s salary. But by rights, they should be paying 50%, but if they were paying more than 18 or 20%, they wouldn’t have enough money to pay their bills.”
Ascension has reported a healthy savings account of $1 million, and Friends of Ascension is urging parishioners to continue supporting the parish through attendance, volunteer efforts and donations.
Despite those reasons that Father Scott cited for closure, that’s not what is on the minds and hearts of faithful Ascension members, such as former trustee Bill Brach. And he’s not giving up.
“You’ve always gotta hope,” Brach said, adding that he’s encouraged by the history of other parishes that have filed appeals from around the country, and input from the Save Our Buffalo Churches group that has been providing advice and information.
In its communication this past Sunday, the Diocese filled four pages with “the facts” about Ascension Parish being born of the journey of faith and grace on April 1, 2008, and then becoming part of Family #12 on the Road to Renewal, via the Diocese’s direction, in September 2022.
“The Road to Renewal has allowed the diocese to gain a more realistic picture of the financial and sacramental situations in its parishes. Ascension Parish has been identified as a community that could benefit from being joined by its sister community in Batavia. Additionally, due to our need to amass a substantial sum of money to settle numerous civil claims in Federal Bankruptcy Court, the possibility of alienating this property has also been suggested,” Father Michael Fisher said in the letter.
“THE ARGUMENT: The reshaping of the diocese to prepare it for more effective ministry in the future requires a certain consolidation of resources. The goal of the Road to Renewal is to reduce the strain on our already limited number of priests while at the same time uniting communities to foster a greater drive to ‘go out to all the world and preach the Gospel to all creation’ (Mk 16:15). Part of this process requires the merging of parishes and the overall reduction of physical worship sites throughout the diocese,” Fisher stated. “Looking at Ascension Parish in particular, the research and consultation done by the Office for Renewal and Development has revealed that this community would be better served by joining its resources to Resurrection Parish in an extinctive merger.
“On 27 August 2024, the presbyteral council met at the Catholic Center of the Diocese of Buffalo. At this meeting, I consulted the council about the possibility of merging Ascension Parish into Resurrection Parish, Batavia. Rev. Zielenieski pointed out that there would likely only be three available priests (1 Diocesan and 2 Mercedarians) serving in Family #12 by 2030. Resurrection Parish was also considered to absorb the territory of other nearby parishes so as to centralize pastoral ministry and increase efforts for evangelization. This proposal received nearly unanimous support from the members of the Presbyteral Council present on 27 August.
“Having heard the Presbyteral Council on this issue, I have chosen to merge Ascension Parish into Resurrection Parish in accord with canon 515 §2. Thus, having done the requisite consultations and having gained the required consents, I, the undersigned Most Reverend Michael W. Fisher, Bishop of Buffalo, exercising my ordinary power in virtue of canon 515 82, do hereby decree that Ascension Parish, Batavia be merged into Resurrection Parish, Batavia and Ascension to be extinct thereby.”
Resurrection Parish will be the recipient of Ascension Parish's net assets and liabilities, he said in the letter. The territorial boundaries of Resurrection Parish will include the entire city and town of Batavia east of Kelsey Road and Wortendyke Road and that part of the Township of Stafford that is north of Route 5 and west of Byron-Stafford Road.
“The intentions of the founders and donors regarding the temporal goods and patrimonial rights proper to the extinct Ascension Parish, insofar as they exist, must be respected. In addition, the temporal goods and patrimonial rights, and obligations of the extinct Resurrection Parish must be defined and allocated according to the norm of law,” he said.
Brach read and tried to decipher the letter, but he couldn’t determine exactly how the Diocese arrived at its decision.
“They didn’t come out with a real reason. It says right in Canon law you can’t close a church because of lack of clergy,” he said, also referring to the federal bankruptcy court. “Well, you know, we've got this chapter 11 bankruptcy thing going, that's like, you know, that's not my chapter 11 bankruptcy, that's your chapter 11 bankruptcy. So, yeah, they really didn't give solid reasons why they want to close the church. There’s a lot of smoke and mirrors, but there’s not a lot of substance.”
There’s a process of three different appeals that takes it from a local level to another notch up the chain of command, with the final appeal to the Vatican.
It’s certainly worth the time and effort, he said.
“I don’t think it’s hopeless,” he said. “I think the Diocese has shown enough mismanagement that the appeal will go through.”
He cited Father Scott’s forewarning that ‘you’re going to waste your money’ by hiring an attorney to file an appeal to the Vatican when and if necessary, but Brach’s research has shown some areas of the country, such as in the Diocese of Cleveland, where almost every parish that went through an appeal process won, he said.
After the Vatican reversed the closures of 13 churches in the Diocese of Cleveland, Bob Kloos, vice president of Endangered Catholics, characterized the reversals as "the most stunning" actions in Catholic American history,” according to an online article for Sojourners.
"It's incredible," Kloos said. "Rome is saying to this bishop and to all the bishops: 'You can't close churches just because you don't have the money or the staff.' Budgetary constraints can't be used to suppress parishes."
That’s what Brach and Friends of Ascension are counting on. He questioned why the parish was given Nov. 22, a Friday, as the closing date. Father Scott explained that it’s the last day of the liturgical year before the first Sunday of Advent and that a new liturgical year begins.
Given that appeals will be filed, there may be delays, but Father Scott said whenever the final service takes place, it won’t be ordinary. It will be a time of “celebration” of that particular parish's history and meaning and “emphasize the impact” it has on the community. Parish members are likely to disagree with the celebration component.
As for the property of Ascension and Sacred Heart Church, about four statues have been returned from St. Joseph’s, including the black Madonna, Bruggman said. Parish members had questioned clergy about statues having been removed during a meeting in September, and the items have since been returned.
For the full Diocese letter, go to Friends of Ascension.
