Parishioners speak out about mergers in the Diocese of Buffalo

JAMESTOWN, N.Y. — It was morning Mass Wednesday at St. John’s Catholic Church in Jamestown, where parishioners like Gregory Worrell have been going for 40 years.

“It represents community to me,” Worrell said. “You make a lot of connections with people who share the same faith.”

That faith is being tested after a slight detour in the diocese’s path to renewal, where leaders announced Tuesday that they will resize and remodel a number of parishes, meaning some will merge and others will close .

“It will be sad for a lot of people,” Worrell said.

People like Valerie Scarpino, married in St. John’s, her children were baptized there and her daughter walked down the aisle in October.

Although the list of affected parishes has not been published, she says the process could eventually strengthen the Church, but this remains difficult to predict.

“Every church is very important to the people who attend it. They have a heritage, they have sacraments. It would be very difficult for these people to see a church close,” Scarpino said.

Like Mary Dominick, who has been going to church for over 70 years, went to Catholic school and her mother is a teacher at a Catholic school.

She tries, like others, to understand what the diocese is going through, but remains sad.

“Some churches are having to close. They are so important to so many people. People think of this church or that church as the place where I was baptized, where I made my first communion, where I got married.” , Dominick said.

“The identity of their country is not the building, but the people. It’s going to be a difficult adjustment,” the father said. Todd Remick, Vicar Forane, Diocese of Buffalo.

Church leaders like Remick cite financial difficulties related to the Chapter 11 filing, priest shortages and declining mass attendance as some of the reasons other changes are needed, in addition to the group’s recently formed parishes that already share resources.

“We need to stand together as a community and recognize that we are more than just buildings, we are God’s people,” Remick said.

Like Worrell, who trusts the members of his community.

“They’ll adapt. And they’ll also just go to the next available parish. They’ll get through it,” Worrell said.

Diocese leaders say final decisions will be announced between August 15 and September 1.