Diocese of Buffalo plans efforts to ‘reshape’ its 160 parishes

Cheektowaga, New York (WBEN) – A plan is in place to merge a number of parishes in Western New York under the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo’s “Road to Renewal” program.

As Archbishop Michael Fisher and the Diocese of Buffalo announced Tuesday, following a comprehensive and collaborative planning process, a plan has been presented to priests of the Family of Parishes to merge approximately 34% of the diocese’s 160 parishes. .

According to the diocese, the actual number of merged parishes will not be determined until clergy and parish leaders have an opportunity to review the recommendations that will be proposed. These determinations will be made between August 16 and September 1, 2024.

The path to renewal in the diocese uses a collaborative model that grouped the current 160 parishes into 36 families of parishes, announced in December 2021. A first group of six families of parishes began shortly after the pilot phase.

When the Road to Renewal process began, Renewal staff contacted dioceses across the country and 67% of responding dioceses were implementing or had implemented a collaborative model in their diocese.

Parishes will soon receive detailed materials to conduct consultations within their family of parishes. Once the parishes to be merged have been identified and approved, the process of merging these identified parishes is expected to begin this fall.