BUFFALO (NY)
Video News Service [Batavia NY]
July 13, 2025
After their only scheduled mass of the week at noon on Sunday, members of Ascension Parish battled the high heat and rolling thunder in the distance to attend a meeting for all parishioners at the Polish Falcons Pavilion in their parking lot.
Former Ascension Parish Trustee, Bill Brach, and Mary Pruski, a volunteer at Save Our Buffalo Churches, brought the large group in attendance up to date on what has been happening since last September.
Since being removed as Trustee of Ascension Parish by the Buffalo Diocese last October, Brach and his wife Nancy along with several others have helped organize and prepare appeals to prevent the closing of their church on Sumner and Swan streets in the City of Batavia. The announcement for closure was made by the Buffalo Diocese last September.
The group has since opened a 501(C)(3), created a Facebook page called Friends of Ascension, Link to Facebook page (20+) Facebook and joined with the group Save Our Buffalo Churches, (20+) Save Our Buffalo Churches | Facebook which is assisting 30 parishes and 5,000 Catholics in the Buffalo area with appeals and dealing with Canon Law, which is the internal legal system within the Catholic Church.
“We have raised $12,619 and we currently have $8,434. We had cost for incorporating, insurance, a post office box and we have a few other expenses too, but we have a nice nest egg if we need to start getting a Canon lawyer or have any other expenses,” says Nancy Brach.
Ascension Parish received word that their appeal to prevent closure was accepted for review at the Vatican on April 7th.
Last month, a lot of Catholic churches were taken back when the Buffalo Diocese sent a letter requesting money from each of them to pay for the sexual abuse settlements.
Former Trustee Bill Brach says the Diocese sent a letter requesting 80% ($1.3million) of Ascension Parish’s unrestricted funds which is valued at $1.7 million in assets. Ascension Parish appealed the Buffalo Diocese Assessment request.
“On June 15th, we received a verbal notice after mass that Ascension Parish was expected to pay 80% of its non-restricted funds toward the sexual abuse settlement. The actual amount was kind of kind of foggy. They didn’t want to center in on anything for that,” says Brach.
“So, on June 17th, thanks to Save Our Buffalo Churches, we were prepared ahead of time to send an official appeal over to the Bishop regarding this assessment, which we did, and that was put in the mail on the 17th, and we’re supposed to be getting a response. I guess quite a few parishes have received responses already from the Bishop on this. We haven’t, for some reason, so that’s a little peculiar.”
During the Sunday meeting, Brach says the Diocese tried to obtain access to the unrestricted funds and change the original account set up, which is restricted so that no more than 4% can be taken out of the account per year.
“In fact, they’ve written three times. The diocese has communicated with our investment, people saying, oh, there was a mistake made how this account is set up. No, there’s no mistake made. So, this has gone back and forth three times. I think the last time was maybe I want to say in March that they corresponded from Buffalo, and it’s been silent since.”
The Diocese should be responding to the appeal this week, July 15th, as it has been 30 days since the request was made for 80% of the unrestricted funds, Brach says.
Until hearing from the Vatican, Ascension Parish is open.
The crowd on hand cheered when Brach announced they were not closing and were not paying the assessment.