BUFFALO (NY)
Niagara Gazette [Niagara Falls NY]
June 28, 2025
By Robert Creenan
With the Buffalo Catholic Diocese reaching a $150 million settlement on its sexual abuse lawsuits in principle, churches are now expected to help pick up the tab.
The diocese earlier this month announced that all its parishes will have to pay as much as 80% of their reserve assets toward $80 million of the payment. It set a deadline of July 15 to collect the funds and will hold it in reserve until the federal bankruptcy court confirms it.
“As we have maintained throughout this protracted process, the participation of the entire Catholic family is necessary to bring to a close this painful chapter of our diocese and achieve a level of restitution that is owed to the many who have had to carry the tremendous burden of physical, emotional and spiritual harm of sexual abuse throughout their lives,” said Bishop Michael Fisher in a statement back on June 9.
The percentage varies from 10% for churches with assets of less than $250,000 to 75% for those with more than $3 million to 80% for parishes that the diocese plans to close or merge. The amount is based on each parish’s self-reported and unrestricted assets as of Aug. 31, 2024, the end of the last diocesan fiscal year.
Diocese communications director John Martone said that the deadline was set because they anticipate filing a plan with the bankruptcy court by this October. He also stated the diocese considers this as a contribution from parishes, not a tax.
For Our Lady of the Rosary in Wilson, which is now part of St. Brendan on the Lake in Newfane, the church will have to pay 65% of its reserves, $716,454 of roughly $1.1 million.
“That will place us in significant jeopardy,” parishioner Michael Moley said, those funds accumulating from years of donations and are meant for capital expenses. “We’ll have little more than $300,000 left to operate. If we have any capital problem, it would be depleted in a heartbeat.”
When the plan was revealed at a parish family meeting at All Saints in Lockport, Moley estimated there were 60 people in attendance up in arms over it.
“If we’re in crisis, the diocese is expecting us to use our own monies to get churches out of it, or go borrow money to pay off loans,” Moley said.
All Saints Parish in Lockport was assessed at that 80% rate due to it being one of 78 churches the diocese planned to either close or merge. Trustee Paul Reid did not disclose how much that 80% equated to.
“Since the parishes were not at the bargaining table when the deal was struck, many feel we’ve been sandbagged,” Reid said. He also feels the diocese cannot get all the requested funds by July 15 due to disagreements among parishes on how this should be handled.
All Saints has appealed to the Vatican to remain open and is one of three such Niagara County parishes the Dicastery for Clergy at the Vatican will review. If such an appeal is successful, they will be refunded the difference between that 80% assessment and the rate that would have been applied otherwise.
Among the amounts other Niagara County churches are expected to pay toward the settlement amounts, as the Buffalo News reported, include:
- St. Peter’s in Lewiston, $1.7 million
- St. Vincent DePaul in Niagara Falls, $526,622
- St. Jude the Apostle in North Tonawanda, $508,865
- St. John de LaSalle in Niagara Falls, $343,444
- Immaculate Conception in Ransomville, $100,000
- Our Lady of Czestochowa in North Tonawanda, $64,884
- Divine Mercy in Niagara Falls, $15,479
- Holy Family in Niagara Falls, $7,886
- St. Mary of the Cataract in Niagara Falls, $1,127
Other reported funding sources for the settlement include $10 million from Catholic affiliates like Catholic Charities, Catholic Cemeteries, and Our Lady of Victory Charities, $15 million in diocese central administration cash and investments, and $15 million in proceeds from selling diocese-owned properties.
Parishioners have made appeals to the bishop looking to change the decision and have contacted the Vatican for an intersession, claiming this plan violates canon law.
Save Our Buffalo Churches, which has helped parishes slated to close or merge appeal to the Vatican, has assisted churches in this process too, even writing to the state Attorney General’s office claiming the plan violates civil law.
While bishops do have a right to impose a moderate tax on parishes for the needs of the diocese, that can only come from parish income, not from savings. The state classifies a moderate tax at $15,000, which the bishop has gone well over in this instance.
Treasurer Mary Pruski said that because the methodology is based on what a church had on Aug. 31, 2024, some churches with decreased donations since that time will be facing bankruptcy. Other parishes potentially facing lawsuits have paid smaller amounts to the diocese so they can be protected by a channeling injunction.
“That’s what the diocese intends, so they don’t have to wait on the Vatican’s decision on appeal,” claimed Pruski about some churches facing bankruptcy. “That’s why they’re going too rapidly.”
Martone said the diocese feels the plan is in line with canon law because the progressive structure of payments would not be overburdensome.
“The wealthier ones are contributing more and the less wealthy are contributing less,” Martone said.