NIAGARA FALLS (NY)
Niagara Gazette [Niagara Falls NY]
August 14, 2026
By Robert Creenan
The Vatican has reversed another Diocese of Buffalo closure decree for a Niagara County church, this time in Wilson.
Our Lady of the Rosary, at 345 Lake St., received the news that its closure decree was revoked in late July, with the Vatican’s Dicastery of Clergy finding that the diocese did not follow the proper discernment process regarding the closure’s impact, among other canon law violations. The church also received a decree stating that its $716,454 in assets would not go toward the diocese’s $150 million sexual abuse settlement.
“Our committee as well as the community is ecstatic,” said parishioner Michael Moley, the procurator for the Our Lady of the Rosary’s appeal process. “We’ve had an overwhelming response from the community in favor of keeping the church open, from the village board to other Protestant churches.”
Our Lady of the Rosary is part of the St. Brendan on the Lake family that includes St. Bridget in Newfane and St. Charles Borromeo in Olcott, as well as the Central Niagara Catholic Family that includes Our Lady of the Lake in Barker and All Saints and St. John the Baptist in Lockport. The only Catholic Church for seven to 14 miles, Our Lady of the Rosary provides a food pantry and preschool program for village residents.
When it was included on the diocese’s list of 78 closures as part of its Road to Renewal initiative in June 2024, one of seven in Niagara County listed, Moley said they immediately appealed to the Vatican to stop the plan. The Dicastery for Clergy announced in April 2025 that it would review its case among many other WNY churches, including All Saints in Lockport and St. John de LaSalle in Niagara Falls.
St. Jude the Apostle in North Tonawanda also had its closure decree overturned by the Vatican this past May, though its request for review happened after the initial deadline for appealing the bishop’s decree had passed.
The committee working to keep Our Lady of the Rosary open spent the last two years sending documentation to the Holy See explaining why it should remain open. They were a financially viable church whose mass attendances had recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Moley also noted that since Our Lady of the Rosary is a rural church, many of its parishioners would not be willing to drive so far to another church, either because they cannot walk there or they feel so disenfranchised they stop going altogether.
“It’s important that the Catholic faith keep many churches if they want faithful catholics into the future,” Moley said.
The Buffalo News also reported the Vatican reversed the closure decree for St. Josaphat in Cheektowaga, with the Dicastery issuing at least 22 decrees reversing closures and mergers since last year.
Mary Pruski, spokesperson for Save Our Buffalo Churches, said that while the Vatican’s decree said the same things as other decrees, they all do share common threads of Bishop Michael Fisher lacking good judgment in going after churches that don’t match the criteria for closure. The organization had called for a Vatican investigation into the diocese and its handling of the sexual abuse settlement.
“The senior leadership of the diocese is inadequate and not able to lead a healthy catholic community,” Pruski said.
The diocese does not plan to appeal these rulings. A spokesperson for the diocese did not return a request for comment.
Our Lady of the Rosary currently holds one Mass per week, still hamstrung by the declining number of priests in the diocese. Moley said they are working to continue getting diocese support for the church, including trying to get more priests to hold masses.
“Now we can allow the healing to begin and get back to the faith,” Moley said.