Bishop Michael W. Fisher will travel to Rome in October for meetings with Vatican officials about the diocese’s complicated legal issues, as well as its efforts to close churches and exit federal bankruptcy.
The leader of the Buffalo Diocese requested the meetings “some time ago” to update Catholic Church hierarchy on the restructuring of parishes and the plan to pay $150 million into a settlement fund for child sex abuse victims, said diocese spokesman Greg Tucker.
The exact dates of Fisher’s trip have not yet been finalized, Tucker said.
Fisher will be joined by Richard C. Suchan, the diocese’s chief operating officer, and the Rev. Bryan J. Zielenieski, vicar for renewal and development.
The Buffalo Diocese is due for an “ad limina” visit, which diocesan bishops make to the Vatican every five years, bringing along with them a detailed written report about their dioceses. But Tucker said the upcoming trip in October is not an ad limina visit.
The most recent ad limina visit by a Buffalo bishop was in November 2019, when former Bishop Richard M. Malone met with Pope Francis. Malone, who was under fire for his handling of sex abuse claims in the Buffalo Diocese, submitted his resignation to the pope during the trip or shortly after. Malone ultimately stepped down Dec. 3, 2019. Pope Francis named Fisher as 15th bishop of Buffalo about a year later.
“It is a very normal thing for the bishop of any diocese to maintain an open and constructive dialogue with administrative bodies of the Holy See and provide essential insight and context about key developments. The ad limina visits are, of course, scheduled updates that all diocesan ordinaries participate in,” Tucker said in a prepared statement to The News. “But with extraordinary developments like those that the Diocese of Buffalo is dealing with, Bishop Fisher feels that these upcoming meetings are not only necessary but supportive of the overarching objective of defining a new era for Catholic faith and ministry across Western New York.”
The diocese is trying to navigate its way out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy at the same time it moves to reduce 160 parishes by half and close several dozen churches. The coincidence of the efforts has led to clashes between adherence to Catholic Church canon law and following civil law procedures in the U.S. and New York State.
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After more than 5½ years in bankruptcy proceedings, the diocese finally has a settlement in principle with nearly 900 sex abuse claimants, whereby the diocese, its parishes and affiliated Catholic entities agreed to contribute $150 million. Two insurance companies also have agreed to pay an additional $122.5 million, bringing the settlement trust up to $272.5 million.
The next step is for the diocese to submit a plan of reorganization and disclosure statement to Chief Judge Carl L. Bucki by Oct. 1.
Under Catholic canon law, parishioners have a right to ask the Vatican to overrule a local bishop’s decision merging a parish or closing a church. More than two dozen appeals have been submitted to the Vatican for consideration, and those cases could take many months, if not years, before they are finally adjudicated by Vatican officials.
Mary Pruski, a spokeswoman for Save Our Buffalo Churches, a grassroots movement of Catholics to stave off church closings, said she was hopeful that Fisher would “receive instruction” from dicastery officials when he is in Rome.
Save Our Buffalo Churches has made requests that the Vatican put a stop to the Road to Renewal, the diocese’s name for its parish restructuring effort. The group also has requested the Vatican conduct an Apostolic visit of the diocese “to get our side of the story,” said Pruski.
A small group of parishioners fighting to keep open their churches has sued the diocese in State Supreme Court, arguing that parishes designated for merger or closure be given time for a Vatican ruling on their futures before they contribute 80% of their undesignated savings toward the abuse settlement.
Lawyers for the diocese and the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, which represents the abuse claimants, have said delays caused by a protracted state court case would imperil the settlement agreement and result in potentially much greater expense to parishes because they would be forced to defend against sex abuse lawsuits.
Diocese lawyers also said allowing the state court lawsuit to move forward would infringe upon the diocese’s First Amendment rights that give religious organizations autonomy and independence in matters of faith, doctrine and internal governance.
In one appeal case, the Vatican’s Dicastery for Clergy in July confirmed Fisher’s decision to merge All Saints parish in Lockport into nearby St. John the Baptist, but parishioners may now appeal to a different Vatican body, the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura.
Diocese officials have cited a growing priest shortage, as well as demographic shifts and declining financial resources in many parishes, as reasons for the downsizing that will merge 160 parishes into 80 and close several dozen churches.
The diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2020 amid more than 200 Child Victims Act lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by priests and other employees, mostly from the 1950s through the 1980s and early 1990s.
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