Vatican says 2 parishes in Buffalo will not have to close amid diocesan merger plan

Two parishes in the Diocese of Buffalo, New York, have won reprieves from the Vatican and will not have to close amid a diocesan-wide closure and merger plan.

Mary Pruski, the leader of the advocacy group Save Our Buffalo Churches, told EWTN News on Aug. 14 that the parishes of St. Josaphat and Our Lady of the Rosary both won appeals at the Holy See over closures that were mandated by the diocese’s “Road to Renewal” plan.

That plan was announced in May 2024, with Bishop Michael Fisher revealing that the diocese would merge about a third of its parishes amid declines in attendance and financial struggles.

The Save Our Buffalo Churches group has advocated against multiple closures in the diocese since the announcement. In December 2025 the Vatican said multiple parishes in the diocese that had petitioned the Vatican would not have to close.

Pruski told EWTN News on Aug. 14, meanwhile, that the St. Josaphat Parish “won their appeal to not merge and close,” while Our Lady of the Rosary “won their appeal against being reduced to common use and sold.”

She said a few parishes represented by the group “continue to await their appeal decision from the Dicastery for the Clergy,” while several other parishes have raised their appeals to the Apostolic Signatura.

“These cases may take up to another year for a final decision,” she said.

Diocesan spokesman Gregory Tucker confirmed to EWTN News on Aug. 14 that per the Vatican’s decision the parishes would not be forced to close.

Fisher “respects the decision of the dicastery and will not appeal these decisions,” Tucker said. “That said, these parishes will be closely monitored to ensure that they can remain viable and self-sustaining going forward.”

The Buffalo parish group’s fight against the closure plan made it all the way to the New York Supreme Court in 2025. The court in July of that year ordered a brief halt to some diocesan-mandated parish payments into the diocese’s abuse settlement fund. The New York Supreme Court ultimately dismissed the case, saying it did not have jurisdiction over internal Church matters.

In April, however, the Vatican issued a revocation of multiple “assessment allocation decrees” against parishes in the diocese, citing canon law violations regarding parish fund procurement “as well as the amounts and methods undertaken to procure those monies.”

Elsewhere in New York state, parishioners in the Diocese of Rochester are petitioning the Vatican to let them save a 160-year-old parish that has been locally recognized for its historic significance.

Advocates hope to preserve Holy Family Parish in Auburn in part to preserve the memory and legacy of Bishop Patrick Byrne, an apostolic delegate to Korea who was martyred in 1950 during a four-month-long forced march while in the captivity of communist forces in North Korea. Byrne was confirmed at the parish in 1900.