Final Decisions on Parishes and Worship Sites

Driven by a comprehensive and collaborative planning process involving clergy and laity, the Diocese of Buffalo today has announced a reshaping of parishes and worship sites in its eight-county region that will see a total of 118 worship sites remain open following a merger/closure review.

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Diocese of Buffalo announces priest placed on administrative leave

Rev. Walter Grabowski has been placed on administrative leave by Bishop Michael Fisher, pending an investigation into allegations of adult misconduct with women.

Rev. Grabowski is temporarily relieved of his pastoral duties as priest in solidum of the family of parishes that include Fourteen Holy Helpers, Queen of Heaven, St. John XXIII, St. Gabriel and St. John Vianney parishes.

Please note that this administrative leave is for the purpose of investigation and does not imply any determination as to the truth or falsity of the complaint. If you have any information specific to adult misconduct you would like to share, please contact Jackie Joy, our Victim Assistance Coordinator, who may be reached at 716 895-3010.

N.B. In a priest in solidum model, priests share responsibility within a family of parishes.

Announcement timeline on the final recommendations for parish mergers and closures

I am pleased to report that productive meetings with families of parishes, which began more than two weeks ago, realized 52 family counter proposals made to a diocesan review committee. Following the counter proposal meetings, our diocesan review panel reviewed those counter proposals and then recommendations were presented for consultation with the Presbyteral Council which is an advisory body to me. The Diocese is now evaluating changes to our initial recommendation of mergers and closures in 26 of our 36 families of parishes.

Additional time is needed to work through these changes and final announcements will not be made on September 1, but will be coming later next week, or early the following week.

I appreciate the patience of our faithful as we work diligently to decide on the future number of parishes in the Diocese of Buffalo. As always, you remain in my prayers, and I ask for your prayers as well.

Bishop Michael W. Fisher

 

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Diocese of Buffalo Lay Pension Plan to Offer Limited Time Lump Sum Buyout

The Diocese of Buffalo Lay Pension Plan (“the Plan”) will be offering a limited-time lump sum buyout to eligible active, former, and retired employees who were enrolled in the legacy defined benefit pension plan previously provided by parishes, Catholic schools, and other Catholic family affiliates throughout the Diocese of Buffalo to their employees.

Eligible participants are soon expected to receive direct mailed notifications and election kits with detailed information of the Plan’s lump sum buyout program. Included in the kit is contact information to discuss buyout options with administrators of the lump sum buyout program. This is the third such lump sum buyout program provided by the Plan since 2017. Accrual of benefits under the Plan ended at the end of 2015 and it was formally replaced by the Diocese of Buffalo 403(b) Defined Contribution Plan in 2016. The lump sum buyout is an option that each eligible participant may voluntarily elect and is not a requirement.

The lump sum buyout program does not affect or alter employee’s eligibility or benefits in any existing retirement plans administered by the Diocese of Buffalo or its affiliates.

Downloadable News Release

Statement from Bishop Michael Fisher on the Counter Proposal Process with the Road to Renewal

Last week the Diocese of Buffalo convened the team that will be reviewing Family of Parishes counter proposals and provided an all-afternoon training session that covered such topics as the development of data, recommended mergers and closures, and what guidelines were shared to create a counter proposal.

As part of the continuing process of determining the final recommendations of mergers and closures of parishes in our diocese, it is important to know that our parishes are following the process that has been outlined. By August 5th, parishes are providing alternative proposals that include information and innovative ideas that will help the diocese move forward in our Road to Renewal effort.

As part of the process, it is important to note that when counter proposal meetings take place between August 12th and August 22nd, decisions from those meetings will not be released until the first week of September. Following canonical procedures, the final recommendations need consultation from the diocesan Presbyteral Council and approval, before I can finalize any recommendations. The meeting with the Presbyteral Council will be held on August 27th.

-Bishop Michael Fisher

Note: The Presbyteral Council is the diocesan council of priests who are the chief consultative body to the bishop.

Diocese of Buffalo announces substantiated claims against diocesan priest

Buffalo, N.Y., July 23, 2024 – As a result of an initial internal inquiry and then an independent investigation, and upon the recommendations of the Independent Review Board, Bishop Michael W. Fisher has determined the allegations that the Rev. Joseph Rogliano engaged in acts of sexual misconduct with adults have been substantiated. As a result, at this time, Rev. Rogliano has been restricted from public ministry.

On Sept. 11, 2023, Rev. Rogliano was placed on administrative leave. Prior to being placed on leave, Rev. Rogliano was the pastor of Family 21 composed of Blessed Trinity, SS. Columba-Brigid, St. Lawrence and St. Martin de Porres parishes in Buffalo. In February of 2024, he resigned as pastor of Family 21 and retired.

Our Claim to be a Nation of Freedom Demands Action Against Gun Violence

Nations around the world have long looked to America as the advocate, protector and embodiment of freedom – of those rights and privileges inherent to humankind and granted not by any government, but by the very Creator of life itself.
While we acknowledge that not all of our citizens – our Black sisters and brothers – have enjoyed or been afforded those same rights and privileges, the arc of our nation’s history has demonstrated time and again that we are capable of righting terrible wrongs and working together to make better our imperfect Union.
This is precisely the challenge we face in our day and time given the scourge of gun violence that continues to terrorize and devastate families and whole communities with such predictable recurrence as to render us numb and seemingly helpless. Once again, extreme violence has become the desperate recourse in satisfying personal grievance, as we saw just days ago in Butler, Pennsylvania, to the horror of all right-minded individuals of every political persuasion.
Again in our community, gun violence has torn from us the promise of a cherished young life, only 3-years old, while forever scarring the life of his sister of just 7 years. What makes this latest incident even more tragic is the age of the perpetrators, mere children themselves, ages 14 and 17. “Babies killing babies,” as Mayor Byron Brown aptly characterized our latest tragedy.
With each devastating incident of gun violence we are left diminished, weaker because it seems we are powerless to stop it, less confident about our individual and collective security, less hopeful for our future, more fearful as individuals, as a community and nation.
Daily routines of our lives have acquired a gnawing sense of dread. Parents sending a child off to school suppress lingering fear of the unspeakable horror that so many other parents have experienced after doing the very same thing. The fear of sudden mayhem and madness taunts us as we simply head out for an evening at the neighborhood movie theater or a casual trip to the grocery store. Fear has denied us the enjoyment of simple, though essential, freedoms.
The recent Supreme Court decision concerning the United States vs. Rahimi, affirming the government’s long-standing right to prohibit the ability of those under domestic violence restraining orders to possess guns, offers a glimmer of hope in our quest for common sense gun regulation. Joining the government’s case in an amicus brief, the United State Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) reaffirmed our society’s responsibility to protect the innocent, and those subjected to domestic violence by reiterating its 2000 Statement: Responsibility, Rehabilitation, and Restoration: “As bishops, we support measures that control the sale and use of firearms and make them safer (especially efforts that prevent their unsupervised use by children or anyone other than the owner), and we reiterate our call for sensible regulation of handguns.”
How we got to the point that gun violence has become not just a daily occurrence in cities and towns across our country, but a hallmark of American life is a long and circuitous discussion. The fact is, it has become our nation’s despicable norm. And with each passing day of delay, inaction and resistance to meaningful gun controls, our basic human freedoms become compromised.
Hiding behind the Second Amendment which guarantees the “right of the people to keep and bear arms” (to ensure “a well regulated Militia”), is a distorted rationale for preventing reasonable efforts to end the proliferation of guns, and enacting common sense measures to keep them out of the hands of those who should never be be able to possess a firearm. Referencing the 2009 Encyclical Letter of Pope Pope Benedict XVI, Caritas in Veritate, the USCCB’s amicus brief further asserts that “The right to keep and bear arms can thus be limited in situations where possession of arms is unusually likely to harm innocent victims instead of helping, such as when the possessor has demonstrated a willingness to engage in unjustifiable violence.”
And so, as we gather for yet another funeral, mourn again the loss of a precious young life, witness yet one more family devastated because of a senseless act of gun violence, we must ask ourselves, when is enough truly enough? Why do we delay when the power to end so much tragedy and suffering is within our grasp?
Unquestionably, we hold in our hearts and pray intensely for those families who now must live in agonizing grief over the loss of their child, and also the lost futures for those children now incarcerated. Yet, our God demands something even more – that the Judeo-Christian faith we profess be demonstrated by action.
Confronted once again with our failure to end this constant threat, we would do well to recall the teaching of James 2:17, “Faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.”
We can best honor the memory of those taken from us – and the God we profess – with determined and relentless efforts to accomplish the urgent work that our human dignity demands, and our claim to be a nation of freedom requires.

Diocese of Buffalo Addresses Concerns of the Court Related to FOIL Request

Buffalo, NY — Jones Day, which represents the Diocese of Buffalo in the Office of Attorney General (OAG) lawsuit, has filed a submission today with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Western District of New York, that responds to the Court’s questions about fees associated with the Diocese’s response to a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request.

The FOIL request, made by The Buffalo News, sought all documents submitted by the Diocese to the OAG’s office as part of its investigation of the Diocese.  In response, the Diocese objected to public release of these approximately 25,000 pages of internal, highly sensitive documents—which include personal details concerning the claims made by victim survivors—principally on the ground that their wholesale public disclosure now will be disruptive to the parties’ ongoing efforts to resolve the Diocese’s bankruptcy case.  That ground is supported by a specific exemption in FOIL.

All parties involved in the Chapter 11 proceedings are also maintaining the confidentiality of this information in accordance with strict protocols in the bankruptcy case, under which the Diocese and the Creditors’ Committee have agreed that these sensitive documents must be maintained in confidence by a closely limited group of recipients and must not be publicly disclosed.

“To be clear, we have not opposed access to documents for those who are entitled to have them,” said Chief Operating Officer Rick Suchan.  “All documents at issue have been already provided to the Chapter 11 Creditors’ Committee representing victim-survivors but were produced in a form and pursuant to agreed-upon protocols that would not only protect the names of the individuals reporting abuse but also any contextual information that could be used to identify them.  The Diocese also anticipates that access to information concerning the claims asserted in the bankruptcy case will be discussed as part of a consensual resolution with the creditors committee and other stakeholders.”

The Diocese authorized Jones Day’s work and fees relating to the FOIL issue, which relates to and arose out of the OAG’s lawsuit and investigation.

Downloadable News Release.

Independent Auditor Concludes That Diocese of Buffalo Is in Full Compliance With Its Written Commitments to Child Protection

Buffalo, NY, June 18, 2024 – An independent auditor has concluded after a comprehensive and transparent audit of the Diocese of Buffalo “that the Diocese is compliant with all of the Commitments” which memorialize child-protection policies in the Diocese. The Diocese agreed to these Commitments with the New York Office of the Attorney General, as part of the settlement of a lawsuit in October 2022.

These Commitments confirm that the Diocese’s rigorous policies and protocols that it has put in place over the past several years are working to keep all children and vulnerable adults safe. These policies are published on the Diocese’s website, Diocese’s Policy and Procedures for the Protection of Young People and Vulnerable Adults, and have been developed by the Diocese since the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops mandated the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People, in 2002.

The Compliance Audit Report, posted on the diocesan website, was drafted by the Independent Auditor Kinsale Management Consulting. Kathleen McChesney, Ph.D., who led the independent audit team, is a former Executive Director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ national Office of Child and Youth Protection, as well as a former high-ranking FBI official and head of FBI offices in Chicago and Portland, Oregon.

In a statement in the report, Bishop Michael W. Fisher noted, “Their efforts have been thorough, and they have brought considerable professional skill and experience to this audit process.

“The auditor and her independent audit team interviewed the full range of Diocesan personnel who are responsible for executing the Diocese’s child-protection policies, every member of the Independent Review Board, and made several on-site visits to the Diocese’s administrative offices and to other locations throughout the Diocese.”

Dr. McChesney confirmed that the Diocese fully cooperated with the audit and there were “no limitations imposed on the auditor by the Diocese in any manner throughout the audit.”

The independent auditor included in the report a series of tables to detail the Diocese’s compliance with the Commitments. Appendix E to the report, titled “Dates of Alleged Abuse by Accused Clerics and Former Clerics,” shows that there were no complaints of abuse that occurred during the audit period— December 2022 through December 2023. Rather, all of the complaints that were addressed during the audit period concerned alleged abuse which occurred more than 20 years ago. This further confirms that the Diocese’s child-protection policies have been successful. These claims of past misconduct have all been treated seriously by the Diocese and in complete compliance with the Diocese’s child-protection policies, as the independent auditor found.

While the Independent Auditor’s Compliance Audit Report confirms the Diocese’s ongoing commitment to accountability and transparency in addressing allegations of past misconduct, the Diocese also continues to look forward to ensure that the mistakes of the past will not be repeated.

“The auditor’s conclusion that the Diocese is in compliance with each of the child-protection policies and procedures embodied in the [settlement agreement’s] 29 Commitments is an important step in the Diocese’s ongoing efforts to ensure that the mistakes of the past will not be repeated. We will continue to support and provide assistance to those who have been harmed. We pray for their healing and forgiveness for what they have endured,” Bishop Fisher concluded.

The full Compliance Audit Report by the independent auditor, dated June 7, 2024, is available here, and Bishop Fisher’s letter is reprinted following page 66 of the report.

 

Full Compliance Audit Report 2024

The St. Jude Center is listed for sale

Buffalo, N.Y., June 4, 2024 –  The Diocese of Buffalo has announced that The St. Jude Center has been listed for sale. The building, at 760 Ellicott Street in Buffalo, with an adjoining carriage house that serves as the current chapel, was purchased in late 1960s to found the professional pastoral care ministry in the diocese.

The 8,755 square-foot structure includes a residence, a chapel and a hall. The original structure was built in 1856 as the Victoria Hotel and a two-story addition was added in 1968. The residence continues to feature original amenities including five marble fireplaces and large pocket doors.

The structure on the Buffalo Niagara Medical campus is on a half-acre lot with an 18-car parking lot and a three-bay garage. The property is listed with Howard Hanna Commercial brokers Timothy Hourihan and David Doerr and is offered at $1.5 million. The brokers may be reached at 716 856-7107.

The St. Jude Shrine will be relocated to Saint Joseph Cathedral.

This property joins The Catholic Center, Christ the King Seminary, and the Buffalo State University Newman Center as diocesan properties currently for sale.

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