St. Bridget

3455 Ewings Road

Newfane, NY 14108

St. Charles Borromeo

5972 E. Main Street

Olcott, NY 14126

Our Lady of the Rosary

345 Lake Street

Wilson, NY 14172

‘Road to Renewal’ - appeared in Union-Sun & Journal Friday December 31, 2021

Catholic Diocese works on healing in Lockport

BY JACOB FRIES

jacob.fries@lockportjouurnal.com

The Buffalo Catholic Diocese will be paying closer attention to the greater Lockport area in the coming year. Four churches are part of the pilot phase of a “Road to Renewal” plan.

The strategy reorganizes churches under the jurisdiction of the Diocese into “families.” A family, in this instance, is a grouping of churches that work closely to achieve fiscal efficiencies.

This plan comes in the wake of the Buffalo Diocese filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February of this year. The bankruptcy was brought on by over 900 lawsuits against the Diocese over alleged sexual misconduct with minors.

Statistics in Diocese literature indicate that the number of priests in the region able to provide parish leadership and the Sacraments has been in decline for over a decade. If nothing changes. by 2030 there will be approximately 100 Diocesan priests to oversee 161 parishes.

Four parishes in the area will be a part of Family No. 10, a pilot for the program. Included are St. John the Baptist and All Saints in Lockport, Immaculate Conception in Ransomville, and St. Brendan on the Lake in Newfane.

In a Zoom meeting on Dec. 13, the Diocese informed the priests of Family 10 that Father Andrew Lauricella of St. Brendan will act as the Family’s transitional leader. Lauricella is pleased with what the Road to Renewal is proposing and optimistic it will address logistical shortcomings.

“I see parishes might not have a lot of youth in their parish on an individual level” said Lauricella, “but if all the parishes in a given neighborhood 

could collaborate to share a youth ministry program together, share the expenditures together, and also share the participation of the youth, it could be a much more practical effective and vibrant program.”

The “activation phase,” which is the first phase of the “Road to Renewal” will begin on Jan. 17. During this period, priests who are a part of the same family will have weekly meetings to keep each other informed on the status of their churches. The process of becoming a family will be made official on Jul. 17, when the “inauguration phase” begins.

One particular aspect that Lauricella likes about this plan is that there is no concrete framework for how the families can operate, thus offering flexibility to their management.

“One thing that the diocese tells us that we will not have is one standard cookie-cutter criteria for each family” Lauricella said. “It’s going to be up to each family to decide among themselves what kind of ministerial collaborative plan would be best.”

Lauricella, as well as Rev. Daniel Ogbeifun of All Saints Parish, said their parishioners have been receptive to the plan.

“Almost a majority of our parishioners seem to be happy about it,” said Ogbeifun. “It may not be easy, but it’s something that can help the growth of the church, not just here, but in the Buffalo Diocese.”

While this is a new and different approach to how the Diocese is planning on managing parishes, they have been taking notes on how a similar program operated in London, Ontario. St. Brendan on the Lake is also familiar with similar procedures, as it previously merged youth ministry with Immaculate Conception.

According to the Diocese the plan does not involve churches pooling their finances, or mergers like the one that led to the creation of St Brendan on the Lake in 2008. Parishes will still independently control their finances, and will retain their own trustees.

Though this change would be bringing parishes into unknown territory, Lauricella looks to his church’s own patron saint for guidance; Saint Brendan the Navigator.

“One of the tasks of navigators is to navigate through the uncharted waters,” said Lauricella, “and I think that it brings the people here consolation knowing that we’re going through uncharted territory, but we have a patron saint guiding us through it.”