St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church will be closing after its Christmas Eve Mass. File photo

Not long after Sunday services on the afternoon of Nov. 17, St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church in Fredonia announced in a Facebook post that its days were numbered. Its final Mass will take place on one of the most holy evenings: Christmas Eve.

“The date of the closing has been moved up because it is feared the roof may not hold up through the winter and we have a prospective buyer for the property with a tight timeline,” the post stated.

With less than three weeks to go, St. Joseph’s is one of many parishes with its eyes on the calendar. In early September, the Buffalo Diocese announced a list of locations that would be shuttered. Those 196 worship sites that included 160 parishes and 36 secondary worship sites would reduce to 79 parishes and 39 secondary worship sites.

On Nov. 9, the first two churches that were located in Buffalo — St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bernard parishes — closed and became a part of St. Teresa’s on Seneca Street in the city.

With the wheels in motion, debate seems to have cooled regarding the issue. Realistically, it is more of a waving of the white flag.

Too many had been through the same type of discussion and effort 17 years ago. That was labeled as the Journey in Faith & Grace and was led by then-Bishop Edward Kmiec starting in May 2007.

That attempt aimed to create and implement a process for the restructuring of parishes. It failed miserably while leaving a bitter taste, possibly due to Kmiec’s connection to the communities the diocese served that led to a lack of tough decisions.

When the strategic plan was unveiled then, Kmiec already had three years at the helm in Buffalo. Relationships forged with priests and parishioners make final edicts much tougher.

But even at that time, some of those who were active with parishes knew changes had to be made. St. Joseph’s in Fredonia was one of those locations. Even if they did not speak loudly, a segment of individuals knew the decaying structure was becoming too much for its congregation to sustain.

When it did not close — though St. Hyacinth’s and St. Hedwig’s in Dunkirk became combined with two buildings falling under the Blessed Mary Angela parish — those connected to the parish on Main Street in Fredonia wondered quietly why a greater merger did not happen.

There were no decisions like that this time through the “Road to Renewal.” Parishes remaining open in Chautauqua County include: St. James, Holy Trinity in Dunkirk, Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Sacred Heart, St. Dominic, St. Patrick of Randolph, Christ Our Hope and St. Joseph of Gowanda.

Those targeted for closure by June are on a much longer list. It includes: Ss. Peter and Paul in Jamestown, St. Hyacinth and St. Hedwig in Dunkirk, and St. Anthony in Fredonia. Also, Our Lady of Lourdes in Falconer; the Forestville church of Silver Creek’s Our Lady of Mount Carmel; Sacred Heart of Lakewood’s worship site in Panama; St. James of Jamestown’s space in Frewsburg; St. Dominic of Westfield’s Brocton church; and the Sherman center of Christ Our Hope of French Creek.

Secondary worship sites include St. Elizabeth Ann Seton of Dunkirk, St. John’s in Jamestown and St. Mary of Lourdes in Bemus Point.

Though the shakeup for many dedicated Catholics in the region was tough to take, decisions had to be made. In recent decades, attendance continued to fall as population declined throughout the region while financial problems for the organization have been well documented.

Through its controversial “Road,” the church says it cut the total number of parishes in the diocese by 51% while the number of available worship sites decreased by 40%. Since current Bishop Michael Fisher was tapped to be the leader, the reduction of churches has been one of his goals.

“Know that these (decisions) were not easy to make,” Fisher said in September. The diocese had to “respond to realities that we face which require us to rely on one another and ultimately our source of faith, the Lord Himself.”

Fisher came to Buffalo in late 2020 while the COVID pandemic was still in progress. He’s kept a distance while looking at the diocese as a business operation. Fiscal losses alone — through the scandals and abuse cases — put the organization’s future in jeopardy.

Now, however, there is a new beginning. It is not easy — and filled with emotion.

In the end, it appears as though the “Journey in Faith & Grace” attempted in 2007 was more of a day trip. Leaders at that time played it safe in allowing numerous parishes to remain open even if the numbers did not make sense.

That led to this “Road to Renewal,” which is more genuine in its excruciating choices. It includes bumps that were inevitable and painful to the faithful — and probably a decade too late.

John D’Agostino is the editor of The Post-Journal, OBSERVER and Times Observer in Warren, Pa. Send comments to jdagostino@observertoday.com or call 716-487-1111, ext. 253.