About six weeks ago the VFTB shared some of his thoughts, his learning, his history, and some of his religious traditions with those who may read this column weekly, or they just happen to run into it every so often, while perusing the weekend edition of the Post Journal.

That particular narrative, published on 15 November, 2025, was about the power of prayer and some of the traditions of my upbringing in a Catholic Home, learned in a Catholic School, while worshiping the Catholic Faith, in a Catholic Church.

One of the paragraphs included a portion of a conversation from an episode of M*A*S*H, and part of a conversation from the movie, Rudy, dealing with prayer. In the M*A*S*H episode, a doctor asked a man, who was wounded with a head injury and thought he was Jesus Christ, if God answered all prayers. His response was, “Yes, sometimes the answer is no.”

In the film, Rudy, Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger, while asking a priest if he had prayed enough for something he desperately hoped would happen, received these words from Father Cavanaugh, “Praying is something we do in our time. The answers come in God’s time.”

About a year and a half ago, members of Holy Apostles Parish, composed of SS Peter and Paul and St. John Church in Jamestown were told that their parish, of which Sally and I have been a member of since the mid ’80s, that Holy Apostles parish would be merging with another parish in Jamestown, as a part of the Diocese of Buffalo’s Road to Renewal. That original announcement also stated, then, that SS Peter and Paul Church would remain open and be designated a secondary site to be used by the parish in which Holy Apostles was being absorbed. A short time later, the Diocese changed its mind, and instead of SSPP being the secondary site, St. John would be the secondary site and SSPP would be closed and put up for sale.

The merger announcement wasn’t received very well by many parishioners of Holy Apostles, but the diocese did offer a chance for any parish, designated for merger, to appeal the decree of merger. A small number did some, which later turned into volumes, on Canon Law, and how to go about learning the process of appeal, including what information was needed to plead their case to possibly have the decision of the bishop overturned. The first step was getting organized. The small group held informational meetings and invited anyone, not just Holy Apostles Parish members, to hear and learn something about Canon Law and the process needed to be followed to a “T,” to have a chance of reversing the bishop’s decrees. If step one was rejected, and it was, the committee had to then present their case to the Dicastery, in Rome. The Dicastery for the Clergy is the office in charge of evaluating all recourse appeals. It is defined as “a department or office within the Roman Curia (the Vatican’s Administrative Body), handling specific global Church matters like evangelization, doctrine, or bishops, essentially acting as ministries.” While putting all this together, the committee kept parishioners informed as easily as they could, so they established communication with anyone interested in the campaign of Holy Apostles, through Social Media, and information was made available on the Facebook sites, Save Holy Apostles Parish, Catholic Neighbors in Faith, Buffalo Catholic Beacon, and Save Our Buffalo Churches.

A side issue came about when the diocese decided that all parishes together would be responsible for paying the over $270 million bankruptcy settlement, to abuse survivors. This included all parishes in the diocese, including those being merged, some of those finding this out after their churches were already closed and their parishes merged. The diocese told each parish what their “free will” donation share to the diocese would be to help cover the settlement, and what the deadline for making that donation would be. There was a short window of time offered to appeal this as well, and the group from Holy Apostles jumped up, grabbed their pencils, researched, compiled data, and informed their intentions to appeal through their information channels, and then submitted an appeal to this part of the Road to Renewal proposal made by the diocese. As far as the two appeals made by Holy Apostles went, we, and others too, were put on hold due to the election of a new Pontiff, and getting their offices organized after the change in leadership in Rome. Meanwhile, the group from Holy Family kept us informed, encouraged us to stay positive, and asked us to keep praying. So, we did.

On, or close to, 6 December, 2015, I was thumbing through Facebook and I saw a notification from the Save Holy Apostles Parish site and was elated to read a decision was made and the news was good. It was conveyed to all who read it that Holy Apostles would remain an operating parish, with neither church being closed, and the enormous amount of the originally assessed “free will” donation would be reduced using the formula used to assess those “stay in operation” parishes established in mid-2025. Answers to both appeals were, “yes! It must have been God’s time!”

There have been many prayers of thanksgiving said by Sally and me since we heard the news, and we know so many more who’ve also prayed hard, lit candles, and were patient, as the processes ran their courses. (Many know I’m not very patient in many instances, so to the many who are true to the adage, “Patience is a virtue,” I have to admit, in many circumstances, I’m not very virtuous. (I’ll be saying prayers asking for forgiveness for a long time for that.)

For the past year and a half, give or take, we’ve taken to attend Mass at times we could attend. In the fall, I have commitments that don’t allow us to attend 11:00 mass at SSPP. During summers, we often attend mass at St. Michael Church in Independence, OH as we often spend weekends during the MLB season. Since Road to Renewal merger/closing decisions were made, we feel we’ve lost touch with “mass” friends because we haven’t been in town, or available at the times we used to see them, or the mass times we used to see them no longer exist. On the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, this past December, we attended noon mass at SSPP, and we saw so many we haven’t seen for such a long time. It was wonderful just to share greetings, handshakes, hugs, as we did back when. We will definitely “come back home to SSPP” as the new year begins and when we are in town, hopefully seeing those faces, and the wonderful people to whom they belong.

Meantime, Sally and I will be saying prayers of gratitude to all those who put in so much time researching, writing, compiling, organizing, dotting I’s, crossing T’s, Facebook posting, waiting patiently, and praying with us. There were many, and we thank all of you, but will single out two, Sammy Jo Scalise, and John Campion, who led a legion of parishioners who did the grunt work, whom we also thank from the bottom of our hearts, for not just asking for Holy Apostles to be saved, but now being able to turn that around to proudly say that you saved Holy Apostles Parish.” God Bless all of you, from the bottom of our hearts and minds.