The Catholic Bishop of Buffalo, the Rev. Michael W. Fisher, whose decree ordered the merger of the two Jamestown churches into one entity on Jan. 9, has been met with resistance from parishioners of Ss. Peter and Paul’s Parish, 508 Cherry St. P-J File-photo

BUFFALO – Officials from the Catholic Church’s Diocese of Buffalo say that putting a hold on the merger between Ss Peter and Paul’s Parish, 508 Cherry St. to St. James Catholic Church, 27 Allen St. is part of the church’s modus operandi regarding its appeals process.

“This is normal,” said Joe Martone, the communications director for the Diocese of Buffalo. “Everything goes on hold until the appeal is evaluated and thoroughly investigated.

The ongoing dispute between a group of parishioners who attend Ss. Peter and Paul’s church, and the Diocese of Buffalo, revolves around an official decree issued by the Catholic Bishop of Buffalo, the Rev. Michael W. Fisher, who ordered Jan. 9, the merger of the two churches into one entity.

Closure of Ss. Peter and Paul and its merger into St. James is part of the 79 church closures and 39 secondary sites identified for mergers as part of the Road to Renewal program. Part of the driving force behind the Road to Recovery plan is the potential of an aging of the church’s priesthood and congregants. Additionally, Martone stated that the decision to shutter church operations isn’t something which the church leadership has taken lightly and was only done after much forethought and many meetings.

“It’s never easy to close or merge a church,” he said. “We’ve had many meetings and parish spokespeople were given a chance to meet and present their individual arguments and cases. There have been many opportunities, meetings and two-way discussions before the bishop issued his decree.”

However, Martone stated that math is simple in this case. When there is an aging priesthood, who is retiring, and not being readily replaced, and an aging church membership, with a lack of younger generations to take up and fill the older populations holes it is leaving – it places the church on shaky financial grounds.

As previously reported in a Jan. 11, Post-Journal story, “The average age of a priest in our diocese is 76,” said Martone. “Our priests are aging out. We have a shortage of priests. The Catholic church, nationwide, is facing the same problem.”

According to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., the number of priests across the U.S. has dropped by about 38 % — from nearly 60,000 priests in 1970 to 37,192 in 2016.

Martone added, “The average age of priests is 76-years old, and it’s estimated that 63% of priests in the dioceses will be between age 65 and 70 by 2030. The diocese also reported it had 173 priests in 2012, down to 115 today, with only 70 expected in the diocese by 2030.”

“Plain and simple, we can not afford to continue to operate as we are, financially, and our older priests can not continue at this place – something has to give.”