Ss. Peter and Paul church on Cherry Street, part of Holy Apostles Parish, which is no longer going to be closed or merged with another parish. P-J photo by Sara Holthouse

Following the announcement at the beginning of December that Holy Apostles Parish would not be closing or merging with another parish, members of the community are expressing relief even though some next steps still remain.

In a message on Facebook on Dec. 6 following the announcement, Father Paul Cygan, administrator for Holy Apostles Parish, said the appeal to overturn the merger of Holy Apostles into St. James was successful, and that the decision to allocate funds for the Child Victims Act from Holy Apostles remains under review. He congratulated the recourse group on their work and perseverance.

“This has been a trying time for our whole family of parishes as we have navigated through this time of transition,” Cygan wrote. “It is vital for the unity of our Family of Parishes, that this decision from the dicastery of the clergy is not to be seen as a ‘win’ for one and a ‘loss’ for another; keeping in mind those churches that did close this past year, but rather, the result of the Church’s canonical process of prayerful discernment and review. We respect the authority of our Bishop and accept his guidance as we move forward.”

Samantha Scalise, procurator for the Save Holy Apostles Parish group that was organized following the original closure announcement, highlighted the steps that were taken following the original announcement and the work that went into getting the decision appealed.

On Sept. 10, 2024 it was announced by the diocese as a part of their Road to Renewal process that a large number of parishes would be “extinctively merging” or becoming extinct and closing to merge with another parish. Holy Apostles Parish was suggested to be merging with St. James Parish and Ss. Peter and Paul, one of the parish’s two worship sites, was to be closed. The Save Holy Apostles Parish group was organized by John Campion, who Scalise said organized a meeting in October of 2024 to gauge interest in whether parishioners wanted to go through the appeals process and if anyone wanted to take on the role of procurator, which Scalise took on.

“Procurator is basically a mix between self representation under canon law — the set of rules and laws that govern the church — and almost like a class action,” Scalise said. “So, pretty much after I volunteered for the position parishioners could sign mandates essentially giving me power under canon law to represent them.”

The decree for merger for Holy Apostles Parish was issued on Jan. 6, 2025, and they were notified when Father Paul Cygan published it to the Family of Parishes Facebook page on Jan. 9. Since that time, work that Scalise and the group have done that went into saving the parish included Scalise as the procurator writing all of the letters involved for the appeal process and doing research and collecting documents. Work was done with the team backing her, and Scalise said members collected different documents on finances, attendance, parish history and the buildings and more. The first letter Scalise said she had to write asked the bishop to reconsider. After 30 days when they did not hear back, Scalise then had to write a longer one to the Dicastery for Clergy to send the appeal to them. Scalise said the main work involved a lot of writing, collecting mandates, meetings, and keeping people up to date and explanations as to what was going on. Meetings were also held with Save Our Buffalo Churches weekly or biweekly to go to them with questions and get answers from a canon law lawyer they were working with from the St Joseph Foundation.

Having Holy Apostles Parish saved now after this work means a lot for Scalise.

“It means that Ss. Peter and Paul, which is the church I grew up going to, will not be closing,” Scalise said. “The threshold they would need to reach to close the church is way higher than to merge the parish, so if they didn’t reach the threshold to merge the parish they didn’t reach the threshold to close the church, unless the church is falling down around us because it got hit by a hurricane or something. It’s a huge relief because it means the faith community that I grew up in gets to stay intact and even though there’s changes it’s not going to be as drastic as it would’ve been otherwise.”

Tony Dolce, Holy Apostles member, Cantor and City Council president, also expressed his relief at the parish staying independent and the church not closing.

“The news last week that there would be no merger was wonderful,” Dolce said. “We are very happy and excited, and fought very hard to save it. … It’s exciting for it to stay open and independent and it’s great for the city as well because St Peter and Paul church has a rich history and is a community building used for a lot of different events like baccalaureate and concerts. It’s a win for the city as well.”

As far as next steps go, Scalise said they are still in the process of the appeal for the Child Victims Act settlement assessment, which the group is appealing not because they do not want the parish to make a contribution to that but rather to have it done properly by canon and civil law, which is something that Scalise said right now is not being done. She added they also want the amount contributed to be something that is reasonable and not something that will financially endanger the parish. Besides that, for the merger process itself because the decree was overturned on merit, Scalise said it cannot be changed unless something with the parish changes. There is a chance for the merger to be appealed, but that is something Scalise said she has not heard anything from her contacts about, and is not something anticipated to happen. A future meeting is planned to hopefully take place at Ss. Peter and Paul to answer everyone’s questions and talk about what comes next to get people active in the parish again and to try and heal and move on.

“It’s been over a year and a half since they announced initially that there were going to be closures and mergers, like generally,” Scalise said. “There’s been a lot of hard feelings, a lot of stress and anxiety since then, so it’s going to take time to heal from that.”

Scalise expressed that she and the team are grateful to the community for the support received during this time, specifically from other local churches that have offered church halls for their meetings during this time as they were told they were not allowed to have them at their own churches. Scalise said the local coverage and general well-wishes from other parishioners or people in the community who are not Catholic has also meant a lot.

“To have everyone there helping us as much as they were able has really meant a lot,” Scalise said. “It’s been overwhelming. It was hard, it was stressful. But, it was so incredibly worth it. We are grateful for all the support and thankful that we get to stay an independent parish.”