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Will a Buffalo Catholic church become a mosque? Here’s what to know

August 13, 2024 Catholic News Agency 2
Aerial view of Buffalo, New York, with a focus on St. Ann’s Roman Catholic Church (left). / Credit: Library of Congress online catalog

CNA Staff, Aug 13, 2024 / 15:32 pm (CNA).

After a viral social media post on Sunday highlighted the sale of a prominent Catholic church in Buffalo to a Muslim group, the timeline for the church’s ultimate conversion to a mosque remains unclear. 

The Diocese of Buffalo sold the former St. Ann’s Church and Shrine to a group associated with the local Downtown Islamic Center in late 2022. 

The Buffalo News reported that Buffalo Crescent Holdings, a group associated with the Downtown Islamic Center, purchased the property in November 2022 for $250,000. The Islamic Center already operates a small place of worship near the former church. 

Plans for a multimillion-dollar project at one point included an Islamic school and college for as many as 3,000 students, a shopping plaza, and a Muslim funeral home, the Buffalo News reported in 2022.

For its part, however, the Downtown Islamic Center has not updated its website with new information about the renovation since July 2022 but appears to still be accepting donations for the project. 

CNA reached out to the Downtown Islamic Center via email to ask about the current status of the mosque’s plans but did not hear back by time of publication. When reached by phone, a volunteer at the Downtown Islamic Center told CNA that only “minor updates” are being done to the former St. Ann’s property at the moment, such as repairing a door and cutting the grass. 

The troubled Diocese of Buffalo, meanwhile, announced the sale of its downtown headquarters in March for nearly $10 million. The diocese had in 2020 formally filed for Chapter 11 reorganization under the U.S. bankruptcy code, and diocesan officials announced in October 2023 that the diocese would be putting forth $100 million to settle the numerous abuse claims lodged against it.

What happened to the church?

St. Ann’s, a historic German parish first established in 1886, was closed more than a decade ago amid estimates that it could take millions of dollars to renovate the property. The parish had been merged with another one in 2007 amid a diocesan-wide parish consolidation process. 

In 2014, the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Clergy decreed that St. Ann’s could not be sold or repurposed for profane use (meaning a secular purpose). The Buffalo Diocese had already closed the shrine in 2012 when structural issues were found and originally wanted to demolish the property but later sought to sell the complex to a secular developer. 

The Church’s highest court, the Apostolic Signatura, in 2017 under prefect Cardinal Dominique Mamberti reversed the dicastery’s decree at the request of then-Bishop Richard Malone, allowing the property to be sold.

“Now that the Vatican has ruled, the decision to close the church is final,” Malone said in a statement to the Buffalo News at the time.

“We will do all that we can, within the confines of safety and feasibility, to remove all sacred and artistically significant artifacts.”

The Buffalo News notes that if St. Ann’s does ultimately become a mosque, it would not be the first Catholic church in Buffalo to become one. Darul Uloom Al Madania, an Islamic school, in 1994 bought the former Holy Mother of Rosary Polish National Catholic Cathedral. In 2009, the former Queen of Peace Church was purchased and converted into a mosque.

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News Briefs

‘It’s a minor miracle’: Parishioners purchase historic church from Pennsylvania diocese 

March 23, 2024 Catholic News Agency 1
The exterior of St. Joseph’s in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. / Credit: Paula Kydoniefs

CNA Staff, Mar 23, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).

A group of parishioners in the Diocese of Allentown, Pennsylvania, is celebrating this month after acquiring a historic church from the diocese and preserving it as a chapel and place of worship.

The Society of St. Joseph of Bethlehem (SSJB) in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, announced earlier this month that the society had purchased St. Joseph’s Church, which opened more than a century ago, from the Allentown Diocese.

“The desire to preserve the church by former parishioners has been steadfast since the church was closed in 2008,” the society’s board said in a letter announcing the purchase. “It has taken time and energy over the years to enter into an agreement with the Diocese of Allentown.”

On its Facebook page, the SSJB says its mission is “to restore and preserve St. Joseph’s Church as a sacred place of worship and a testament to the history and cultural heritage” of the area.

Lina Tavarez, a spokeswoman for the diocese, said the parish ”was closed in 2008 because of a merger of several local parishes.”

“It hosted only one regular Mass per year — on the feast day of St. Joseph — and was available for funerals for former parishioners,” she said.

The Mass of the solemnity of St. Joseph at St. Joseph's Parish in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Credit: Susan Vitez
The Mass of the solemnity of St. Joseph at St. Joseph’s Parish in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Credit: Susan Vitez

Paula Kydoniefs, the president of the board of directors of SSJB, told CNA that the group was established “solely for the purpose of buying this church, taking care of it, and sponsoring events.” The church, historically attended by the local Slovenian/Windish community, had its cornerstone laid in 1914 and fully opened in 1917.

Kydoniefs explained that the decision to purchase the property originated several years ago, during a period when the diocese was in the process of merging local parishes.

“In 2008 they were consolidating, and this was one of five churches that was being closed as a parish,” she said. “St. Joseph’s parishioners fought that and appealed it and ended up taking it to the Vatican.”

The Vatican eventually ordered that the parish remain open for use, Kydoniefs said. In 2011 then-Bishop John Barres “gave the parish the ability to have an annual Mass and have funerals of former parishioners.”

The cornerstone at St. Joseph's Parish in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Credit: Dimitri Kydoniefs
The cornerstone at St. Joseph’s Parish in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Credit: Dimitri Kydoniefs

The church was used “only occasionally” in this capacity, Tavarez told CNA. In 2023 the diocese moved again to sell the church.

“We went back to the diocese,” Kydoniefs said. “It’s a minor miracle. It was last-minute.”

“They had already announced they were going to sell it. They could have just told us no,” she said. “But, credit to them, they said: ‘If you can come up with $175,000 quickly, you can purchase it.’”

Kydoniefs said “several minor miracles and maybe major miracles” followed, with a benefactor — the James Stocklas Family Trust — quickly coming forward to donate “the whole $175,000.”

“Financially we’re independent, and we’re totally responsible for the care and upkeep and maintenance of the church,” Kyondiefs said.

“According to canon law, it’s a chapel,” she said. “It’s still a Catholic church, it’s still affiliated with the diocese in that way. The diocese has the jurisdiction over what public worship services we can do there.” 

“They’ve told us that we must have two Masses a year, one on the feast day of St. Joseph [March 19] and one on Oct. 28, the anniversary of the consecration of the church,” she added. 

Presently the church is not suited for occupancy, Kydoniefs said, with inspectors finding several code deficiencies in need of updating. Regulators did work with the community to develop a stopgap mitigation plan that allowed the church to celebrate St. Joseph’s feast day on March 19. 

The church “does need a lot of work,” she admitted, but she said the SSJB is prepared to see the building restored and utilized for regular community and religious events “at least monthly.” 

“We’ve got a lot of ideas,” she said. “We really want to see this church being used again.” 

In a letter issued upon the church’s reopening, meanwhile, the SSJB wrote that “as heartbreaking as it was a year ago, to hear that our cherished St. Joseph’s Church was to be permanently closed and sold on the open market, we now experience the opposite — hearts filled with joy and thanksgiving!”

“To the St. Joseph’s Church community,” the letter said, “welcome home!”

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