Church sales by diocese spur debate
For the most part, the buildings are old, difficult to maintain and situated in less-than-ideal neighborhoods.
But that hasn't stopped buyers from snapping up former Catholic churches that many observers expected would be nearly impossible to sell.
Consider the city of Buffalo, where two years ago the Catholic Diocese moved to shut down 16 churches. Today, just one of those churches, Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary on Herkimer Street, is still actively being marketed.
In all, the diocese has dealt away 33 empty churches in eight counties since 2006, selling to Muslims, Buddhists and a variety of Protestant denominations, as well as museum operators, developers and nonprofit groups.
It just closed its most recent deal Friday, selling the former Our Lady of Grace Church on Route 5 in Woodlawn for $170,000 to Holy Trinity Polish National Catholic Church.
"It was difficult to project what kind of success we'd have selling these properties," said diocesan spokesman Kevin A. Keenan, noting that the economic downturn and tighter lending practices threw an unexpected variable into the equation. "We have probably defied a lot of predictions that we wouldn't sell these properties."
However, the diocese's adeptness at selling churches has hardly quieted critics of the church closings. Some preservationists and city officials remain skeptical about the future of those properties. They say the diocese is more intent on getting rid of buildings than on ensuring their longtime survival for future generations.
"I don't think they care who they sell to," said Common Council President David A. Franczyk, who has sparred with Bishop Edward U. Kmiec over church closings. "The city is a write-off zone for them."
It's too early to call the brisk sales of the churches a win for the community, added Timothy Tielman, executive director of the Campaign for Greater Buffalo History, Architecture & Culture.
Tielman and others questioned whether some of the buyers have the capacity to maintain the properties.
"They're selling churches to people who they know can't afford it," said Albert Huntz, president of traditionalist Catholic group Una Voce Buffalo. "In a year or two, these buildings are going to look like Transfiguration. They've been down this road before."
Transfiguration Church on Sycamore Street was one of a handful of glorious Catholic churches that fell into disrepair after being sold to organizations that couldn't afford the upkeep.
Huntz has a more personal stake in the sales. Una Voce, which advocates for the traditional Latin Mass, is an eager church buyer that the diocese has repeatedly turned away. The group has been trying for years to save a city church for Latin liturgies. It has looked on as nearly all of the available Buffalo churches were sold to other religious organizations.
"It doesn't make us too happy, as to the way some of them were sold and to whom they were sold," Huntz said.
In an interview, Keenan reiterated the bishop's stance on Una Voce's request, saying the group already is well served at two other Western New York parishes that provide the Latin Mass — St. Anthony of Padua in Buffalo and Our Lady Help of Christians in Cheektowaga.
"At this time, Bishop Kmiec is not about to start adding parishes. We're still in a reconfiguration process," Keenan said.
Keenan also defended the sales, saying the diocese takes a close look at any prospective buyer's financial information before agreeing on a deal.
Still, he acknowledged, "You can do all the vetting you want, and sometimes things don't go well for an organization."
Preservationists also worry that architectural details will be stripped from churches by new owners eager to cash in on the items, dramatically decreasing the value of the properties.
"Talk about temptation," said Tielman, noting that architectural salvage dealers often are willing to offer top dollar for quality features.
It's happened before with Catholic churches, most notably St. Matthew on East Ferry Street, which originally was bought by a church organization after it was closed by the diocese in 1993.
After being mined bare over the years, the church ended up being sold at a 2006 city foreclosure auction for $3,500.
Already, the former Queen of Peace Church on Genesee Street has been stripped of its original beauty — although not necessarily for profit. The church was purchased by a Muslim group, and the Christian images in the stained-glass windows and interior wall murals by acclaimed painter Josef Mazur were no longer appropriate for a mosque and community center.
Darul Hikmah, which paid $300,000 for the property, removed the items. The windows were saved and preserved at the Buffalo Religious Arts Centers. Sacred objects also were reused by other Catholic churches, including St. Josaphat in Cheektowaga, which received an altar.
The Muslim people, said the Rev. Richard Poblocki, pastor of St. Josaphat, "were very gracious to us."
Nonetheless, the Mazur murals are gone, and the church's huge Kilgen pipe organ, which was fully operational, was thrown in the garbage when the Muslim group couldn't find anyone to take it.
The sale infuriated some Catholics who viewed it as a sign that the diocese had given up on trying to spread the faith.
And it was another disappointment for Una Voce, which had expressed strong interest in taking over the church.
Huntz said his group would be able to maintain a property. It has at least 200 families — more people than in most of the small Protestant congregations that purchased former Catholic facilities.
A few years ago, Una Voce made inquiries about St. John the Baptist Church on Hertel Avenue, but the diocese sold it instead to a developer, the Plaza Group, which has put the buildings back on the market.
More important than obtaining a building, the group needs the bishop's approval for a priest to come from outside of the diocese and serve the Latin Mass community. "For us, finding a priest is no problem, it's just getting the bishop to say OK, fine," Huntz said. "I don't know what it would take to change his mind."
Huntz and others had hoped that a 2007 decree from Pope Benedict XVI allowing for greater use of the ancient liturgy would open the door in the Buffalo diocese for a Latin Mass apostolate. The diocese "can't say there's a problem with the Vatican, and there are dioceses all over North America that have the same situation," Huntz said.
For preservationists, the issue is larger than a single church. The way the diocese handles church closings has a huge ripple effect throughout the community, said Richard Lippes, a lawyer and board member of the Campaign for Greater Buffalo History, Architecture & Culture.
While the diocese isn't necessarily to blame for closing churches with small memberships, Lippes said that with its vast organizational resources and connections, it could have done a better job enlisting the larger community in efforts to preserve buildings and boost struggling parishes.
"The issue of how you plan church closings, we feel, should be much more transparent," Lippes said.
But Keenan noted that the diocese sponsored a community seminar on church reuse and has made responsible sales to entities that are improving neighborhoods. "In every one of the sales, you could argue that there are reuses benefiting the community," he said.
Still, Tielman and others worry that in a few years, the community will have to face down significant crises to prevent the loss of important church buildings, as it had to do with Asbury United Methodist on Delaware Avenue.
The landmark came to the brink of being demolished after the United Methodist Church sold it to a small congregation that couldn't afford the upkeep. The church at Delaware Avenue and West Tupper Street ultimately was rescued and transformed into a concert hall and gallery space.
"Sometimes the situations have a happy ending, but it's not without spectacular heavy lifting on the part of community organizations that want to save a historic building," Tielman said.
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