Newsletters

Save St. John’s Newsletter – April 2, 2026 We await an answer from the Dicastery regarding our merger appeal.  The 90 day extension they sent us expired on April 1.  Responses can take weeks to arrive here when issued.  A follow up to the Dicastery will be sent in the coming days if we don’t receive their response.  Please pray for a favorable outcome here so we don’t have to go the next step, the Apostolic Signatura. On March 25 th  I, along with 3 others from Save Our Buffa

We continue to await a response from the Dicastery regarding our appeal of the Decree for Merger.  The extension they provided earlier has an April 1 (as confirmed by Save Our Buffalo Churches) due date.  Should they rule in favor of the Diocese or remain silent, our appeal has already been sent to the Apostolic Signatura, which is the last step in the appeal process. Our appeal regarding the Assessment ($211,800) has been sent to the Apostolic Signatura.  This is due to no r

As reported earlier, we received a three month extension from the Dicastery regarding our appeal asking them to revoke the Bishop’s decree.  The date of their letter was January 2, 2026.  This means the Dicastery now has until April 2 , 2026 to provide their ruling regarding this appeal and that the suspension of the decree continues.  In the letter they invited us to send any additional supporting material that we believe supports our recourse.  I provided a packet of additi

This update picks up where our December 20 and 21 meetings in our Church Hall left off. Our merger decree appeal to the Apostolic Signatura has been submitted since we had not received a ruling from the Dicastery within the time limit specified in the process. While this appeal was in route, we did receive an update from the Dicastery. They have extended their review for another three months. This means they now have until April to rule on our merger decree appeal. We expect

A new EMCC Advisory Board has been established with representation from each Parish.  The members from St. John’s are: Carol Stitt, Dan Butler, Anita Schmidt, Jay Sorokes, John Baglione, and Michael Hinz. Several members of St. John’s and St. Mary’s are homeschooling their children/grandchildren in religious education.  This was the result of the conflicting time (9:15am Sundays) established for the classes at St. Bonaventure.  This time would have resulted in St. John’s par

The Bishop and his team have an upcoming meeting in Rome in October, date not known at this time.  The Bishop, Richard Suchan (Chief Financial Officer), and Father Bryan Zielenieski (Vicar for Renewal and Development) will be meeting with the Pope and his team.  Philip Gray (Canon Lawyer) thinks this is not a typical status review, which Bishops are required to have with the Pope every five years.  Philip Gray thinks this meeting is the result of the large numbers of appeals

Two big updates! First, notes from a Special Meeting of St John's Corporate Board. A special meeting of the corporate board of St. John's Olean was called by the Diocese for August 4, 2025.  The board of directors consists of Bishop Fisher, Vicar General Father Karalus, Father Chris Emminger, Carol Stitt, and Dan Butler.  The agenda was as follows: Discussion and vote on the parish resolution to make a contribution to the Chapter 11 bankruptcy settlement of the Diocese of Bu

We received our much-anticipated reply from the Dicastery regarding our Suspension Appeal.

Updates since the Newsletter on June 9th.

The following are the meeting minutes from June 4, 2025, in which was discussed adopting a 501c3 for donations, among other topics. St...

Cindy and I [Dan] attended a presentation and discussion by Philip Gray on May 8th at the Buffalo Irish Center.  Philip is a canon lawyer...

It has been a little while since our last newsletter as Cindy and I (Dan) were out of the area. Here is a summary of where things stand...

Highlights: Our Remonstratio to Bishop Fisher was confirmed received on 3/17/25 – within the requirements of the appeal process.  The...

Highlights: Our Remonstratio to the Bishop’s decree will be sent to the Bishop on March 14, 2025, well within the ten-day window from...

Highlights: Over 200 Procurator Mandates (petitions) have been signed.  A very high percentage of our Finance Council (100%), Parish...

Our website and Facebook page are active.  Almost 300 people have seen the website, and Facebook views are nearly 2,500. Keep sharing the...

Highlights: Father Chris published a letter regarding our status as a parish.  It was not announced but was left at the entrances to the...

Thank you for your attention and support in this regard. Highlights: Father Chris is expected to have a handout available at Masses this...

Important! We will continue to be a parish until the Diocesan Decree is issued by the Bishop The Decree is expected in the late April...