Newsletter March 13
- Mary Fofanah
- Mar 13
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 27
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 when it was announced and made available at St. John’s. We have nearly 400 mandates included in the document. Thank you all for your support and efforts in collecting these.
The Remonstratio will be made available to anyone who has signed the Procurator Mandate. It will not be published to the general public.
We are actively working on our follow-up appeal to the Dicastery in Rome. This is a significant document with many attachments.
A follow-up letter to the editor of the Olean Times Herald has been written and submitted for publication. It can be found further down in the newsletter as well as in the March 13, 2025 edition of the paper.
Our website and Facebook page, Save St John’s Olean, continue to be quite active. Please share with your friends and family.
Letter to the Editor – Published in the Olean Times Herald on March 13, 2025
St. John’s Update
This is a follow-up to an earlier letter that was published in the OTH on February 21st of this year. His Excellency, Michael W. Fisher, Bishop of the Diocese of Buffalo issued a decree dated March 5, 2025, regarding St. John’s in Olean. Its official title is DECREE OF THE MERGER OF ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST PARISH, OLEAN AND ITS TERRITORY INTO ST. MARY OF THE ANGELS PARISH, OLEAN. The details can be found at St. John’s and on the Basilica and St. John’s Facebook pages. It is also available on the savestjohnsolean.com site and Facebook page. This decree is for merger only, not the closing of St. John’s. The Parish Core Group (PCG) from St. John’s, with the help of the Save Our Buffalo Churches and St. Joseph Foundation organizations, is appealing this action via a Remonstratio to the Bishop. The appeal is to revoke the decree and suspend the implementation pending the outcome of all appeals, leaving St. John’s as a parish. A follow up appeal will be made to the Dicastery in Rome (Vatican) should the bishop reject the Remonstratio. There is an additional appeal to Rome should that be needed. Each appeal is a formal process and has specified timeframes associated with them. The results will not be known for some time, but to date the success rate of appeal to the Dicastery has been quite positive.
In the meantime, there is also a much-needed consolidation ongoing in the Enchanted Mountain Catholic Community (EMCC). As a reminder the EMCC is comprised of the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels, St. John the Evangelist and St. Bonaventure Church. The team implementing the consolidation is working to provide efficiencies in the operations of each location and is expected to yield improvements. These also take time and careful consideration with inputs from each affected location. There should be no confusion between the merger decree and the consolidation. The St. John’s PCG supports the consolidation while we strongly oppose the merger decree. To show support of the St. John’s PCG effort you can send a letter to the Bishop. His address is Most Rev. Michael W. Fisher, Bishop of Buffalo, Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, 795 Main St., Buffalo, NY 14203.
Please also note that the EMCC community now has two priests that are bringing an energy back to Mass like we haven’t seen in years. Father Chris and Father Greg filled all three churches for our Ash Wednesday Masses even though Ash Wednesday isn’t a holy day of obligation. If you haven’t been to one of their Masses, I highly recommend it. You won’t be disappointed.
Finally, church attendance throughout the country is on the upswing, and it is the intention of the St. John’s PCG that St. John’s (and the Southern Tier Catholic School) be part of that as a parish for years to come. Your continued prayers and support are appreciated.
Dan Hinz – St. John’s PCG Procurator.
Amendment from the Newsletter February 12th
The bankruptcy court set the final settlement cost for the victims of abuse at $200,000,000. [edit: these numbers are unconfirmed]
Of that amount $100,000,000 will be funded from insurances and $60,000,000 from Diocesan cash reserves and the sale of assets such as the seminary, chancery, priest retirement homes, Bishop's home, etc. To raise the remaining
$40,000,000, as stated by the Bishop, parish properties (churches, schools, rectories, convents, etc) would be sold. Our appeal and the trust will be set up to protect our assets. Many thanks to the team from St Brigid in Bergen, NY for their input regarding the trust. They established their trust effect January 1, 2025 and have already collected over $6000.
Please consider respectfully writing to the Bishop, showing your support for keeping St. John’s as a parish. The address is Most Rev, Michael Fisher, Bishop of Buffalo, Catholic Diocese of Buffalo, 795 Main Street, Buffalo, NY 14203. Please copy Dan Hinz with any letters sent.
If you know someone who does not have access to the internet and would like to receive our newsletters and updates, please let us know! Send an e-mail to Dan at dhinz52@gmail.com or fill out the Contact Us form on the Home Page of the website (savestjohnsolean.com).
Parish Core Group Members include among others:
Dan Hinz (Procurator), Dawn Pezzimenti, Dennis Pezzimenti, Carol Capito, John and Cathy Baglione, Carm and Rick Mikolajczyk, Paul Abdo, Paul Bzdak, John Whelpley, Mark Quinn, Pat O’Malley, Paul and Diane Ksionzyk, Mary Fofanah, Larry and Laurie Pavlock, Mike Kelly and Mary Freeman
Lord, our Refuge, Your Word tells us that You are our Refuge and Strength. You are ready to help with any trouble we face. Help us, Lord, to cling to You, our Refuge and Strength. Guide us to You in our time of trouble. Amen
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