Newsletter October 9, 2025

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 parishioners missing their normal 9:30am Sunday Mass where attendance is critically needed as it is measured by the Diocese.  These homeschooling actions have not met with approval from Father Chris.

The Civil lawsuit in NY State Supreme Court regarding the assessment that was filed by individual parishes in the Diocese has been rejected by the court.  The judge determined that the court did not have “civil jurisdiction”.  The judge did point out that the Dicastery for the Clergy has ruled that Parish funds cannot be used to settle the bankruptcy.

The Cattaraugus Regional Community Foundation account has been established and is open for donations starting October 15, 2025. Here is the announcement in that regard:

To St. John the Evangelist Parishioners,

Many of you attended informational meetings in July regarding a fund with the Cattaraugus Regional Community Foundation (CRCF). Please be advised that an account has been established and is available for use for anyone wishing to donate for the benefit of St. John's. The purpose of the account is to restrict your contribution(s).  The language in the fund agreement states:

This fund will support grants to benefit St. John’s Olean and community, including operating expenses, needed upgrades to the St. John’s campus properties, or any necessary costs to continue operations of STJEO. Grants will be made by the named fund advisor(s) or their successor(s).

In such event as St. John’s Olean ceases to exist, grants from this fund will support either a) the Catholic Community in Olean, NY, and surrounding communities served by St. John’s or b) the North Olean community, in which St. John’s Olean currently resides. In either such instance, grants will be recommended by the fund advisor(s). Should the fund advisor(s) or their successor(s) no longer be able to, or no longer wish to, advise grants from the fund, the CRCF Board of Directors will recommend grants from the fund.   

Successor fund advisors can be named by fund agreement addendum, subject to board approval, on an ongoing basis. 

Larry Pavlock and Mike Kelley are the Fund Advisors in the agreement and will approve payments (grants) from the account.  Please note that we reached out to Kim Palmer, Finance Manager to set up a meeting to discuss how this account can be used to support St. John’s, but after discussion with Father Chris and Phillipe Yates, Joint Ops Manager, this meeting was declined.

To use this new donation process please do the following:

* Continue to put your envelope into the collection at Mass even if no money is included.  This is to satisfy the attendance monitoring that is being done by the Diocese.

* Make checks payable to St. John the Evangelist Olean (STJEO) Fund.  Mail them to CRCF, 301 North Union St. Olean, NY  14760.   Donations may also be made online at cattfoundation.org.  Recurring automatic donations can also be set up through the Foundation’s website: https://bit.ly/STJEO-Fund or use the QR code below. 

Contact CRCF at 716-301-2723 if you need assistance.

The start date for accepting your donations is October 15, 2025.

For questions, please contact Dan Hinz at 716-307-1440 or dhinz52@gmail.com

Your continued support/prayers for St. John’s in attendance and funding has been amazing, and this support must be continued.  Thank You!  Please also continue to pray (our best action) for our appeals and for all affected Save Our Buffalo Churches locations.

Whatever the future holds, we remain committed Catholics.                

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).