In a May 30 statement, the diocese said it had asked all its parishes to file Chapter 11 “rapid prepackaged” bankruptcy, which would allow each parish to restructure their finances and avoid liquidating their assets, in order to pay a $150 million settlement with more than 800 clerical abuse survivors and bring the case to an end.
The diocese stressed that each parish will be bankrupt for only about 48 hours, and the process can proceed only if and when all parishes have approved the proposal.
This development comes nearly a year after the diocese announced that it planned to let go of approximately 22 percent of its staff to help fund the settlement.
Diocese’s statements and assurances to parishioners
“This approach has been discussed among all pastors and is the approach that was followed by parishes in the Diocese of Rockville Centre as well as in the Archdiocese of New Orleans which resulted in the successful resolution and emergence from their respective Chapter 11 cases,” the diocese wrote in its announcement.
“We will provide further updates as this process advances and are heartened at the possibility of at last providing victim-survivors the possibility of closure and healing,” the statement continued. “With the prospect of finally achieving this goal, we look to the future with renewed commitment and focus on our mission and work in service to the Catholic faithful throughout Western New York and our broader community.”
During an interview with ABC7 Buffalo, Monsignor Robert Zapfel, a member of the Diocesan Finance Council, claimed that because the bankruptcy is “limited in scope,” the parishes’ credit won’t be negatively impacted.
Msgr. Zapfel also clarified to the network that if just one parish votes “no,” the entire proposal fails “because the insurance companies will never agree to have that one parish, who could have exposure to one or two, or even no claims, but (they may have) future claims.”
The monsignor added that if this plan falls through, the diocese would be forced to go back to the drawing board because there is currently no “plan B.”
Parishioners in the Diocese of Buffalo told ABC7 they were not convinced by Zapfel’s assertion that bankruptcy wouldn’t have major financial repercussions for Buffalo’s parishes.
Craig Speers, who attends St. Michael’s in downtown Buffalo, expressed concern about the financial consequences for individual parishes.
“It’s a damaging effect. It could have a damaging effect on individual credit ratings of each parish,” Speers told the outlet.
Credibly accused priests previously concelebrated Mass at Zapfel’s parish
It’s worth noting that in 2020 a Mass at St. Leo Church in Amherst, where Zapfel served as pastor at the time, was concelebrated by Father Thomas Gresock, Father Fabian J. Maryanski, and Father Mark J. Wolski, who each were included on the diocese’s list of “Priests with substantiated allegations of child sexual abuse, with Bishop Edward Scharfenberger, the then-interim bishop of Buffalo, serving as the main celebrant.
Scharfenberger later apologized but defended inviting these priests because the event “was a private Mass … not open to the public.”
In the case of Fr. Gresock, Zapfel had personally investigated allegations of sexual abuse against the priest while serving as vice chancellor of the diocese in 1987 and determined them to be credible.
Mother Cabrini Foundation funds
Kevin Brun, a survivor of clerical sex abuse and victims’ advocate in the Diocese of Buffalo, previously told LifeSiteNews that the diocese could easily pay the settlement without taking a dime from parishioners, laying off employees, or negatively affecting the faithful who had nothing to do with these abuse cases by tapping into the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation, a non-profit that supports the healthcare and well-being of “vulnerable New Yorkers” worth about $4 billion.
The Cabrini Foundation was born from the $3.75 billion sale in 2018 of a non-profit entity, Fidelis Care, a Catholic health insurer run by the bishops of New York’s eight dioceses, whose president was Cardinal Timothy Dolan.
“Cardinal Dolan, in a premeditated move, placed those funds in the Mother Cabrini (Foundation) so it couldn’t be touched to satisfy settlements and abuse cases,” Brun said at the time. “And that’s just a playbook that these dioceses across the country and across the world have followed over the past decades. All they’re concerned about, no matter what narrative they put forth, that they want to do what’s best for survivors; what they really want is to make sure that they protect their financial bottom line. And it’s horrific.”
As previously reported by LifeSite, in August 2025, the diocese announced that it would let go of approximately 22 percent of its staff to help fund the whopping $150 million bankruptcy settlement it had agreed to with hundreds of abuse survivors just months earlier.
Two months earlier, in June, the diocese had also asked parishes to contribute between 10 percent and 80 percent of their revenue to the settlement.
Decades of abuse cover-up
In 2018, reports began to emerge that the Diocese of Buffalo, under the leadership of multiple bishops, had been covering for abusive priests going back decades, including then-Bishop Richard J. Malone.
The next year, Malone resigned in disgrace after a Vatican investigation revealed that he had covered up the sexual abuse of multiple seminarians and had put a priest who was caught consuming homosexual pornography twice back into ministry, among other charges.
Siobhan O’Connor, Malone’s former secretary, helped bring him down after she blew the whistle on his corrupt behavior during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes in 2019.
In 2020, while facing over 900 lawsuits related to abuse cases, the diocese declared chapter 11 bankruptcy, which ultimately led to April’s $150 million settlement.
In September 2024, Malone’s successor, Bishop Michael Fisher, also announced the closure of nearly 80 churches and “worship sites” as part of a broader restructuring plan called “Road to Renewal.”