Current News

St. Mary's High School senior Leah Meyer received the Gatorade Volleyball Player of the Year Award for New York State. The 6'3" middle also announced her plans to attend Duke University at the Jan. 9 presentation.

For a quarter century, the niece of Bishop Bernard J. McLaughlin had served as his caretaker. She was with him when the retired auxiliary bishop of Buffalo passed away on Jan. 5.

Pro-life activists from across the country, including a delegation of representatives from the Diocese of Buffalo, assembled at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., for the March for Life 2015 on Jan. 22. Before the event, Vicki Thorn, original founder of Project Rachel, the Catholic Church's official ministry for post-abortive women, discussed the work she has done.

Bishop Edward M. Grosz has frequently made a point of working together with other churches to share dialogue and bond through their shared beliefs and practices. Since 1987, Bishop Grosz has served as a liaison to the Ukrainian Catholic Church, and has worked with the church in both Buffalo and Stamford, Conn.

In addition to the rest of his ministry in the Diocese of Buffalo, Bishop Edward M. Grosz was chaplain of the Villa Maria Motherhouse Complex of the Felician Sisters in Buffalo for 10 years, from 1980 to 1990. During this time, many of the sisters got to know Bishop Grosz well and, last month, some of them shared some of their stories of when he interacted and served with the sisters on a regular basis.

Throughout his time in the Diocese of Buffalo, Bishop Edward M. Grosz has made many contributions to the Permanent Diaconate, which began in 1975, four years after Bishop Grosz was ordained a priest.

While he has served the Catholic Church for 25 years as a bishop, Bishop Grosz has also been able to collaborate with other churches, including the Polish National Catholic Church.

Father Richard Jedrzejewski, pastor of Assumption Parish in Buffalo, was a childhood friend of Bishop Edward M. Grosz. The grew up in Buffalo's Black Rock neighborhood and attended Assumption School.

WASHINGTON—Cardinal Seán O'Malley, Archbishop of Boston and chairman of the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities, welcomed passage of the "No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion and Abortion Insurance Full Disclosure Act of 2015" (H.R. 7) by the U.S. House of Representatives. "By passing this legislation, the House has taken a decisive step toward respect for unborn human life, reflecting the will of the American people," he said.

During Bishop Edward M. Grosz' more than 40 years as a priest and 25 years as a bishop, he has influenced men studying to join the priesthood, as well as how things continue to be done in parishes.

Bishop Richard Malone talks about Christ the King Seminary in East Aurora, and how important it is to the Diocese of Buffalo.

Father Richard E. Zajac remembers fondly his childhood, growing up with Bishop Edward M. Grosz.

Throughout his time as a priest and bishop of the diocese, Bishop Edward M. Grosz has always stayed true to his Polish heritage and helped people in the traditionally Polish areas of Buffalo's East Side. Father Thaddeus N. Bocianowski, current pastor of St. Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr Parish in Buffalo, known as the Mother Church of Polonia, recalled how Bishop Grosz served Polish-speaking parishioners during his time as the parish pastor from 2003 to 2009.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo included the Education Investment Tax Credit in his 2015 budget proposal Wednesday, pleasing many Catholic leaders who have been advocating for the bill for years. The New York Senate passed the tax credit bill, which allows taxpayers to claim credits for donations to public schools or private scholarships for students attending parochial schools.

One of the reasons Bishop Richard J. Malone was pleased he was appointed to lead the Diocese of Buffalo in 2012 was that he would finally have brother bishops to share company with. As bishop of Portland, Maine, Bishop Malone didn't work with any auxiliary bishops, but Buffalo now has two: Bishop Emeritus Edward U. Kmiec and Bishop Edward M. Grosz.

Patience has never been my strong suit. Waiting can feel agonizingly prolonged and sometimes pointless. Often, the effort to be patient is accompanied by varying degrees of suffering - whether it comes from awaiting a currently unattainable good, living through a painful situation, or any number of other reasons. In the last couple of years, I've begun to question more deeply what patience is, realizing that it must be more than white-knuckled endurance.

The 15th annual Catholic Education dinner will take place on Thursday, Jan. 29, at the Buffalo Niagara Convention Center. The 2015 dinner will mark Bishop Richard J. Malone's third year celebrating Catholic schools in the Diocese of Buffalo. More than 1,200 guests are expected to attend.

Bishop Edward M. Grosz, who describes himself as shy as a child, now talks with NASCAR speed, as he tells the odd way he learned he was named a bishop 25 years ago. It is a story full of mystery, travel, suspense, humor, even a surprise cameo.

Kaitlyn Hogg, a 14-year-old high school freshman from St. Gregory the Great Parish, Williamsville, was the youth award recipient at the presentation of the Pro-Vita Awards on Saturday at Our Lady of Victory Basilica, Lackawanna.

How far has society come to ending racism 50 years after the Civil Rights marches from Selma to Montgomery Ala.? That question was posed to the congregation gathered at Blessed Trinity Parish for a special Martin Luther King Mass on Jan. 18.

WASHINGTON—The U. S. Supreme Court granted a request, January 16, to review the November 2014 decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upholding the constitutionality of marriage laws in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.

Eleven of the eighteen schools participating in the annual Future City Competition for middle school students are Catholic schools in Western New York. The competition will be held on Saturday, Jan. 24, at Mount St. Mary High School, 3756 Delaware Ave., Kenmore, from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Bishop Richard J. Malone has appointed the pastor of St. John Paul II Parish, Lake View, to the Catholic School Advisory Council, the panel which advises the bishop on Catholic elementary school issues. His parish is also home to Southtowns Catholic School. Father Peter J. Karalus joined the panel in December 2014.

WASHINGTON—Over 10,000 pilgrims, many of them youth from schools around the nation, are expected to gather in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception to pray for an end to abortion at the Opening Mass of the National Prayer Vigil for Life, Wednesday, January 21, at 6:30 p.m., the eve of the annual March for Life. The vigil coincides with the 42nd anniversary of the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade decision on January 22, 1973, which legalized abortion nationwide. Since the decision was handed down, an estimated 56 million abortions have been performed legally in the United States.

The eighth Buffalo Mass Mob is set to converge upon St. Casimir Church, Buffalo, this Sunday morning, with a generational chanted Mass set to begin at 10 a.m.

Bishop Richard Malone explains the Catholic Church's season of Ordinary Time in "Consider This."

Administrators in the Department of Catholic Schools are asking supporters to contact New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to support the Education Tax Credit proposal in his 2015 executive budget. The tax credit would help encourage donations to private scholarship funds, which officials believe would generation an additional $150 in awards for students and families.

A special group met at the Catholic Center in Buffalo in December to plan events for the 2015 Year of Consecrated Life. Pope Francis officially designated the World Year of Consecrated Life to occur between Nov. 29, 2014, and Feb. 2, 2016.

Sister Mary Martinia Skokowski died Jan. 13, 2015, in the Blessed Mary Angela Care Center in Buffalo.

On Sunday, Jan. 18, the diocese will be celebrating a Mass at Blessed Trinity Church, 317 Leroy Ave., Buffalo, at 10:30 a.m., in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. All are welcome to come and join us!

By now Catholics have no doubt seen commercials inviting them to come home to the Church. Hopefully, some have accepted the gesture and stopped by their childhood parish or the church around the corner. Now pastors and parish councils have to decide how to keep them.

On Sunday, January 18, Bishop Richard J. Malone will be the main celebrant at the annual diocesan Mass honoring Martin Luther King Jr. Rev. Brother Henry Fulmer, OFM, from the diocese of Charleston, S.C., will be the guest homilist. The Mass will be held at Blessed Trinity Church, 317 Leroy Ave., Buffalo, at 10:30 a.m.

Daybreak TV Productions recorded footage of Bishop Bernard J. McLaughlin's Mass of Christian Burial on Saturday, Jan. 10. Bishop Donald Trautman of Erie delivered the homily.

Friends, family and clergy gathered at St. Joseph Cathedral in downtown Buffalo for the funeral of the Most Reverend Bernard J. McLaughlin on Jan. 10. The auxiliary bishop emeritus of Buffalo passed away Jan. 5 at the age of 102.

Father Eugene A. Zimpfer died Jan. 9, 2015, in Murray-Weigel Hall in the Bronx, age 82.

A special parish Mass was held at St. John the Baptist Church in Kenmore to honor the late Bishop Bernard J. McLaughlin on Jan. 8. The retired auxiliary bishop of Buffalo passed away Jan. 5, at the age of 102.

Catholic Charities and Bishop Richard J. Malone have officially begun Catholic Charities' 2015 appeal, with a $10.9 million goal and a theme of "Find Good Within." The announcement was made at a press conference Jan. 7 at Catholic Charities' A Gathering Place, an outreach program for seniors. The appeal funds 70 programs Catholic Charities runs in 61 sites throughout the eight counties of the diocese.

Upon the occasion of Bishop Bernard J. McLaughlin's 100th birthday in 2012, several bishops who knew him offered words on their relationship. Following Bishop McLaughlin's passing this week, we're reprinting several of those comments:

Even as homes, stores and streets are quickly stripped of holiday decorations during these days after Christmas, Christians continue to observe the Lord's birthday through Sunday, Jan. 11, the feast of the Baptism of the Lord.

Most Reverend Bernard J. McLaughlin, auxiliary bishop emeritus of the Diocese of Buffalo, died Monday evening, Jan. 5, 2015, at his home in Kenmore, one day before he would have celebrated the 46th anniversary of his ordination as a bishop.