BUFFALO, N.Y. — Bishop Michael Fisher has returned from a weeklong visit to the Vatican, where he met with Pope Leo XIV and several high-ranking Vatican officials to discuss the Diocese of Buffalo’s ongoing bankruptcy and its sweeping plan to restructure local parishes.

Fisher said his conversations in Rome centered on two issues dominating the diocese’s future — its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings and the “Road to Renewal” initiative, which is leading to the closure or merger of roughly half of the parishes across Western New York.

The diocese filed for bankruptcy in 2020 in response to hundreds of sexual abuse lawsuits, a process aimed at compensating survivors while allowing parish ministries to continue operating. Fisher said his message to the pope focused on finding a path forward.

“It’s essential for us to emerge and to be hopefully moving forward with a sense of hope with the people,” Fisher told 2 On Your Side. “We’ve got a lot of things going on: the restructuring of the diocese as well as Chapter 11 (bankruptcy) but the Road to Renewal, it was hopefully about us trying to look at what resources we have and to move together as a people of faith.”

During the visit, Fisher also met with officials from the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Clergy, which recently accepted petitions from several Buffalo-area parishes appealing the bankruptcy settlement contributions required under the diocese’s reorganization plan.

Members of the grassroots group Save Our Buffalo Churches have applauded the Vatican for noting, “the grave legal questions raised by the plan,” though Rome has not yet issued a final decision.

When asked how he defends the diocese’s restructuring amid that Vatican response, Fisher said the meetings focused largely on process.

“We dealt with basically looking at the process and how we’re moving forward with the process, and they encouraged us to continue to do that,” Fisher said. “There’s always going to be questions of clarification, and that’s really what this was all about. It wasn’t getting into any specific cases of the parishes.”

Fisher acknowledged the deep emotions among Western New York Catholics — from betrayal over the clergy abuse crisis to anger over parish closings and mergers.

“When I first arrived, if you recall, the Road to Renewal and the Chapter 11, they were just getting off the ground,” Fisher said. “We have to move forward with this. We don’t have the resources, we don’t have the priests and in some cases we don’t even have the people in the pews, so a restructuring had to be done.”

As for the bankruptcy itself, Fisher said he understands survivors’ frustration that the process has stretched on for six years. 

“I wish we could have settled it the first year,” Fisher said. “But we have a very complex situation in that we’re not only restructuring but we’re also trying to bring restitution and healing. That’s one of my No. 1 priorities is to bring healing to the victims and those who have been abused, as well as our people and our parishes, our clergy.”