The diocese, which four years ago today filed for Chapter 11 protection, has identified 22 properties, including its longtime headquarters, it may sell to generate funds toward a settlement of the roughly 900 claims in federal bankruptcy court.

But aside from that development, there’s little indication the diocese is close to reaching a deal with the Official Committee of Unsecured Creditors, which represents about 900 people who said they were sexually abused as children by Catholic priests or other diocese employees.

The bankruptcy case, filed Feb. 28, 2020, already has taken longer to resolve than any other diocese reorganization except for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s, which took nearly five years.

While Buffalo Diocese officials and an attorney for the creditors committee declined to comment on their mediated settlement talks, abuse victims expressed dismay over the pace of negotiations.

“They’re nowhere,” said Kevin Brun, whose 2019 lawsuit alleging the Rev. Arthur Smith molested him when he was a teenager has been stalled in state court due to the bankruptcy. “I’ve been reflecting on how long this bankruptcy process is taking, and my frustration level, it can’t be measured. And I’m sure other survivors – in fact I know other survivors who I’ve spoken to that are extremely frustrated as well.”

The diocese has wracked up nearly $14 million in legal bills, while those who filed abuse claims in bankruptcy court have yet to see a penny.

“I don’t see where the sense of urgency or where the incentive is for these bankruptcy attorneys to settle these cases. I mean, they’re getting paid right along, regardless of what the final outcome is,” said Brun, who also has a claim in the diocese bankruptcy case. “I just don’t think they’re pushing hard enough or negotiating strong enough to bring this to fruition.”

Michael F. Whalen Jr. said he was hoping Chief Judge Carl L. Bucki of U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Western District of New York will soon allow at least some Child Victims Act lawsuits to proceed in state court, as a prod for negotiations to move forward.

Bucki decided in January to keep Child Victims Act lawsuits against Catholic parishes and schools on hold until at least April 15.

“It’s just too long. Too many people are passing away,” said Whalen, whose news conference in 2018 alleging abuse by the Rev. Norbert Orsolits led to the unraveling of the diocese’s historical cover-up of clergy sex abuse cases. “I feel sorry for the survivors that have passed and haven’t see closure.”

The diocese’s announcement in court papers last October that it would offer at least $100 million toward a settlement elicited mostly scoffs – both from abuse victims who said it was a paltry amount to address their pain and suffering and from parishioners furious over having to pay for church leadership’s mishandling of abusive clergy.

To get there, the diocese will have to sell at least some of its property.

Already on the market is the former Christ the King Seminary, a sprawling campus of 18 buildings on 117 acres in the Town of Aurora, with an asking price of $5.3 million.

Three potential buyers for the property emerged in 2020 after the seminary closed. One was the Masonic Care Community, which was prepared to make a cash offer, according to a trustee. The diocese put off plans for the sale at the time due to demands of the Chapter 11 process. The Masonic Care Community was still interested in the property but also was busy with other projects at the moment, said the trustee, Christopher Hough.

Other diocese properties have yet to be listed but have been named in court papers as likely targets for sales. The most prominent is the Catholic Center, the diocese’s longtime headquarters at 785 and 795 Main St. The five-story former home of the Courier Express newspaper was built in 1929 and has an estimated full market value of $6.7 million, according to City of Buffalo property records.

Also on the list of properties to be marketed: three Newman Centers located near university or college campuses in Buffalo, Amherst, and Alfred; three priest retirement homes; a home for expectant mothers and mothers with newborns; a center for families of patients being treated at nearby hospitals; and a large office building in Lackawanna that houses the administrative operations of Our Lady of Victory Charities. About 30 retired priests live in the three homes in Tonawanda, Depew and Lackawanna.

Appraisals were conducted last week of the UB Newman Center at 495 Skinnersville Road in Amherst and a condominium on Bristol Drive that’s home to the Rev. Paul D. Seil, UB Newman Center director, Seil said in a weekly newsletter posting on Sunday.

“While I have been informed numerous times that the condo will be sold (to help fund the settlement to the victims of clergy abuse and the cover-up), that does not mean the same for the Newman Center!” Seil said in the newsletter. He declined to comment further on Tuesday.

Construction of the UB Newman Center was completed in 2010 at a cost of $2.7 million.

Sales of the properties would further reduce the local Catholic Church’s vast Western New York real estate empire, which has shrunk dramatically over the past 15 years as dozens of churches and elementary schools closed due to declining church attendance and school enrollments and fewer priests.

Through a diocese spokesman, Bishop Michael W. Fisher declined requests to be interviewed for this story. In a video posted Tuesday to the diocese website, he acknowledged that Western New York Catholics “must address the realization that we have more parishes than we need for our Catholic population.”

“The reality is buildings are closing,” said Fisher, “but the church, the people of God, will continue.”

Most recently, All Saints Catholic Church in Buffalo’s Riverside neighborhood and St. Andrew Church and school in the Town of Tonawanda were slated to be closed later this year and will likely be put on the market. While those properties are owned by parishes, which are separate non-profit corporations, their sales ultimately will benefit a settlement trust because the parishes owed the diocese hundreds of thousands of dollars in “assessments,” a regular diocesan tax on weekly offertory collections.

But Fisher also said in his video that the recent closures “are not a direct result of our ongoing Chapter 11 proceedings” and instead were connected to “wider societal trends that span long before our recent problems,” such as migration of local Catholics to other parts of the country, smaller families and people identifying as spiritual but not religious.

The diocese and parishes have discussed additional assessments of all parishes as part of funding a settlement but “no actions have been taken at this time and cannot be taken until the bankruptcy court renders its decision,” he said.

Bucki in January allowed the diocese to hire Hanna Commercial Real Estate as real estate broker for the 22 properties.

“We have the big list, but we’re not authorized to market any of them,” except for the seminary, said William K. Heussler, licensed associate real estate broker with Hanna.

Heussler said his office will be directed by the court about what properties to list and when.

“I don’t know procedurally what they do and how they deem those ready to sell,” he added.

The diocese is required under bankruptcy proceedings to monetize its assets for the purposes of paying its creditors, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that it must sell all properties.

In some instances, a loan may be taken against the value of a property, with the loan proceeds used to pay into a settlement trust.

The 22 properties on the diocese’s revised list do not include five Catholic high school buildings that were part of previous diocese property lists.

Bishop Timon-St. Jude High School in South Buffalo, St. Mary’s High School in Lancaster, Cardinal O’Hara High School in the Town of Tonawanda, Notre Dame High School in Batavia and the former DeSales High School in Lockport, now used as an elementary school, are all owned by the diocese. The schools have operated independently of the diocese for many years, but never took ownership of the buildings.

Instead, they lease the space long term for a nominal fee, with the understanding that they pay for property maintenance, renovations, and upgrades.