05-03-2025
Buffalo Diocese focusing on hope and healing during Ash Wednesday, Lent
BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Church pews at Christian churches throughout Western New York might be filled on Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday is one of the busiest days of the year for the Buffalo Diocese.
'If you talk to any church secretary, they will tell you the phone rings more on Ash Wednesday then it does on the 23rd and 24th of December,' said Father Bill Quinlivan, a pastor of Catholic Family Parishes in South Buffalo. 'Our hope is always that people will enter into the season and not just see it as a superficial thing on their forehead, being marked with the sign of the cross, but that they will remember the one who carried the cross for them, and enter into a season of genuine and deep prayer and renewal in their hearts.'
Quinlivan says he will be distributing ashes from 2-4 p.m. at St. Martin of Tours and will have a mass at 7 p.m. with ashes, at Our Lady of Perpetual Help.
Quinlivan says in the Catholic Church worldwide every 25 years is a jubilee year. This year, instituted by Pope Francis, will be known as the Jubilee year of Hope. Quinlivan also says for the Buffalo Diocese, this year they're focusing on hope and healing.
'In the Diocese, there's a great need for healing, with not only the consolidation of churches and closures, but the tragic history of sexual abuse of children by clergy and other members of the church,' said Quinlivan. 'We're continually working to repent every one of us, to repent our sins and we take on the burden of other people's sins as well.'
He believes this year parishioners will make an extra effort to go to their churches if they are slated to be part of the Diocese's closures, or some might be going to a different church to continue their faith. Father Bill also believes the recent news of Pope Francis' serious illness is on the forefront of parishioners' minds.
'Every time you hear about a Pope, you think of the Catholic Church, we're the only ones who have a Pope I believe, and the identity with one of our great and solum traditions of having a holy father who is the vicar of Christ also flows down into other traditions like Ash Wednesday.'
For more information on Ash Wednesday and Lent, visit the Buffalo Diocese website here.
Hope Winter is a reporter and multimedia journalist who has been part of the News 4 team since 2021. See more of her work here.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
