Welcome to Fourteen Holy Helpers!

Diocesan Rightsizing and Reshaping Process

The Diocese has released their final decisions in regard to the merging and closing of parishes resulting from the Rightsizing and Reshaping process. For our Family #7 the decisions are:

• 14 Holy Helpers … merge with Queen of Heaven but remain open as a secondary worship site
• St. John XXIII … merge with Queen of Heaven and close the parish with the entire site being put up for sale
• St. John Vianney … merge with Queen of Heaven and close the parish and school at the end of the 2024-25 school year with the entire site being put up for sale. The church will function as a secondary worship site until the end of the 2024-25 school year.
• Queen of Heaven … remain open as an independent parish
• St. Gabriel’s … remain open as an independent parish

The list of closings and mergers for all families is available at … Renewal Timeline and Mergers-Closings LINK.

Essentially, through the mergers the Diocese is creating a single parish and school in West Seneca at Queen of Heaven with two sites available for worship … Queen of Heaven and 14 Holy Helpers. In the press conference announcing the decisions, Fr. Bryan Zielenieski, Vicar for Renewal in the Diocese, described a secondary worship site as a church where the traditional functions like Masses, the sacraments, and services can be celebrated but it has become part of the parish it is joining …it is no longer an independent parish. The other facilities of the parish being merged like school buildings, parish halls, rectories, convents and cemeteries become part of the new parish. Mass schedules and the use of facilities will be determined by the family of parishes. Some answers to these questions are provided in the following Renewal document … Renewal Merger FAQs LINK.

The Diocese is meeting with the priests on Tuesday, September 17 to provide them with processes for merging and closing parishes, Canonical procedures which need to be followed, timelines which need to be set, etc. More details will be available afterward.

St. Mary’s Shrine

This Sunday, August 25 early in the morning, the box used to collect the candle money given by people lighting votive candles in St. Mary’s Shrine was robbed. This glass enclosed shrine is located outside the front of the church facing Union Rd. Damage to the collection box during the robbery was extensive. The West Seneca Police have been contacted. We are working to provide them with security camera footage to aid in their investigation.

To try and prevent any damage to the interior of the Church or the shrine we will be locking the doors to both areas after Masses and other services. The doors to both the church and the shrine will be open during Masses and services. While we come up with a replacement for the collection box, we are asking that you either drop your candle money in the mail slot to the right of the Rectory front door, or drop it in the weekly collection basket in an envelope marked “Candle Money”, or mail it in to the Rectory. Please contact the Rectory during business hours if you need access to either the church or the shrine when they are normally closed.

We regret any inconvenience resulting from the robbery but at this time we need to be concerned about safeguarding our precious spaces.

Burchfest 2024

Once again 14 Holy Helpers is participating along with the rest of the Gardenville area of West Seneca in celebrating the life and works of Charles Burchfield and his family. Burchfield was a renowned artist and resident of Gardenville. His home and studio were located on Clinton Street between St. John’s Lutheran Church and Weigand St. The celebration is planned for Saturday, September 21, 2024. Various sites in the area are hosting activities. Our parish will be open to visitors from 11:00 am – 3:00 pm. Members of our Parish Council will be available that day in the church to answer any questions. We are also planning a small baked goods and refreshment sale that day for the benefit of those visiting our church grounds.

Please stop by our church during Burchfest 2024 and also visit the other nearby sites.

Registration for Faith Formation for Youth

Registrations are now being accepted for the Faith Formation program for youth in our parish. Information and the registration forms are available at … Faith Formation for Youth LINK.

Support those who Support Us

We have been blessed to enjoy the support of our local business community over the past year. They have provided our parish, and the events and services we produce, with money, products, and services donations. Through their generous donations we have been able to generate needed revenue to work toward our mission and serve the local community.

Due to the recent coronavirus health crisis, many businesses have been forced to either temporarily close or operate in a restricted environment. Even those not as directly impacted have had to operate in a new world of social distancing, working environment cleansings, or managing a remote work force. Our supporting businesses stood up to help 14 Holy Helpers when we called … Businesses that Support 14 Holy Helpers LINK. Please consider supporting them with your patronage when you are in need of the goods or services that they provide to the community. Thank them and let them know that 14 Holy Helpers appreciates their support.

On-Line Giving

On-line giving to 14 Holy Helpers is processed through a program managed by Vanco Payment Solutions.  Vanco is a large on-line payment processor for faith based organizations and is used by a number of parishes in the Diocese of Buffalo. As a PCI Level 1 compliant service provider they are dedicated to protecting the security and privacy of our donors.

Making your payments on-line is easy.  You can access our on-line system by clicking the blue Offering button found in the right hand column of our Home Page (see button below).  You have the option to set up a donor profile to save your information for multiple donations … or make a one time donation without setting up a profile.  Donations can be made via credit card or ACH withdrawal from a checking or savings account.

The system is available now.  Call the Parish Business Administrator, Kate Wypij, at the Rectory (716) 674-2374 with any questions.

Parish Pictorials

We have started to collect the history of our parish life through photographs. If you have any pictures that you would like to share with us please contact our Webteam. Our current collection can be seen at the following link … 14 HH Pictorial.

Parish E-Mail List Sign up for the Parish Email List. Through our emails you’ll get information and reminders about parish news and life delivered right to your in-box. You can subscribe at the following link … Subscribe