Things will always bode well for Catholicism because the Church was founded by Jesus Himself on the rock, Peter.
Throughout history, numbers have waxed and waned during various crises, persecutions and apostasies, as they will until the end of time.
Anyone scrutinizing numbers in Buffalo, Biloxi or Timbuktu and trying to extrapolate so as to draw conclusions on the likely future of Catholicism, is wasting their time.
There's actually a certain school of thought which says that the Church may need to shrink! How's about that!! See below.
Benedict XVI and the Church Which May Shrink. Or Not
Excerpt: At another point, in an interview published in 1997 in "Salt of the Earth" (Ignatius Press), he explained it this way: "Maybe we are facing a new and different kind of epoch in the church's history, where Christianity will again be characterized more by the mustard seed, where it will exist in small, seemingly insignificant groups that nonetheless live an intense struggle against evil and bring good into the world - that let God in."
The Protestant/Evangelical churches in WNY are chock full of ex-Catholics.
The loss isn’t merely due to people moving out but rather much of it can be attributed to conversion.
Buffalo is not that stagnant. There are still significant populations of ethnics groups there, and the growing Hispanic population on the West side is heavily Catholic.
If the Catholic churches in the Buffalo area are closing it does not bode well for the Catholic church, spin notwithstanding.
The Church is not being purified by shrinking. Catholics in Buffalo are among some of the most liberal leaning voters out there. Buffalo is a liberal enclave and always has been. It’s politics have been corrupt for decades.
No, Catholicism in the Buffalo area is in a sorry state and declining.
Could you define "well"