…then the basilica must go to the parishioners. That’s the theory of the Diocese of Buffalo, anyway: Rather than let one of their closed churches stand empty (or be turned into a restaurant or apartments), they want to ship it piece by piece to a congregation in Georgia that needs one:
When Father David Dye [of Georgia] went in search of more space for his growing congregation, he says he didn’t want a church from typical suburbia.
“I don’t mean to offend the people who built those churches, but some of them look like Pizza Huts,” he says.
Orthodox. Faithful. Free.
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Dye first 
asked for blueprints to build a church that would look and feel old. But then the diocese of Buffalo came up with a unique idea for solving their problem of closed and empty parishes. They offered to sell him an entire church if he could move it 900 miles south to Norcross, Ga.
Dye soon discovered the idea could be pulled off for less than half the cost of building a new church from scratch. If his parish can raise $16 million, they’ll be able to move St. Gerard’s, piece by piece on flatbed trucks.
Disassembling the church will take six months and the reconstruction another year, but architects have already created 3-D models of the church so that it can be put back together like a puzzle.
“If you were to go to Home Depot and buy pieces and build a church, well you’ve got to get the pieces from somewhere,” Dye says. “This is just coming here to get the pieces and the parts of the church.”
The Buffalo City Council president isn’t happy about the move, saying the parish is “trying to harvest our treasures out of Buffalo” — but others argue the treasure belongs to the Church, not the city. Even the former pastor of St. Gerard’s is in favor of the move, saying, “Why should a church become a restaurant, or a nightclub? Let’s reuse it for its intention. It’s a holy place. A sacred place.”
At least one former parishioner of St. Gerard’s is thrilled with the idea: Generations of Sharon Wilbur’s family were baptized and married in the basilica, until she moved south…to the parish of Mary Our Queen in Norcross, GA, where the basilica is hopefully soon to follow. Not a bad ending, if you ask me.
Check out more photos of the basilica here.