In Ohio Echoes of Boston Parish Closings, by Michael Paulson, Boston Globe, March 16, 2009

In Ohio, Echoes of Boston Parish Closings

By Michael Paulson
Boston Globe
March 16, 2009

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles_of_faith/2009/03/in_ohio_echoes.html

Bishop Richard G. Lennon (left) was the vicar general of the Archdiocese of Boston when he oversaw the reconfiguration process that ultimately led to the closings of about 18 percent of the parishes in metropolitan Boston. Now he is the bishop of Cleveland, and this weekend he announced a set of closings and mergers that will result in a 23 percent drop in the number of parishes in that diocese. In his remarks on Sunday, Lennon noted that the Boston reconfiguration had resulted in the closing of his own childhood parish, St. James the Apostle in Arlington:

Bishop Lennon during his installation Mass in Cleveland on 5/15/06
Photo by Jamie-Andrea Yanak

"Closing a parish is very emotional, and I am sympathetic to the tremendous passion that many Catholics have for parishes that in many cases have been part of their families' lives for several generations. I have personally experienced the closing of my own childhood parish in Boston, which members of my family helped establish in 1914."

The Cleveland Plain Dealer describes the reaction, which will be familiar to observers of the Boston situation, where there is still ongoing civil litigation, canonical appeals, and five "parish vigils" in which closed parishes are occupied round-the-clock by Catholics protesting the closings, nearly five years after the closings. Here's an excerpt from the Plain Dealer story:

"Some are saying prayers of thanks. Many of the faithful, especially members of urban parishes, wonder what happened to the church they knew.

A sweeping consolidation plan comes down hard on the church in the city. It prepares the diocese to shift staff and resources from venerable, often struggling urban churches to larger, younger parishes in the outer suburbs.

The newly shaped Diocese of Cleveland will field 52 fewer parishes by June 30, 2010, and most of the loss will be felt in Cleveland, Lorain and Akron and the inner-ring suburbs of Euclid and Lakewood. Eighteen of the 29 parishes that will close outright are in Cleveland.

For Catholics with ties to the city, it's almost impossible to escape a sense of loss and, some say, abandonment. Map: All the churches of the diocese, showing which ones close, which merge, which are unaffected. (6 mb pdf). Video: Bishop Lennon discusses the reasons for downsizing.

Irene Allen, 62, of Brecksville, came to Cleveland from Hungary when she was 10 years old. She attended elementary school at St. Procop, was married at St. Ignatius of Antioch and buried her parents out of St. Emeric.

All three of those churches are scheduled to close.

'I've been a Catholic all my life, but I'm thinking of becoming a Lutheran,' an angry Allen said Sunday. 'Cleveland is a city of churches. So what are we doing with them? Closing them down. It's an atrocity. How much are they thinking of God and how much are they thinking of their pocketbooks?'"

A public radio station in Cleveland, WCPN, held a conversation about the closings this morning; I was among the guests. You can listen in here.