BishopAccountability.org
	Cleveland Diocese's Consolidation Must Be Followed by Consolation: Editorial Plain Dealer July 4, 2010 http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2010/07/cleveland_dioceses_onsolidatio.html Some Roman Catholic parishioners are in a world of hurt after the painful loss of St. Emeric, the last Roman Catholic church slated to close in Greater Cleveland. It will be up to their shepherd, Bishop Richard Lennon, who has closed 50 churches in an eight-county area in little more than a year, to help this wounded diocese heal. There was a powerful intellectual argument for closing churches -- one that this page strongly supported. Because of a shortage of priests, pastors in Cleveland sometimes had to tend to two struggling, poorly attended churches. Meanwhile, others in the suburbs struggled to lead growing flocks. The church, some might recall, put up the good fight. Lennon's predecessor, Bishop Anthony Pilla, tried hard to link dwindling city churches with burgeoning suburban congregations with his Church in the City program. Some of the benefits are still evident. Many a Catholic school, food pantry and social service center has been kept alive by the collaboration of suburban and urban volunteers. The diocese should continue to keep these places open for the good of Greater Clevelanders. And the diocese should do its best to make sure its closed churches are sold to people who will put the buildings to good use. But the Church in the City couldn't save the diocese from the hard, cold fact that fewer priests and fewer people in the pews must at some point mean fewer churches -- and that hurts. Churches are like family members. It's hard to let them go. The grief is real, and it's understandable. The diocese must do more to address that sense of loss and to reinforce a sense of inclusion if it doesn't want to be seen by some parishioners as a profiteer on their pain -- even as some treasured artifacts such as altars, chalices and statutes are being sold online. Still, now that the closings are over -- pending a few churches' appeals -- it would be good to hear from the bishop directly about where he hopes to take this leaner, bruised diocese. A capital campaign is to start in the fall. The healing must start now.
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