BishopAccountability.org
 
 

Former Parishioners of Saint Patrick Church in Cleveland to Hold Prayer Service Saturday

By Ken Prendergast
Plain Dealer
March 15, 2012

http://www.cleveland.com/sunpostherald/index.ssf/2012/03/former_parishioners_of_saint_p.html

Patricia Schulte-Singleton discusses a letter members of St. Patrick Parish in West Park received from the Vatican overturning an order that closed the historic church nearly two years ago.

CLEVELAND Because nothing official has been received from the Vatican to overrule Bishop Richard Lennon’s decision to close 13 churches, St. Patrick Church in the West Park neighborhood will not be reopened Saturday.

But that won’t stop the church’s former parishioners from holding a prayer service at 9:30 a.m. Saturday on the front steps of the church at Rocky River Drive and Puritas Avenue.

The parishioners requested that the Cleveland Catholic Diocese reopen the church for one day for a Mass inside and to celebrate the 164th anniversary of the parish’s founding. Saturday is St. Patrick’s Day. A group of former parishioners will march in the big St. Patrick’s Day parade downtown.

Diocese spokesman Bob Tayek said Lennon received the request to reopen the church from the parishioners several weeks ago. Instead, a Mass was scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday at Blessed Trinity Church, 14040 Puritas Ave.

Blessed Trinity was created from merging the parishes of St. Patrick, Ascension and Annunciation churches. However, former St. Patrick parishioners said text in a March 1 Vatican letter that was received by diocese warrants having the church reopened.

“The Bishop of Cleveland was advised on several occasions that procedures leading to the possible merger of a parish would not ipso iure (by operation of law) enable him perpetually to close a Church to divine worship and the devotion of the faithful,” the letter read in part.

The letter also said that Lennon erred substantively as well as procedurally in closing 13 churches two years ago in Greater Cleveland and Akron, including St. Patrick.

“The Vatican decree gave explicit orders to restore the parishes and open the churches,” said Patricia Schulte-Singleton, spokesperson for a coalition of St. Patrick’s estranged parishioners. “He (Lennon) didn’t just violate procedures in closing the churches. He violated the substantiveness of canon law. He really just can’t go back and do the procedures over again. We believe it’s pretty iron-clad.”

She said she was disappointed to learn that the Lennon would not open the church for the service Saturday. Lennon sent her a letter March 2 saying that he wanted to respect the process, even as the Vatican decree was sent the day before but hadn’t yet been received by the diocese. Tayek said more detailed documents regarding the decree have yet to be received by Lennon.

“We will hold the prayer service outside and celebrate,” Singleton said. “It (Saturday) is a very special day in more ways than one.”

She added that the church’s interior furnishings remain intact, but some of its religious fixtures were removed by the diocese two years ago. “A church is a building born from faith, and faith is something you can take anywhere,” Tayek said. “These fixtures are the richness of that faith.

“We know where some of the fixtures are. The Stations of the Cross went to Blessed Trinity, along with a plaque that hung on the wall above the baptismal font, as did the candlestick holders and linens for the altar. We’ve been watching the church and no truck has pulled up there. Everything else is intact,” Singleton said.

She noted that the diocese has been maintaining St. Patrick Church. The roof was repaired last month and headstones damaged in 2011, when a car went out of control and veered into the cemetery, were replaced last week.

“It’s kind of sad that a lot of these churches in Cleveland proper were the founding parishes of our city and the suburban churches were spawned from them,” she said. “Many of the people in the suburbs grew up in the neighborhoods where the churches were closed and many of them come back home to parishes to celebrate. There’s a legacy there. For many people, that’s been cut off and they’ve lost ways to give back.”

 

 

 

 

 




.

 
 

Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.