Cleveland Parishes Celebrate Reopening Decision

By Kevin Niedermier and M.l. Schultze
WKSU
April 17, 2012

http://www.wksu.org/news/story/31399

[with audio]

A dozen churches in the Cleveland Catholic diocese will be reopening. Bishop Richard Lennon announced at a press conference this morning that he will not appeal a rare Vatican decision overruling his decision to close those churches along with some three-dozen others.

The bishop of the Cleveland Catholic diocese is reopening a dozen churches he shut down over the past three years. But he says it could be months before some of those churches will hold services again.

Bishop Richard Lennon announced at a press conference this morning that he will not appeal a rare Vatican decision overruling his church closures.

"Doing so would prolong the process for a number of years, and doing so would create more uncertainty and continue to divide our Catholic community," Lennon said. "Therefore I will move forward and carry out the Congregation for the Clergy's directives regarding the parishes in an orderly manner."

In all, Lennon closed 50 churches, citing financial problems and a drop in priests and parishioners. And he said this morning that those problems will continue as the dozen churches in the Cleveland and Akron areas prepare to reopen, and that some of the churches may have to share priests.

Olga Sarbinowska attends St. Casimir, a Polish-American parish in Cleveland's University Circle neighborhood – and one of the churches that won the Vatican ruling. She says she always had faith.

"Parishioners kept in touch and prayed and we believed this would be happening. That's why we were in the packet of (congregations) filing to reopen the church. And I believed it would reopen, believe it or not, I was the first one to say, 'It was supposed to be closed and it will reopen.' Maybe we all have to … rethink our spirit and God."

But he said the re-openings could take months as the diocese tries to find enough priests and money to keep the churches running. He said some of the churches may have to share priests.