Pope Names Bishop Thomas As Administrator of Cleveland Diocese

Toledo Blade
December 28, 2016

http://www.toledoblade.com/Religion/2016/12/28/Bishop-Thomas.html

Bishop Daniel E. Thomas will be serving the Diocese of Cleveland in a bishop's role in addition to his being Toledo's pastoral leader.

In a Wednesday morning announcement, the Diocese of Toledo stated that Bishop Thomas was appointed by Pope Francis as Apostolic Administrator of the eight-county Diocese of Cleveland after Bishop Richard G. Lennon resigned for health reasons.

Bishop Thomas will have duties in Toledo and the neighboring Diocese of Cleveland, seeing that the diocese continues its religious and administrative operations, until the Pope appoints a new permanent bishop.

When Toledo's Bishop Leonard Blair was named archbishop of Hartford, Conn., by Pope Francis in December 2013, the Rev. Charles Ritter served as diocesan administrator in Toledo until Pope Francis appointed Bishop Thomas, then a Philadelphia auxiliary bishop, who was installed Oct. 22, 2014.

Bishop Thomas has much the same role in Cleveland, with the added responsibilities of his being a bishop. The Pope can name an apostolic administrator instead of the diocese choosing someone to fill the role, and that is how Bishop Thomas has taken on expanded duties in northern Ohio.

Bishop Lennon had been bishop of Cleveland since May, 2006.

According to cleveland.com, the website of the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s digital operation, Bishop Lennon was hospitalized in February for chest pains and underwent an emergency heart procedure.

He is best known, a story on cleveland.com says, for shuttering 30-some churches in northeast Ohio in 2009 and 2010, a decision that sparked fervent backlash from some of the 700,000 parishioners in the diocese.