CLEVELAND (OH)
The Plain Dealer
By Michael O’Malley, The Plain Dealer
CLEVELAND, Ohio — Before a recent prayer service in a closed Catholic church in Holyoke, Mass., parishioner Victor Anop stood before 120 people and made an urgent announcement:
“The Vatican has ordered the bishop of Cleveland to reopen 13 closed churches.”
“Everybody broke into applause,” Anop said in a telephone interview last week. “People are still talking about it. What happened in Cleveland brings us hope.”
Catholics fighting church closings throughout the country are keeping their eyes on the Catholic Diocese of Cleveland, where Bishop Richard Lennon was formally notified by Vatican decrees on Wednesday that he did not properly follow church law and procedures on closing churches.
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