CLEVELAND (OH)
The Plain Dealer
By The Plain Dealer Editorial Board
Cleveland Bishop Richard Lennon’s decision to reopen 12 churches from inner- city Cleveland to Akron and Lorain is a welcome move to help bring peace and reconciliation to a fractured diocese.
For the parishes that successfully appealed to Rome to reverse the loss of their churches, it brings closure and a chance to work with the bishop to heal their relationship and rebuild new faith communities.
Lennon deserves strong praise for choosing conciliation in response to last month’s extraordinary rebuke from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy in Rome, declaring that Lennon failed to follow proper church law and procedures when he closed the 12 churches.
Those dozen parishes were among 50 churches the diocese closed in 2009 and 2010 in a reconfiguration of financial and human resources triggered by long outmigration from the city.
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