UNITED STATES
Vatican Insider
In Cleveland, Ohio, an unprecedented case has erupted, pitting parishes against the bishop
Giacomo Galeazzi
Vatican City
In U.S. states with a traditionally strong Catholic presence, many parishes are starting to close. The Diocese of Cleveland has suppressed 29, while 41 others are being merged. The paedophile priest scandal is obviously not extraneous to this phenomenon.
We might almost say it is a “job security crisis” in the sacristy. To stem the crisis of vocations, prelate Richard G. Lennon is restructuring his dioceses and amalgamating parishes – but the priests who have been removed and reassigned are rebelling with an appeal to the Holy See. In Cleveland, Ohio, an unprecedented case has erupted. Three of the 29 priests whose parishes were suppressed (and their churches closed) by Diocesan Bishop Lennon have appealed to the Congregation for the Clergy for the immediate restoration of the parishes and the re-opening of churches for worship. Throughout the Rust Belt (a manufacturing area in the Northeast U.S.) and in the inland towns toward the Midwest, Catholic communities are lamenting the closing of parishes.
This is a five-year trend that has now reached Cleveland. Bishop Richard G. Lennon, head of the Cleveland diocese (which includes more than 750,000 Catholics), has closed 29 parishes and merged 41 others. The restructuring plan actually cut 52 parishes out of a total of 224. But lean times are not over for American churches. Over the past few years the dioceses of Chicago, Detroit, and Boston have closed or aggregated dozens of parishes, in some cases to alleviate the financial difficulties caused by the paedophilia scandal. And now it’s New York: the archdiocese of the Big Apple announced that it will lock up 31 churches and 14 schools, clearing the way for the most extensive reorganization in the last 150 years.
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