ROME
National Catholic Reporter
May. 23, 2012
By Brian Roewe
In Rome today (May 23), canon lawyers representing St. Patrick Parish of Cleveland, Ohio filed a motion demanding Bishop Richard G. Lennon immediately re-open the church and restore the parish, and if he won’t, have someone else do it.
The motion, a copy (translated from Italian) obtained by NCR, is the second filed by the parish since decrees came from the Congregation for the Clergy in early March ruling in favor of St. Patrick and 11 other parishes that Lennon had attempted to suppress during a string of closings in 2009.
Patricia Schulte-Singleton, a parishioner of St. Patrick and head of parish advocate group Endangered Catholics, said Lennon’s delaying action is “causing distress spiritually, emotionally, economically” for the parish and its parishioners.
“There has been no timetable, no definitive action plan, so you have to wonder when is this going to happen, is he going to stall, does he really want to do this even though he’s been ordered to do it by Rome,” she said.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.