TOLEDO (OH)
Toledo Blade
By DAVID YONKE
BLADE RELIGION EDITOR
It's been an eventful year for Bishop Leonard Paul Blair, who was installed as the seventh bishop of the Toledo Catholic Diocese on Dec. 4, 2003.
Since that solemn ceremony at Rosary Cathedral, the new bishop has faced a number of serious crises, including the arrest of one of his priests for the 1980 murder of a nun; the recommendation to close or merge 33 parishes; $1.19 million in settlements paid to 23 victims of clerical sexual abuse, and a highly publicized dispute over moving the historic Lathrop House in Sylvania.
A Detroit native who was ordained a priest in 1976, Bishop Blair, 55, said yesterday that he would "defer to others" rather than grade himself on his first year in Toledo.
But in an interview in his spartan fourth-floor office overlooking the city's downtown, the bespectacled, gray-haired bishop acknowledged that he has been through some difficult times as leader of the 314,000 Roman Catholics in the 19-county Toledo diocese.
"The toughest things I think you know," he said in response to a question. "That would include the abuse cases and the [murder] allegations against Father [Gerald] Robinson."
Posted by kshaw at December 10, 2004 08:38 AM