By Robert L. Smith
Plain Dealer
March 17, 2009
http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2009/03/st_colman_priest_to_parishione.html
CLEVELAND -- The St. Patrick's Day faithful streamed toward the familiar twin green domes of St. Colman Catholic Church Tuesday morning, anticipating the moment.
Shortly before 10:30 a.m., a smartly dressed fife and drum corps broke into a thunderous march, filling West 65th Street with the sights and sounds that set Irish hearts aflutter.
But as the drill team disappeared inside the old stone church, another cry rang out, this one from Shirley Panagopoulos, who waved a stack of petitions to be signed.
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| Tuesday's Mass at St. Colman in Cleveland. Photo by Thomas Ondrey |
"Where will you be next year?!" she asked church-goers dressed in their best Aran sweaters and tweed caps. "You rally around one day. Why can't it be every day?"
The region's most storied St. Patrick's Day Mass had an anxious edge this year. Bishop Richard Lennon recently stunned the St. Colman community by decreeing the landmark church must close to fulfill his vision of a smaller, more vibrant Cleveland Catholic Diocese.
Parishioners like Panagopoulos seized the opportunity to remind the St. Patrick's Day multitude, much of which arrives from the western suburbs, that their tradition will end with St. Colman.
"They're going to go home and tomorrow we're still looking at our church," she explained. "Let's see the Irish fight now."
She just might.
For years, St. Colman has hosted the pre-parade Mass of the West Side Irish American Club, the region's largest Irish club. Pompom girls and fifers and drummers march into a service co-celebrated by a flock of priests before more than 1,000 worshippers.
On Tuesday, many club members acknowledged they come down to West 65th only to watch their children parade into the Mother Church with their drill teams. But others said the bishop delivered a wake-up call.
"This is a celebration we want to see continue," said John Myers, a club member from Cleveland's West Park neighborhood.
The bishop decided St. Colman Church should close and its congregation merge with nearby St. Stephen Church, a smaller parish with smaller facilities. It's part of a massive downsizing plan announced last weekend that would see the diocese lose 52 parishes over the next 16 months.
St. Colman plans to appeal the bishop's ruling and Myers said the Irish-American community intends to support them.
"We'll be working very hard on educating the bishop," he said. "He needs to pray on this a few more times."
At the start of the service Tuesday, the Rev. Bob Begin tested the fervor for St. Colman. He asked a packed sanctuary if people wished to appeal the bishop's decree.
"Yes!" the congregation shouted as one.
Begin put a hand to his ear, as if he could not quite hear.
"Yes!" the congregation declared, collectively jumping to its feet in an ovation.
As worshippers sang "The Dear Little Shamrock," parishioners cooked up bangers and boxty pancakes in the massive basement below.
The food sales help to support free "neighborhood dinners" and other social programs orchestrated out of the parish complex, which includes a new apartment house for the elderly. The former convent shelters women recovering from alcoholism.
It's those kinds of ministries that drew Dave Allen back to the old neighborhood from Fairview Park. He graduated from the old St. Colman School and 15 years ago rejoined the parish.
"Our big thing here isn't how pretty the church is -- although it's beautiful. It's the outreach programs," he said.
Members of St. Colman welcome the opportunity to celebrate St. Patrick's Day in grand style, Allen said. They hope to do so next year and the next.
"This is a poor neighborhood," he said. "We're needed here."
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