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	Breakaway Parish Set to Meet with Bishop Fox 8 August 23 2010 http://www.fox8.com/news/wjw-st-peters-meeting-txt,0,5125746.story CLEVELAND , Ohio - As Bishop Richard Lennon prepares to meet with the leaders of the breakaway parish of St. Peter's, new questions are being raised about that church's finances. St. Peter, located downtown, was closed by the diocese as part of its downsizing after an emotional final mass on Easter Sunday. For the last two Sundays, members of the "community of St. Peter" have held a mass in a rented warehouse on Cleveland's east side with the parish priest presiding. The masses are not sanctioned by the diocese. "He (Bishop Lennon) exiled us," says Bob Kloos, a member of St. Peter's and the vice-president of Endangered Catholics. "(He) banished us from a church that's 150 years old and a parish that's 158 years old, and he said, 'go someplace else.' So we are." Bishop Lennon has sent two letters regarding St. Peter. One indicated that breaking away could effect the relationship that church members have the the Lord. Some parishoners took that as a threat of ex-communication; the diocese says it was not. The other, more recent letter calls the celebration of mass outside of the diocese a matter of "grave concern", and says the bishop hopes to meet with the priest and the leaders of St. Peter's soon. Against this backdrop is a supposed offer that was made that would have kept St. Peter's open. "My understanding was that, a member of the church, a benefactor, offered $2 million dollars to historic St. Peter's that would become a trust," Kloos says. "If the bishop would allow St. Peter's to stay open, there would be a $2 million endowment for the parish." "My knowledge of it only is 'there may have been' kind of a thing," says diocese spokesman Bob Tayek. "I've never had it formally acknowledged...but I wouldn't want to say to you that it's not true, or deny it." Members of St. Peter's believe that such an offer would remove any idea that money was an issue in keeping their parish open. But the diocese, while not addressing St. Peter's in particular, says money wasn't the only factor in which churches to close. "Was there also what we call 'sacramental ministry'", Tayek says, "from baptisms to first communions to marriages." The diocese says the higher those numbers, often, the more vibrant the parish. The community of St. Peter sees its church as both vibrant and viable. Adds Kloos, "there's no way to put a value on what generations and generations have brought to a parish." Over three hundred people attended the first St. Peter's mass held at the warehouse. The diocese says, to fairly distribute its resources and priests, a parish in Cleveland should have 2500 members.
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