By Michael O'Malley
Plain Dealer
September 22, 2011
http://www.cleveland.com/religion/index.ssf/2011/09/vatican_extends_deadline_for_r.html
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| A parishioner at St. Adalbert Church on East 83rd Street in Cleveland fights back tears after the church's final services in June 2010. |
CLEVELAND, Ohio — The Vatican has given itself another extension to review appeals from churches closed last year by Bishop Richard Lennon of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese.
This marks the fourth time that the Congregation for the Clergy -- a Vatican panel handling the appeals -- has extended the deadline for reviewing the churches' cases against the diocese.
The new deadline is March 1.
"It's kind of disappointing, but it's still a good development," said Patricia Schulte-Singleton, president of Endangered Catholics, a group fighting church closings. "We're still alive. We have to be patient."
Singleton's church, St. Patrick in Cleveland's West Park neighborhood, is one of at least seven parishes that received letters from Rome last week notifying them of the extensions.
The others are St. Emeric, St. Wendelin, St. Barbara and St. Adalbert, all of Cleveland, St. James of Lakewood and St. Mary of Bedford.
Lennon over the last two years closed 50 churches as part of a diocesewide downsizing he said was necessary because of changing demographics.
The closings, mostly of inner-city churches, prompted appeals to Rome by at least 14 parishes. But it wasn't immediately clear this week how many are still pursuing the appeals.
It's also not clear why the Vatican keeps extending its deadlines. The two-paragraph form letters sent to the local parishes simply say, "It has been necessary to extend the time limits involved . . . in order to effect a more exhaustive in-depth examination."
Nancy McGrath of Akron, head of Code Purple, another group fighting church closings, speculated that the delay could be related to a recent investigation of Lennon by the Vatican.
In July, the Rev. John M. Smith, bishop emeritus of the Diocese of Trenton, N.J., representing the Vatican, spent five days here interviewing priests and parishioners about how they perceived Lennon as a spiritual leader.
The timetable and results of the highly secret investigation, known as an apostolic visitation, are not expected to be made public.
"The extensions may be providing more time for Bishop Smith to conduct his study," said McGrath.
Robert Tayek, a spokesman for the Cleveland diocese, said: "I don't believe these extensions by the Vatican are out of the ordinary. The Boston cases took more than a few years before they were resolved."
The church closings prompted a flurry of letters to Rome from angry Catholics, many of whom represented ethnic churches.
Miklos Peller of St. Emeric, a Hungarian church near the West Side Market, said he sent 28 letters to Rome, pleading for the reopening of his church.
"I got no responses," he said.
Peller said he holds a hint of hope because of the recent extension, even though the new deadline will come almost three years since he filed Emeric's appeal.
"If they don't respond, we can take that as losing the appeal," he said. "But we haven't lost yet. The appeal is still on somebody's desk or in somebody's drawer."
Contact: momalley@plaind.com
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