12 Churches Revived, but Challenges Remain: Editorial

Plain Dealer
April 17, 2012

http://www.cleveland.com/opinion/index.ssf/2012/04/12_churches_revived_but_challe.html

Bishop Richard Lennon

Cleveland Bishop Richard Lennon's decision to reopen 12 churches from inner- city Cleveland to Akron and Lorain is a welcome move to help bring peace and reconciliation to a fractured diocese.

For the parishes that successfully appealed to Rome to reverse the loss of their churches, it brings closure and a chance to work with the bishop to heal their relationship and rebuild new faith communities.

Lennon deserves strong praise for choosing conciliation in response to last month's extraordinary rebuke from the Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy in Rome, declaring that Lennon failed to follow proper church law and procedures when he closed the 12 churches.

Those dozen parishes were among 50 churches the diocese closed in 2009 and 2010 in a reconfiguration of financial and human resources triggered by long outmigration from the city.

Instead of reopening the churches, the bishop could have kept the controversy -- and the pain -- going. As Lennon noted in a Tuesday news conference, church law allowed him 60 days to appeal the Vatican's decision. (An appeal from a 13th parish, St. Margaret Mary in South Euclid, was not upheld by the Vatican, according to diocese spokesman Bob Tayek. The Vatican also rejected a requested name change from a 14th church, Tayek said.)

Lennon says he decided not to appeal, not wishing to prolong the discomfort of transplanted parishioners who are "not feeling at home in any community" and in order to begin the healing process.

There is still much to do before worship can resume at the reinstated churches.

Lennon says they could reopen in a matter of months. He plans to meet with interested priests and parishioners.

Meanwhile, some core challenges facing the eight-county diocese haven't changed. Lennon warned Tuesday that priests may again have to serve more than one church -- a burden that could stretch pastoral resources -- and that the reopened churches will have to be able to sustain their membership and finances.

But these are obligations that many "roaming" Catholics, ousted from their beloved churches, will embrace willingly. Let the rejoicing begin.