OHIO
Star-Beacon
By SHELLEY TERRY – sterry@starbeacon.com
Staff Writer
ASHTABULA — The Rev. Raymond Thomas says he’s not ignoring the talk and turmoil in the Catholic community caused by Sunday’s advertisement in the Star Beacon.
He will address the issues during this weekend’s homily, he said.
Thomas would not elaborate.
The anonymous, full-page, paid advertisement disagreed with the future plans of Our Lady of Peace Parish — all a result of the merger of the city’s Catholic churches and a mission.
The ad, directed to the parishioners of Our Lady of Peace Parish, from “concerned Our Lady of Peace Parishioners, read (among other things), “You will be asked to pay for renovating the former Mt. Carmel School building into parish offices at a cost of $1.3 million. There is already a school building used for parish offices. Why move?”
The ad made eight additional points, including:
* Objections to selling the Mother of Sorrows school building without consultation of the parish at large, and that there’s “a bid to buy one of the churches” when the parishioners were told that churches would not be closed at this time;
* Objections to remodeling the rectory kitchen when the building is relatively new, and
* Objections to expanding Mt. Carmel worship site when there already exists a very large church that doesn’t need expansion.
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