Closing parishes among new bishop's challenges

CLEVELAND --The new leader of the Cleveland Diocese's 800,000 Catholics faces a number of challenges, including a priest shortage and the possible closing of some parishes.

Challenges are nothing new to Bishop Richard G. Lennon, who led the Boston Archdiocese at the height of the clergy sex abuse scandal and was faced with closing his boyhood church.

Lennon will be installed as the diocese's 10th bishop during a Mass on Monday, taking over for Bishop Anthony M. Pilla, who is retiring after 25 years.

Lennon noted that he was humbled by Pope Benedict XVI's selection of him as bishop on April 4.

That day, when he spoke to the media in Cleveland, one of the first questions asked was, "Do you favor the Red Sox or the Indians?"

But Lennon, whose Boston accent will be just as out of place in Cleveland as his love for the Red Sox, faces greater challenges than the questioning of his baseball allegiance.

While the growing priest shortage is a widespread issue for the Roman Catholic church, the Cleveland Diocese will have to run 233 parishes with the thinning ranks of about 460 active priests.

Pilla has closed just one parish and merged two others since 2002, instead establishing a program in which parishes share resources. But church closings would seem inevitable, particularly in the inner-city.

Lennon, 59, hopes his experience as an auxiliary bishop in Boston, and head of the committee responsible for consolidating the archdiocese, will help him in Cleveland. Among the more than 60 church closings in Boston was his home parish, St. James the Apostle, whose church was built by his grandfather and great-uncles.

"I appreciate in a very real sense that there's pain and a real sense of loss," Lennon said. "These aren't just any old buildings. These are buildings where some very holy things have happened that have touched individual lives and family lives."

Gerard Dsouza, a parishioner at St. John Cathedral downtown, hopes Lennon will continue Pilla's clustering of church resources.

"That's the way a business is run. It's a good idea," said Dsouza, 46, of Lakewood. "Bishop Lennon is probably going to have to build up on that or change it. It's going to be a fresh breath of air to the diocese after 25 years."

Sister Christine Schenk, executive director of FutureChurch, a Cleveland-based group of liberal Roman Catholic reformers, wants to see more lay ministers placed in charge of parishes to keep them going.

"The policy that there isn't a parish community unless a priest can be found -- it's never going to work for the long term," Schenk said. "We might as well begin now with coming up with creative ways to keep parish life community in tact."

She doesn't want a repeat of the situation in Boston where closings were met with sit-ins and protests.

"My hope is he will learn what the Catholic church of Cleveland is before he starts trying to implement things from Boston," Schenk said.

She sees other challenges for Lennon in restoring faith in diocesan leadership following the clergy sex abuse scandal and problems with financial accountability, including the suspension of chief financial officer Joseph Smith in January 2004 in an alleged kickback scheme. The U.S. Attorney's office is investigating the diocese's finances and the FBI is investigating Smith.

In Boston, Lennon led the nation's fourth-largest diocese on an interim basis after Cardinal Bernard Law quit in 2002 when court records revealed Law moved predatory priests among church assignments without notifying parishioners.

Barbara Blaine, president of the Chicago-based Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, accuses Lennon of insensitivity and mismanagement of sex-abuse cases in Boston.

She wants to see him reach out to abuse victims in the Cleveland Diocese, saying Pilla's response was inadequate.

For all the adversity Lennon will face, Dsouza said, the new bishop will receive plenty of support and assistance from loyal Catholics.

"If he's going to be our bishop, we're going to accept him," Dsouza said. "Hopefully, he'll be here for the next 25 years."

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On the Net:

Diocese of Cleveland: http://www.dioceseofcleveland.org/