Era of Change for the Church: Catholic Parishes Undergo Reconfiguration

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The faithful filled the folding seats covering the Midview High School gym floor in Grafton, with the overflow spreading out to the wooden bleachers. Some stood in the back, as their forebears had done for Masses going back generations at Assumption and Immaculate Conception churches.
On this day, several hundred people from both 19th-century parishes came together to mark their union into one parish, Our Lady Queen of Peace.
Applause broke out as Cleveland Catholic Bishop Richard Lennon established the new parish and named the Rev. John Seabold, who had been leading both churches, the spiritual leader.

“I deeply sense that unity of faith, that unity of vision, was begun even before the establishment of a new parish,” Lennon told the Oct. 29 gathering.
Two weeks later and some 35 miles away, Auxiliary Bishop Edward Pevec borrowed language from a funeral rite to reflect the more somber mood at the final Mass at St. Jude in Warrensville Heights. Dwindling numbers and finances forced the parish to close.
Seven of Angie Musil’s children went to the parish school, and five were married at the church. On this day, many of the 80-year-old woman’s children and grandchildren sat beside her as she wiped her eyes with a tissue.
“For me, it’s still a shock,” Musil said. “You just have to accept it.” The merger of two smaller churches in a growing Cleveland-area community into a larger, new parish. The shutting down of a church in an older suburb where Catholics have moved away.

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