Vatican sends bishop to investigate Cleveland Diocese

[Elizabeth502]

Not to get off topic Elizabeth, but that situation sounds like a Pastor who didn’t consult/trust/use his Pastoral Council properly. Perhaps there were legitimate reasons why, but if the pastor was as out of touch as you say, I doubt he helped the situation.

It appears that he was relying too much on one member of that Council, who was counseling him individually, as opposed to in-meeting. But the other factors were not necessarily depending on “pastoral council” meetings. I’m just saying that this situation has been a window to me into other possible parish situations in which the pastor isolates himself from several factors which could rescue and solidify that parish.

 

[Ignats75]

It means his excellency might be in trouble if the investigation gives orthodox Catholics in the diocese an equitable hearing! : )

Boy, I wish they had sent such an investigator to the Albany diocese about ten years ago! Meanwhile, we are counting the days and minutes here until Bishop Hubbard’s 75th!! (Two years, three months . . . and STILL counting . . . )

The previous bishop, His Excellency Bishop Pilla, started a program called “Vibrant Parish Life”. It actually wasn’t as bad as you imply…as far as it goes. I was on Pastoral Council at parish E at the time. It was more an attempt to get parishes to do outreach to other parishes. To try and develop a sense of ownership to problems within the diocese and to get the wealthier parishes to partner with poorer ones to help them with their ministry. As a concept, it is all that we are called to be. In execution…not so much. As always…politics and hidden agendas influenced the program too much. Under Bishop Lennon, it morphed into another “tool” to use to facilitate the closure of some parishes.

By the way, here is another example of how Lennon jumped the shark in the processes. Cleveland is an extremely “ethnic” community. At least half the parishes in the city of Cleveland proper were founded by one ethnic group. That was how CLeveland ended up with Catholic churches so closes to each other…6 parishes in Lakewood, a city of 50,000 people 1 mile x 3 miles in size. Anyway, there were 6 hungarian parishes. 40 years ago, Cleveland had more hungarians in it than any city in the world other than Budapest. Of the 6 parishes, most if not all, who were manned by Hungarian priests not affiliated with the diocese, Bishop Lennon closed 5 of them. Why? To try and get their endowments. One church located near the world famous West Side Market literally saw writing on the wall and prevented an international incident by sending all their money to the Hungarian Church back in the home country. The only parish he kept open was the Last choice of the Hungarian cluster.

There was a Polish parish…stocked by two priests assigned from Poland. He closed the parish and gave the 85 yr old priest one week to vacate the premises. Again, just heavy handed. Now, in light of the fact that our previous Pope was olish, the polish priests still had some powerful friends in the Vatican. Word is, their testimonies carried ALOT of weight.

 

[pataburd]

The previous bishop, His Excellency Bishop Pilla, started a program called “Vibrant Parish Life”. It actually wasn’t as bad as you imply…as far as it goes. I was on Pastoral Council at parish E at the time. It was more an attempt to get parishes to do outreach to other parishes. To try and develop a sense of ownership to problems within the diocese and to get the wealthier parishes to partner with poorer ones to help them with their ministry. As a concept, it is all that we are called to be. In execution…not so much. As always…politics and hidden agendas influenced the program too much. Under Bishop Lennon, it morphed into another “tool” to use to facilitate the closure of some parishes.

By the way, here is another example of how Lennon jumped the shark in the processes. Cleveland is an extremely “ethnic” community. At least half the parishes in the city of Cleveland proper were founded by one ethnic group. That was how CLeveland ended up with Catholic churches so closes to each other…6 parishes in Lakewood, a city of 50,000 people 1 mile x 3 miles in size. Anyway, there were 6 hungarian parishes. 40 years ago, Cleveland had more hungarians in it than any city in the world other than Budapest. Of the 6 parishes, most if not all, who were manned by Hungarian priests not affiliated with the diocese, Bishop Lennon closed 5 of them. Why? To try and get their endowments. One church located near the world famous West Side Market literally saw writing on the wall and prevented an international incident by sending all their money to the Hungarian Church back in the home country. The only parish he kept open was the Last choice of the Hungarian cluster.

There was a Polish parish…stocked by two priests assigned from Poland. He closed the parish and gave the 85 yr old priest one week to vacate the premises. Again, just heavy handed. Now, in light of the fact that our previous Pope was olish, the polish priests still had some powerful friends in the Vatican. Word is, their testimonies carried ALOT of weight.

Iggy,
Thank you for the insider update!

The “reconstruction” program you describe from your area sounds very similar to the one in the Rochester Diocese, where I work during the school year. To me, it appears like a bureaucratic solution to a longstanding catechetical crisis; a “secular band-aide” trying to cover a grave spiritual wound.

In the Albany Diocese, where I live, the root problems that underlie shrinking Mass attendance, widespread Catholic school closures and a dearth of vocations are ignored, while the frantic “business” of merging, selling and razing parishes continues to churn at a breakneck pace.

Cordially,
Patrick

 

[choose_to_love]

@ignats

I think you should be very careful in assigning a motive like “he wanted to grab the endowments” to a bishop on this board.

You state that Cleveland “had” more Hungarians than any city bedsides Budapest. Is there a current need for that many ethnic parishes? Everyone actually speaks English now, no? We are all one universal Church.

 

[Ignats75]

@ignats

I think you should be very careful in assigning a motive like “he wanted to grab the endowments” to a bishop on this board.

**There’s more circumstantial evidence on my position than there was on the Casey Anthony trial. **

You state that Cleveland “had” more Hungarians than any city bedsides Budapest. Is there a current need for that many ethnic parishes? Everyone actually speaks English now, no? We are all one universal Church.

**You would need to live here to understand what ethnicity means to each group. Some are more vocal than others. Was there a need of that many ethnic parishes. In some cases no. But in the specific case of the parish located by the landmark West Side Market? It was wealthy and full and drew its priests from outside the diocese, so there was no reason to close it… **