www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News Re: Catholics protest church closings in Cleveland

Catholic Protesters [blog.cleveland.com]

Catholic Protesters II [blog.cleveland.com]

If you're going to convene lay councils, you should at east look like you're listening.

But people have to remember, the bishop has to run the diocese, and public protests really are not the model of Christian obedience to their bishops.

The closing of parishes is indeed a painful thing and I'm
sure generally as much to the bishops as to the people, but to
maintain that no parish should be closed is nonsense. Instead
of protesting, these people should be putting their money
where their mouths are. American Catholicism is largely
an urban and immigrant phenomenon, many of the parishes
being located where the immigrants were and where their
descendants are not.Many of the buildings are old and in need
of repair. Ordinary maintenance by itself is costly. How is it
to be paid for? With priestly vocations few, how are they to
be staffed? This is all perfectly obvious. I must say, however,
that if these reports are accurate, Bishop Lennon handled
the situation poorly, thereby aggravating the situation.
If you are going to consult the laity, treat them with respect,
which it seems the bishop did not do.

I have
long thought that a major problem with the episcopacy, at
least in this country, is that bishops seem to regard themselves
as executives rather than as pastors. This mind-set is deadly, as
the sexual abuse scandals evidence. It was "sweep it under the rug"
rather than "protect the children" - children whose spiritual fathers they were!
The responsible bishops thereby showed themselves to be
failures as executives as much as they were as pastors,
for an effective executive seeks to fix problems, not to hide
them.

How often are working parish priests elected to the
episcopacy? Rarely, it seems. Rather promotions generally
seem to come from the ranks of clerical bureaucrats.
This is unhealthy and makes the episcopacy look like a
self-perpetuating bureaucracy. Does anyone perceive any
signs of change in this?

Edmac

I am a Roman Catholic of Polish descent and live in the
Catholic Diocese of Cleveland. I was not on our parish "cluster
team" which joined with some other Polish American parishes to
recommend which of them should survive and which should close.
However, we had progress reports and learned the following:

1.) As you point out, inner city Catholic parishes declined
in membership, finances, and vocations over the last 50 years.

2.) The cluster process was the fairest and least painful of
the methods American diocesan bishops used to decide which
Catholic churches would close and which would remain open.
In many other dioceses, bishops just announced closings.

3.) The procedures and measures used by each cluster team
were fair and honest. In most cases, even before a vote was
taken, the evidence indicated which parishes could and
should survive.

4.) The diocese publicized the whole process before, during,
and after the decisions were announced.

It is true that, if you knew which parishes were in which
cluster, how many churches in that cluster had to close, and
what the "health" of each parish was, you could ALMOST guess
what the decisions would be. However, there were some
surprises and some changes upon appeal. And, some parishes
agreed that they could not continue in their present
conditions.

In any case, we must remember that the Catholic Church is a
hierarchical, not a democratic, organization. Also, the Church
is more than a local church or parish. Finally, we reap what
we sow - when we moved to the suburbs and abandoned our former
neighborhood and ethnic parishes, we determined their eventual
fates. How many of those Cleveland Catholics who now protest
their church closings remained members, persuaded their
friends to remain or join, and MOST IMPORTANTLY prayed and
encouraged their sons to become parish priests? Even if the
soon-to-be-closed parishes have enough money to stay open,
where will they get current and future pastors?

It is necessary for all Catholics to support their parishes
and to pray and work for priestly vocations.

The Catholic population of Cleveland is half what it was 60 years ago. People have moved to the suburbs. A lot of these closings are, unfortunately, necessary.

In 2008, 42 percent of the parishes in the diocese had budget deficits. That is not something that can go on for very long.

To be fair to Bishop Lennon, he has reversed a couple of closing decisions upon receiving appeals.

http://www.dioceseofcleveland.org/images/stories/letters/5-01-09-revisions.pdf

St. Casimir Catholic Church in Cleveland, Ohio [blog.cleveland.com]

"But people have to remember, the bishop has to run the diocese, and public protests really are not the model of Christian obedience to their bishops."

They do tend to be the historical norm, however.

"In 2008, 42 percent of the parishes in the diocese had budget deficits. That is not something that can go on for very long. "

My observation is most Latin parishes are overstaffed with paid employees. They should learn to do without, and demand sweat equity from their people, if they are not willing or able to contribute cash.

It's also interesting to note how the bishops respond in the same manner as the secular businesses they so often criticize for closing down unprofitable or redundant plants. I guess even the Church cannot sell below cost and make it up on volume.

It is very troubling. Our bishops have a really difficult job on so many levels. I don't know what the stats in my diocese are but I suspect my bishop would be thrilled if the number of parishes in the red were that low here. We were told last year that my parish has been running in the red for years. (That being prior to the current econimic dive.) In a recent update we only have managed to survive due to some bequests. A new priest was assigned to us last summer, coming from a parish running a deficit also, and has had some very painful decisions to make, with more yet to come we are told. As of today our pastoral staff is down to one priest, and we don't have any deacons. We have daily Mass 6 days a week, 6 Sunday Masses, including the Sat. vigil, and a school k-12. Our last full time priest had a heart attack- no wonder- and he had an Associate Pastor helping, a lot.

Re: St. Casimir -- It's really tragic for such an truly gorgeous church like this to have to close. The fact it is an historically Polish parish closing is very sad to me. I pray that those Polish people who have migrated to other areas are bringing their very rich sacramental liturgical world view with them into their new parishes. Somehow I suspect they may still have those traditions practiced in the home but not in the new neighborhood parishes.

When we have the Blessing of the Foods on Holy Saturday in my parish maybe a dozen of the 20 or so families that bring baskets are Polish. Other than their presence at that Blessing I'm not aware of any other traditions that are shared/practiced in our neighborhood parish. Many or most of them commute to a Polish parish about 30 minutes from here for their Sunday Mass. I'm glad they continue their rich traditions there, but also wish we could incorporate here in the local parish more of the clearly Eastern influence they bring.

We had a priest assigned to us for about 6 or 8 months who grew up in a very strongly Polish multi-generational community. I think he really had little idea how much of his rich spirituality came from that heritage. When he would talk from time to time about his family traditions it was very clear how much they influenced his rich sacramentality. Your name, Two Lungs, indicates you have some idea what I'm talking about. I used to tease him, telling him he just doesn't know he's really a Byzantine We lose much when these rich ethnic communities get melted into the melting pot...

"We lose much when these rich ethnic communities get melted into the melting pot..."

Actually, American ethnic (immigrant) historians and sociologists now refer to the acculturation process (Americanization) as a mosaic or salad in which each minority group kept its characteristics in the mix which created a new whole.

Church Closings in Cleveland [blog.cleveland.com]

The problem might be Cleveland as a whole is closing. See this article [nuwireinvestor.com] on population decline in Cleveland and other U.S. cities--many of which come from the Greek Catholic heartland:





Among other Greek Catholic centers on the list:

Johnstown, PA (-3.47%)
Lima, OH (-2.55%)
Youngstown, OH (-2.54%)
Altoona, PA (-1.99%)
Scranton/Wilkes Barre (-1.56%)
Toledo, OH (-0.84%)

I do not understand how people expect the Church to keep all its parishes open not merely in the face of declining attendance or membership, but in the face of declining population across the board. When a city's population drops, the city gets older and poorer, meaning that parishes will have trouble finding new members regardless of outreach--and those it does get are more likely to cost the parish money rather than contributing it.

The Greek Catholic Churches, for historical reasons, established themselves in the Rust Belt. As rust belt industries died, people moved elsewhere in search of jobs. The Greek Catholics themselves contributed to this problem, because they stressed hard work and education, and their children and grandchildren listened, went off to college, and then expected to get good jobs. If none were forthcoming in Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, Illinois or Michigan, they went somewhere else.

Though nobody has done any detailed studies, my own impression is parishes are doing better in areas outside of the ethnic heartland largely because those areas have a growing population that includes young families looking for a Church that provides spiritual nourishment.

It certainly isn't just Cleveland. Father Feodor Kovalchuk, the long-standing and hard-working Pastor of Nativity of Christ Russian Orthodox Church in Youngstown died several months ago (Memory Eternal). At the funeral, clergy friends of mine were shocked at how few parishioners remain in normal reach of the parish - many have had to move elsewhere to find work. The Church (which Father Feodor built) is still beautiful; all it needs is people to go to it and a good priest.

Fr. Serge

Note that Youngstown's population declined by 2.54% between 2000-2007. The pace has probably accelerated since then, making the total population decline on the order of 3-3.5% for the decade. As always, it is the younger people who move on, which in turn further accelerates the aging of the population and the decline in jobs, which causes more people to move out, in a death spiral that can only be reversed by a major economic revival (one that changes the employment base from heavy industry to something else).

Some of the closings just don't make sense at all. Take St. James in Lakewood, for example. When I heard it was slated for closing, I visited it in April, because I wanted to see the interior, before it was closed. The groundskeeper, who could barely contain his emotions, explained that the parish was in utter shock as to why their church was being closed. Lakewood he said is the most densely populated city from New York to Chicago. It is also one of the most affluent suburbs of Cleveland. When the parishioners were told that their church was going to be closed, they immediately pledged one million dollars for the necessary repairs for their church.
So, why close it? It has a large,active,and affluent membership. The church is awe-inspiring, not unlike the gorgeous European churches. What are the elderly going to do who walk to church? (Lakewood has numerous apartments & condominiums.) It simply does not make sense and seems like bishop Lennon wants to close it because he is in charge and says so.