Report says Vatican will probe Cleveland closings

CLEVELAND (RNS) The Vatican is investigating Bishop Richard Lennon’s closings of Roman Catholic churches in the Diocese of Cleveland, according to a report in an Italian newspaper. A spokesman for the diocese said he would look into the account, but had no immediate comment. The report on Friday (June 24) in the Italian newspaper La […]

CLEVELAND (RNS) The Vatican is investigating Bishop Richard Lennon’s closings of Roman Catholic churches in the Diocese of Cleveland, according to a report in an Italian newspaper.

A spokesman for the diocese said he would look into the account, but had no immediate comment.

The report on Friday (June 24) in the Italian newspaper La Stampa by veteran Vatican journalist Marco Tosatti said the Vatican has decided to send “an apostolic visit, or rather, an investigation” to look into Lennon’s decisions on the closings.


Lennon, citing changes in Catholic demographics, a shortage of priests and dwindling Sunday collections, ordered the shuttering of 50 parishes, beginning in August 2009 and ending in June 2010.

More than a dozen Cleveland-area churches appealed their closings to the Holy See and are still waiting for decisions from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy.

The report published in La Stampa’s “Vatican Insider” said “the apostolic visit will serve to ascertain the facts” behind the closings. The Italian paper said the Congregation for the Clergy is preparing guidelines on how “each individual diocese must act to rebuild its presence in their area.” The guidelines could be ready by October, the newspaper said.

“The protests of the faithful … have been numerous and loud and have reached the Vatican,” the paper continued.

(Michael O’Malley writes for The Plain Dealer in Cleveland.)

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