Wednesday, June 29, 2011

Investigation of the Closing Process for the Parishes in Cleveland Catholic Diocese

Interesting development, but I don't see how it can change things:

A "classic" negative example of the reorganisation linked to the economic problems is that of Cleveland, where the Holy See has decided to send an apostolic visit, or rather, an investigation to look into whether the decisions taken by the Bishop Ordinary Gerard Lennon were adequate. He announced that 29 parishes will close and another 41 will be merged. The restructuring plan which will cut 52 parishes out of 224 is already in effect. Other cities in which word about closure has been heard are Camden, New Jersey, Allentown, Pennsylvania and New York City. The reasons that prompted the decision to close parishes in Cleveland have been the flow of population to outlying areas, the financial difficulties that have seen 42% of parish budgets finish in the red and the shortage of priests. Now this last point is questioned by the Vatican and the apostolic visit will serve to ascertain the facts. The Vatican has asked Lennon to stop his policy of savage cuts. In Boston, amongst many other controversies, he closed 60 parishes. So far the Vatican has not had any luck.


But, I think the real reason for the Apostolic visit is actually the reason a couple of paragraphs before this:

There is great concern in the Vatican. Not just because the United States, historically, has always made large contributions to the Holy See's budget, a budget which receives very little revenue and so is normally in the red without the contributions of the dioceses of the various donating countries throughout the world, among which the most important are the U.S., Germany and Italy. The Holy See, however, also fears that economic problems could lead to repercussions on religious life and even on maintaining the basic living conditions for priests, especially pensioners.

Bishop Lennon has started a $250 million dollar capital campaign, my guess the apostolic visit may be more a look at that and to see if it would work in other areas.

Click the headline and you can read the whole article.

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