Glorious St. Patrick's Day in Cleveland, Ohio!

St. Patrick's Day 2011 in Cleveland, Ohio--a glorious, wonderful day. At the big Irish mass celebrated at St. Colman's Church on West 65th Street, Fr, Begin said something like this: "We are grateful that God made the first day of spring St. Patrick's Day this year."

It was a warm, sunny day, temperature in the mid 60's (I've spent many a St. Patrick's Day in snow or sleet at the parade, so this was very unusual!). I, along with my brother Jim and two of his kids, Dillon and Quinn, began the day attending mass at the historic Irish church of St. Colman's--a treasure that was almost lost to Cleveland last year when Bishop Richard Lennon tried to close the church in his efforts to downsize the Diocese of Cleveland.

Fr. Dan Begin was the celebrant, helped out by 16 concelebrants (including Fr. Bob Begin, pastor of St. Colman's). Hundreds of people marched into the church to the accompaniment of fifes and drums--most of them from the West Side Irish-American Club. The music at the mass was glorious, with the sound of pipers, piano, and violin. The song selections were the sentimental favorites of Irish-Catholics: "Our Lady of Knock," "All Praise to Saint Patrick," "Danny Boy," and many others. These might not represent the best music created for and by the Irish, but the congregation loved it. We also sang the amazing hymn, "Faith of Our Fathers," and closed with "America the Beautiful." Right before the recessional, the violinst, who was either Sarah Lally Pap or Mary Beth Ions, played a beautiful tune, which sounded to my ear like a lament--possibly the lament O'Carolan composed as he neared the end of his life. How many people packed the church? There wasn't a seat to be found and hundreds and hundreds stood in the balcony and down all the aisles. It was incredible.

One interesting feature of the mass was the Credo, which was spoken in Irish-Gaelic. What was spoken was actually the Apostles' Creed, Cre na nEaspeal (I'll post the Irish text at another date).

Bishop Richard Lennon Damages the Cleveland Catholic Diocese

Last week, Bishop Richard Lennon announced the closing of some 52 parishes in the Diocese of Cleveland. Many historic parishes will be closed and then consolidated with other parishes. The consolidated parishes will have to change pastors and change their names. For instance, St. Robert's in Euclid will close their church and consolidate with St. William's (the parish I grew up in). Then a new pastor will be appointed at St. William's, and the name of this 60-year-old parish will be changed (the joke is that it will be changed to St. Billy-Bob's). The City of Euclid, with some 50,000 residents, will close 3 parishes. Historic St. Paul's will close and merge with St. Felicitas; St. Christine's will close and merge with Holy Cross; and as mentioned, St. Robert's will close and merge with St.William's. No Roman Catholic parish in Euclid will have the same name (this name change doesn't affect the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes or the Byzantine Catholic Church of St. Stephen, institutions outside the authority of Bishop Lennon). I am sorry to hear about St. Paul's, because it's the Mother Church of Euclid. But it no longer has a neighborhood around it, and the church building itself is extremely modest. What does bother me is that the cemetery behind St. Paul's will no longer be guarded by the school and church. My grandmother, Margaret Ann Fitzpatrick, is buried there, as are many, many other relatives (Broughan's, Fitzpatrick's, Sweeney's, and so on).


I am much more concerned with the closure of historic churches and architectural treasures within the City of Cleveland and in inner-ring suburbs, in particular the closing of St. Colman's, St. Ignatius of Antioch, St. James (in Lakewood), and St. Peter's. St. Colman's is being closed despite the overwhelming recommendation of committees which worked on these issues. It is an important historical treasure as well as an inner-city parish that reaches out to so many different constituencies: Latinos, poor, elderly, the hungry. It is pastored by Fr. Bob Begin, a prophetic presence in the city for many decades. St. Ignatius of Antioch is a West Side landmark and architectural treasure. And the closing of St. Peter's, the oldest Catholic church in the diocese, breaks my heart. St. Pete's is one of the most progressive communities in the region, with no debt, and a dynamic community (http://www.historicstpeters.org/index.html). The pastor is Fr. Bob Marrone, a gifted leader, and the church is a monument to the German Catholic pioneers of Cleveland. My great grandparents, Cornelius Coughlin, born in Ireland, and Lizzie Ierg, born in Germany, were married there in the early 1880's. The parish serves both the middle class and the poor of the area. It was put in a "cluster" with St. John's Cathedral in a process that can only be described as rigged--the fix was in! Let's hope the appeal process is not also fixed!

Catholic bishops have tremendous power, and Bishop Richard Lennon is an outsider, who doesn't adequately understand the history or culture of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese the way retired Bishop Anthony Pilla did. What kills me is that we Clevelanders built and paid for these parishes, and yet we have almost no say in whether these parishes survive. Tearing down these temples of prayer, community, and history will greatly damage our community as well as individual lives. And it will ultimately do no good for our diocese or the Catholic Church in general. What it has done is to sow anger, discouragement, and even hatred. Whose Church is this? Is it just the church of bishops?