Lawyer: Vatican Overrules 13 Church Closings In US

CLEVELAND (AP) — The Vatican has taken the extraordinary step of overruling the closing of 13 U.S. parishes, a lawyer who fought the cutbacks said Wednesday.

The move represents a rare instance in which Rome has reversed a U.S. bishop on the shutdown of churches.

The Congregation of the Clergy ruled last week that Bishop Richard Lennon of the Cleveland Diocese had failed to follow procedure in the closings three years ago, attorney Peter Borre said.

The 13 Roman Catholic churches were among 50 shut down or merged by Lennon, who said the diocese could no longer afford to keep them open because of declining numbers of parishioners and a shortage of priests. Many had been founded by Irish, Hungarian or Polish immigrants, some in neighborhoods that are now heavily black, poor and non-Catholic.

Parish and school closings have been a contentious issue in America’s Catholic dioceses for decades, prompted by a shift in population from cities to suburbs and from the Northeast to the Sunbelt, as well as by declining Mass attendance, a priest shortage and financial pressures.

In the last decade, as the child-molestation crisis eroded trust in bishops, American Catholics have increasingly challenged decisions by local church leaders to merge or shut parishes, whether through appeals to the Vatican or demonstrations.

Borre said that he received the rulings from Rome on three closings and that he had direct knowledge that 10 others had been overturned.

Diocesan spokesman Robert Tayek said the diocese hadn’t been informed of the decisions and declined to comment. Borre said bishops are typically notified by mail sent by diplomatic channels through the papal envoy in Washington.

From time to time, the Vatican has intervened on behalf of parishioners trying to save their churches, but Borre said this was the first such reversal he could recall going back to at least 1990.

The bishop can still appeal to the Vatican’s high court.

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Jay Lindsay reported from Boston. AP Religion Writer Rachel Zoll also contributed to this report