Cleveland Catholic Diocese Announces 51 Parish Reconfiguration

Bishop Lennon of the Cleveland Catholic Diocese is nearing completion of his final written directives that will determine which parishes in the diocese will be scheduled for closing and which will remain open.

In some cases, his decisions will include the merging of parishes that will then open as a brand new parish in an existing parish facility. In the days ahead, these specific written directives will then be delivered to the pastors or administrators of all the churches in the Cleveland diocese.

Since May of 2007, a diocesan-wide parish clustering process has been taking place to form more vibrant parish faith communities throughout the eight-counties of the Cleveland diocese. The Most Reverend Richard G. Lennon, Bishop of Cleveland initiated this process among all 225 parishes of the diocese. The counties affected include: Cuyahoga, Summit, Lorain, Lake, Geauga, Medina, Ashland and Wayne.

Over the last several months, Bishop Lennon received recommendations from all 69 parish cluster groups. Since then and leading up to his March news conference, Bishop Lennon has been meeting with parish representatives from each of the 13 diocesan districts as well as representatives of the major consultative groups, different areas of the diocesan administration and with the Presbyteral (Priests) Council.

At this time of necessary restructuring and change in our diocese, please continue to pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit to be upon Bishop Lennon and all of our diocesan leadership.

Based on the materials from the Cleveland Catholic Diocese