Richard Lennon

Styles of Richard Gerard Lennon
Reference style	His Excellency The Most Reverend
Spoken style	Your Excellency
Religious style	Bishop

Richard Gerard Lennon (born March 26, 1947) became the Roman Catholic bishop of Cleveland, Ohio in May 15, 2006.

Background

A native of Arlington, Massachusetts,^[1] Lennon is the son of an Arlington, Mass. firefighter^[2](Lennon's father, Albert, was Arlington's deputy fire chief).^[3] Lennon attended St. James the Apostle grammar school^[3] in St. James parish in Arlington, where he was an altar boy.^[4] In 1965 Lennon graduated^[5] from Matignon,^[3] a Catholic High School in Cambridge, Mass., where he was a member of the National Honor Society.^[6] Bishop Lennon attended Boston College where he was a mathematics major for two years^[2][5][6] before entering St. John's Seminary in Brighton, Massachusetts where he graduated in 1969, with a bachelor's degree in philosophy.^[5] Lennon went on to receive a M.TH in Sacramental Theology in 1973^[5] and a M.A. in Church History in 1984^[5] both also from St. John's. Bishop Lennon was ordained in the Boston Archdiocese on May 19, 1973. Lennon was a parish priest from 1973 to 1988. From 1973 to 1982 Lennon served at St. Mary of the Nativity Church in Scituate, Massachusetts and from 1982 to 1988^[7] at St. Mary's Church in West Quincy, Massachusetts.^[5] In 1988 he became the Archdiocese of Boston's archdiocesan assistant for canonical affairs. In 1999, he became the seminary rector.^[6]

In June 2001, Lennon was invested as a knight in both the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem.^[8]

On June 29, 2001, Lennon was named as an auxiliary bishop of Boston, and was consecrated on September 14, 2001. From 2001 until April 2006, Lennon served as a bishop in Boston, holding a variety of positions.

After Cardinal Bernard Francis Law resigned his position as Archbishop of Boston in December 2002 amid the church sex scandal, Lennon became very important in leading the troubled archdiocese through the turbulent times as he was the interim leader. He served as the Apostolic Administrator of the archdiocese between Law's resignation and the accession of its new Archbishop, Sean O'Malley. Archbishop Seán O'Malley appointed him as the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Boston and he held this position from August 2003 to April 2006. In a documentary on Boston area sexual abuse and church closings, which aired in 2007 on PBS's Frontline, Lennon confronted a former Catholic parishioner for questioning Lennon's refusal to allow him to photograph a church building scheduled to close.

On April 5, 2006, Lennon was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI as the replacement for Bishop Anthony Pilla, who was suffering from heart disease, in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland. He became the 10th bishop of Cleveland in an installation ceremony on May 15, 2006.

Management affairs

Abuse scandal

Lennon's appointment as Apostolic Administrator of the Boston Archdiocese, following the resignation of Cardinal Law, brought criticism from some sex-abuse victims' groups.^[9]

Parishes

In June 2008, Bishop Lennon announced plans to close at least 30 parishes in the cities of Cleveland, Lorain, and older parishes in Cleveland's inner ring suburbs. This plan drew ire from parishioners and members of Cleveland's City Council members. Michael Polensek of Ward 11 has sounded off on this plan. The Bishop is doing this in face of a priest shortage and loss of parishioners. Critics have pointed out that several of the churches to be closed actually enjoyed steady, if limited, monthly incomes, and several of these churches, as well, have a politically liberal orientation. However, a portion of these churches were also in need of repair, which was not always readily evident when examined from the outside.

An example of a cluster, is this group of churches, containing three in the Cleveland's Slavic Village neighborhood:

• Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus (1873)
• St. Casimir Church (1891)
• St. Hyacinth (1911)
• Our Lady of Lourdes (1893)

In this cluster, Bishop Lennon suppressed (closed) two parishes (St. Hyacinth, St. Casimir). In March 2012, Rome ordered St.Casimir restored.^[10]

Significant criticism of the clusters and the decision-making process associated with the closing of parishes followed. Following the closings announcement, some Catholics in the Diocese requested Vatican oversight of the Bishop in 2009.^[11] Despite the criticism, Bishop Lennon presided at 78 closing, merging, and opening Masses over the next 14 months.

With the closing of St. Peter Church, a 151-year-old parish located within a mile of the Diocesan Cathedral, many parishioners and their pastor broke from the bishop and founded the Community of St. Peter. On Monday, March 4, 2013, Father Robert Marrone- who is listed as the leader of the Community of St. Peter (the article did not indicate if he had served as pastor of the Church)- was excommunicated "latae setentiae" (automatically, by committing the offense, not by a church trial). The reason given was for schism, for having been disobedient to his ecclesiastical superiors (the Pope and the Bishop) by agreeing to oversee the unauthorized breakaway community when the parish closed. The Diocese has stated it would meet with Community members and its board in an effort to resolve the situation, but at the same time warned that they were also subject to excommunication if they did not soon rejoin the official Church. Such situations have happened before in other U.S. Catholic churches that were closed or where the administration changed.^[12]

In July 2011, the Vatican conducted a rare investigative Apostolic Visit of the Cleveland Diocese when the Most Reverend John Mortimer Smith, bishop emeritus of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Trenton, New Jersey, spent several days interviewing people in the diocese.^[13]

In March 2012, the Vatican ordered the reversal of the closings of the 13 of 50 churches that had pursued an appeal to the Congregation for the Clergy.^[14]

References

Footnotes

Additional sources

• Briggs, David. "New bishop: 'I am humbled'." The Plain Dealer April 5, 2006: A1, A11.
• Associated Press. "Richard Lennon." The Plain Dealer April 5, 2006: A1.
• http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/dbost.html
• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/handofgod/
• http://www.myfoxcleveland.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=2320109&version=3&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=VSTY&pageId=3.1.1
• Cleveland Plain Dealer 6/5/2007
• Catholic Universe Bulletin

Episcopal succession

Diocese of Cleveland
Bishops	Ordinaries Louis Amadeus Rappe Richard Gilmour Ignatius Frederick Horstmann John Patrick Farrelly Joseph Schrembs Edward Francis Hoban Clarence George Issenmann James Aloysius Hickey Anthony Michael Pilla Richard Lennon Auxiliaries Joseph Maria Koudelka James A. McFadden William Michael Cosgrove John Raphael Hagan Floyd Lawrence Begin John Krol Clarence Edward Elwell John Francis Whealon Gilbert Ignatius Sheldon Michael Joseph Murphy James Anthony Griffin James Patterson Lyke Anthony Edward Pevec Alexander James Quinn Martin John Amos Roger William Gries
Churches	Cathedral Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist Parishes Holy Rosary Church, Cleveland Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, Cleveland St. Barbara Church, Cleveland St. Casimir Church, Cleveland St. Elizabeth's Magyar Church, Cleveland St. Michael the Archangel Church, Cleveland St. Paul's Church, Cleveland St. Peter Church, Cleveland Shrine Church of St. Stanislaus, Cleveland St. Stephen Church, Cleveland St. Vitus's Church, Cleveland St. Mary's Church, Elyria Immaculate Conception Church, Grafton St. Martin's Church, Valley City St. Patrick's Church, Wellington Former Parishes Annunciation Church, Cleveland Sacred Heart of Jesus Church, Cleveland St. Joseph's Church, Cleveland St. Mary's on the Flats, Cleveland Transfiguration Church, Cleveland St. Ladislaus Church, Lorain
Higher Education	Colleges & University John Carroll University Notre Dame College Ursuline College Seminary Saint Mary Seminary and Graduate School of Theology Former college St. John's College, Cleveland
Priests	Timothy P. Broglio John Francis Dearden Raymond Joseph Gallagher Louis de Goesbriand Paul John Hallinan Joseph Patrick Hurley Charles Hubert Le Blond Edward Aloysius Mooney Thomas Charles O'Reilly Michael Joseph Ready John Patrick Treacy
Miscellany	St. Joseph Convent and Academy Complex
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