Lennon lectures

speaking

asking

listening

Tuesday night, the 7th of September, Bishop Richard Lennon came to St. Martha (newspeak: Blessed Trinity) in Akron. He spoke to nearly an hundred. It was part of a series of gatherings with speakers sponsored by Summit County parishes. The printed brochure announced the address as, TBA, it became "The Diocese Going Forward." He explained that his title implied that something, then, had already occurred. He gave summary histories of post war catholicism, and the diocese, especially the last ten years, ending with the last "closing Masses in June", and a quick broad sweep of twenty centuries of the Church and its success or lack thereof. His threads and examples of historical argument were mostly correct, but he did misunderstand the "dark age century" to the extent of giving a non-Catholic interpretation. He then talked on the importance of the "new evangelisation." Never did he indicate any sort of connection, or bridge, between the closing of parishes and evangelisation. It was a total non-sequitar. During his presentation he mentioned, several times that, 14 parishes have made "recourse to Rome." At the last mention he said, that was "too gracious", it was not like all 800 [in the parish] petitioned, in some cases only three individuals. He took several questions, and people had several concerns. The first questioner asked whether "consolidation was complete?" He did not get a full answer. In a response to another question Lennon said, only two or three of those parishes had items removed, and that "for safe keeping", such as an altar but nothing off the walls. Someone else made a plea for the unborn. Another worried about the young not coming to church. The last question was a statement asking for mediation in regards to appealing parishes. Bishop Lennon maintained he had answered all questions earlier; mostly in letters of March 2009; he was upfront with all matters; and the fate of the last fourteen parishes rested with Rome.