Saturday, May 7, 2011

Lennon has violated canon law again

Last year the bishop of Cleveland, Richard Lennon was caught advertising Saint Casimir's buildings and grounds for sale. Saint Casimir has an appeal pending to the Holy See to have their parish continue. Under such a condition it is illegal (under church law, but as we have seen here, and in Allentown, American bishops think they are outside the law of the church, and supervision of the Vatican and its bishop) to sell or market the property. Once this was brought to the attention of the press, Saint Casimir was publicly delisted.

*On April 25th of this year there appeared this story. The parish of St. Stephen in Valrico (an affluent suburb of Tampa), Florida is building a new church. They have 'discussed' to buy windows and bells of Saint Casimir's patrimony. [They do understand this is tentative.] The article has photos of two of St. Casimir's windows.

The pastor, William Swengros, is beaming in the article:

The building committee hopes to purchase used church bells and stained glass from St. Casimir Catholic Church in Cleveland, one of 28 churches in the Cleveland Catholic Diocese that was forced to close due to lack of parishioners. St. Casimir is one of the biggest and most ornate churches in the diocese. Its stained glass windows and statuary are being sold for pennies on the dollar, said Swengros. The stained glass will be used to adorn Our Lady's Chapel in the new church as well as reconfigured into round windows for the main church. "It will be just amazing," said Swengros, noting that the parish could never have afforded new stained glass for all 12 windows in the 250-seat chapel.

Of the other 14 or so parishes that currently have an open appeal, how many of those are having their property fenced? It looks like Lennon is a repeat and habitual offender. He continues to show complete disregard and contempt for anything and everybody other than his own will.

On the Floridian church's website there is a cropped photo of this window of Saint Casimir's church.

Has this window been already sold? [update; 11 May--it has not]
______________
postscriptum: *Sometime after 9 May the story has been edited. Most of the quote, supra, has been removed. It has been adjusted with an asterisk, which is differently connotated than the original missing language. The two photographs of Casimir's windows have been pulled.
* It should be noted that the closure of St. Casimir Catholic Church in Cleveland by the Diocese of Cleveland is currently under appeal to the Vatican. Although St. Stephen has expressed an interest in purchasing stained-glass windows from the church, nothing can be sold pending a ruling on the appeal. According to Robert Tayek, director of media and public relations for the Diocese of Cleveland, if items are sold from the church, they will be sold for fair market value.

postscriptum 1 September 2011: I visited the website, and did not find St. Casimir's windows there at this time.

1 comment:

  1. Now, we in Cleveland know how the Egyptians felt about their historical artifacts taken from their cities. Cleveland art belongs in Cleveland especially from Cleveland landmarks.

    ReplyDelete