Today Bishop Richard Lennon, former auxiliary bishop here in Boston, will be installed as bishop of Cleveland. He was generally been welcomed by the people of northeastern Ohio, although some are greeting him with a few questions they’d like answered right off the bat.Specifically, they want to know if he will enforce a ban on the heretical group FutureChurch from meeting on church property, a ban instituted by Lennon’s predecessor Bishop Anthony Pilla but never enforced.
They also want to know if Lennon will order that gay pride rainbow symbols be removed from diocesan web pages of the gay, lesbian family ministry (and this page too).
Finally, they also want to know what he will do about John Carroll University, which according to the Cardinal Newman Society, refers students to a pro-abortion counseling center, which sanctioned a performance of the “Queer Monologues,” and whose Gay/Straight Alliance supports all kinds of extremist gay activism in direct defiance of Catholic teaching. Incidentally, the diocese’s seminarians are enrolled at the university for their educational formation.
Looks like Lennon will have to hit the ground running. Will he do any better in Cleveland than he did in Boston? While he was only an auxiliary for most of his time in Boston, he was also vicar general under Law and O’Malley and apostolic administrator after Law resigned. How did that go for Boston? Yet, there are some who say that Fr. Walter Cuenin’s ouster from Our Lady Help of Christians was engineered by Lennon. So was he being held by back from real change by others or was he just part of the system? I guess we’ll find out in Cleveland.
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Didn’t Bishop Lennon bring in Fr. Farren to be rector of the seminary and finish the cleaning process, making St. John’s one of the most orthodox places in the country?
I hope Bishop Lennon has more influence over John Carroll than Bishop D’Arcy has over Notre Dame. I really didn’t know much about John Carroll University until my daughter received their recruiting brochure in the mail just last week. It spoke volumes!
Two words: Bishop Finn. If Bishop Lennon comes in and does as Bishop Finn has done in Kansas City, in time Cleveland could become a solidly orthodox diocese. Yes, there will be some short-term pain, but what’s the alternative? Long-term pain?
Carrie,
You’re probably right. Not many are going to be like Bishop Finn.
Thanks for the response. My suspicions are confirmed.
Frances