Parishioners end sit-in at church slated to close
Carrying U.S. and Hungarian flags, parishioners ended a 16-hour sit-in at a Cleveland Catholic church that is closing after police told them Thursday they would be trespassing if they did not leave, the Associated Press reports.
The protesters staged a vigil at midnight Wednesday at the 106-year-old St. Emeric Church near downtown Cleveland, then remained through about 4 p.m.
The historic Hungarian church is the last of 50 parishes to be closed by the local diocese. Bishop Richard Lennon has agreed to meet with protesters, police and protesters said. No date had been set.
The protest ended after police had entered the church several times and spoken with parishioners by cell phone. Police Commander Keith Sulzer said six protesters were inside the church. No one was arrested.
The protesters had locked themselves inside and declared that they were well-stocked with food and ready to stay "for a long time" in order to save their church.
John Yuhasz, a parish member and protest leader, emerged from the church and said it was important to challenge the closings.
"Somewhere along the way, someone had to take a stand in opposition for justice for all the parishioners, for all those broken souls who were thrown out of those parishes to have a chance at reconciliation," he said.
Some parishioners opposed the vigil and expressed concerns that it would damage the appeal to the Vatican to keep St. Emeric open and hurt discussions with the diocese to allow the Hungarian-American community to use the property for ethnic language, cultural and scouting programs.
The diocese called the protest an illegal occupation.
"We politely asked that they leave, and a police officer advised them that they would be considered to be trespassing if they did not do so," spokesman Robert Tayek said in an e-mail. "We are grateful for a prompt and peaceful resolution of this matter and will continue to work in cooperation with the police to ensure public safety and the security of church property."
Juhasz said the goal was to force the bishop into a dialogue toward saving the church.
"We have been rebuffed for four years by this bishop," he said by phone before the protest ended. Parishioners still hoped the closing could be reversed in a Vatican appeal, but that decision has been delayed, "and I believe Rome has taken a hands-off policy," Juhasz said.
Parishioner Marta Fordos said the pastor gave parishioners the key to the church on Wednesday with the understanding that they could stay until midnight, and they locked the door from the inside. Fordos said the protesters took soft drinks, water, desserts and bagels into the church with them.
Last year, a group of about a dozen protesters at St. John the Baptist Church in Akron sat for about two hours following its final Mass. The diocese had obtained a temporary restraining order, and police officers arrived to tell the protesters they would be arrested if they stayed.
The Diocese of Cleveland announced the closings last year, citing falling attendance, a priest shortage and financial problems.
Officials at the Vatican did not immediately return a call after office hours Thursday seeking comment about the situation in Cleveland. They have declined to comment on parish closings in the past.
The demonstrators were inspired by round-the-clock protest vigils at Roman Catholic churches in Boston a few years ago before the archbishop there decided to reverse a few church closings out of dozens, Juhasz said.
Lennon was one of then-Archbishop Sean O'Malley's chief deputies during the Boston church closings. Three parishes were fully reopened, one of which had been occupied by protesters. A fourth church that was scheduled to be closed started a vigil and remained open. Three others were reopened as chapels to a nearby parish.
Comments
I am sorry to hear that people are being thrown out of their parishes because the dioceses have spent a lot of money on legal bills lately. This might lead some people do adopt the heresy of Donatism as a reaction. That is not Doughnutism which is the tendency of parishioners to consume a lot of donuts in the parish hall. No Donatism was one of the first of many heresies which demanded that people in the Church should be especially holy or the whole thing would not make sense according to them. Well this clearly had to be condemned, then as now. This heretical way of thinking impedes one of the great ways that the Church always gets along in the world. The famous Ex Opere Operato. Those who say that the idea behind this is a philosophical sleight-of-hand beholden to blunt nominalist aggression of an intellectual sort , as seen at the Council of Constance, are just wrong. We Catholics have the right to believe that no matter how heinous the minister, everyone should just leave us alone in affirming the right of the Church to require the laity's participation with ministers no matter how questionable. Got it? I know it's confusing, so let me give a strong example, in order to fight the modern Donatists who are hiding in the bushes everywhere. If you are squeamish or delicate please don't read any further, because I need to make it graphic to display the great wisdom of the Catholic Church on this matter.
Let's say you have a priest named Fr. Ganymede and on a Saturday night he somehow managed to rape two children before dinner. Then he needed some money for dinner so he went into the collection plate so he could buy some pizza for him and his friends. Over dinner he gossiped viciously about some member of the parish, told a few tidbits that he had heard in confession, while getting totally plastered on Vodka. On the way back to the rectory he scored some Crystal Meth, went to local bathhouse and had unprotected sex, as the active partner even though he is quite sure he is positive. The next morning he gets up and goes to say the 8:30 Mass. He gives a hand-job to the altar-boy in the sacristy bathroom beforehand, and forgets to wash off his hands before going on the altar. He then says Mass and distributes communion, meanwhile distributing the altar-boy's jizz along with the hosts.
All these activities are things that bad priests have actually done, including the last one. I have combined them to make a theological point. Allow me now to explain Catholic theology to you. Here is the question: Is it the right of the Church to encourage the laity to participate simply and uncritically in the Sacraments based on the basic idea that no matter how the minister does his job you get just as much out of it personally and in terms of grace? Well, of course it is! The idea that this is at some a human matter where people have the right to interact with others based on good repute, and general lay communal sanction that reflects such, is ridiculous. And it is anti-Catholic for anyone to suggest anything different! The doctrine of Ex Opere Operato means essentially then that you take whatever the Church dishes out. Those who might say that respect for Catholic beliefs is different from a simple real-world expectation that Church personnel would operate at a decent
level are wrong. This is why the very idea of a Church vestry with any real power in the Catholic Church is a Donatist conspiracy! Priests have a right to do basically do whatever they want and claim that it is God's work, and that the governmental structure of dioceses and parishes reflects this great truth like glove to hand. Those who do not grasp this and give assent to it need to get out of the Church, they are Donatists and heretics. Get them out of the seminaries, get them out of the convents. Ex Opere Operato is not just about the sacraments. It is a way of life, and a lifestyle. The great part of being Catholic is that it gives you permission to do a lot of things and then act unimpeachable later and get into high dudgeon when anyone brings it up.
This relates to the whole Catholic approach to government in general. This is why I don't think Isaiah Berlin was as smart as people say. Negative Liberty as the basis of freedom is too restrictive. It leaves a lot to people's choice, and makes repute the basis for association. If you can choose to associate with the sinner or not, is that following Jesus? Jesus chose to associate with Mary Magdalen, but clearly everyone else needs to forced to do by the efficacy of the sacraments. The basis of freedom in general is not the achievements of thinkers like the Founding Fathers, but the theologians throughout history who have been fighting Donatism in the Catholic Church. So, we will make banners to use in our great fight against Donatism.! They will be emblazoned with a host dripping, but dripping with what?
Michael Sean Wintersmix
Disjunctively Catholic
National Catholic Reportager blogger
Posted by: Michael Sean Wintersmix | July 3, 2010 7:11 PM
Wintersmix--bravo! You are seething against this church aren't you? The more you delve into this the more I realize that your liberal mockery of this church, is as incendiary as it gets.. I have to run--a Donatist is about to jump me--his thousand eyes follow me from behind a bushy bush where I have espied him, thanks to my astute vision.
R Anon
Posted by: Anonymous | July 4, 2010 8:14 PM
A bushy bush! Oh my God if I have to actually have to deal with a vagina on top of all of this I won't be able to handle it!
Posted by: Michael Sean Wintersmix | July 4, 2010 8:47 PM