For the first time since the Cleveland Catholic Diocese began closing churches this year as part of a major restructuring, parishioners and protesters tried Saturday to prevent one from being shuttered. A small group of people -- many from other parishes slated for closing -- gathered after the final Mass at St. John the Baptist Church on Saturday and announced they were holding a vigil.
Barbara Piurkowsky, a member of the parish, said the decision to merge St. John with another Akron church was shortsighted and illogical.
About a dozen people sat for nearly two hours before a cadre of Akron police officers told them they would be arrested if they stayed. The group complied.
The diocese, after getting wind of the vigil plans, got a temporary restraining order signed by a Summit County magistrate ordering that the church be vacated.
In March, Bishop Richard Lennon unveiled a plan to downsize the eight-county diocese by 50 parishes. So far, about a dozen parishes have closed or merged with others.
In his final words to the St. John congregation, Lennon said, "You are greater than any temple, church or cathedral that can be built by human hands."
Some in the protest group -- including Nancy McGrath of Endangered Catholics, a local coalition fighting the closing of churches -- said they would find another way to further the fight.
That request instigated a heated exchange as the protesters accused Lennon of trading "souls for cash" and of not including parishioners in the consolidation decision.
"We have the responsibility to the many people who never were heard," McGrath said. "The people are the church, and we're taking the church back."
Lennon shot back that the group did not represent the people of the church. Hundreds attended the final Mass, but only a few stayed to support the vigil.
"You have claimed this on your own," he said.
Lennon, who was a bishop in the Boston archdiocese before coming to Cleveland, began closing Boston churches in the summer of 2004. Currently, six churches in Massachusetts are under occupation by parishioners. Five are in Boston and one in Springfield.
Attempts to occupy a church in New York and two churches in New Orleans were quashed as parishioners were arrested and removed from the sanctuaries.
Lennon made it clear in his conversation with the protesters that the situation in Boston would not be repeated.
St. John the Baptist is set to merge with Annunciation a few miles away and form a new parish next week called Visitation of Mary. The etched bronze front doors, made by a parish member, and the communion chalice, used for more than 100 years, will follow the church to the new location.
Monica Fanady was born two blocks away from St. John and attended for 75 years. She was baptized and married in the church, and her children attended the now-closed school.
Fanady, who came early to hang bows on the pews of the 102-year-old church, said that the closing was bittersweet but that she thought the protest was uncalled for.
"We could see that we were slowly slipping away," she said. "There were more funerals than baptisms."
She said many of the faithful had migrated away, leaving only 250 families, though the church was financially sound.
"It was not about how much money we have. That means nothing without people."
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