Bishop Richard Lennon will speak today at the Cleveland City Club, and a church official says it's the first major civic address the Boston native has made since his installation as Cleveland's bishop last Spring. Church spokesman Bob Tayek says, in addition to talking about the impact the church has on the region, in terms of social services, the Bishop will talk about the recently announced plan to group various parishes into geographic clusters.
Bob Tayek: Both internal to the life of the Catholic Church, and externally, what that means in the eight counties of the Diocese of Cleveland.
Church officials emphasize that clustering will promote economic efficiencies in a large Diocese where there aren't enough priests to attend to all the needs of individual parishes. Some parishioners fear that the program will lead to the closing of poorly-attended churches. David C. Barnett, 90.3.