Thursday, April 06, 2006

Cleveland's new top dog

More on Cleveland's new bishop:

Bishop Richard Lennon, from Boston, was introduced Tuesday by retiring Bishop Anthony Pilla.

Lennon, 59, was ordained in 1973 in Boston and became an auxiliary bishop in 2001.

He made national headlines when he temporarily took control of the Boston Diocese. That came after Cardinal Bernard Law quit in 2002 amid the priest sex-abuse scandal.
What Should Bishop Accomplish In Cleveland?
Lennon said he will use the same healing and straightforward approach in dealing with all the issues in Cleveland.

He said the global settlement of more than 500 cases involving the church was the only logical and human approach.

"To try and handle each separate case individually would have kept it going for months, if not years. And that was not helpful to the victims, the church, it wasn't helpful to anyone," Lennon said.

Lennon becomes the 10th bishop in the Diocese of Cleveland.

He got the call from the pope two weeks ago and said he never hesitated to say yes.

He takes over for Pilla, who announced his retirement in January.

Cleveland area Catholics say that Pilla's shoes will be tough to fill, but they have high hopes for Lennon's leadership, and think that his experience with the Boston diocese during difficult times is also important.

There's only one problem Clevelanders have with the Boston native: he's a self-admitted die-hard Red Sox fan.

"I will try to be as supportive of the Indians as possible but I must be honest, Red Sox fans, I mean, they're diehards. I mean we waited how many years?," he joked.

Lennon will be installed on May 15 at 3 p.m.

SNAP doesn't like him, which means I do, because I've done some research on them and they didn't like B XVi's election and support (and are supported byh )Voice of the Faithful, which is a lefty group out of Boston. So I wish him good luck in Cleveland and hope he does well.

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