Richard Gerard Lennon (born March 26, 1947) is the Roman Catholic bishop of Cleveland, Ohio, since May 15, 2006.
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A native of Arlington, Massachusetts,[1] Lennon is the son of an Arlington, Mass. firefighter[2](Lennon's father, Albert, was Arlington's deputy fire chief.)[3] Lennon attended St. James the Apostle grammar school[3] in St. James parish in Arlington, where he was an altar boy.[4] In 1965 Lennon graduated[5] from Matignon,[3] a Catholic High School in Cambridge, Mass., where he was a member of the National Honor Society.[6] Bishop Lennon attended Boston College where he was a mathematics major for two years[2][5][6] before entering St. John's Seminary in Brighton, Massachusetts where he graduated in 1969, with a bachelor's degree in philosophy.[5] Lennon went on to receive a M.TH in Sacramental Theology in 1973[5] and a M.A. in Church History in 1984[5] both also from St. John's. Bishop Lennon was ordained in the Boston Archdiocese on May 19, 1973. Lennon was a parish priest from 1973 to 1988. From 1973 to 1982 Lennon served at St. Mary of the Nativity Church in Scituate, Massachusetts and from 1982 to 1988[7] at St. Mary's Church in West Quincy, Massachusetts.[5] In 1988 he became the Archdiocese of Boston's archdiocesan assistant for canonical affairs. In 1999, he became the seminary rector.[6]
In June 2001, Lennon was installed as a Knight of Malta and into the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre.[8]
On June 29, 2001, Lennon was named as an auxiliary bishop of Boston; he was ordained as a bishop on September 14, 2001. From 2001 until April 2006, Lennon served as a bishop in Boston, holding a variety of positions.
After Bernard Francis Law resigned his position as Archbishop of Boston in December 2002 amid the church sex scandal, Lennon became very important in leading the troubled archdiocese through the turbulent times as he was the interim leader. He served as the Apostolic Administrator of the archdiocese between Law's resignation and the accession of its new Archbishop, Sean O'Malley. Archbishop Seán O'Malley appointed him as the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Boston and he held this position from August 2003 to April 2006. In Boston, Lennon acquired a reputation as a generally disagreeable person. On one particular documentary on Boston area church closings, which aired on PBS affiliates, Lennon was recorded as calling a Catholic individual "a little man" for questioning Lennon's refusal to allow him to photograph a church building scheduled to close.
On April 5, 2006, Lennon was appointed by the Holy Father, His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI, as the replacement for Bishop Anthony Pilla, who was suffering from heart disease, in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland. He became the 10th bishop of Cleveland in an installation ceremony on May 15, 2006.
The Vatican has asked a retired New Jersey bishop, Bishop John M. Smith of Trenton, to visit the Diocese of Cleveland and assess the leadership of Bishop Lennon at the Bishop's own request because a number of people have written to Rome expressing their concerns with his leadership of the Diocese.
<<http://www.catholicnews.com/data/briefs/cns/20110711.htm#head1>>
Lennon's appointment as Apostolic Administrator of the Boston Archdiocese, following the resignation of Cardinal Law, brought criticism from some sex-abuse victims' groups.
In June 2008, Bishop Lennon announced plans to close at least 30 parishes in inner city Cleveland and older parishes in Cleveland's inner ring suburbs. This plan has drawn ire from members of Cleveland's City Council members. Michael Polensek of Ward 11 has sounded off on this plan. The Bishop is doing this in face of a priest shortage and loss of parishioners. Critics have pointed out that several of the churches to be closed actually enjoyed steady, if limited, monthly incomes, and several of these churches, as well, have a politically liberal orientation. However, many of these churches were also in need of repair, which was not always evident when looking at it from the outside.
There is some criticism of the Clusters of Parishes system that he has implemented. Example of this is Cleveland's Slavic Village are clusters of churches. List of Churches
In this cluster, Bishop Lennon has asked for 3-4 of these parishes to either merge or close.
Another Cluster (Garfield-Maple Hts)
| Preceded by Anthony Pilla |
Bishop of Cleveland 2006–Present |
Succeeded by Incumbent |