Ethnic churches in diocese fear closure

March 10, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

CLEVELAND (AP) — As the Cleveland Catholic Diocese prepares this week to announce which parishes must close or merge, those at most risk may be the 51 nationality parishes that cater to specific ethnic groups such as Polish-Americans and Irish-Americans.

Some of the historically large nationality parishes in Cleveland have shrunk as members moved to the suburbs.

The faithful at St. Casimir, one of the last vestiges of an old Polish neighborhood, are on edge. The church, founded in 1892, still offers a Polish Mass but is no longer surrounded by the ethnic culture that built it.

On a recent Sunday, no more than 50 joined in song and prayer at a Mass inside the church.

“I was baptized here, I was married here, and I want to be buried from here,” said Tina Girod, 53.

Bishop Richard Lennon says closing some churches is necessary so that others can thrive. He intends to share decision with parish priests on Saturday.

The diocese has about 766,000 Catholics in eight Northeast Ohio counties where its 227 parishes exist.

Up to 50 parishes, mostly in urban areas, could close or be merged within the diocese because of declining numbers of parishioners and priests, reflecting consolidation also seen elsewhere in the U.S.

For much of the diocese’s history, ethnic churches thrived. New immigrants often built grand structures.

“They came from places where the church was always the grandest edifice in the village,” said Cleveland historian John Grabowski. “The church was the center of everything for them.”

But many of the nationality parishes no longer reflect their Bohemian or German or Italian roots. Neighborhoods changed, enrollments dwindled and diocese officials questioned whether Mass in the mother tongue is essential when most parishioners speak English.

“Is there still a need there?” diocese spokesman Robert Tayek said. “We see it in these new and emerging immigrant communities. But for the older ethnic groups, is there the need there once was? How many people are limited to the Hungarian language?”

Such questions raise passions at churches like St. Emeric, where on Friday nights more than 200 boys and girls of the Hungarian Scouts crowd into the Scout House and they speak only Hungarian, a language they are also expected to read and write.

Some also belong to a Hungarian folk dance troupe.

“When our kids learn their culture and their religion in our native language, we think they learn more,” said Scout leader Mike Horvath of North Royalton.

Some nationality parishes have sought to enhance their survival chances by hiring canon lawyers — experts in church law — proposing new programs and making appeals to the bishop.

St. Casimir members proposed that their church become a multicultural parish, perhaps with services in several languages, or an ethnic church museum.

“We certainly are still praying,” Girod said. “And miracles do happen.”