By BosNewsLife News Center
BUDAPEST/WASHINGTON (BosNewsLife)– The Catholic Church of the United States wants to sell the largest church of the ethnic Hungarian community in America as part of an apparent effort to raise money for victims of child abuse by priests, BosNewsLife monitored Tuesday, December 8.
The Catholic Church plans to sell St. Emeric in Cleveland, Ohio, despite protests from the 650 parishioners, Hungarian media reported.
Hungary’s largest newspaper, Nepszabadsag, said St. Emeric’s community has appealed to Bishop Richard Lennon “in vain” and that the parishioners’ planned appeal to the Vatican is not likely to reverse the situation either. There was no immediate comment from the Catholic Church leadership.
Miklos Peller, spokesman for the community, was quoted as saying that revenues from the sale of the valuable property — built from Hungarian donations 105 years ago — would be used to ease the US Catholic Church’s financial situation in and outside Cleveland.
COMPENSATION CLAIMS
“They won’t tell us what they need the money for, but one reads a lot about those compensations,” Peller told the paper in reference to claims against the Catholic Church by paedophilia victims.
The bishop is planning to close 50 out of Cleveland’s 250 Catholic churches, including one serving the ethnic Polish, Czech and Lithuanian communities, Hungarian news agency MTI reported, citing Hungarian media. (BosNewsLife’s AMERICA WATCH is a new feature covering key events impacting the Church and/or compassionate professionals at a time of reports of growing turbulence within the Christian community of the United States).
