Bishop Monforton Made Auxiliary in Detroit; Bishop Bradley Administrator

Sep 28, 2023 | articles, General, The Pillar

As of 12 noon Rome time today, which is 6 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time, Bishop Jeffrey M. Monforton is an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Detroit. Bishop Monforton posted a letter to the Diocesan Facebook page shortly after 6 a.m. this morning (embedded below)....

The Youngstown Option

Nov 19, 2022 | General

In a comment thread on Facebook connected to my last post a commenter wished that I “would stop agitating on the side for a dubiously preferable Youngstown merger.” He insisted that my efforts toward “the Youngstown option” undermined my...

Columbus Closing Parishes — Lots of them.

Nov 4, 2022 | General, priest shortage, reasons and responses

The Diocese of Columbus plans to close 20 percent, one out of every five, of its parishes next summer. The 23-county Diocese of Columbus plans to close nearly 20% of its churches—19 of 105. Eleven of them are in Franklin County, which has about half of the...

Letter to Bishops of Ohio and Others

Oct 25, 2022 | General, reasons and responses

I finally wrote the text of the letter that I intend to send to the bishops of Ohio and (with minor edits) to Archbishop Jose Gomez, president of the USCCB, and Archbishop Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio. I kept it short to make sure it would fit on one sheet of...

A Tale of Two Surveys

Oct 19, 2022 | General

Faithful members of the Diocese of Steubenville have released a survey. The results will be shared with relevant members of the hierarchy. I recommend taking this one seriously. You can find that survey here. Some time last week the Diocese of Steubenville put out a...