Back on October 14, JD Flynn (a Franciscan grad) and Ed Condon discussed the merger of Steubenville into Columbus in their weekly Pillar Podcast. (The player with the entire episode is embedded below.)
It is a very good conversation, starting with the question “what is a diocese?” Then they talk about what was then known about the announced merger, what it would mean, how the process works, what they think the driving factors behind it are, and what possible recourse the faithful may have.
One interesting thing they mentioned was the identification of cardinals Cupich and Tobin — archbishops of Chicago and Newark, respectively — as key figures in the discussion. They argue that since these two are part of the Congregation for Bishops, both would be very much involved in the decision.
Depressingly they basically agreed that the process wouldn’t have gotten as far as it has if Rome — not necessarily the pope himself, but key figures in the Vatican — hadn’t already more or less signed off on it as a fait accompli.
Anyhow, I commend the episode you. The talk about all of this begins at about the 5:20 mark, and goes for about 35 minutes.