Letters to the Editor
April 2009

For letters from previous editions, please visit the Archives page. To submit a letter to the editor, please click here.

Historical facts inaccurate in John 3:16 Building story

To the Editor: (Plain Press, April 2009) I’m writing to make commentary regarding certain statements within the February 2009 Plain Press article about the so-called John 3:16 Building. I am a local architectural historian and had researched this structure several years ago.

There are at least two extremely erroneous statements in this article. One states that this house became a boarding house in the 1880s after it had been the private residence of Samuel and Harriet Crowl.

Harriet Crowl, after Samuel’s death in 1879, continued to reside here until she sold it in 1889. It continued to function as a private residence until at least 1910. It was not a boarding house, simultaneously, as shown by Census records.

The article also states that the alleged 1880s boarders were Finnish immigrants. The Finns did not arrive in this neighborhood until roughly the 1920s. Additionally, a 1940s newspaper article claims that the steam baths were in the front part of the house rather than in the carriage-house as the article states.

Finally, the article states that the house was built in “roughly around 1860” and states that it was there when the neighborhood was not yet part of Cleveland. Since this area became part of Cleveland in 1854, those two statements obviously contradict each other.

It is very important that Cleveland’s history, and especially the histories of its buildings, be portrayed accurately. If history is not portrayed accurately, it is not history – it is fiction.

Craig Bobby
Lakewood, Ohio

Ward Redistricting and Reduction

To the Editor: (Plain Press, April 2009) I attended a meeting last night 3/4/09 about the council reduction in our city. I must say that it was the biggest bag of garbage that some of our council people have handed out yet!

I have been an active volunteer in our community for the last 13 years and have attended many meetings, but last night, we were given the biggest pack of Cleveland politics yet by Kevin Kelly the council representative of Ward 16. He stood in front of us and tried to tell us how difficult the decision making process is going to be!

Excuse me, but do most of our council people really think that the people of this city are that ignorant. They told us that they have an April 1st deadline to make their decisions and that they have not decided anything yet. Well that gives them about 3 weeks to finalize everything and get it submitted!

Who are they trying to kid! They give us a meeting with this small window of time and tell us that they want our input so they can finish the process. Give me a break! We heard all through out the room how they have already decided how they are going to divide the wards up.

The meeting was held at the Applewood Center in Ward 15. Why was it held there you ask? Because ward 15 is the west side ward that they are dividing up. They want to split up one of the oldest communities (Brooklyn Centre) in this city!

Why? You ask. Because we finally have a councilman that stands up to the good old boy network! If he doesn't like what he sees or hears he lets them know about it. The same goes for our friends in Ward 17 and a few other wards in this city.

They asked us for our concerns last night. One of my concerns is. Why wasn't Council President Sweeney in attendance at this meeting? Does he think he is to good for us or he is above the little people in this city? Or is it he just doesn't care what the people of this city think!

We had people at this meeting from many of the wards on the west side. Residents from Ward 13,14,15,16,17 and 20 all showed up to listen to the ramblings of one of our council representatives. Then Ward 16 Councilman Kelley couldn't or wouldn't answer any of our questions. We heard "I don't have the answer to that" more times last night then I have heard in many years.

I would also like to know why Mr. Kelly didn't stick around to the end to answer other questions that were brought up. I would like to thank those council representatives that did stay till the very end. Mr. Cummins, Mr. Zone and Mr. Reed, you did your wards proud!

Let me finish by saying to all our council representatives. The people of this city want accountability, transparency, and honesty! If we don't get it from you we will bounce your sorry butts out! We the people of this city have had enough and we won't put up with this back door politics any more!!!!!  

Dane Reich, President
The Southwest Citizens Area Council

Ward 12 Councilman not welcome in current Ward 15

To the editor: (Plain Press, April 2009)  This letter is in response to the extension of Ward 12 into certain areas of the current Ward 15.

During my time (1993 to 1999) as President of {the now defunct} South East Clevelanders Together I worked to promote community organizing in Ward 12 {Slavic Village} to address quality of life issues {such as crime watch} in an aggressive and systematic manner.

During that time period, Edward W. Rybka (current City of Cleveland Director of Building and Housing) represented Ward 12 in Cleveland City Council, and current Ward 12 Councilman Anthony Brancatelli headed the former Broadway Area Housing Coalition (aka Slavic Village Development).

Needless to say, it did not take long for our organization to clash with the former Councilman's housing group. Their primary objective was to build and rehabilitate housing without any real regard for the other issues affecting the residents and business owners. They took the worst houses and put people in them who had no ability {or desire} to pay.

In fact, once they completed their first rehabilitation on any given street that house soon became a haven for various social malcontents. Once the "single apple spoiled the barrel" the remaining law-abiding residents moved thus adding further to the catastrophe.

Now the Cleveland City Council wants to extend the boundaries of Ward 12 beyond the current boundaries of Ward 15, which {as luck would have it} would include my residence. Councilman Brian Cummins has been a fine representative for Ward 15, but as for Ward 12 Councilman Anthony Brancatelli; he will do for Ward 15 {Old Brooklyn} what he has, and will continue to do, for Ward 12 {Slavic Village}.

Joe Bialek
Cleveland, OH

Letter from Father Begin and St. Colman staff to
parishioners, friends and neighbors of St. Colman
Saturday, March 14, 2009

Dear Friends of St. Colman Parish,

(Plain Press, April 2009) We are truly saddened to learn of Bishop Richard G. Lennon’s decision to merge St. Colman Parish with St. Stephen Parish and to keep St. Stephen Church as the worship site. Bishop Lennon has given us the rationale for the part of his decision that has to do with downsizing, but has not given us a rationale for the choice of St. Stephen’s as a worship site. After 16 months of deliberation, discussion and discernment, our 25-member Cluster Team from our five Parishes decided that St. Colman’s would be the appropriate site for future mission and ministry. We followed the process Bishop Lennon prescribed.

An inner city Parish involves much more that a beautiful worship space and this was something that our Cluster Team acknowledged from the outset of our discernment. The Cluster Team decided that in order to reach our goals the chosen site would need ample and easily accessible space for the Outreach Ministry to the needy, older residents, young people and the new immigrant population, for ongoing collaborative leadership training, formative catechesis and other evangelizing efforts.

The Cluster Team rejected early on the option of merging Parishes. The major reason was that the Cluster would be severely hampered by assuming the debt of closed sites and secondly, maintaining empty and shuttered sites would be a misuse of the Cluster’s limited time, talent and treasure. Thirdly, arranging for the sale or new use of the closed sites would stretch our resources and detract from energy and resources we need to do the mission of Jesus to the poor.

We provided him with our Cluster goals, our Cluster priorities and a sound rationale for our Cluster Team’s decision to use the St. Colman site for effective ministry that better serves the needs of the people of our Parishes and our neighborhood. Our process resulted in 14 votes to retain St. Colman, 7 votes to retain St. Procop and only 4 votes to retain St. Stephen.

Canonically, St. Colman is a territorial Parish with a Pastor and a consecrated Church building. The Parishes of St. Stephen, La Sagrada Familia, and Our Lady of Mount Carmel are physically within St. Colman’s boundaries.

St. Colman’s is a parish that works to invite and include all of those who come to it in spiritual or physical need, and through that welcoming attitude, it is a Parish that evangelizes at all times. In the last fiscal year we reported 66 Baptisms, 23 First Communions, 18 Confirmations, 10 Mariages, and 27 Funerals.

Our Neighborhood Outreach Ministry raised and distributed more than $27,000 to provide help with rent, utilities, transportation, medicines, clothing for work, books and tools for vocational and higher education, and help with birth certificates and State IDs. Up to 15 neighbors in need visit  our Parish Office every day and an estimated 30 telephone calls for help come to us every day – many of these referred by the Catholic Charities office (which is also within our boundaries.) The Outreach ministry connected its hundreds of callers and guests to further resources throughout the City, ensuring that everyone that comes in need is served in some way. Because of this volume of need and the response our Outreach Ministry has built through the years, we use Parish Office space, meeting rooms, the Parish Hall and meeting space in our School Building and at Colman Court. Just this last year, more than 300 volunteers found a place to practice their faith with us by helping with this Ministry.

A major factor in our Cluster Team’s decision to retain the St. Colman site was that the space at St. Stephen’s was inadequate to meet the goals that we discerned together, including this extensive Outreach program and the newly developing ministry to the vast immigrant and refugee population living within our borders. We anticipate this ministry will increase as the war in Iraq winds down and refugees from that country are welcomed. Our 10-classroom school building offers a welcoming space for our large combined PSR program as well as for adult programs. It is already in use as well for parish sponsored African immigrant programs and arts and counseling sessions for Latin American immigrants.

The space available at St. Stephen’s cannot possibly accommodate these ministries and our other Cluster goals and priorities. Furthermore, there is no recent history at St. Stephen’s of any effective outreach program that approaches the scale of ST. Colman’s Outreach Ministry. St. Colman has developed an extensive volunteer corps over 10 years with our Church in the City Partners, other suburban and outlying parishes, and Catholic High Schools.

To close the St. Colman site is effectively to eliminate these ministries to the neighborhood and would give a message of abandonment to the people to whom we minister. The message to our volunteers is clearly that the way they have chosen to practice their faith through our neighborhood ministries is not a priority for the Diocese.

Another factor in the Cluster Team’s decision was the physical location of St. Colman, easily accessible next to a brand-new Rapid Station, at a major intersection. St. Colman’s has demonstrated its ability to attract volunteers and raise money because of its active ministries, its rich heritage, its longstanding tradition of welcoming Irish immigrants and its more recent tradition of welcoming immigrants and refugees from other countries.

Additionally, the residents at Colman Court chose to live in that building because it is a vital part of a vibrant parish campus. The decision to leave Colman Court as the only occupied structure left for any period of time would be irresponsible because this vulnerable population would be even more vulnerable if they were surrounded by empty buildings on an abandoned site.

All of this requires much more than a beautiful worship space.

The Bishop has asked us to make public that those who wish to appeal his decision or request that he revoke or emend the decision notify him within 10 “useful” days or by March 27th. We invite all of you who are stakeholders in St. Colman Parish to advise us as to whether to appeal the Bishop’s decision or not. (This according to Canon 1734.2 of the Code of Canon Law.)

Please use the form attached and return it to us as soon as possible so that we can inform the Bishop of our decision about whether to appeal or not.

For the purpose of this effort we will consider the stakeholders in the mission of ST. Colman’s to be of two groups:

Group one (1) are those of you who are registered members and participate regularly in liturgical celebrations and Parish activities.

Group two (2) are those of you who are not registered, but who are integral parts of our St. Colman family because this is the place where you and your families celebrate your rich cultural heritage, because you moved to Colman Court Apartments to be part of our St. Colman family, because you are living at or are a graduate of our Edna House residence, because you or members of your family received Sacraments here, because this is the Church that welcomed you or your family as immigrants, because you participate in our activities for recent immigrants in our School Building, because it is the Church where you do volunteer ministry, because you live in the neighborhood and believe in St. Colman’s role and continued deep involvement in the successful future of the neighborhood, because this is the place where you can receive the assistance you need or because of other personal reasons.

Thank you. Please help spread the word and feel free to copy this message We want and need to know what our Parishioners, our friends and our neighbors think, because making an appeal WITHOUT the support of all who are affected by St. Colman would be a losing cause. Encourage your friends and families and neighbors to make their opinions known to us and to the Bishop through us. Please check our website at www.stcolmanparish.org for a complete copy of the Bishop’s letter, for updates and more information. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call me at (216) 651-0550 or email me at saintcolmanparish@gmail.com

Father Bob Begin, the Staff and Parish Council

News & Articles | Archives