St. Casimir Church Advocates Protest, Call for It to Reopen
CLEVELAND, Ohio — About 100 Polish-Americans bowed their heads in somber prayer and song today in front of a chain-link fence that surrounds boarded-up St. Casimir Catholic Church on Cleveland’s East Side.
The group, protesting Bishop Richard Lennon’s closing of the ethnic church three weeks ago, decorated the fence with drapes of red and white, the Polish colors, and paintings of Jesus and the Virgin Mary.
For an hour, the protesters sang hymns in Polish and English, their voices wafting under sunny skies through the blighted and mostly deserted neighborhood at East 82nd Street and Sowinski Avenue. It was the largest turnout yet for what have become weekly gatherings.