These days, a lot of people seem to think of Thanksgiving is nothing but a warm-up for Christmas.  The commercials for all the new gift ideas have started already, and one local radio station is even playing Christmas music round the clock.  Don’t get me wrong, Christmas is great; but Thanksgiving is a different holiday.

The stories we have of the first Thanksgiving are largely exaggerated, but we do know that at some point, the Pilgrims and their Pokanoket allies gathered and had a feast to celebrate their new alliance.  This was a difficult time for both of them, as the Pokanokets had just been ravaged by a plague and the Pilgrims had lost most of their friends and shipmates during the hellish ordeal of reaching America and surviving their first year here.  Still, they found something to celebrate.

Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving a national holiday while the Civil War was raging.  It was a hard time for all Americans, but Lincoln realized that the only way we could survive was by remembering the good things we still had.  During the toughest of times, our forefathers always found something for which to give thanks.

So why, on a day set aside for giving thanks, do we think only about eating and about the presents we will receive in a month’s time?  Don’t we have enough material possessions already?  This Thanksgiving, let’s all try to remember the real meaning of the holiday.  Lets savor the time we spend with our families and, rather than just gorging ourselves, let’s savor each bite of Thanksgiving dinner and remember the hard work that went into making it.  Once we realize how much we really have to give thanks for, we will be able to enter into the next holiday season with joyful hearts, ready to give rather than just receive.

–Kevin Jones

Protesting parishioners agree to leave St. John the Baptist Church in Akron

AKRON, Ohio — For the first time since the Cleveland Catholic Diocese began closing churches this year as part of a major restructuring, parishioners and protesters tried Saturday to prevent one from being shuttered.

A small group of people — many from other parishes slated for closing — gathered after the final Mass at St. John the Baptist Church on Saturday and announced they were holding a vigil.

Barbara Piurkowsky, a member of the parish, said the decision to merge St. John with another Akron church was shortsighted and illogical.

About a dozen people sat for nearly two hours before a cadre of Akron police officers told them they would be arrested if they stayed. The group complied. The diocese, after getting wind of the vigil plans, got a temporary restraining order signed by a Summit County magistrate ordering that the church be vacated.

In March, Bishop Richard Lennon unveiled a plan to downsize the eight-county diocese by 50 parishes. So far, about a dozen parishes have closed or merged with others. In his final words to the St. John congregation, Lennon said, “You are greater than any temple, church or cathedral that can be built by human hands.”

Some in the protest group — including Nancy McGrath of Endangered Catholics, a local coalition fighting the closing of churches — said they would find another way to further the fight.

Before they were escorted out, Lennon approached the group sitting in pews and asked them to “kindly leave the church.”

That request instigated a heated exchange as the protesters accused Lennon of trading “souls for cash” and of not including parishioners in the consolidation decision.

“We have the responsibility to the many people who never were heard,” McGrath said.

“The people are the church, and we’re taking the church back.”

Lennon shot back that the group did not represent the people of the church. Hundreds attended the final Mass, but only a few stayed to support the vigil.

“You have claimed this on your own,” he said.

Lennon, who was a bishop in the Boston archdiocese before coming to Cleveland, began closing Boston churches in the summer of 2004. Currently, six churches in Massachusetts are under occupation by parishioners. Five are in Boston and one in Springfield.

Attempts to occupy a church in New York and two churches in New Orleans were quashed as parishioners were arrested and removed from the sanctuaries.

Lennon made it clear in his conversation with the protesters that the situation in Boston would not be repeated.

St. John the Baptist is set to merge with Annunciation a few miles away and form a new parish next week called Visitation of Mary. The etched bronze front doors, made by a parish member, and the communion chalice, used for more than 100 years, will follow the church to the new location.

Monica Fanady was born two blocks away from St. John and attended for 75 years. She was baptized and married in the church, and her children attended the now-closed school.

Fanady, who came early to hang bows on the pews of the 102-year-old church, said that the closing was bittersweet but that she thought the protest was uncalled for.

“We could see that we were slowly slipping away,” she said. “There were more funerals than baptisms.”

She said many of the faithful had migrated away, leaving only 250 families, though the church was financially sound. “It was not about how much money we have. That means nothing without people.”

–Rachel Dissell, The Plain Dealer

The Cleveland Catholic Diocese is currently experiencing what many people see as a crisis.  Due to a shortage of both funds and parishioners, many Catholic parishes are being forced to combine or close.  This has raised concerns about what will become of the beautiful architecture and valuable artwork that adorns many of the closing churches.  In addition, many churchgoers feel sentimental about their parishes and are unwilling to move to a new church.  However, Catholics often forget that the beautiful buildings that we must now say goodbye to be only bonuses, and that the Church is about more than the temples it builds.

Beautiful temples are important to almost every major religion.  They help set the mood for worship and express the devotion of the congregation.  However, it wasn’t always that way.  Look at just about any religion, and you will find a time when they were persecuted.  The Jews were enslaved in Egypt.  Mohammed, the founder of Islam, was driven from his home because of his beliefs. Jesus of Nazareth and many of his early followers were murdered by the Romans.  During these troubled times, believers did not dare to build anything more elaborate than a simple chapel or a secret room to worship in.  And yet today these are three of the largest religious groups ever.  How is this possible?  Because the true believers realized that a basement, a tent, or even a stretch of open ground was all they needed to worship.  As long as there were believers, there was a church.  If modern Catholics could remember the struggles that their forefathers went through, maybe they wouldn’t be so concerned about the fate of the closing churches.

Losing the beautiful artwork in Cleveland’s churches would indeed be tragic, but it would not be the end of the Church.  Temples can be rebuilt, and new works of art are made every day.  But people can’t be recreated.  The solidarity of Catholics around the world is more important than buildings that will eventually crumble anyway.

–Kevin Jones