CLEVELAND — Cleveland will spend the week remembering former Cleveland Roman Catholic Bishop Richard Lennon, who died last week at the age of 72.
A funeral Mass took place Tuesday at 11 a.m.
You can watch his funeral services live here:
Bishop Lennon’s body will lie in state 8:30-10:45 a.m. in the cathedral prior to the funeral Mass. Cleveland Bishop Nelson Perez will be joined for Mass by Bishop Christopher Coyne, bishop of Burlington, Vermont.
Born in 1947, Lennon grew up in the Boston area and was ordained a priest in the Boston Archdiocese at the age of 26. He rose through the ranks over the next three decades, and eventually became Auxiliary Bishop of Boston under Cardinal Bernard Francis Law in 2001.
A little more than a year later, Law resigned in the wake of the archdiocese's clergy sexual abuse scandal and subsequent cover-up, an ordeal that would later engulf the entire Catholic Church worldwide. Pope John Paul II named Lennon Apostolic Administrator in Boston (the de facto head of the archdiocese) until Sean O'Malley (a Lakewood native) was named as Law's permanent successor in 2003. Lennon then served as Vicar General of the archdiocese until April 2006.
That month, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Lennon as the 10th Bishop of Cleveland to replace Anthony Pilla, who himself was retiring early due to heart problems. Lennon was installed in May of that year, and would serve in Northeast Ohio until December of 2016.
During his tenure as bishop, Lennon oversaw a massive restructuring of diocesan finances that included the establishing of internal audits for parishes and schools. His leadership saw the raising of roughly $170 million for parishes, schools, clergy retirement, evangelization, and the downtown Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist.
The Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist is located at 1007 Superior Ave. in downtown Cleveland.
