Toledo Blade, December 10, 2004,Toledo's Bishop Blair reflects on a year of crises in diocese
By David Yonke
Blade Religion EditorIt's been an eventful year for Bishop Leonard Paul Blair, who was installed as the seventh bishop of the Toledo Catholic Diocese on Dec. 4, 2003.
Since that solemn ceremony at Rosary Cathedral, the new bishop has faced a number of serious crises, including the arrest of one of his priests for the 1980 murder of a nun; the recommendation to close or merge 33 parishes; $1.19 million in settlements paid to 23 victims of clerical sexual abuse, and a highly publicized dispute over moving the historic Lathrop House in Sylvania.
A Detroit native who was ordained a priest in 1976, Bishop Blair, 55, said yesterday that he would "defer to others" rather than grade himself on his first year in Toledo.
But in an interview in his spartan fourth-floor office overlooking the city's downtown, the bespectacled, gray-haired bishop acknowledged that he has been through some difficult times as leader of the 314,000 Roman Catholics in the 19-county Toledo diocese.
"The toughest things I think you know," he said in response to a question. "That would include the abuse cases and the [murder] allegations against Father [Gerald] Robinson."
Father Robinson, a longtime diocesan priest, was arrested in April on charges that he stabbed Sister Margaret Ann Pahl to death in the chapel of the former Mercy Hospital in 1980. Father Robinson awaits a trial and remains free on a $400,000 property bond.
Bishop Blair said he also has struggled with a diocesan panel's recommendations to close 17 of the 157 parishes in the diocese and to merge 16 others in creating six new churches.
"Certainly, it's not in that same category [as the sexual abuse and murder cases], and I don't see it in terms of gloom and doom," he said. But the proposed closings have been difficult for the bishop.
"Those are the big things," he said...
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Bishop Blair, who holds a doctorate in theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, said he believes the priest shortage in the Toledo diocese and nationally reflects changes in society, not just in the church.
"There was a time when there was a strong Catholic identity and a sense of community and many young men stepped forward for the priesthood without even being asked," he said. "Those days are pretty much over."
The Toledo diocese ordained one priest this year.
Statistics show that people are postponing marriage until later in life, Bishop Blair said, and the same fear of making a lifelong commitment to a spouse is apparent in some people's hesitancy to enter the priesthood.
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Toledo Blade, December 25, 2004,2004: THE YEAR IN REVIEW
Religion on minds of many people in secular United StatesBy David Yonke
Blade Religion Editor[...]
On a somber note, another national news story emanating from Toledo was the April arrest of a Toledo priest in the 1980 murder of a Catholic nun. The world's attention was riveted on Toledo when cold-case detectives arrested the Rev. Gerald Robinson and charged him with murdering Sister Margaret Ann Pahl in a hospital chapel 24 years ago. Father Robinson is free on property bond, awaiting a trial.
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