By Rita McInerney

In 1970 Bishop James Hickey gave Auxiliary Bishop James P. Lyke, OFM, responsibility for a newly created Urban Region in the Cleveland diocese.

Ordained a bishop August 1, 1979, this new assignment was a sweeping change for the priest, who had just come from the friendly ambience of the black college town of Grambling, La.

In Cleveland, reported to be one of the five most segregated cities in the U.S., he was to play a principal role in planning the future of the Church in the ethnically diverse urban region.

A year after his ordination, another auxiliary ordained with him, Bishop Anthony Pilla, succeeded Bishop Hickey as the head of the Cleveland diocese and the two worked closely for the next 10 years.

Archbishop Lyke “is a good human being. He’s a very skilled professional, has good insights and a good pastoral sense,” Bishop Pilla said in a June interview.

These qualities were needed to shepherd the urban region, one of deteriorating parish buildings, aging or fleeing residents, and skyrocketing costs of Catholic education. Meeting these and many other problems demanded he encourage the people to be, “hopeful and with a positive vision.”

This was a big challenge. Cleveland is a multi-ethnic melting pot. Bishop Lyke’s region consisted of four deaneries, two on the east side of the Cuyahoga River, predominantly black, and two on the west side, predominantly white. There were 74 parishes, including many nationality parishes where Masses were being celebrated in a range of languages, including Polish, Croatian, German, Italian and Spanish.

“He was auxiliary for all people, an advocate for real justice,” Bishop Pilla said. Further, he proved to be the “excellent catalyst” for the Urban Region Planning Process, the Cleveland ordinary said. “I used him wherever I could. I knew he’d do a good job. We’re friends, too. It was a great personal support to me to have him around.”

In 1980 Bishop Lyke was asked to undertake a study of the urban region parishes in order to provide input for decisions regarding the region, one with increasing numbers of the very poor and the marginally poor.

Cluster meetings were convened to bring together representatives from the rainbow of parishes for the Urban Region Planning Process.

“I don’t know how we can get more culturally mixed,” says Richard Krivanka, director of the pastoral planning office of the Cleveland diocese. There are about 63 ethnic groups in the diocese, which is the 12th largest in the U.S.

“These people on their own would never have met,” Krivanka says of those brought together at the cluster sessions.

They discussed declining parish memberships, empty buildings, education, creative evangelization. They shared concerns over their youth, their elderly, the jobless and the oppressed.

To these sessions, Bishop Lyke “brought his own style of being able to go out and be with the folks,” rather than remain isolated in a chancery office and communicate through assistants,” Krivanka said. “He really values being with them. That’s important in the urban milieu.” He used an open dialogue approach, would listen to concerns and take questions.

Father Gordon Yahner, a pastor with all 28 years of his priesthood spent ministering in the urban city, worked closely with Bishop Lyke on the study. For six years he’s been pastor of Ascension parish, a congregation of 1,500 families, with 450 children in the parish school. The parish is changing from predominately white to black and Hispanic.

Earlier he served St. Catherine’s, a predominantly black parish of 250 families with 280 children in its school.

Throughout the study, Father Yahner says, Bishop Lyke “offered strong personal leadership. He has a vision of all God’s people together and shared it with others. He was willing to have others expand on this vision. He was very attuned to the beauty of all God’s people. He fought discrimination on every level.”

The pastor, who admits he “blows hot,” said he and the bishop didn’t always agree. “We pushed and pulled. He had the patience. He was a bishop for all the people as well as the priests and Religious.”

The cluster concept has continued, with anywhere from three to 10 parishes in a cluster. Meeting once a month, they “work over local agendas.” Once a year, the 13 clusters come together for an urban celebration, sharing successes and failures.

Father Yahner watched the bishop over the years become “like his patron, St. Francis, the universal brother.” Through all the individual squabbles that surfaced over and over again in the meetings, the bishop “maintained a real sensitivity. He had a real concern for people suffering from injustice, right across racial lines.”

In 1985 the bishop held a get-together of all pastors in his region. They met for five weekdays at a conference center to deal with the issues that had surfaced at the cluster meetings. “We need to be more clear on the problems facing us,” he told the pastors.

By and large, Father Yahner says, “his planning and unifying efforts were well received” by the pastors. They realized “he was attempting to shape a Church that could respond to today’s needs – racism, poverty, violence.”

Because of his groundwork, the clusters are now dealing with how the Church will maintain its pastoral and educational presence in “every area of our city… We’ve got problems. We shall overcome. That’s something Jim taught us.”

Father Joe McNulty, pastor of St. Augustine parish for the past 19 years, was closely involved with Bishop Lyke during the planning process.

St. Augustine’s is on the outskirts of downtown in the Tremont area, one of Cleveland’s oldest sections. It is multi-cultural, having six or seven ethnic groups including Irish, Polish, German, Ukrainian and Hispanic. African-Americans make up 10 to 12 percent of the population. Always an immigrant parish, it has welcomed newcomers since 1860.

In 1964 the Catholic deaf community found a home there, and in 1977 a community of blind persons formed. The diocese’s center for the mentally handicapped is also part of this parish of 800 families.

Father McNulty was dean of the area in 1979 when Bishop Lyke began the planning process.

“Bishop Lyke’s style was to work with us and encourage us,” the priest recalled. “He made you feel one with him in the process.” A significant result of the study was the formation of a metro Cleveland parish school whose students come from nine parishes. The multi-cultural school currently enrolls 800 students.

“Credits must be given Bishop Lyke,” Father McNulty said, “for beginning the process and keeping it going – helping something like that happen without dominating it.”

The priest commended Bishop Lyke’s ability to “build up” those who work with the disabled and marginalized. He would attend special activities planned for the handicapped and made sure he officiated at confirmations for them.

“He would take his own personal time to encourage people who worked with the poor, the disabled, making phone calls and finding other ways to support them.” The priest recalled that Bishop Lyke requested a blind person do a reading from Braille at his farewell liturgy. A hearing impaired person interpreted the Mass and it was fully described for the blind.

“He is a bishop who cares about people, especially the least ones who are part of his ministry,” Father McNulty noted. “For him each one is part of the Church and making them feel that is a very strong personal ability he has.”

When CBS was planning a segment on the Midwest “rust belt,” Bishop Lyke directed its producers to St. Augustine’s hunger center, “probably the largest in Cleveland,” according to Father McNulty. There they could see the Church putting the Gospel message into action.

Today the Cleveland diocese counts 104,509 Catholics in the 72 parishes of the Urban Region.

In the spring of 1987 there were 74 parishes. Of these, 14 had African American parishioners. In the context of the Urban Region Planning Process, Bishop Lyke proposed for discussion the consolidation of these 14 into four parishes. In what he described as a “free flowing conversation and head to paper memo” he aired his thoughts.

Louis Gleason, director of the diocesan office of ministry to African American Catholics, received the memo. He says the bishop’s plan is “still viable, but at this point it’s not a reality because people are not willing to give up what they have.”

“They are more willing to have other parishes join them, but it is not in their thinking that they would close their own parish and join the other parish.”

Now, according to Gleason, the diocese is in the process of developing “new parish configurations.”

Len Calabrese, head of the Catholic Community Action (peace and justice) Commission, calls Bishop Lyke “very instrumental” in the city’s setting up a police review board. It became a reality in 1988 after a series of black and Hispanic killings in the urban region. Calabrese adds that it “was largely the advocacy” of Bishop Lyke that brought the appointment of Teo Feliciano to the board. Hispanic, he is the associate director of the community action office.

The bishop, Calabrese says, had an ability to appreciate “the big picture of diversity and the needs of the many communities in his region.”

There is a “strong social justice office” in the Cleveland diocese, Calabrese says, “because of the special concerns of Bishop Lyke when he was here. He used to come to the board meeting regularly.”

He says the auxiliary bishop also had a great deal to do with Community Re-entry. The commission is one of the founders and co-sponsors of the program for ex-offenders coming back to the community.

The bishop visited these ex-offenders at places where they lived or worked. He was not, Calabrese says, “just somebody who put his name on a lot of lists.”

Bishop Lyke accepted an invitation to join the board of the Cleveland Poverty commission and became directly involved in issues of housing for lower – and moderate – income people, as well as shelters, Calabrese recalls.

“He’s also had a very strong commitment to human life issues, from birth to the elderly, and respects the human dignity of all.”

Asked if he linked these qualities with his being a Franciscan, Calabrese replied, “I just related it to his being Jim Lyke. He has a genuine interest in people, not related to the person’s position or the institution. He is able to relate no matter what the social standing or income level of the person. It’s a combination of his intellectual capacity and his heart.”

During his years in Cleveland, the auxiliary bishop lived in a house on the grounds of the recently-closed St. Mary’s Seminary for diocesan priests. There were a great many crack houses in the area.

“He was always encouraging us and the people in the neighborhood to do more about this problem,” Calabrese says. “We participated in neighborhood marches, meetings across the city, and advocated for more treatment programs.”

(Paula Day contributed to this article)