Cleveland, Ohio, Mar 8, 2013 / 00:02 am
Bishop Richard G. Lennon of Cleveland announced the excommunication of Father Robert Marrone on March 4, calling people to pray for the priest, who had refused two years of reconciliation attempts.
"We are saddened by this development" Robert Tayek, the diocese's public relations director, told CNA March 7.
"The priests, religious, and lay faithful of the Diocese of Cleveland are exhorted to pray for the reconciliation of Father Marrone with the Catholic Church," wrote Bishop Lennon March 4.
"With concern for the welfare of the faithful of the Diocese of Cleveland and in order to avoid confusion, error, and scandal I...have judged it necessary to take the most serious step of declaring the incurred latae sententiae excommunication of Reverend Robert J. Marrone," he said.