Twelve closed Catholic churches spared by the Vatican in the Cleveland Diocese will be reopened.

That annoucement was made by Bishop Richard Lennon Tuesday.

The action was a response to last month's extraordinary Vatican decision overruling his decision to close the 13 parishes.

It was a rare instance in which Rome reversed a U.S. bishop on the shutdown of churches.

The Cleveland bishop had ordered the churches closed over the past several years because of declining numbers of priests and parishioners and financial issues.

Akron resident Nancy McGrath heads a group called "Code Purple" that tried to keep the churches from being closed in 2009. She says two of the churches to be re-opened are in Akron, St. John The Baptist and St Mary's. She tells AkronNewsNow.com there will be great joy among past parishioners when the churches re-open.  

McGrath says the two churches were on fairly solid financial footing when they were forced to close and the buildings have been maintained so re-opening them shouldn't present a major problem. The biggest problem will be re-attracting more parishioners.

McGrath believes returning parishioners will intensify their efforts to grow the churches again.

She says due to the shortage of prienets some churches may have to share priests, with one priest serving the congregations of more than one church.

Nancy McGrath believes the Vatican order to re-open the churches is damaging to the administration of Bishop Richard Lennon and the Cleveland Catholic Diocese administration.

The Vatican's Congregation for the Clergy ruled Lennon failed to follow church law and procedure in the closings.