SPRINGFIELD — U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, responding to the Bishop of Springfield's announcement on Monday that two Catholic high schools in the region will be merged at some undetermined location, said the Cathedral High School "family" deserves answers.

Neal's comments occurred after Bishop Mitchell Rozanski announced that Cathedral High School and Holyoke Catholic High School in Chicopee will be merged into one regional school, at a site to be determined. Cathedral's home on Surrey Road was destroyed in a 2011 tornado, and will be one of the sites considered for the new regional high school Rozanski said.

Rozanski said Monday the solution was determined to be the most practical and sustainable by a group of stakeholders meeting with church officials. Declining enrollment and the high cost of tuition have been issues in the discussions.

"While I welcome Bishop Rozanski's statement that he intends to rebuild a new Catholic high school in western Massachusetts, my belief that Surrey Road is the best and only location for that facility has not changed," Neal said. "Simply put, when I sought federal assistance from FEMA following the tornado in June 2011, I did so with the understanding that Cathedral High School would be rebuilt on its original site in East Forest Park. That was the purpose of securing public disaster assistance. And after Bishop Timothy McDonnell's emphatic statement last March, I believed the issue was done and dusted."

McDonnell has since retired.

Neal said it has been nearly four years since the tornado, "and during that time the Cathedral family has been extraordinarily patient and supportive."

"We have given the Diocese space and allowed them to do their due diligence. I don't think it is unreasonable to suggest that we now deserve answers. The history of Springfield and Cathedral are intertwined, and it is hard to imagine one without the other."

Neal said he will continue to support the effort to rebuild the regional high school in East Forest Park.

"In my opinion, It remains the only logical site," Neal said.