The local dissident group supporting the closed parish sit-ins, the Council of Parishes, is making hay over an old Boston archdiocesan financial report.
An audit of the archdiocese’s central funds obtained by the lay group reveals the pension fund debt for clergy and church employees stands at $159 million - nearly double the figure released by Archbishop Sean P. O’Malley last November.
The archdiocese says the report the group obtained is a draft, not the final version with final figures. The CoP says that since there’s no stamp on it that says it’s a draft it must be the final.
Maybe they didn’t stamp it because they didn’t expect it get into anyone else’s hands. (And just how did it get to them? I suspect that one of the many VOTF-types who work in the chancery is probaly responsible.)
And even if it is accurate, what is that information supposed to mean for parish closings? If anything it means that closing parishes will be more imperative, not less, not exactly a triumph for CoP.
They also claim that a half-dozen more parishes are going to start sit-ins during the next round of closings set for April. I’ll believe it when I see it.
Funny how CoP now gets the same press that VOTF used to get and VOTF has almost disappeared from the newspapers. New scandal, new dissident lay group. Huh. Makes you wonder.
Pension funds – even Church sponsored pension plans are regulated by the IRS. Funds are NOT to be used for operations. Period. They are not accesible – they can’t be used to fund a school, buy a car, pay a salary. So what if the fund is $159 mil or $50,000. The level of funding is also regulated.
Dear Dom,
Thanks for this post. We must pray for Archbishop O’Malley and support the Archdiocese financially. There are more than a few people in the various offices and agencies of the Archdiocese who do not believe what the Church believes about many important issues. This leak will not be the last one. By the way, did you see that the activists at St. Bernard’s have now “adopted” St. Anselm’s in Sudbury?
Being the cynical type I am, Dom, I happen to think there will be a lot more sit-in protests, now that the crybabies at St Bernard and St Anselm have, for all intents and purposes, gotten away with it.
OT, but I see the Globe has yet another column today crying that if only the mean old Church would let women and married be priests, all would be right with the world.
Also OT – prayers for the Holy Father.