The real meaning of the Diocesan property sale

Deals

September 26, 2007 4:53:58 PM

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence last week announced that it will sell several Rhode Island properties. What those properties represented, and the reason for the sale (to reduce the $14 million in debt from settling cases involving pedophile priests) says more about the modern church than all the dicta Rome could issue.

The closing and sale of Carter Day Care — a resource for low-income women seeking to escape the nightmare or poverty — speaks to the absence of concern for the babies that bishops urge women to carry to term.

St. Anthony House, a defunct soup kitchen for the homeless, is also to be sold: so much for “feed my lambs.”

The demise of the Cluny Sisters Convent reminds us of dwindling vocations, for both nuns and clergy: it’s no mystery that today’s scandal-wracked church is a less attractive career choice than it used to be.

With more pedophile cases still pending and others that may yet materialize Rhode Island’s diocesan debt could still grow. In California, Illinois, New Mexico, and Louisiana — to name a few — dioceses have paid hundreds of millions in pedophile settlements, breaking church budgets.

In Vermont, 128 parishes and missions of that diocese have been placed under a charitable trust (with Bishop Salvatore Matano, a Rhode Island native and one-time lieutenant to former Bishop Louis Gelineau, serving as the trustee.)

Gelineau left after his administration bumbled the handling of several local scandals. Matano, however, was catapulted to the bishopric. (Disclosure: In 1985, Bishop Gelineau and then-Father Matano led the charge to publicly excommunicate me, because of my work on reproductive rights.)

Catholic News Service (CNS) says Matano justifies hiding Vermont’s assets, “to protect these parish facilities from unjust attack and to ensure that the parishes have the freedom to continue their ministries and that the monies raised to support these entities are not diverted to or transferred for other purposes inconsistent with the charitable mission of the parish and the diocese.”

In the same article, diocesan lawyer William O’Brien clarifies that the bishop’s action makes it “perfectly clear he is very concerned about protecting the well-being of our parishes and parishioners” and keeping “parishes and persons who had no part in previous sad historic situations from being placed in jeopardy.”

WJAR-TV has reported that Meredith & Grew, which is handling the sale of the real estate for the RI Diocese, will screen potential buyers to ensure that the new owners do not use the properties for activities that are in conflict with church teachings. In such a sale, such limitations are often spelled out in canon law, though subsequent buyers may use the property for any legal purpose.

In some cases across the country, the Roman Catholic Church has overlooked decades of sexual abuse, moving known and often repeat priest-offenders from place to place, with the result of more children being victimized. Considering this, the restrictions placed on sales of church property seem dubious.

As in the old insane asylum riddle, one wonders who, exactly, should have the keys?