The Archdiocese of Boston has netted $90 million from the sale of real estate since summer 2003, not including the $99 million from the sale of chancery property to Boston College which went to fund sex-abuse settlements.
The way the article frames it, they make it seem like the archdiocese is crying poor mouth by closing parishes while it’s secretly get rich behind the scenes. What they seem to forget is that Archbishop O’Malley said up front before the closings that inner-city Boston parishes alone needed $50 million in repairs, never mind those outside the city. Plus there are the continuing shortfalls in donations to the archdiocesan operating budget. While I can think of a couple of offices that could be closed, an archdiocese as big as Boston is still expensive to run.
