Michael Brown at the Spirit Daily web site offers his opinion on how the Archdiocese of Boston, and dioceses in general, should handle parish closings and what they are doing wrong. But he’s a little off in his assessment.
One solution is the obvious: to reduce bureaucratic costs and diocesan budget items that are not spiritually oriented or absolutely essential, especially those that replicate federal or other governmental programs. The time has come to cut down on the huge chanceries, elaborate dinners, media programs, committees, and limousines. Chanceries have to go bare bones; it will bolster them spiritually.
For one thing, the first thing we did was sell off the huge chanceries and extra property. For another thing, the archdiocesan staff and budget are already pretty bare-bones. It has been cut and cut again over the past few years. That’s not to say that there aren’t offices I’d like to see re-vamped, but the ones that remain are almost all ones that go to the basic mission of the Church. If Brown thinks there’s fat in the Boston budget, then he isn’t paying close attention.
Actually, if government(s) didn’t do so much and could get by with stealing… er… I mean taxing people less then everybody would actually be keeping more of (can you believe it?) their own money and be able to give more to the Church and other charitable instititions, no?
If the Archdiocese sells off church property for a dollar when the fair market value is millions, this will be seen by the courts as “bad faith” in meeting its financial obligations to pay off settled financial claims or even anticipated future ones.