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Squatters rack up costs for archdiocese
Parishioners at St. Bernard Church in Newton, Mass., sit in the pews in November 2004 to protest the Boston Archdiocese's plan to close churches in a money-saving effort following sexual abuse lawsuits that cost the archdiocese millions of dollars.
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Bob Moon: Back in 2004, the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston decided to close and sell 70 churches. The move followed the payment of more than $141 million to settle sexual-abuse lawsuits. But parishioners at five of those churches refused to leave.
And they're still there. They're not holding formal services, they're just squatting 24-7. The stalemate has ended up costing the Archdiocese more than a half-million-dollars a year. And as Monica Brady Myerov reports from WBUR, that price tag could get steeper.
Monica Brady Myerov: Maryellen Rogers shows off five handmade quilts hanging near the altar of St. Frances Cabrini Church in Scituate, a town 30 miles south of Boston. Each quilt marks a year that a group of parishioners has been occupying the building illegally.
MARYELLEN ROGERS: They represent who we are, third anniversary quilt is called the journey quilt, and it's a road. It's a road to the church. There's bridges that we want to build the bridges with the Archdiocese of Boston.
She and her husband John are two leaders of the sit-in or vigil as they call it. They coordinate more than 100 people in shifts of two to stay in the church day and night.
John Rogers is surprised the sit-ins here and at other churches are still going on.
JOHN ROGERS: I thought it would be done within the year.
The Archdiocese probably wishes it had been. It's paying $600,000 a year to keep the buildings insured and provide the squatters with heat, electricity, and other services. Local church leaders say it's only right to pay those costs while the Vatican weighs appeals from parishioners to keep the churches open.
Sister Marian Batho works with the head of the Boston Archdiocese, Cardinal Sean O'Malley.
MARIAN BATHO: We probably did not expect that it would be five years, but Cardinal Sean made the commitment to do nothing really until the appeal process had been completed.
The church is also paying an additional $700,000 for nearly 25 other closed churches that have either not sold, or are also the target of formal appeals to remain open.
If that wasn't headache enough, the Archdiocese could soon be paying more than maintenance costs if local officials get their way.
The town of Scituate has slapped the Archdiocese with a bill for nearly $150,000 in back taxes. To the town's way of thinking, the Archdiocese no longer considers St. Frances Church a holy sanctuary. Therefore, the building should no longer be exempt from local property taxes.
Jason Talerman is a lawyer for the town.
JASON TALERMAN: No one is above the tax code and when it comes to providing a teacher for your kids or that necessary firefighter or for salt for the roads. We need money. And it is the equivalent of a full-salaried teacher.
The Archdiocese wouldn't comment on the tax issue. It has paid the taxes into an escrow account while it fights the move. In court fillings, the Archdiocese maintains the churches should still be considered tax-exempt until the Vatican rules on their fate.
Meanwhile, other towns around Boston have sent their own tax bills totaling more than $130,000. The Archdiocese is fighting those in court too. The Vatican could rule on the disputed churches in the Boston Archdiocese as early as this spring.
Peter Borre leads an organization that supports the closed parishes. He suspects market forces, as much as Vatican bureaucracy, have delayed a final decision on the disputed churches.
PETER BORRE: Given the condition of the real-estate market yesterday, today, and probably tomorrow, these properties cannot be sold readily.
The squatters at St. Frances Cabrini say they have enough money to buy the church. But the Archdiocese doesn't seem interested. The cardinal has not met with leaders of the sit-in since last year.
In Boston, I'm Monica Brady-Myerov for Marketplace.
These churches are still churches In the book of Revelation John writes of the Churches of Asia Minor these were churches of groups of people That worshiped in small groups like these parisheners are doing. I have visited a parish in Everett, these parisheners pray and read Scripture. It sounds like any other Baptist or Evengelical Church to me.
God is closing the churches to stop the Catholics from blaspheming Him. The cafeteria Catholics are engaging in horrendous moral sins including using artificial birth control (95% of "Catholic" married couples)which causes breakthrough abortions. God does not want these killers taking him in communion. If they do not change soon the next step may be the mass culling like in WWII.
Now those are committed parishioners! However, I can see both sides of the coin. What with the economy in the toilet, I would be hard pressed to pay to keep the electricity on and pay for the heat. On the other hand, if it were my church, I might be doing the same thing.
I have tremendous respect for everyone involved in this, including Cardinal Sean, with the exception of the towns trying to cash in by levying taxes on the Churches. That is SHAMEFUL.
I am impressed by the squatters. Their parents and grandparents raised the funds, built those Churches, and there is blood, sweat, and tears that have been poured into these communities. Thus there are moral rights in question. The Vatican needs to weigh this carefully.
I respect the Cardinal for a) ponying up the money to keep the heat on and the utilities on so that the squatters can squat without putting life and limb in danger.
I only want to say that this whole thing could have been avoided by a forthright and competent handling of the sex abuse scandal, and by including more laity in the process when it came time to respond by deciding which parishes to close etc. There is a lot of talent in the diocese among the laity, including in finance. These people should have been tapped.
Would Talerman bury someone who was probably dead? Probably, and tax them besides! The squatters are tax paying citizens already paying for teachers, etc. In addition, THEY, not the Diocese have put a century of equity into that church. Moral rights are what the Vatican ALSO weighs besides legal ones. The Cardinal knows this and respects it.
The church, as a voluntary organization, has presumably got tax benefits because it has benefited the town over the years. What kind of payback is this on the citizens and the archdiocese? Talerman should be hoisted out at the next election or pressured to back off.
