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Catholic battles to save church
New York Daily News, NY
Feb 19 2005
There was a time, Brian Gray said, when bingo and bake sales might
save a Catholic parochial school from closing its doors. But that
time is long gone, he said, and it's not coming back.
Everything from soaring salaries to the cost of repairing buildings
neglected for generations and upgrading classroom technology poses
staggering challenges.
Gray, an executive at the National Catholic Educational Association,
said the most likely salvation for endangered schools is an angel
with very deep pockets, and so far, there is little sign of one
appearing.
"A lot of things are going on now," Gray said from his office in
Washington, "and in many places, none of them are good news to
Catholics."
New York is one of those places.
The first shoe dropped two weeks ago when the Diocese of Brooklyn,
which includes the borough of Queens, announced the closing of 22
schools at the end of this school year.
The second shoe began falling this week with the announcement that
six schools in the Archdiocese of New York will close - with more
almost certain to join them soon. The timing depends on how quickly
officials in the archdiocese, which is headed by Edward Cardinal
Egan, complete their assessment of parishes' ability to pay their
bills.
Egan spokesman Joseph Zwilling says the review will take months. But
the pace of the evaluation is fairly swift, and in the case of
schools, Egan's decisions will surely come before classes end this
spring.
Egan notified his flock, through his column in the monthly Catholic
New York, of the coming bad news.
"Where we find huge churches with few parishioners, where we find
schools that will educate more effectively when joined to nearby
schools, where we find charitable and health care programs and
agencies that are little used," Egan wrote, "we will make the
adjustments and accommodations that are required, and direct assets
and personnel to areas where they are needed most.
"In a word," he said, "we will 'realign.'"
Not everyone is taking the move stoically. Some opponents have
already fired back, and one, Anthony Flood, is running a Web site
devoted specifically to harsh criticism of both Egan's past actions
and his promised "realignment."
Flood, who lives in Jackson Heights, Queens, and works in Manhattan,
began his anti-Egan crusade two summers ago after learning that St.
Ann's Church on the lower East Side of Manhattan was closing.
One of the things rankling Flood was that St. Ann's was where he and
his wife went each Saturday for the traditional Latin-language Mass,
which was largely abolished in the 1960s after the Vatican decided it
was more important for Catholics around the world to hear the liturgy
in their own languages.
And, Flood said, he was outraged at the idea of closing and selling
St. Ann's, which since 1983 had served as North American headquarters
for the Armenian Catholic Church, which has now relocated to
Brooklyn.
Flood and his wife collected and delivered to Egan a petition with
1,400 signatures of people opposing the sale and any move from St.
Ann's by Apostolic Exarch Manuel Batakian, head of the Armenian
Catholic flock in the United States and Canada. Flood said Batakian
was evicted. The archdiocese denied it.
The Floods also supported the now-abandoned lunchtime protest every
Wednesday outside the Fifth Ave. entrance to St. Patrick's Cathedral,
which began in August 2003 after the closing of the historic Church
of St. Thomas the Apostle in Harlem. The church required extensive,
expensive repairs, which the archdiocese refused to fund.
Parishioners sought in vain for a chance to raise the necessary
money.
Flood accuses Egan of regarding sanctuaries as nothing more than
"sacramental gas stations," interchangeable and subject to the same
supply-and-demand rules as secular businesses.
Egan's argument, shared with bishops in many other cities who have
shut churches, schools and other institutions in the name of
financial stability, is that there are too few faithful and too many
parishes in inner-city neighborhoods now largely abandoned by
Catholics who have moved to the suburbs.
"What about the church of the future?" Flood said. "One day, when
Catholics move back into the city, the church will need the churches
Egan closed and sold."
Brian Gray isn't so sure. "There's nothing wrong with wishful
thinking," he said, "but I am not sure it works as policy."
New York Daily News, NY
Feb 19 2005
There was a time, Brian Gray said, when bingo and bake sales might
save a Catholic parochial school from closing its doors. But that
time is long gone, he said, and it's not coming back.
Everything from soaring salaries to the cost of repairing buildings
neglected for generations and upgrading classroom technology poses
staggering challenges.
Gray, an executive at the National Catholic Educational Association,
said the most likely salvation for endangered schools is an angel
with very deep pockets, and so far, there is little sign of one
appearing.
"A lot of things are going on now," Gray said from his office in
Washington, "and in many places, none of them are good news to
Catholics."
New York is one of those places.
The first shoe dropped two weeks ago when the Diocese of Brooklyn,
which includes the borough of Queens, announced the closing of 22
schools at the end of this school year.
The second shoe began falling this week with the announcement that
six schools in the Archdiocese of New York will close - with more
almost certain to join them soon. The timing depends on how quickly
officials in the archdiocese, which is headed by Edward Cardinal
Egan, complete their assessment of parishes' ability to pay their
bills.
Egan spokesman Joseph Zwilling says the review will take months. But
the pace of the evaluation is fairly swift, and in the case of
schools, Egan's decisions will surely come before classes end this
spring.
Egan notified his flock, through his column in the monthly Catholic
New York, of the coming bad news.
"Where we find huge churches with few parishioners, where we find
schools that will educate more effectively when joined to nearby
schools, where we find charitable and health care programs and
agencies that are little used," Egan wrote, "we will make the
adjustments and accommodations that are required, and direct assets
and personnel to areas where they are needed most.
"In a word," he said, "we will 'realign.'"
Not everyone is taking the move stoically. Some opponents have
already fired back, and one, Anthony Flood, is running a Web site
devoted specifically to harsh criticism of both Egan's past actions
and his promised "realignment."
Flood, who lives in Jackson Heights, Queens, and works in Manhattan,
began his anti-Egan crusade two summers ago after learning that St.
Ann's Church on the lower East Side of Manhattan was closing.
One of the things rankling Flood was that St. Ann's was where he and
his wife went each Saturday for the traditional Latin-language Mass,
which was largely abolished in the 1960s after the Vatican decided it
was more important for Catholics around the world to hear the liturgy
in their own languages.
And, Flood said, he was outraged at the idea of closing and selling
St. Ann's, which since 1983 had served as North American headquarters
for the Armenian Catholic Church, which has now relocated to
Brooklyn.
Flood and his wife collected and delivered to Egan a petition with
1,400 signatures of people opposing the sale and any move from St.
Ann's by Apostolic Exarch Manuel Batakian, head of the Armenian
Catholic flock in the United States and Canada. Flood said Batakian
was evicted. The archdiocese denied it.
The Floods also supported the now-abandoned lunchtime protest every
Wednesday outside the Fifth Ave. entrance to St. Patrick's Cathedral,
which began in August 2003 after the closing of the historic Church
of St. Thomas the Apostle in Harlem. The church required extensive,
expensive repairs, which the archdiocese refused to fund.
Parishioners sought in vain for a chance to raise the necessary
money.
Flood accuses Egan of regarding sanctuaries as nothing more than
"sacramental gas stations," interchangeable and subject to the same
supply-and-demand rules as secular businesses.
Egan's argument, shared with bishops in many other cities who have
shut churches, schools and other institutions in the name of
financial stability, is that there are too few faithful and too many
parishes in inner-city neighborhoods now largely abandoned by
Catholics who have moved to the suburbs.
"What about the church of the future?" Flood said. "One day, when
Catholics move back into the city, the church will need the churches
Egan closed and sold."
Brian Gray isn't so sure. "There's nothing wrong with wishful
thinking," he said, "but I am not sure it works as policy."