Palace for a Prelate
Publisher's note: At a time when many people across the board are cutting back amid financial and economic uncertainty, I find this story of an over-indulging Catholic Prelate as bizarre as the church faithful in New Jersey do. At bare minimum, it is hard to understand why a retiring priest, (a single man) of any rank would require such a lavish expansion to an already huge home; to ask the members of his Dioceses foot the bill is equally hard to imagine. When one considers the additional costs of utilities and maintenance that will result from this, it is small wonder why a lot of people are considering stuffing the offering plates with empty envelopes. I think Arch Bishop John Myers might want to consider switching sides in the confessional. Just sayin.'
Fox News: Angry parishioners in New Jersey are withholding donations following reports that Newark Archbishop John Myers is building a pricey addition to his lavish retirement home.
The faithful are upset that Myers, who likes to be called “Your Grace,” is spending more than $500,000 to expand a palatial home in New Jersey's Franklin Township that he now uses as a weekend retreat.
The Newark Star-Ledger reports parishioners are cutting off donations or sharply curtailing them “infuriated by what they call a tone-deaf show of excess at a time when Catholic schools are closing and when the pope has called on bishops to shed the trappings of luxury.”
Joe Ferri, 70, told the newspaper he writes a $100 check to the Archdiocese of Newark each year for the archbishop’s annual appeal, but he didn’t send money this year after he read about Myers’ expansion plans.
"If this is the only way I can be heard, so be it," said Ferri, a parishioner at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Bloomfield. "I’m disgusted. The archdiocese is not going to get another penny out of me."