Other pages on this website: (Home.) Definite Problems, Possible Solutions. Links to Allied Websites. Contact Us.
Craig Schoonmaker of the photoblog "Newark USA", observed on April 4th, 2010:
Certainly bad faith by the Catholic Church is shameful, and the Archdiocese might be shamed if there were lots of adverse publicity. My basic question is, if St. Joseph's church and school and SHV were to be merged, why not keep SHV open instead? [Needed] repairs and environmental remediation would seem to make St. Joseph's no bargain. * *Also certainly, to close SHV's Catholic school and turn it over to a charter school while NOT using the proceeds to support SHV is shameful. If the Archdiocese knew 7 years ago that something dramatic would have to change to preserve SHV but they took no steps way back then, not even telling parishioners that there were problems and soliciting suggestions or fundraising, but kept SECRET the possibility of the church's closing, that is a violation of at least a moral and perhaps even a legal fiduciary duty. Indeed, the thought that the Archdiocese violated a fiduciary duty might warrant a lawsuit. * * *
"The Church" is, in Christian theology, not a physical structure nor a hierarchical organization, but the body of believers. The hierarchical organization is merely supposed to serve the actual church, the congregants, not the bureaucracy. There is a church without a hierarchy, as can meet on grass when a church is rendered unsafe by an earthquake. But there is no church without the parishioners. They are the real church, and it is they whom the hierarchy must serve. Indeed, the real church has to crack the whip over the hierarchy every now and then. At the highest levels, the Roman Catholic Church is not a democracy, the Pope being the monarch who represents that other monarch, God. But, as a practical matter, at every level, a church that ignores the will of the body of the church is a doomed church. If the problem is the current Archbishop, who is quite new, perhaps we can PETITION THE POPE TO REPLACE HIM. The Pope ... has email now. [benedictxvi@vatican.va] We don't have to passively accept any decision of an archbishop, but can appeal to the Pope himself, and don't have to wait 10 days for postal mail to reach the Vatican. The present Archbishop is not from Newark originally, nor even from New Jersey. Perhaps he should go back to Peoria, and let the Pope appoint a Newarker to the position of Archbishop of Newark. If push comes to shove, perhaps Newarkers should push the present Archbishop out of Newark.
The Archdiocese is, in short, not the owner of Sacred Heart of Vailsburg except in a narrow legal sense. In Christian theology, the Archdiocese is merely the CUSTODIAN of the property that actually belongs to the body of the Church: the faithful. It is incumbent upon the custodians of church property to advise and consult with the faithful as to problems with their property; seek, in good faith, suggestions from the faithful; and enlist the congregants (and those many lapsed Catholics driven away from the Church in recent decades) in the quest for solutions, in order to save church property, not waste it. In legal use, "waste" has various specialized meanings. Consider these, from Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law.
1 : destruction of or damage to property that is caused by the act or omission of one (as a lessee, mortgagor, or life tenant) having a lesser estate and is usually to the injury of another (as an heir, mortgagee, or remainderman) with an interest in the same property
In this sense, the organized legal entity the Roman Catholic Church is the entity having the lesser interest; the body of the faithful is the party with the greater interest.
voluntary waste : waste caused by the intentional commission of a destructive act by a tenant 2 : a reduction of the value of assets (as in a trust) caused by a failure to exercise proper care or sound judgment in managing them; especially : a transfer of corporate assets (as through excessive executive compensation or a merger) for no legitimate business purpose or for less than what a person of ordinary sound business judgment would consider to be adequate consideration[;] waste of corporate assets is the diversion of corporate assets for improper or unnecessary purposes — Michelson v. Duncan, 407 Atlantic Reporter, Second Series 211 (1979) NOTE: Waste injures the interests of shareholders.
For purposes of considering whether the Archdiocese has managed the assets of the real church (body of the faithful) with proper care, the Archdiocese must be considered a tenant or manager for the real church. The merger of Sacred Heart and St. Joseph's parishes must be judged the same way as a corporate merger. Have the moral owners of these properties, the faithful, even been consulted as to their wishes as to the disposition or retention of their property? They have not.
The Roman Catholic Church is not a corporation in legal structure. Maybe it should be. Maybe the Archdiocese should incorporate Sacred Heart and sell shares to congregants. Those shareholders would elect a board of directors, answerable to the shareholders and to the Pope (lest some real-estate investor buy up shares to destroy the church buildings in violation of the fiduciary trust of the corporation's management, to keep Sacred Heart alive and devote it to various public purposes, not just religious services.
What is the value of a church building complex, or a parish? Who determines that? If you have, as here, two churches, one of clearly superior architectural and historic importance and the other of only middling architectural and historical importance, a prudent person would opt to keep the more distinguished structure going and close the less distinguished.
The location of the properties must also be considered in valuation. St. Joseph's is hidden away on two minor streets in East Orange, a lesser and depressed city in Essex County. Sacred Heart is very prominent, a famed landmark at the intersection of the two most important streets in Vailsburg, a section of Newark, which is not just the largest and most important city in Essex County, of which it is county seat, but also the largest city in the entire state of New Jersey, the most densely populated state in the Nation. If one area must be injured by the closure of a church, it should be the area less important to the wellbeing of the larger community. Plainly Newark is much more important than East Orange, and improvement in Newark's fortunes will extend to East Orange. It's the issue of the heart as against a hand or kidney. Sacred Heart is at the heart of western Newark, and Newark is at the heart of Essex County's fortunes.
Sorry, Joe, but if one church has to go — and we do not concede that — it's got to be St. Joseph's, not Sacred Heart. A reasonable person could reach no other conclusion.
Other pages on this website: (Home.) Definite Problems, Possible Solutions. Links to Allied Websites. Contact Us.