Parishioners are not welcome for Mass at St. Mary’s Catholic Church, nevertheless it stays a sort of still-life. Solely a single bulb glows over the heavy, unlocked doorways. Inside, prayer votives are chilly and burned low. Grey gentle casts rows of pews in eerie shadow.
St. Mary’s merged in July with St. Therese, 2 miles away, considered one of a dozen parishes the Archdiocese of Seattle closed or consolidated to economize and decrease expensive repairs to outdated constructions.
But the archdiocese emerged from the pandemic with its highest monetary positive aspects within the final 5 years, regardless of COVID-19, declining Mass attendance, a small dip in parishioner giving and the continuing pressure of clergy abuse payouts.
Now the archdiocese’s funds have come beneath renewed scrutiny with the acquisition of a house for Seattle’s Catholic management, prompting recent criticism of the church’s transparency and cash administration.
The archdiocese final month quietly acquired the $2.4 million property within the stately Mount Baker neighborhood. The five-bedroom, 3,460-square-foot gray-shingled residence with a bright-blue door overlooks Lake Washington.
The deed confirmed no express connection to the archdiocese. It was bought by AB Seattle Property LLC, and the Mount Baker house is its solely transaction.
The corporate is registered beneath the identify of a Seattle lawyer, William Crowley, who’s the legal professional for the Archdiocese of Seattle.
However Crowley didn’t purchase the property for himself. As an alternative, it grew to become the brand new residence for Seattle Archbishop Paul Etienne, who moved in after Thanksgiving.
The acquisition was first made public in November by Heal Our Church, a gaggle of Washington Catholics advocating for church reform, notably associated to clergy sexual abuse and elevated transparency from the archdiocese. Six days later, the archdiocese confirmed the acquisition in Northwest Catholic journal, christening the property Bethany Home.
The house’s kitchen has state-of-the-art home equipment and quartz counter tops, and in accordance with an inventory on Redfin, the home has hardwood flooring, stained glass and a claw-foot tub.
Whereas Seattle is understood for hovering residence costs, as of October, the median value for a single-family residence in Seattle was $903,000, and $1.3 million within the Mount Baker neighborhood.
The archdiocese instructed The Seattle Occasions the acquisition was prudent and aligned with its long-term targets for the church to extend its monetary stability. The neighborhood is a roughly 15-minute drive from St. James Cathedral and Etienne’s workplace. The archdiocese mentioned utilizing an LLC protected the archbishop’s privateness and isn’t an unusual observe of the church.
“He’s an individual identical to the remainder of us who desires to have a spot to go residence and be peaceable,” mentioned Helen McClenahan, a spokesperson for the archdiocese. Etienne declined an interview.
Members of Heal Our Church say the acquisition seems callous when Catholics are nonetheless grappling with the lack of beloved communities like St. Mary’s and the now-shuttered Mount Baker church Our Girl of Mount Virgin — in addition to when many Catholics in Washington wrestle to afford housing normally.
The archbishop “holds the place of ethical authority and there’s a lot of standing and energy that goes with that place,” mentioned Colleen Kinerk, a member of Heal Our Church. “If Jesus made the choice, they wouldn’t be buying a waterfront residence.”
“A pastor, not a prince”
When Etienne was appointed in September 2019, he despatched an inside letter saying he could be the primary archbishop in a long time to not dwell within the historic Connolly Home, the place his predecessors lived because the early 1900s, and deliberate to promote it. The First Hill property has been assessed at $8.8 million.
“I favor to dwell a extra simplified life,” he mentioned within the letter. “I feel the times of bishops dwelling in a way that’s loads nicer than the vast majority of their folks dwell, these days are gone, and they need to be,” he went on to say in an interview with Northwest Catholic journal, which is the official publication for the Archdiocese of Seattle.
“I’m a pastor, not a prince,” he mentioned, “and I wish to dwell in a way that’s extra reflective of how my folks dwell.”
He moved to the rectory at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Beacon Hill, whose second-floor residence was transformed in 2020 for $160,000, in accordance with county permits.
In March 2022, the archdiocese introduced it deliberate to promote Connolly Home and several other different properties to Westbank, a Vancouver, B.C.-based actual property developer. The archdiocese mentioned Connolly Home alone could be bought for $13.5 million, based mostly on market worth — $5 million above its appraised worth — with an settlement to protect the historic worth of the house. The deal included three different First Hill properties, which collectively have been appraised at over $25 million, in accordance with King County property assessments. 9 months later, the gross sales will not be but closing.
At 9,450 sq. toes, “Connolly Home was simply actually actually too massive for the wants of this archbishop, which is why he needed to downsize,” mentioned McClenahan, the archdiocese spokesperson.
She mentioned the Mount Baker home is inexpensive with decrease upkeep prices however does have sufficient area to accommodate a visiting bishop and will enchantment to future archbishops.
It’s “one thing that might final,” she mentioned.
“He controls all info”
In the event that they undergo, the true property offers might complete near $40 million. However they don’t seem to be but mirrored within the archdiocese monetary paperwork.
The Archdiocese of Seattle is among the many bigger dioceses within the nation, with over 600,000 parishioners in 168 parishes and missions in Western Washington. Within the 2021 fiscal 12 months, it had $16.5 million out there in money and investments after accounting for $45.7 million in debt, in accordance with monetary studies. Parishioner collections at Mass topped out at $93 million — an 89% improve since 1995 — with an extra $154 million in income from Catholic colleges and a $151 million collective nest egg for interchurch lending.
Catholic Neighborhood Providers and Catholic Housing Providers additionally introduced in and distributed $290 million within the final fiscal 12 months, the vast majority of it income from authorities charges and contracts.
Whereas the church’s debt has additionally elevated lately, it compensated in 2021 with sturdy returns on investments, donations and an inflow of at the very least $3.7 million in federal COVID aid loans.
McClenahan mentioned bettering the church’s monetary stability has been deliberate, “in order that we don’t head into bankruptcies like different dioceses in the US.”
The expansion is according to web property held by the US Convention of Catholic Bishops, the group of nationwide church management that oversees and organizes Catholicism within the U.S. and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Since 2015, the nationwide group has seen a 56 p.c improve in complete property from $162 million to $254 million for fiscal 12 months 2021, not together with restrictions positioned by donors.
The Seattle Archdiocese’s funds are a distinction to these of a few of its friends within the period of reckoning with clergy abuse. Dioceses and spiritual orders have sought chapter safety within the Northwest and nationwide because of the abuse disaster.
Heal Our Church has pushed for the Seattle Archdiocese to be extra clear and make its data associated to clergy abuse public.
With out full transparency, they are saying Catholics can not know the extent of hurt dedicated by abusive monks or nuns and hid by church management. These data belong to the survivors, not the church, say advocates for Heal Our Church and SNAP, the Survivors Community of these Abused by Clergymen.
The group says its requests for the church to make these data public have been stonewalled by Archbishop Etienne. McClenahan, the archdiocese spokesperson, mentioned releasing data could be a violation of parishioners’ privateness and so they haven’t any plans to take action.
However to Heal Our Church, the Mount Baker buy signifies the church’s entrenched observe to function in secrecy.
Ship us a tip
Tim Legislation, an area lawyer and nationwide advocate on clergy reform, mentioned buying the home by way of an LLC was a breach of belief.
“We’re coping with [Etienne] on points of kid safety and he’s making an attempt to guarantee us he has all the things beneath management, {that a} new web page has been turned, and this is a sign that nothing has modified,” Legislation mentioned.
Seattle has paid out $118.8 million in clergy abuse settlements — representing 465 claims — because the Eighties, with $688,000 spent in counseling since 2006, the archdiocese mentioned this month. The archdiocese says a few of this had been paid previously by way of property gross sales however has predominantly been funded by way of insurance coverage, self-insurance and the church’s normal fund.
In distinction, Spokane’s smaller diocese encompassing Japanese Washington agreed to pay $48 million to 176 claimants as a part of its 2007 chapter proceedings. Nationally, dioceses collectively spent greater than $200 million in settlements simply in 2019, a sum that has been steeply growing yearly, in accordance with a report from the US Convention of Catholic Bishops and associate organizations.
However even among the many most up-to-date clergy abuse settlements in Seattle, which totaled $2.3 million, the archdiocese declined to launch the identify of the alleged abuser from a case at St. Louise Parish, saying it “couldn’t make a definitive identification.”
The Seattle Archdiocese has publicly launched 81 names as of 2021 and says it’s dedicated to persevering with to replace the record and make credibly accused clergy identified to the general public on its Shield and Heal web site: protect-seattlearchdiocese.org.
Legislation, who was baptized at Holy Rosary Catholic Church 73 years in the past, mentioned that’s a part of the church’s longstanding issues.
“He controls all info,” Legislation mentioned. “Huge adjustments and reforms want to come back. Calling out this stuff is likely to be perceived as petty, however it is very important get the church in the precise course.”
Lingering grief of parish closures
In July, Archbishop Etienne mentioned, “We merely can not proceed with the established order,” as greater than a dozen parishes closed or consolidated, which he mentioned would higher distribute church sources, following consultations with church management and public remark.
Parishioners spoke of grief and displacement. Some mentioned they felt intentionally ignored as a part of the Latino, Southeast Asian and queer communities dominant within the altering parishes.
“I deliberate to have my funeral right here,” mentioned Emmy Purainer, who had attended Mount Virgin for greater than 60 years, The Seattle Occasions reported in 2021.
The parish closures are beneath evaluate by the Vatican, however money circulate is more likely to improve within the coming years regardless. The First Hill actual property deal is anticipated to extend money property by tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}.
And if the Mount Virgin church property is bought, which is appraised at $8.7 million, its proceeds will go to the archdiocese. For different parishes, like St. Mary’s, appraised at $1.4 million, any gross sales from that property would keep throughout the St. Therese parish it consolidated with, McClenahan mentioned, including that Mass collections additionally keep inside every parish. For now, she mentioned, St. Mary’s will generally nonetheless host a funeral.
The archdiocese says funds weren’t the one consideration in closing parishes. Mass attendance fell 15.5% between 1999 and 2018, to about 126,000, although the final inhabitants boomed. Additionally, there are too few Catholic monks, an issue that’s not anticipated to enhance over time.
In South Seattle, there have been simply 12 monks for 15 parishes, the archdiocese mentioned.
However Catholic funds have been beneath a microscope internationally and at different U.S. dioceses. There have been latest allegations that high Vatican officers have stolen and mismanaged Catholic funds, embezzlement accusations and proof that 100 million euros have been misplaced by the church in a “shady” worldwide actual property deal, The New York Occasions reported.
U.S. archbishops have additionally beforehand walked again costly acquisitions following group outcry, together with a $2.2 million residence bought by the previous archbishop of Atlanta and a $2.3 million residence bought for a San Jose, California, bishop’s retirement.
A mile and a half separate the archbishop’s new residence from the now-defunct Mount Virgin parish. For a century, it served because the neighborhood church for immigrant communities. After it closed in July, parishioners continued to hope in entrance of the church’s locked doorways. Right this moment, their languages stay inscribed over the doorway, the phrase signifying a spot of worship etched in Chinese language, Vietnamese and Lao. However the parish is empty and quiet.
