4/08/2007

Transparency?

While visiting St. Stans on Saturday I picked up the lastest issue of WNY Catholic.
"We'll have to be transparent, to make people feel
as if we're not concocting something behind their back."

Saw this related opinion piece in yesterday's Buffalo News from Craig Edward Speers who had been directly involved in St. Rose of Lima Parish and school activities.
Consequences of Bishop Edward Kmiec’s edict closing 14 Catholic parish elementary schools will be substantial, long lasting and incredibly detrimental to the spiritual health of this once proud diocese. read the rest...
And while trolling Bishop Kmiecs's MySpace page, I found this announcement from a few weeks ago.
A new initiative has been developed to financially support Catholic elementary education in the Diocese of Buffalo. Bishop Edward U. Kmiec has given his approval to The Catholic Elementary School Funding Plan, scheduled to take effect this September for the 2007-2008 school year. read the rest...
All seems rather odd - guilt perhaps for living in one of the City's largest houses at 79 Oakland Place - considering that the announcement was just made to shut a number of diocesan schools.

Meanwhile, the first catastrophic effects of the Diocesan deaccession from the mid-90's is still rippling through Buffalo's East side neighborhoods - Transfiguration is almost a lost cause and St. Matthew's, disfiguration here, as well.

Would like to your thoughts, especially if you are a catholic living here in Western New York...
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2 comments:

Derek J. Punaro said...

The Catholic church is a business like any other in Buffalo, and is subject to the same issues as the rest of the city - declining population. They have a right to sell their properties as much as any other business. It would be great if more former churches ended up like Ani Difranco's rather than Transfiguration, but ultimately, that's up to the buyer.

Any church still owned by the diocese should be subject to the same building codes as any other building in the city, and all appropriate fines should be levied for violations.

fixBuffalo said...

Derek,

Do you want to venture a guess as to why the Bishop is immune from the reach of Housing Court?