The following article appeared in The Times Leader

on January 5, 2008

 

Group meets opposition from diocese to save local church

  

250 parishioners instantly joined

Sacred Heart Wilkes-Barre Foundation.

By MARK GUYDISH

mguydish@timesleader.com

WILKES-BARRE - Insisting it had tried for years to work with the Diocese of Scranton but was ultimately rejected, a group hoping to save Sacred Heart of Jesus Church went public on New Year's Day. The group launched a Web site with exten­sive documentation of its efforts and the diocesan responses.

Those responses included an "official no­tice" on Page 3 of Thursday's edition of the diocesan newspaper, The Catholic Light, which distances the diocese from the non­profit corporation formed to save the aging church steeped in ethnic origins and rich with local history.

Spearheaded by long-time church mem­bers Anthony and Noreen Foti - she is a fourth generation parishioner, baptized, confirmed and married in the building -the group formed the non-profit Sacred

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CHURCH

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Heart Wilkes-Barre Foundation in October. It is seeking dona­tions to repair the church and se­cure its future.

Noreen said - and postings on the Web site support her - that the group had sprung from a 2002 parish meeting where they were told the church was more than $700,000 in debt and needed mil­lions in repairs. Asked to come up with solutions, Noreen said a core group of parishioners fashioned a detailed proposal that would raise enough money in 10 years to both eliminate the debt and re­pair the church, which houses much original artwork painted by the founding pastor, the Rev. Jo­sef Murgas. The priest is most fa­mous locally as a pioneer in wire­less telegraphy and radio. A blue state historic marker stands out­side the North Main Street church in testimony to his work

According to the Web site: "Up­on completion of a rigorous ap­proval process with the pastor and finance committee, a parish meeting was held on Nov. 6,2006, to present this plan to the parish­ioners. Theplan was immediately supported by over 250 parishion­ers."

But then something went wrong, Noreen said.

Her husband Anthony, a pro­fessional engineer, had been writ­ing letters to Monsignor John J. Sempa, the church pastor, and then to Bishop Joseph Martino, in an effort to get the project un­der way with church sanction. In a Feb. 14 response to his letter to Martino, Central Region Episco­pal Vicar Joseph Bambera said that, while no one wanted to see the church closed, "the expendi­ture of millions of dollars for the repair of Sacred Heart of Jesus Church, in light of the current profile of its parishioners and the questionable future of many parishes throughout the diocese would reflect an irresponsible use of funds..."

Bambera's letter also voiced Martino's support of Sempa's handling of the matter, so Antho­ny Fbti wrote a letter to Sempa dated March 2. Failing to get a re­sponse, he sent another letter May 24 alleging the lack of re­sponse showed "that decisions have already been made, and warning that "If you decide not to hold a meeting to address (par­ishioner) concerns, I will call a meeting of my own."

Noreen said that Sempa re­sponded through a message sent to all parishioners and posted on the foundation's Web site, dated May 31.  In it, Sempa rebuts An­thony Foti's claim that parishion­ers have been misled and unin­formed, noting he had held mul­tiple "town meetings" on parish issue. Then Sempa quotes, verba­tim, Bambera's contention that spending millions on the church would be an "irresponsible use of funds."

Battle lines drawn

But it was the opening para­graph of Sempa's letter, Noreen said, that hurt the most. He wrote "the issue at hand has the poten­tial to tear apart the very fabric that binds us together as a par­ish."

"We're being made to look al­most like we're the bad guys," No­reen said Friday, "but we're just trying to save a church."

It was that letter, she added, that prompted the group to form the foundation in October.

"It was our way of maintaining control of the money, making sure it goes toward the purpose for which it was given."

It's also why, in forming the foundation, the group altered its goals slightly. While the original plan was to raise money to pay off church debt - "That would have been the only way the diocese would approve the capital cam­paign," Noreen said - money raised by the Foundation will on­ly go toward preserving the church.

Sempa was out of town Friday and did not return a phone call. His complete letter to parishion­ers, as well as other letters and much more data, are available on the foundation's Web site, www.shwbfoundation.com.

His letter points out the parish population has aged and shrunk, that in 2006 there were only sev­en baptisms compared to 45 fu­nerals, and that "1 spoke with a professional fund raiser who indi­cated that the makeup of our par­ish was such that we could expect to raise only about a million dol­lars," rather than the more than $2 million Anthony Foti had pre­dicted possible.

But the foundation points out the biggest reason for the debt, and one reason so much money was needed - was Sacred Heart School, which was closed last summer as part of a diocesan-wide school restructuring. The foundation argues that, with the closing of the school, the church should be able to comfortably support itself with existing in­come, but that the new assess­ment levied by the diocese to sup­port remaining schools is unfairly steep on Sacred Heart.

The Web site presents an analy­sis that it claims proves Sacred Heart's assessment for schools, when viewed as percent of total parish income, is among the high­est in the diocese.

The foundation claims that to­tal diocesan assessments on par­ish income - for schools and oth­er diocese costs - takes about 62 percent of parish money. There is an extensive section on the Web site showing how the foundation derived the numbers, as well as several letters exchanged be­tween Anthony Foti and James Quinn, secretary of financial ser­vices for the diocese.

  Diocese distances itself

Noreen said the group was reluctant to go public.                      

"The Catholic Church is attacked all the time.  We don't want to bring more controversy to the church as a whole. We are allgood, lifelong, practicing Catholi­cs," she said. And they still hope to work with the diocese and Sempa in their efforts to save the building.

But, she added, "this is a great injustice to our parish and the parishioners, and the sad part is most of the people aren't even aware of what's going on."

In its official statement, the diocese said the foundation "is not an agent or established entity of the Catholic Church or the Dio­cese of Scranton," and that there is "no connection whatsoever be­tween the foundation and the dio­cese or Sacred Heart church.

"This notice is required so that the faithful may understand the status of Sacred Heart Wilkes-Barre Foundation, Inc. as it re­lates to the Diocese of Scranton," the notice reads. The founda­tion's efforts "are entirely inde­pendent efforts by private indi­viduals who are not authorized by the bishop or the pastor to un­dertake fund raising" for the church.

Noreen said the group remains undeterred, and she believes that, even if the diocese is distancing itself from the foundation, it is paying heed to what the group is saying and the evidence it is pro­viding.

She cited the announcement on Thursday that the Diocese has launched a "debt reduction pro­gram" for struggling parishes that includes $3 million set aside in the Diocese budget for the most distressed parishes.

"We firmly believe that plan is the result of our analysis and per­sistence" in attacking the prob­lems at Sacred Heart, Noreen said. "We are very dedicated, and we're not going to stop."

                                                        Mark Guydish, a Times Leader staff

                                                        writer, can be reached at 829-7161.