DIOCESE OF SCRANTON
300 Wyoming Avenue. Scranton, PA 18
PHONE: 570-207-2237
FAX: 570-207-1459
FINANCE OFFICE October 12, 2007
Anthony and Noreen Foti
770 Lantern Hill Road
Shavetown, Pennsylvania 18798
Dear Anthony and Noreen Foti:
In responding to your letter of September 16, 2007, I believe it necessary for you to understand that those of us who toiled many hours to develop a formula that we deemed fair to all parishes do not necessarily see the $50,000 cap as being inequitable. Rather it is an important part of the equation. It was noted that in this "transitional year' it was impossible to develop a formula that all parties could agree to. As I said during our telephone conversation, it is impossible at this late date to recalculate assessments and ask parishes to accept an adjustment to their assessment.
In my letter of August 20, 2007, I explained that this task was not taken lightly and that many different scenarios were developed, one of which closely resembled your plan. Again, only after much prayer, deliberation and debate was the current formula accepted. I mentioned that there was a committee made up of lay and clergy representatives that reviewed all scenarios and the consensus was to utilize the one that most believe would be more acceptable to the parishes.
Members of the committee whose charge it was to develop a formula included: Bishop John M. Dougherty, Auxiliary Bishop, and Vicar General in charge of Diocesan Administration; Monsignor Vincent J. Grimalia; Father Richard J. Loch, Episcopal Vicar for Priests; Episcopal Vicars, Monsignor Neil J. Van Loon, Father Jeffery J. Walsh, Monsignor Joseph C Bambera, Father Michael F. Quinnan, and Father Philip A. Altavilla; also, Mr. James B. Barley, Chancellor; Mr. James M. Quinn, Secretary for Financial Services; Mr. Joseph G. Casciano, Secretary for Catholic Schools,; and Mr. Robert J. Miller, Assistant to the Secretary for Financial Services.
In view of your ongoing concern about fairness it is important that I point out that many of our parishes have outstanding loans to the Diocese as does Sacred Heart/St. John's. Most of the parishes are paying the Diocese an annual interest rate of 5.75%. In order to provide your parish with financial assistance, it was agreed to carry the loan as a non-
interest bearing note since April of 2004 with a principal balance at that time of $758,037. In essence, this amounts to a diocesan subsidy to Sacred Heart/St. John's parish of an amount in excess of $40,000 a year for the past three years. You keep writing about inequity; I can assure you that this arrangement could be seen as an inequity to those parishes that continue to pay the 5.75% interest on their current loan. However, the Internal Budget Committee, after many meetings with Monsignor Sempa, agreed to offer this interest moratorium as a method of providing financial support to your parish.
You also suggest that the numbers used to calculate Sacred Heart/St. John's do not agree with the numbers presented in your parish bulletin. Again, in our assumptions we used the latest data available to us which was the 2005-2006 financial report provided by Monsignor Sempa. I would have no way of knowing what was presented in the parish bulletin for this same period. Therefore, I cannot comment on what you identify as discrepancies between what was reported in the bulletin and what we received on the parish financial report.
When all Board of Directors for the four school systems are officially appointed and in place, an announcement will be made in Ihe Catholic Light identifying these members.
I trust the information I have provided in this letter responds to your concerns as outlined in your September 1 6, 2007 letter.
Sincerely,
James M. Quinn
Secretary for Financial Services
cc: Most Reverend Joseph F. Martino, D.D., Hist. E.D. Bishop of Scranton Most Reverend John M. Dougherty, D.D., Vicar General Mr. James B. Barley, Chancellor
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