Lifestyles of the Newark archbishops stand in stark contrast

By Jeff Green
Record
March 9, 2014

http://www.northjersey.com/community/religion/Lifestyles_of_the_Newark_archbishops_stand_in_stark_contrast.html

The $500,000 expansion of Newark Archbishop John J. Myers’ already substantial rural retirement house has drawn the attention of Catholics across the region as much for its lavish details as for its timing, as Myers asks parishioners to contribute to his annual appeal and to a $100 million capital fundraising drive.

Almost no notice has been paid to the living quarters of the Most Rev. Bernard Hebda, whom Pope Francis named last year as Myers’ prime assistant and likely successor in what many Catholic Church observers say was the new pope’s most significant early appointment. Hebda was seen as a prelate who personified the pope’s desire for a humbler clergy that shuns the ostentation that has sometimes marked the church hierarchy.

Hebda lives in a dormitory room on the campus of Seton Hall University. The contrast between the two residences may serve as a marker in a church at a crossroads.

In all its glory, Hebda’s quarters in Xavier Hall includes a living room, a bedroom and a study, he said in a recent interview.

“I thought it would be a good idea to live close to the seminary — give me a chance to meet future priests. Also, I enjoy being around college students,” said Hebda, who did not comment directly about the expansion of Myers’ retirement home.

Seton Hall students said they’ve seen plenty of Hebda around campus — watching the seminarian basketball team at practice and attending nightly prayer circles in his dorm.

Alex Pierlott, 22, a senior from Camden County, said she joined about a dozen other students after a recent Saturday Mass to have lunch with Hebda and discuss the campus ministry.

Jessica Kalto, 18, a freshman diplomacy major from New York City, said she hoped Myers had a “good reason” to spend as much as $500,000 on his own retirement residence in the woods of Hunterdon County. And contrasting the archbishop and Hebda, who was appointed coadjutor archbishop of Newark last year, she said, “At least not all our bishops are like that.”

Finances criticized

The cash-strapped archdiocese, which has shut 78 Catholic schools since 2000, is financing the 3,000-square-foot addition to Myers’ house, which will include new amenities like an indoor exercise pool, three fireplaces and a fifth bedroom. Myers has faced a flurry of criticism in the wake of media reports about the upscale dwelling.

“His humility has been lost,” one woman tweeted Pope Francis.

“Doesn’t seem right, your holiness,” another person wrote to the pontiff.

The outrage comes as Pope Francis, who has said clergy should not live “like princes,” is trying to lead by example, eschewing the papal palace and a Mercedes-Benz for a two-room Vatican guesthouse and 30-year-old used car.

Myers’ retirement-home expansion is a clear counterpoint to that message of simple living, said Kevin Eckstrom, editor in chief of the Religion News Service.

“This pope has said he expects his bishops to be men of the people, not men above the people — that’s why this resonates,” Eckstrom said. “We can expect more Archbishop Hebdas than Archbishop Myerses. I think that’s the direction we’re heading in.”

The archdiocese’s spokesman, Jim Goodness, who spent much of the last two weeks fending off criticism over Myers’ home improvements, revealed that they would be financed by the sale of another ritzy residence once used by retired Archbishop Peter L. Gerety. The archdiocese no longer needs the $913,000 property in a wealthy Connecticut suburb as Gerety, 101, now lives in a nursing home, he said.

Goodness declined to comment on whether the addition was in conflict with calls from the pope for bishops to live modestly. But he said that aside from weekends and the summer, Myers mostly resides in the rectory attached to the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark.

Goodness also decried what he called “media misrepresentations” of the project, saying the plans include a therapeutic whirlpool, not a hot tub, to help Myers cope with arthritis. And comparisons between Myers and a German bishop whom Francis suspended for approving $42 million in renovations for his residence and other church buildings, Goodness said, were “grossly unfair.”

He said: “It’s 1 percent of what this guy in Germany did. Yes, it will be a big house, and it has amenities. But when you look at everything comparatively, it is not an exorbitant expense. … It reflects New Jersey costs.”

Purchased for $700,000 in 2002, shortly after Myers was appointed to head the Newark Archdiocese, the 4,500-square-foot house in rural Franklin Township already includes four bedrooms, a three-car garage, two fireplaces, a big outdoor pool, an office, a sunroom and a chapel, according to building plans. But Goodness said Myers will continue working on church activities in retirement and needs more office space.

The new features include a first-floor study and attached library, a second-floor guest room and sitting area and a third-floor gallery. A “wellness room,” connecting the main house and the expansion will include the whirlpool and a 14-by-7-foot exercise pool.

Goodness noted that weekend residences are nothing new for Newark archbishops. The archdiocese acquired a 3,300-square-foot Cape Cod situated on 2.5 acres in New Canaan, Conn., in 1980, six years before Gerety’s retirement. The property was valued at $913,000 in 2012, when the archdiocese paid $13,500 in property taxes, records show.

The archdiocese is now planning to sell that house, just as it sold a Jersey Shore property used by former Archbishop Theodore McCarrick before he was appointed to head the Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., Goodness said.

Phillip Lawler, editor of the Web-based Catholic World News, said it’s common for bishops to have their own retirement residences. It’s not the house that has people up in arms, it’s the opulence, he said.

“I don’t think anybody is likely to object if a bishop has a reasonably comfortable home, but this is an expansion on a very substantial house already,” Lawler said. “I understand if he has special health needs, but he can renovate an existing house for that.”

He said the archdiocese was sending a “horrible message” to parishioners as they are being urged to contribute to the archbishop’s annual fundraising drive. Many people are struggling through the country’s economic recovery, and Catholic schools continue to close — in Bergen County, Padre Pio Academy in Hackensack closed its doors last year and Assumption Academy in Emerson closed in 2012.

“It’s a hard message for the faithful to swallow when you’re asked to contribute to the archdiocese and having trouble making your mortgage payment,” Lawler said.

Others take heat

Camden Bishop Dennis Sullivan has also been criticized this year for using diocese funds on upscale living quarters. The diocese recently purchased a 7,000-square-foot historic mansion in Woodbury for $500,000 for the bishop and two other priests. The home has eight bedrooms, a five-car garage and an in-ground pool.

The Paterson Diocese purchased a $400,000 home in Rockaway Township for Bishop Frank Rodimer when he retired in 2004. His successor, Bishop Arthur Serratelli, plans to take up residence in a rectory when he retires, said the diocese’s lawyer, Ken Mullaney.

At 54, Hebda said he has not given any thought to where he’ll live in retirement.

When Hebda was bishop in Gaylord, Mich., he said he occupied two rooms — a bedroom and a study — in a large residence on a 40-acre property that was donated to the diocese many years ago and used as one of the only spaces large enough for clergy gatherings.

Parishioners and colleagues of Hebda’s in the Gaylord Diocese said he showed the same kind of humility as the pope, refusing special treatment and driving himself hundreds of miles to be with far-flung members of his flock.

Twice in recent weeks, Hebda personally answered the chancery office phone to speak with The Record about Myers’ retirement home upgrade.

He would not comment on the use of archdiocese funds but said he wasn’t aware of the project until it was reported in the media. Hebda also said he had never been to the 8.2-acre estate and that he didn’t intend to use it.

On the Seton Hall campus one evening last week, Leigha Wentz, 19, a freshman, said she joins other students and Hebda at 10 p.m. prayer services in the dorm. At one recent session, she said, Hebda couldn’t contain himself from laughing with the group after one woman let out a contagious giggle.

“He started laughing along with the rest of us,” she said. “He’s really nice, always has a good sense of humor.”