Newark Archdiocese Removes Archbishop's Name from Annual Fundraising Drive

By Jeff Green
The Record
February 19, 2015

http://www.northjersey.com/news/newark-archdiocese-removes-archbishop-s-name-from-annual-fundraising-drive-1.1274642

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark has launched its primary fundraising drive with a new name this year, striking “archbishop” from the title in a change widely seen as a reaction to parishioner protests directed at Archbishop John J. Myers last year.

The renamed Sharing God’s Blessings Appeal launched this month and follows a year in which parishioners were angered by revelations that the archdiocese was spending $500,000 to expand Myers’ 4,500-square-foot retirement house in rural Hunterdon County. Some churchgoers withheld donations from fundraising campaigns in protest, and the archdiocese confirmed that contributions dipped last year compared with the year before.

Jim Goodness, an archdiocese spokesman, denied that parishioner dissatisfaction with spending on the house played a role in renaming the fundraiser, saying it was motivated by a desire to inform the faithful about the many programs funded by the appeal, including schools and Catholic Charities.

The appeal, which attempts to raise $10 million each year, is operating simultaneously with a separate $90 million capital fundraising effort to fund programs into the future, as well as to address some immediate needs.

“It’s not so much identified with one individual; that’s a misnomer that’s come about,” Goodness said about the yearly fundraising appeal. “It’s really an appeal by the church for the people of the church. I wouldn’t call it a re-branding, but re-accentuating the purpose of the appeal.”

Goodness also said Myers has not stepped away from the campaign, noting his appearance in the beginning of a promotional video on the archdiocese website.

But one pastor said discontent toward Myers and his retirement home was on the minds of many priests as the archdiocese decided which parishes would be the first to begin raising money for the larger capital campaign this year. He said he expected Coadjutor Archbishop Bernard Hebda to be the face of the capital campaign.

And a church finance expert said the archdiocese was likely uneasy with a $200,000 decline in donations to the appeal last year. Goodness said the archdiocese collected $7.4 million in 2014 and $7.6 million in 2013.

“The fact they went down in light of an improving economy is something the archdiocese should be concerned about,” said Charles Zech, faculty director of the Center for Church Management and Business Ethics at Villanova University’s business school.

The Newark Archdiocese is not alone in dissociating its fundraising drive from church hierarchy. The Diocese of Trenton changed the name of its bishop’s appeal this year to the Catholic Appeal, a move Bishop David O’Connell said he hoped would “make its wide reach clearer and to avoid any perception of creating a fund solely for the use of the bishop.”

In 2003, the Boston Archdiocese similarly changed the name of its annual fundraiser after Cardinal Bernard Law’s resignation and his association with what was then a widening nationwide clergy sex abuse scandal.

Newark Archdiocese parishioners who organized against Myers’ retirement home upgrades pledged to continue withholding donations to the annual appeal and said they would not support the capital campaign. They have demanded that the archdiocese sell Myers’ 7,000-square-foot house and provide more details about how the donated funds are spent.

Kevin Davitt, a parishioner of St. Catharine Church in Glen Rock, said giving to the campaigns “makes no sense” until there is more transparency. Raul Caceres, who traveled to Rome to protest Myers’ spending and has written to top Vatican officials about the retirement home, sounded a similar note of defiance.

“There’s no accountability. Now that he is going to collect $100 million, who knows what else he is going to do,” Caceres said, referring to the $90 million capital campaign.

Goodness said the archdiocese is communicating clearly about what will be funded by the capital campaign, the most substantial fundraiser undertaken by the archdiocese since Myers was appointed in 2002. Half of the proceeds will be used for immediate parish needs and projects that pastors have chosen to fund; the remaining half will be invested in long-term endowments for retired priests, tuition assistance at Catholic schools, training for seminarians and retraining for parish staff, he said.

Parishes will collect money for the campaign in waves. Of the archdiocese’s 219 churches, 73 have begun collecting pledges for the capital effort, while the remaining 146 parishes rally donations for the annual appeal, Goodness said.

The archdiocese has set campaign goals for parishes and is asking parishioners to contribute regularly for four years to meet them. Parishes are heavily involved, charting out what they would spend their portions of the money on, Goodness said.

“We think it’s going to be very successful because it’s really addressed to serving and helping the people of parishes, long-term,” he said.

Monsignor Richard Arnhols, the pastor of St. John the Evangelist in Bergenfield, said his parish has set out to raise nearly $1 million in the capital campaign and would use its half to replace a boiler and air conditioning system and repave the parking lot.

Arnhols said about a half-dozen families withheld donations from the annual appeal last year over concerns about Myers’ retirement home, and pastors of churches where there was greater discontent asked not to be included in the first wave of the capital campaign. The issue could affect the campaign’s success, but he expects Hebda, the coadjutor archbishop, to be the campaign’s primary leader.

Arnhols said Hebda “certainly brings a positive spirit to the whole thing.” Hebda, who was appointed by Pope Francis in 2013, stands to succeed Myers next year when the archbishop reaches the mandatory retirement age of 75.

Goodness said both Myers and Hebda were heavily involved in the fundraiser.

The theme for the capital campaign is “We are Living Stones,” which derives from remarks made by Pope John Paul II when he visited the Cathedral Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Newark in 1995. The pope spoke of the cathedral’s beauty, that the church was made of stone and that parishioners were living stones.

“It was a direct reference to scripture applied to us,” Goodness said. “We individual Catholics, as living stones of this church of Newark, are called upon to build the church and be the church.”

The campaign, he said, asks parishioners, “How do we build the church of the future?”

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