Church Land Dispute: St. Bonaventure Officials Break Silence about Legal Rift with Diocese

By Elizabeth Hardin-Burrola
Gallup Independent
June 4, 2015

http://gallupindependent.com/

Officials with St. Bonaventure Indian Mission and School are breaking their silence about their long-simmering property dispute with the Diocese of Gallup.

It’s a dispute that was triggered when the diocese filed its Chapter 11 petition in U.S. Bankruptcy Court and listed more than a dozen properties in Thoreau as real property that might possibly be sold to help finance the diocese’s plan of reorganization.

But from the perspective of stunned St. Bonaventure officials, that property belonged to the mission. They had been using that property for years.

Now, with a recent court order by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge David T. Thuma, mission officials have found themselves as the only Catholic school in the Gallup Diocese being ordered to participate in the diocese’s mediation meetings scheduled for June 10-11.

Chris Halter, executive director of the mission, and Cindy Howe, the mission’s office manager, spoke out about the impact of the property dispute in a series of interviews over the last week. Halter wanted local community members to understand the properties in Thoreau are not merely vacant pieces of land that have little use.

Halter and Howe asserted the Thoreau properties are being used by St. Bonaventure for its school and charitable programs, and the impact on the local Navajo community will be severely affected if St. Bonaventure either loses the land in mediation or has to pay the Diocese of Gallup to continue using the property.

“If the mission and school go away, how will it affect the community?” Halter said in an interview May 21. “What happens to 40 years of Christian service?”

Halter, who said he believes “a real injustice is being done” by having St. Bonaventure property included in the Gallup Diocese’s bankruptcy case, said the Catholic mission is “seeking justice from the courts” as it heads into mediation.

School and charitable programs

According to Halter and Howe, St. Bonaventure Indian Mission and School includes both its PreK-8 school and a number of charitable programs that serve surrounding Navajo communities. They said the school provides a tuition-free, private Catholic education for approximately 200 students each year, most of whom are Navajo children from low income families.

Charitable programs run by the mission, they said, include a 4,000 gallon water truck that regularly delivers mission well water to about 200 Navajo families without running water, a thrift store that provides area residents with inexpensive clothing and household items, a home rehabilitation repair service and a program that provides limited utility bill assistance to needy families.

Howe said the mission offers college scholarship assistance to former St. Bonaventure students, partners with other nonprofits and ministries to help Native families build hogans, and cooperates with law enforcement agencies in promoting the Project Safe Neighborhood program. The mission also helped build a community playground in Thoreau, Halter added, on what is now a piece of the disputed property.

In addition, Halter said the mission’s two mobile home parks in Thoreau provide low income housing for area residents.

St. Bonaventure’s annual budget is about $4 million, Halter said, with 90 percent of that money coming from private donors across the country. The remaining 10 percent, he added, comes from government funding programs for schools and small grants from churches or other organizations.

Halter said the mission and school, which he said receive no money from the Diocese of Gallup, currently employ 65 people.

Seeds of dispute

The seeds of the St. Bonaventure’s dispute were sown in a series of property title transfers over several decades. According to Halter, Phillips Uranium Corporation originally donated most of the Thoreau property to the Diocese of Gallup for St. Bonaventure’s use. Halter said the diocese later transferred the property titles over to St. Bonaventure.

However, he said, during the tenure of Robert D. O’Connell, the mission’s former executive director, the property titles were transferred back to the diocese although St. Bonaventure continued to use the land.

In a 2014 interview, O’Connell said he transferred the titles back to the diocese at the request of the late Bishop Donald E. Pelotte and his chancery staff, but he did so with the knowledge of St. Bonaventure’s Board of Trustees. O’Connell said that action should have been reflected in the board minutes.

Halter, who emphasized that he respected O’Connell, said, “We do know that he transferred the titles. Under what circumstances we don’t have a clear understanding of.” Halter said all the board minutes from that time period have been located and none indicate there was discussion between O’Connell and the board about the title transfers.

Halter added he wasn’t sure how important those transfers would have ever been if the Diocese of Gallup hadn’t filed for bankruptcy. But soon after the diocese filed its Chapter 11 reorganization petition, officials at St. Bonaventure learned they were about to be pulled into the diocese’s bankruptcy case by virtue of a dispute over those oft-transferred property titles. It’s a dispute that is now heading to the mediation table.

Neither Susan Boswell, the lead bankruptcy attorney for the diocese, nor Suzanne Hammons, the diocese’s media coordinator, responded to questions posed about the St. Bonaventure situation.

“Regarding your questions about St. Bonaventure – those issues will be addressed as part of the Chapter 11 process, so I can’t comment on them at this time,” Hammons said in an email Thursday.

Editor’s Note: On Monday, St. Bonaventure officials discuss their unsuccessful attempts to resolve the property dispute with the Diocese of Gallup and their concerns for the mission’s future.