Two Minutes With… Bishop Robert Mcmanus

By Walter Bird
Worcester Magazine
June 9, 2016

http://worcestermag.com/2016/06/09/two-minutes-bishop-robert-mcmanus/43473

He has been bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Worcester for 12 years and celebrated his 17th anniversary of being ordained as bishop in February. Late last month, he observed his 38th anniversary of being ordained as a priest. Bishop Robert McManus will turn 65 in July, and it is safe to say he has seen a lot transpire in and around the Catholic Church. The clergy sex abuse scandal would qualify as the lowest of lows during his time with the Church, and the closing of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Worcester earlier this year has generated more controversy for the Diocese – and McManus, in particular. We sat with McManus recently to talk about the state of Church, the drama surrounding Mount Carmel and more.

What is the overall health of the Catholic faith and the Catholic Church? I would say it is in a weakening position, only because as I said I was ordained as a priest 38 years ago. If you had told me the Church in New England would be in the state it is today, I would have found it very hard to believe. My first parish, there were four full-time priests. There were 120 people in what is called CYC here. There were 50-60 kids on our ski trip every winter. Every Mass was packed. There were a number of sisters of mercy teaching at school. That same parish today has one priest. The school is closed. Attendance at Mass is less than superlative. A perfect storm descended on the Church, in New England, especially. I was astounded that New England has now become one of the most un-churched areas, sections of the U.S.

Has it? When you say un-churched, you mean number of churches closed? No, the people claiming to be religious, whatever their religious denomination in terms of church practices. And I have not seen the statistic myself, but someone said to me in passing a couple weeks ago that there was a survey done of religiosity — a practice of any religion throughout the country, the 50 states — somebody told me that Massachusetts was 49th, 50th being the worst. It’s hard to believe, because New England especially, for example growing up in Rhode Island, we were 65 percent Roman Catholic. Same with Massachusetts, they used to call it Catholic Boston, it was so, so catholic.You say “perfect storm.” Talk about that. I would describe the perfect storm as radical secularism that has descended on our country, western civilization, but certainly on the United States. That scandal that happened broke out with terrible ferocity in 2002, and the effect that it had on people of the faith, those three things came together and it has weakened the position of the church in New England and here in Massachusetts and … the Catholic Diocese Worcester. However, what it has forced us to do is to commit ourselves to what Pope John Paul II, what Pope Benedict and Pope Francis now has coined: the new Evangelization. I believe that there is what is called a vestigial Catholicism. If people were trained and raised as Catholics in a real solid fashion, there is a basis there of the faith that I hope, with the grace of God, can be revitalized and brought to the floor.

Right now, in the Worcester Diocese, where are you financially? I think we’re like every other diocese in the northeast. There are very serious financial challenges. However, that is mostly because the donation base has significantly decreased. On the books, we have 300,000 Roman Catholics in the Diocese that we know about … we have 100 parishes. Probably of that number, we’re lucky if 25 percent (of parishioners) practice in the faith … regularly going to the weekly Mass, celebration of the sacraments.

Let’s talk a little bit about Mt. Carmel. Does that church, in your opinion, with God as your witness, need to be closed right now? Yes, because, you know the background probably as well as I. When I was up at Assumption a couple of weeks ago on a Saturday morning for a funeral Mass in the chapel, at the end of the Mass [my vicar general] showed me an email that he had gotten from this architectural firm that’s working on the church, and in that letter its very clear. [The architect] said that his company could not validate the integrity and safety of that building, and they were concerned about the building collapsing into Mulberry Street. So, I said, ‘This is it.’ I called Monsignor [Stephen] Pedone. It was 11 a.m. He had a funeral, and then the next day he had the Holy Communion, which is obviously an important day in the life of a Catholic family, so I said, “Monsignor, write something up expressing to the people that because of these dire circumstances, the church will be closed and all the sacraments of life will be moved over to Our Lady of Loreto Parish because of reasons of safety.”

Did it have to happen that day? Yes, only because the architect in correspondence I saw between the architect and John Kelley, who’s the building commissioner, twice John Kelley, if I’m not mistaken, back and forth in the e-mail, Kelley asked [an employee] who I believe works for George O’Neil, “Can you guarantee that this building is safe?” I forget the quote but Bob’s answer was: “I cannot say whether the building would collapse tonight, tomorrow or …”

Or a year from now, right? I’m not taking that chance and think of the liability and the lives that could be lost, think if that facade tumble into 290 at 2 in the afternoon, who’s going to be liable? The Roman Catholic Bishop of Worcester. I can’t have that on my conscience.

Are you looking to sell the entire property? We have not had any discussions about that. The focus is the safety of the deterioration of the building, which is significant. That is a major concern. My first concern is public safety. My second concern is that we have a building. I compare it to when someone buys an old house and they’re going to renovate it. When you start renovating. you have plan A and then you get into Plan A, it’s Plan B, Plan C. That’s what happened here.

What about the ball field? Are you going to sell it? No, the kids play on it all the time.

Well, some people are talking about how it’s going to be a fire sale, you know, you need the money you’re going to sell the whole darn thing. No, no we’re not. Now what we do with the church proper, excluding the ball field, etc., I don’t know.

You mean… If the church were to be raised, what the Diocese of Worcester is going to do with that footprint of property, I don’t know. We haven’t gone down that road that far.

There are concerns about that. That it could be sold to a nonprofit. How about that? That it could become low-income housing. I don’t know, but I’m willing to say that I would not sell a ball field that kids are playing on. Give me a break.

Did you bring Monsignor Pedone in here to just shut this church down? Some say he’s just going to finish here and you put him here to close the church. I always call that hairdressing discussion. I say, if you want to know the truth don’t ask your hairdresser, ask your priest. This is fantasy. I got a letter, and I wont say who sent the letter, but in the letter … it was rife with inaccuracies. Every paragraph was full of inaccuracies, so I’ve composed a letter to respond … you can’t take it personally, because right now, you know, what we have seen is that the lack of information, the lack of thinking logically, rationally, it’s all high-gear emotion, which leads to fabrication. Unfortunately, the instability, the way they treated Monsignor Pedone, I said, “Monsignor, why go on Facebook. That’s the last place in the world I want to go.”