In another life, in another state, an exquisite invitation arrived in my rural mailbox from a cardinal, no less, Cardinal Adam Maida.  In the midst of deer and raccoon, chipmunks and humming birds, embossed greetings from the rich and powerful were seldom found at the end of my country road.

It was not only addressed to me, it contained my very own number as a member of the elite, who were being honored as pledge subscribers for the building and care of the new John Paul II Cultural Center, a Roman Catholic museum and think tank, to be housed  in a 100,000 square foot building on the campus of the Catholic University in Washington, D.C.

As much as anyone, I’m all for museums, am just not that enthusiastic about contributing to Catholic museums, which have a tendency to gobble up funds we little people figure should go to the poor with no housing, no medical insurance, no safety nets for emergencies.

My apprehension was well founded.  In 2001, in a ceremony attended by President George W. Bush, several cardinals, members of Congress and other dignitaries, the center was opened to the public.  Since then, 90% of the staff has been dismissed., and plans for an art museum have been shelved in favor of mission activities, personnel and administration.

According to an article in the National Catholic Reporter, February 17, 2006, the center’s 2005-2009 strategic plan warns: “If we do not eliminate the debt, everything that has been developed to date will be destroyed.”

Maida’s spare-no-expenses philosophy created grand results: “The interactive exhibits were beautifully designed, but mind-bogglingly expensive,” said an unnamed source.  “Everything was custom designed and always first class and therefore terribly expensive to keep up.”

Msgr. William Kerr, executive director, explained, “This is a very expensive place to run.  You turn the lights on in the morning and you’ve already spent a lot of money.”

Kerr went on to comment: “The priority was to get the building up.  If we had raised another $30 million we would have had the place endowed, but the fact is we didn’t.”

At the March 22, 2001 dedication, President Bush remarked, “I’m grateful that Pope John Paul II chose Washington as the site of this center.  It brings honor and it fills a need.”

The NCR reporters, Joe Feuerherd and Dennis Coday were hard-pressed to inform the readers just what need the center filled.

They go on to report that the Detroit archdiocese has closed three-dozen schools in the past three years, while in a Feb. 2 letter to Detroit priests, Cardinal Adam Maida revealed that the financially troubled Washington-based museum and Catholic think tank owes the Detroit archdiocese $40 million, including $17 million in funds directly from archdiocesan coffers.

“It (the cultural center) was Maida’s dream,” Sr. Joelene Van Handel, a pastoral minister at Nativity Parish in Detroit, told NCR.  “He made it happen and now he’s going to pay the price for it.”

(My thought is that it will be Detroit’s little people, not Maida, who will pay the price. He won’t be worrying about his electric bill, salary, or transportation to Rome for whatever purpose.)

Van Handel continued:  “I have never gotten the kind of reaction from people like I’ve gotten on this one.  (They are saying.)  “I’m really angry about the money being put into this cultural center...when we’ve got the loss of the schools and we’ve got the closing of churches.  Where are we as church?”   Where, indeed?

Let us not forget the Follieri Group, reported by Joe Feuerherd of NCR, founded nearly three years ago by Raffaello Follieri and his father, Pasquale Follieri, who have “entered into contracts for the acquisition of over $100 million of church property in three U.S. cities” and is “actively bidding on an additional quarter billion dollars of church assets, according to the company’s web site.”

We’d be safe in betting the back-forty that the fire-sale of churches and schools in the Detroit diocese is in the capable, greedy hands of that group.

And what about the Catholic poor in Detroit, who are not only losing their churches and schools, but their jobs, as well,  to out-sourcing, and their homes to foreclosures?  With hope, prayer, and hard work at any kind of job they can find, they are keeping their families together.  But not all will manage to do so.  
Discouraged and fearful they must be. The real Church is among the poor and downhearted, where Christ walks among His own, not in cultural centers, nor in real estate offices of the Raffaello Follieris, with Italian addresses.

Lord, please give us the courage to stand with Your poor and find You there with them.  May we not turn our heads away in haste, closing our hearts at the same time.  The needs are beyond our comprehension, so we ask You to support our weakness in our search for even infinitesimal solutions to problems that reach to infinity.  Touch our hearts, Lord.  Touch our hearts.  Amen.

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