This article has been amended to reflect our error in stating that Rafaello Follieri is married to actress Anne Hathaway. We have been informed that this is not true.

We sincerely regret the error, and apologize for any embarrassment  this may have caused.

Thousands of Catholics, who have weekly subscriptions to the National Catholic Reporter, by now have read the lead article for March 3rd,  “Churches for Sale:Firm claiming links to Vatican aims to be major player in church real estate.”

My first instinct was to avoid the subject altogether; however, the selling of our churches on a grand scale by a foreign country, with or without Vatican connections cannot, and should not be allowed, and must not be ignored.

Joe Feuerherd , who wrote the article, said the Follieri Group was founded nearly three years ago by Raffaello Follieri, and his father, Pasquale Follieri, has “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.  

Actually, a nun made me write this article; more precisely, her greeting card did, titled, The Invitation.  With a lovely use of pastels, and flow of figures around a table, three adults and three children seem ready to partake of a fish dinner, though the mother is looking to the distance. where a man is seen approaching with a burden on his back. She beckons him, and the white dove in the center of the picture assures us that the family will listen to the breath of the Spirit, and welcome the stranger to the fold. (Sisteer Nancy Earle, SMIC, www.windseeds. com)

To me, the burdened stranger represents the Catholic reader who finds himself or herself weighed down by news found incompatible with Gospel values, with no one to share this modern day Way of the Cross. Here, we join other Catholic media in offering an extended hand of companionship, as our people learn of troubled waters threatening the integrity of our financial dealings.

Feuerherd explains the business opportunity exploited by the Follieri Group; a cash-hungry, land-rich institution (the American church) experiencing a demographic shift among its clientele (parishioners abandoning the inner city) and huge and ongoing liabilities (more than 1 billion has already been paid victims of clergy sex abuse), a church that  needs to divest itself of long-held but increasingly unproductive holdings....
The author goes on to tell us that in Boston alone, the church has sold nearly $200 million in property since August, 2003, according to the Boston Globe. With intentions that I, personally, will hold suspicious until proven otherwise, the Follieri Group claims sensitivity to church “imperatives” and connections with “senior members of the Vatican hierarchy.”

It shouldn’t surprise us when Feuerherd declares that the Group is “shrouded in mystery.”  Only after a sale is consummated, does it become public.  Even then, dioceses and religious institutions may be reluctant to discuss their business dealings when Vatican officials are involved.

Let’s take a look at the coy real estate company to see if I have the facts right:  For years, the Vatican refused to allow bishops to strip priests of their ministries for sex abuse until every hoop had been jumped through, ever so slowly, leaving the American church wide open for law suits.

But now, the Vatican, through the Follieri Company, is going to send delegates to oversee the disposal of our property to help defray those law suits.  Sorry, I was brought up as a good, non-questioning Catholic, as were the majority of you.  However, between then and now, the trust landscape has been eroding.

First, there was the Vatican Bank Scandal.  If you have forgotten some of the particulars, you will find them in the April 27, 1987 Wall Street Journal article by Laura Colby, titled, “Vatican Bank Played Role in Fall of Banco Ambrosiano.”

Then, we found Blessed Maria Escriva de Belaguer, the founder of Opus Dei, raised to the stature of sainthood.  Father Richard McBrien commented at the time, “To me it’s appalling – and I use the word deliberately – that Escriva is being canonized before Pope John XXIII” (January 6-19 edition of The Catholic New World (Chicago). I do not think it an exaggeration to say that millions around the world, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, were scandalized by this action. For those unfamiliar with Escriva’s activities, Opus Dei articles are available in the Archives of this site.

Recently, we’ve been further traumatized by the news that Cardinal Adam Maida of Detroit, the site of growing poverty and unemployment, is facing growing frustration in the pews over the deepening debt at his largely empty museum, which he sponsored in honor of Pope John Paul II,  in Washington, D.C. He promises his laity that he will recover “every penny” of local money he paid to the John Paul II Cultural Center, and described the future of the $75 million, 100,000 square-foot facility as rock solid.  (Detroit Free Press, David Crumm and Patricia Montemurri, Feb. 25, 2006)

It’s not often I receive personal invitations such as Maida’s that arrived in my mailbox February 26, 2005, with my very own authorization number: XX.703502J5XJOI, and a March 8th deadline for mailing in my contribution to the Center in honor of the Pope, smack-dab in the center of American culture, the nation’s Capital.  I doubt if the Center appeared on the pope’s most-wished-for- list, and it certainly wasn’t on mine.

Since the Vatican is awash in culture, and wouldn’t miss a museum or two or three, I suggest that the Chiaramonti Museum, arranged by the great sculptor Antonio Canova for Pope Pius VII (1800 to 1823) be shorn of its more than one thousand ancient Roman statues and reliefs, with the proceeds of the sale sent to the Detroit Archdiocese to pay off the debt, never to be collected from the Cultural Center, in any event. Anything above $75 million could go for a fund to help out the unemployed, destitute, auto workers and their families.

 I am not encouraged by the fact that Rafaelio Follieri, age 27, is the chief executive officer of the company, so impatient to take churches, schools, convents, and other real estate off our hands, despite the fact that he assures us his company does not use its Vatican ties to gain access to church officials.

However, Feuerherd points out that the Sodano name (Cardinal Angelo Sodano is Secretary of State to the pope) has opened doors to the company with no real estate track record in the United States.  He says, “When Raffaello wants to meet with the bishop, they put the touch on from the Vatican and they get the meeting.”  One East Coast diocesan real estate professional has revealed, “they’re about as connected at it gets.”

Question: Could it be possible, would it be possible that questionable  Italian businesses are once more becoming implicated with things American, not to forge stocks and bonds, but  to create housing projects and business centers from our cathedrals, convents, monasteries, etc., under the guidance of Rafaello Follieri, who looks like a recent graduate from business college, with dreams of Catholic millions gained from the sale of churches built with nickels and dimes budgeted on kitchen tables by hard-working, sacrificing Catholics. 

If we must sell church property, let it be at the hands of our dedicated, experienced real estate men and women, who will honestly see to it that the proceeds will go to the People of God, to build small churches and to educate the laity to assume more and more of the responsibility of running priestless parishes.

Meanwhile, Follieri can oversee the sale of those pagan statues in the Chiaramonti Museum for the Detroit diocese, and keep any sticky fingers away from our beloved, sacred places of worship. 

Despite the problems facing us, Lent is still our sacred time to walk apart with Christ, and to trust him for tomorrow and tomorrow, while keeping an eye on our Catholic cash registers.

Amen.

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