Tolerance and Stewardship

A few facts, questions and speculations:

1. One of the first acts of the current bishop was to hire a media consultant to advise him on how to handle television and radio interviews and inquiries from print journalists. Who paid for this?

2. One of the first acts of the current bishop after inhibiting Fr. David Bollinger was to hire a high-priced public relations firm. A leaked memo on a meeting with Peter Kapcio from this firm is on the DCNY blog; the title of this memo is the McDaniel memo. The strategy from this memo is clear and chilling. One has to wonder whether any part of the strategy could be called Christian in its plan or execution. When you look at the whole failed presentment proceedings, was it good stewardship to spend diocesan funds for public relations consulting?

3. The bishop admitted to the clergy last Wednesday that the diocese paid $185,000 in its failed prosecution of Fr. Bollinger. Does the diocese really know that this is the real number? Given that the bishop made at least two false statements to his clergy at that same meeting, how do we know whether even the high figure of $185,000 is correct? It has been suggested to me that the number could actually be over $300,000. Whether its $185,000, $300,000, or somewhere in between, was this good stewardship?

4. At the clergy conference, one of the false statements that the bishop made was that the diocese had won their case against St. Andrew's, Syracuse. The case was not won; it was settled out of court. Even given this, the diocese hired top-priced lawyers for this case that dragged on for a long time. How much did these lawyers cost the diocese? Was this good stewardship? You might have read an earlier entry where I posted the thoughts of others in Central NY who said that the diocese is likely to have spent over $300,000 in pursuit of holding onto property that is valued at $220,000. I also mentioned that in our area church buildings are being bought at ten cents on the dollar. Again, where these legal expenses good stewardship?


I may add to these thoughts in the coming days. There is plenty here already to wonder what kind of leadership the Diocese of Central NY is getting these days. Maybe those who have resigned from key positions in the diocese over the last few years know something that we don't know. How's your tolerance level for the expenditures given above? And to think that the diocese couldn't afford Thornfield Conference Center but has hundreds of thousands of dollars for legal action. Kinda makes one wonder about what's important to the diocesan leadership.

And, as a last thought, what is in the Shaffer Report that makes the bishop so intent on hiding it from the diocese?