True Motivation of the Merger Process:
It's Financial
by An Anonymous Contributor
(hey, if the Catholic Star Herald can have anonymous writers, so
can we!)

The Catholic Star Herald recently published the following Q&A on
its webpage further explaining the merger process as Galante
would have it happen. 

Read it here. 

What the answer fails to include, however, is that the Bishop
is ordering these "Priest Conveners," as their very first
duty upon appointment, to take an ENTIRE INVENTORY OF THE
PARISH. He's apparently concerned with preventing theft.
(Seriously, this is the exact reason he provides for ordering
these inventories!) This is ironic since he keeps saying the
mergers are about "vibrancy," but his very first directive
with respect to the mergers is clearly MATERIAL in nature.

As if we're too simple to see past his patronizing one-
dimensional answers, Galante has brushed aside our concerns by
explaining that parish assets don't belong to the diocese. Well
if it's not his plan to have his new parish priests sell all
the assets and funnel the $$$ back to the diocese to create the
ultimate legacy (of his ego), then why is he so concerned with
trying to protect his (OUR!) possessions from theft by the
faithful? Which concern is, in itself, so telling about his
notions of spirituality!

__________________________________________________________

6/22 Editorial Note:
Although it may be true that Canon law makes necessary the
inventory of all material goods of a parish, the point of the
above writer is well-taken. The material aspect of this
"reconfiguration" is over-emphasized.

On multiple occasions the bishop has spoken about the assets
of particular parishes and emphasized his role as being over
the entire diocese. A parish with significant funds and/or
property will eventually be "merged" with another parish that
does not. After that time, the first parish will cease to exist
as an entity, but because it was "merged" rather than suppressed,
the money is still usable.

In other words, it is clear that assets of parishes not in
arrears will be used (at least in part) to "bail out" parishes
that are. Take for example the case of Our Lady Queen of Peace
in Pitman and Our Lady of Lourdes. Bishop Galante wishes to 
merge these two churches. The former parish has significant
assets, the latter is in debt. While the bishop may be
concerned about theft from the diocese on some level, what's
really going on is pure and simple theft from parishes by the
diocese. The bishop wishes to legitimately seize
assets from parishes for the benefit of the diocese. If the
church doesn't have cash assets, they may be strategically
located on potentially valuable real estate. I can think of
many such parishes off the top of my head. In the end, who knows
what will really happen to these funds.

Further we see multiple rationales given for the
"reconfiguration"--an eventual priest shortage,
demographic shifts [evidence please ???], lack of funds, and a
need for slick, paid "ministries," the need to strengthen or
"revitalize" the diocese, whatever happens to be the
"rationale du jour. Financial difficulties are often on
the list. The bishop and Msgr. McGrath still are able to dig deep
and find--without apparent problem--five MILLION dollars to buy
land for a new high school that will cost tens of millions of
dollars.

Meanwhile, he shutters our beloved churches and schools 
and ups the "Appeal" goals for most parishes to astronomical levels.
He makes demeaning comments in a television interview quipping
that parents want a "quality" education for their children, 
clearly implying that the schools he chose to close did not
provide "quality" educations. Those poor teachers must feel
horrible to receive such a put-down for their years of service.
But to Galante, the more money you can throw at a school or parish,
the better the "quality."

The point? Money's a huge motivator. Unfortunately that old
saying my dad used to quote all the time still holds true:
"Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." It's
such a shame that this is happening in the Church Christ founded.
No, in fact, it's embarrasing.