BishopAccountability.org
	Catholics Stiff P.R. Collection: Refuse to Fund Church's Media Operation By Marie Szaniszlo Boston Herald [Boston MA] May 6, 2005 Amid church closings and a fiscal crisis resulting from the clergy sexual abuse scandal, the Archdiocese of Boston is passing the collection plate to fund its publicity machine, leaving stunned Catholics fuming. "It's outrageous," aid Gina Scalcione, one of dozens of people who have held a round-the-clock vigil at Our Lady of Mount Carmel in East Boston since Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley closed the church seven months ago. "They have to be hit where it hurts the most, and that's in the collection box." Since last May, people at Holy Trinity in the South End have asked the archdiocese why it plans to close their church next month, but have received no answers. "No communication from them," said Leo Higgins of the Committee to Preserve Holy Trinity, "means no money from us." Part of a nationwide pitch for funds sanctioned by the U.S. Conference of Bishops, half the collection will go to the Boston archdiocese's weekly newspaper, annual directory and other "critical programs that reach a wide number of Catholics," archdiocesan spokesman Terrence Donilon said. The rest will go to the Conference of Bishops' communications campaign, which develops radio and TV programming, public-service announcements and other means of promoting "Gospel values." Donilon, recently hired at a six-figure salary to head the archdiocese media operation, said none of the collection goes to his salary. The archdiocese donates about $150,000 annually to the campaign, but after a year of parish closings due to the financial crisis brought on by the abuse scandal, some Catholics are wondering why they should continue to give. "I suspect that's a question that Catholics will continue to ask: Where is their money going, and why don't they have any say?" said Suzanne Morse, spokeswoman for Voice of the Faithful, a group of Catholics lobbying for reforms. Bill Gately, who heads the New England chapter of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, or SNAP, said the Conference of Bishops has yet to hold accountable any of its own members who shuffled abusive priests from parish to parish. "Their message never changes: Pay, pray and obey," Gately said. "Perhaps they'd get a better return on their public-relations investment if they listened, because the message from the faithful is loud and clear: The days when Catholics just handed over their hard-earned money for the church to spend on a whim, without accountability, are over."