Despite recession, archdiocese raises $15m

But yet they are still going forward with plans to shut down churches. Disgraceful.

THATS JUST GREAT! PEOPLE ARE LOSING THERE JOBS AND HOUSES BUT GOD NEEDS A LITTLE MORE MONEY UP THERE IN HEAVEN. ISN'T IT CONVIENT THAT GOD IS ALL POWERFUL AND ALL KNOWING, HE MADE MAN FROM SAND AND WOMAN FROM MANS RIB BUT HE CAN'T MAKE MONEY!

WHAT A CROCK!!!

Mr. Paulson, why the cryptic remark about the Arcdiocese claiming 2M and Church attendance 250 K a week?
Some go only on very solemn hlidays, but if they acknowledge that they are Catholic, that's what is reported.
Many people come in contact with the Church in many different ways.
Totally unneccesary to report such a good result this way.

I miss my grandmother, but....I am so glad she is not alive to see how disgraceful the Catholic Church has behaved with the whole clergy sex abuse issue....
Shameful!

I've been on this blog blasting away at the intolerance of the Catholic Church regarding Gay Marriage, the Churches involvement in Politics and supporting right wing right to lifers while giving no credence to progressive policies of helping the poor and the effectiveness of contraception in "minimizing abortions". But I'm starting to get annoyed with the blanket Catholic Bashers... 15.1 Million isn't alot of money. The vast majority of the Arch Diocese work is in helping the poor and unlike Cardinal Law, Cardinal Omalley seems like a fair minded righteous guy. Let's be selective when confronting the Church. Omalley done a good job with a very bad hand that was dealth to him when he became Arch Bishop.

Disgusted/John Deschanes -

Do either of you really believe that if Catholics went to Church and contributed as they should do the Churches would be closing? 10% weekly attendance and still they identify themselves as Catholic? Why bother? The Church is struggling because people have checked out. It is really simple math.

Hey Biggest Lie - God is not a free ATM, fyi...

15 million over the course of one year is--underwhelming, to put it charitably. That is $7.50 per baptized Catholic, $50 per practicing Catholic, and $316 per giver to the appeal. That's a couple of tickets to a Patriots' game. Harvard and BC shoot for a billion in their fund drives. In other denominations or religions, one person would write out the check for the 15 mil. Catholics in general, and especially northeast Catholics are notoriously frugal in their giving patterns.

One minor correction. I believe Bishop Lennon changed the name to the Catholic Appeal since for the reasons you mentioned, and, I assume, because there was no Cardinal after Cardinal Law resigned.

since the abuse, the only way they have been "recovering" is by closing schools, they are nothing more than corporate america at its "finest"

Are they going to use some of the 15.1M to help keep these schools open...what the hell??? where is the money going?

Will, read their financial statements if you want to know where the money is going: http://www.rcab.org/Finance/HomePage.html

God started to heal the church some years ago when they repented of the abuse crisis. He started with the hearts of ALL his people within the church, purifying us through pain. Now God's making a marvelous material provision and changing their circumstances for the better. Thank you Lord for putting men you can trust at the helm of the Boston archdiocese. To our Savior and Lord be the glory!

One of the directors of the Catholic Appeal is one of the richest people in NE, as well as the owner of several triving businesses. I am counting on him to give a ittle extra, so some of us less fortunate poor souls don' t have to go without bread.

KJR:
Unfortunately, a lot of Catholics have checked out because they feel betrayed with the way the scandal was handled and the lack of compassion that they saw being demonstrated not only to the victims but the entire population of Catholics. This stuff had been going on for generations and people are very hurt by this. I was really hoping for better leadership when this scandal broke but they really missed an opportunity with this one. New religions are forming because of this and the Catholics will continue to lose membership to them if they are not careful.

I disagree that church attendance is a better indication of active catholics. Many catholics, like myself, have not changed their beliefs since the crisis, and pray just as much. But, we are not interested in returning to the physical churches.

Disgusted Catholic - there has been scandal in the Church since Judas betrayed Christ and Peter denied Christ. There will always be scandal in this Church as any Church, because the Church is made of of sinful men and women.

However, it is very sad that people are so affected by this (horrible) series of events that their FAITH in Church teaching cannot be distinguished by from the sinfulness of its members, including the hierarchy. The Catholic Church is the Church that Christ established when he handed Peter the "Keys to the Kingdom" and authorized him to "bind and loose" on earth. That is biblical fact. It is sad that people are willing to entertain heretical teaching based on other "religions" self-interpretation of scripture, the result of which have led to 25,000 Christian Churches which can't even decide about whether one can lose salvation (which is a pretty important topic.).

Being an "active" Catholic who attends Mass regularly and gets involved in the parish is important, because in the parish you can receive support from fellow Christians, and also hear the Word of God and receive Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.

This is no surprise to me. The rich see the church as a good deal. It is better than a PAC (political action committee). It is a great quid pro quo. The church gets the money and doesn't have to pay taxes and only has to support the party that keeps the donor's taxes low. And, unlike other political donations, one can write if off on their taxes. So what if this requires the support of continuous wars, the death penalty, the continuation of ownership of assault rifles by the mentally deficient, and the taxing of the poor to bail out the rich....what the heck?

I someone thinks I am wrong, I suggest he or she take a trip to Rome with your local church and have an afternoon with a bishop. It is no lie, the Bishop was mid sentence when he noticed a richer person enter the room and ran off the kiss her behind where he stayed the rest of the event.

This all keeps him in $600 Italian made cassocks and the life in palatial surroundings. What a deal it is for everyone

Notsurprised - what you described fits what King Obama and his liberal democratic friends are doing this weekend. They are on a spare-no-expense junket paid by the taxpayers (who don't have a choice, taxes are not "donations") to pat themselves on the backs for their immoral abortion policies, soak the middle class, social indoctrination, socialism and re-distribution of wealth policies. Why didn't you mention that in your post, instead of your class-warfare tirade?

Why would anybody give to the thugs that stole St Mary's Italian Catholic Church in Salem MA from its faithful parishoners, sold it to the Salem Mission, and pocketed a cool 1.3 million bucks The church was built with the sweat of Italian immigrants. It is disgraceful that the Justice Dept has not prosecuted the Archdiocese under the RICO Act.