[StBernard] The archdiocese wants to divert federal funds earmarked for urban churches to suburban parishes

[Westley Annis]

The archdiocese wants to divert federal funds earmarked for urban churches
to suburban parishes
by Bruce Nolan
and Kia Hayes, The Times-Picayune 
Wednesday June 03, 2009, 9:56 PM
The Archdiocese of New Orleans has asked FEMA's permission to take $10.7
million in federal compensation earmarked for damaged schools it will not
repair in two relatively poor New Orleans neighborhoods and divert it to
school construction in Chalmette and Mandeville instead.

It's either that, or lose the money entirely, the archdiocese said.

But the request, which New Orleans parishioners recently noticed in a dense
Federal Emergency Management Agency legal notice soliciting public comment,
has angered scores of Catholic families, especially in the former Epiphany
of Our Lord parish, which had qualified for $8.3 million in FEMA
reimbursement.

An 11-day public comment window ending May 15 drew about 50 responses -- all
in opposition, FEMA spokesman Andrew Thomas said.

Archdiocese spokeswoman Sarah Comiskey said the church has no plans to
redevelop the vacant Epiphany school and gym in the heart of the 7th Ward,
or a school community center and food pantry at St. Philip the Apostle
parish near the old Desire public housing development.

She said that absent any plans for the damaged buildings, the best
alternative is to redirect the money to Catholic schools elsewhere, rather
than forfeit it under FEMA rules.

This case involves $8.33 million the government calculated it owed for the
repair or reconstruction of the school and gymnasium at Epiphany parish; and
$2.34 million in compensation for damage at St. Philip the Apostle.

The archdiocese has asked to divert $5.33 million of the Epiphany money to
build a new school wing at Mary Queen of Peace Parish in Mandeville,
according to FEMA. The church also has asked to reapply another $3 million
from Epiphany, combined with the $2.34 million from St. Philip, toward new
school construction at Our Lady of Prompt Succor in Chalmette.

Jan Lancaster, principal of Mary Queen of Peace in Mandeville, said her
school's population has "at least doubled" since Katrina to about 560
students next year.

The FEMA money would replace a modular classroom building. "You're kind of
limited in how long you can keep your modulars and we're at the end of that,
" Assistant Principal Susan Perry said.

In Chalmette, Prompt Succor is the last of what were four St. Bernard
Catholic schools before the storm.

Neither Epiphany nor St. Philip exists any longer; both served relatively
small communities that lost members to Hurricane Katrina. Since the storm,
each has merged with a healthier nearby parish, as part of a consolidation
plan crafted by archdiocese officials.

Parishioners say that during the merger process they were explicitly
promised that the value of the physical assets in their former parishes
would follow them into the treasuries of their new parishes.

But Comiskey said that promise applied to insurance proceeds, rents,
property sales and other funds.

"FEMA money is in a different category, " she said. "FEMA is money for which
the archdiocese as a whole is eligible . . . to make the archdiocese as
whole as it can be in the current state. This money can now be used to
benefit the greater good."

Moreover, she said the church occasionally has sent FEMA in the other
direction: She said the archdiocese has also asked that $19.3 million in
FEMA compensation due to three closed Catholic schools in St. Bernard Parish
be diverted to projects in New Orleans: at Cathedral Academy, St. Leo the
Great, St. Peter Claver, St. Rita and St. Stephen schools.

All of that was news to Demetric Mercadel, an Entergy executive and head of
the newly merged Corpus Christi/Epiphany Parish Council.

Working only with what they know from FEMA, parish leaders and rank-and-file
members feel betrayed and angry, she said.

"They were never upfront with us, " she said of the archdiocese. "Not one
time did they treat us like civil human beings and explain any of this to
us. Instead they play this shell game with our money."

Mercadel said many parishioners believe the archdiocese has broken faith
with them and violated their legacy of work and contributions to their
parishes.

In the case of Ephipany, that would mean more than preserving merely old
investments of cash.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, when the parish was building its first
church, rectory, classrooms and gymnasium, the skilled tradesmen of Epiphany
parish built its buildings with their own hands, without contractors,
parishioner Calvin Moret said.

"My hands mixed mortar. My hands carried bricks. My hands carried stones. My
hands carried lumber for construction from day one of Epiphany, " said
Moret, 83, a commercial printer by trade and a charter Epiphany parishioner.

"He's robbing us, " Moret said of Archbishop Alfred Hughes. "I won't even
say stealing. Stealing comes in when you do something behind somebody's
back, but this is right up front -- he's robbing Epiphany to give to St.
Bernard Parish and Mandeville the things they'd like to have."

But Comiskey said some benefit may ultimately come to the New Orleans
parishes.

She said using FEMA money to support construction in Mandeville and
Chalmette frees the archdiocese's own resources for projects elsewhere,
perhaps in the former Epiphany and St. Philip parishes.

. . . . . . .

Bruce Nolan can be reached at bnolan at timespicayune.com or 504.826.3344. Kia
Hall Hayes can be reached at khayes at timespicayune.com or 985.645.2848