Roman Catholic Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Audit: W.Va. Catholic Church Claimed $2 Million in Federal Small Business Relief Funds

The Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston received an almost $2 million loan from federal COVID-19 relief, according to an audit released Friday.

As the church faced a considerable revenue decline due to the pandemic and corresponding economic recession, it applied for a federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan in April and secured $1,996,372 through the program.

“There was no reason for our church employees, who pay taxes, to lose their jobs and possibly their homes when the government was making funds available precisely to keep people at work,” wrote Bishop Mark Brennan in a letter released with the audit Friday.

The funds were used to pay employee salaries and healthcare, according to accompanying documents. PPP loans are eligible for forgiveness if used for payroll and other select expenses, and the diocese plans to apply for forgiveness from the federal government.

While many dioceses rely on local parish contributions to fund operations, the West Virginia diocese relies on stock investment and mineral rights. Brennan wrote that the diocesan financial portfolio took a significant hit in the early months of the pandemic as both the stock market and oil prices declined.

As a result, the diocese cut staffing costs through early retirement options and attrition, restructured the diocesan health care plan, and permanently closed pastoral centers in Huttonsville and Kearneysville, leaving just the Charleston center open.

Brennan wrote that the diocese does not plan to apply for the second round of PPP funding under the latest federal relief bill passed in December.

“Some parishes, schools and Catholic charities do need that help, however, and the diocese will help those who qualify apply for it,” he wrote.

While the church received $2 million in federal relief it likely won’t have to repay, it finished the fiscal year 2020 with assets totaling $205 million in the form of cash, securities and mineral rights, according to the audit.

This was down from $223 million in total assets in 2019. The audit found that the diocese aims to draw only 5% of total assets annually but from 2019 to 2020 drew down around 8%.

An Associated Press investigation of the PPP published earlier this week found the Roman Catholic church nationwide received upwards of $3 billion while sitting on over $10 billion in cash, making it perhaps the largest single beneficiary of the program intended to provide loans to small businesses

In the past fiscal year, the diocese continued to untangle the financial and sexual scandals of the former bishop Michael Bramsfield.

The controversial Bishop’s Fund, a $17 million non-profit created by the former bishop to funnel money into projects around the state, was dissolved in early 2020 and the proceeds were used to formally separate the Wheeling hospital from the diocese.

As Pope Francis forbid Bramsfield from residing again in the state, the diocese also sold the former bishop’s residence for $1.2 million and canceled the lease on his Wheeling retirement home. Combine with $441,000 the disgraced bishop paid in restitution, a $1.6 million account was created for outreach to victims of sexual assault and abuse.

“Money cannot heal emotional and religious wounds, however, so we must keep praying and reaching out to victims and others affected by sexual harassment and abuse,” wrote Brennan.

Oil and gas royalties are a primary source of liquidity for the diocese, according to the audit. Mineral rights owned by the diocese on oil and gas in Texas, lost $3.2 million in 2020 and an additional $6.4 million in 2019.

“The current international energy environment enhances the volatility of the oil and gas industry,” Auditors wrote. “Changes in this environment could also have a significant impact on both the value of the assets recorded and the oil and gas royalties received.”

During a conversation on the economy and climate change with community leaders and Sen. Joe Manchin (R-W.Va.) in December of last year, Brennan said the diocese was considering divesting in oil and gas companies and was critically examining its mineral rights assets.

He expressed concern over climate change and the economic stability of these assets.

“To immediately let go of our ownership of the land that produces the gas and oil that sustains many of our parishes and schools and other agencies, that’s not going to happen tomorrow,” Brennan said. “But we are going to take a real look at it.”

Grassroots Pastoral Letter from Appalachian Catholics Calls for the Telling of New Stories

The Catholic Committee of Appalachia just published a pastoral letter. It’s the third of its kind. Forty years ago the first was written and acclaimed as “one of the most significant statements to emerge from the U.S. Catholic Church,” according to the West Virginia Encyclopedia.

The Magisterium of the Poor and of the Earth

“When the story of these mountains as “resource”

takes over the story of the mountains as “home,”

we become homeless in our own place,

and disconnected from Earth and one another.”

These are some of the opening lines from the new pastoral letter released from the Catholic Committee of Appalachia: The Telling Takes Us Home: Taking Our Place in the Stories That Shape Us. The Committee is a network of faith-based people who are focused on addressing social justice issues in Appalachia.

“The Pastoral itself is a telling of the people of Appalachia in all of our diversity,” said lead author of the letter, Michael Iafrate — a Wheeling resident completing a doctorate in theology. “It’s the telling of the church at the grassroots that’s committed to justice, which is often a contrary voice in larger church context.”

Committee members organized listening sessions with religious and nonreligious alike over a four-year period. Their listening sessions especially targeted marginalized groups like women, miners, the homeless and imprisoned, people of color, and folks with a variety of sexual orientations.

The resulting missive is 60 pages (74 if you include the notes) written in an open-verse poetic form, studded with Parkersburg-native Christopher Santer’s paintings of mountains that have been surface-mined. Iafrate says themes of the open letter are similar to many recent messages from Pope Francis. The pontif has been preaching about moral obligations to care for the earth and the wisdom to be learned on that subject from marginalized populations most affected by ecological devastation.

From the People of God

“I remember how significant the first pastoral was, and this is like the first one,” said Jaculyn Hanrahan, a lawyer and a Catholic nun from the Congregation of Notre Dame. Hanrahan is also the director of the Appalachian Faith and Ecology Center and has been a member of the Catholic Committee of Appalachia since 1982. On a steering committee for this pastoral, she says the letter came from a need to give people hope and spread a message of inclusivity.

The first and second people’s pastorals were endorsed by Catholic bishops but this most recent letter comes without endorsement from any church hierarchy.

“This time we just felt we wouldn’t get [endorsements], to be honest,” Hanrahan said, “because some [bishops] had already told us that they wouldn’t have signed the first one.”

Hanrahan does credit many of the southern bishops in Appalachia for helping to fund this latest pastoral, but after some thought the committee decided no endorsements were really necessary.

“We are the people of God, and we have this authority,” Hanrahan said, quoting this passage from the pastoral letter:

By lifting up the authority of these stories, we Christians at the grassroots hope to contribute to the growing movement that is telling a new story about our region. This is a pastoral message from the people themselves to our region, to the world, and to the churches, leaders and laity alike.

“And we’re accepting the freedom that we have as people,” Hanrahan added, “to name a truth that sometimes those in authority aren’t free to name.”

Stories of Justice Beyond Faith Boundaries

“So we’re really hoping for a grassroots, viral spreading of this message with all sorts of groups, not just Catholic but even beyond people of faith,” said lead author Michael Iafrate. He calls the letter an ecumenical gift-exchange in the work for social justice. But nonreligious folks also reviewed the pastoral before publication.

“And many said they were able to find their voice in the document as well which was really important to all of us — that the document could be something that could help build bridges for the work of justice.”

Iafrate says lots of different people are trying to tell a new story of what it means to be Appalachian these days. He says the pastoral is a way for people of faith to join that chorus.

Wood County Teacher Seeks Ok to Wear Religious Habit in Class

A Roman Catholic priest who also is a teacher has asked school officials to allow him to wear his religious habit in the classroom.

The Rev. George Nedeff is a member of the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity. He recently was hired as a substitute teacher in Wood County, West Virginia.

The 75-year-old Nedeff tells the Parkersburg News and Sentinel that he believes students might benefit by having a priest in their schools.

Schools Superintendent John Flint says school officials respect Nedeff’s request. But a decision hasn’t been made.

West Virginia Department of Education spokeswoman Kristin Anderson says state law doesn’t specifically prohibit or allow the wearing of religious vestments in the classroom. She says federal law provides conflicting guidance.