Time winds down for Catholic parishes to buy churches
With a few weeks to go before the tender bids are due for Catholic church properties in the Archdiocese of St. John’s, pledge drives and Gofundme campaigns are ramping up as parishes try to put themselves over the finish line.
“It’s going fairly well,” said Rick Power, chairman of the finance committee at St. Teresa’s Church in St. John’s.
But outside interests could also bid on the site, which overlooks Mundy Pond in central St. John’s.
There’s no guarantee parishes will win. Parishes within the archdiocese are scrambling to save their churches, named with various other properties on a tender list as part of the insolvency of the Episcopal Corp. of St. John’s, the corporate arm of the church.
It’s the result of the archdiocese losing its fight against compensating victims of abuse at the former Mount Cashel orphanage from the 1940s to ’60s era.
The church had claimed the lay order Christian Brothers — which ran the orphanage — was independent. and therefore solely responsible for the sexual abuse of the boys by certain members of the Irish Christian Brothers. But the archdiocese was held vicariously liable by the Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court of Appeal..
Open any parish website these days and you’ll see something like this: “URGENT: Appeal for pledges to save St. Teresa’s parish, 2022,” followed by a link to a pledge sheet.
“We must keep our weekly collections high enough to continue to pay our monthly expenses. Thank you for increasing your weekly giving. You give us courage. With 15 per cent of our bid, a tender proposal must be submitted to the trustee’s office in Halifax by noon on June 2, 2022,” reads the appeal.
“The proposals will be opened that afternoon at 2 p.m. We should know if we are successful by June 16, 2022. At that time, we must have the total amount for our bid or lose the 15 per cent down payment. A mortgage is highly unlikely.”
Power has attended St Teresa’s pretty much all his life. Like any other church for the faithful, it’s the place that has marked all the milestones of life — marriages, baptisms and funerals.
“We’ll have to see where it goes. Nobody knows how it is going to end,” Power said.
“If we collect what we think is reasonable, then our committee will go to the parishioners and get their blessing. And if we’re successful, then we have the church.”
The volunteer committee, and the parishioners, are nervous, he said.
“There’s really a lot of work being put into it,” Power said.
“It’s an emotional state for everybody.”
Ron Ellsworth, a real estate agent, (as well as a St. John’s councillor at large) has sold some residential properties for the church.
Some vacant land in the tender process will appeal to developers, but Ellsworth said he doesn’t expect much in the way of an upset on properties containing church structures when the successful tender bids are announced.
“I’d be shocked if there are major surprises for any of the parishes, to be honest,” he said.
Many of the properties are zoned institutional and, unlike a real estate sale, there’s no option in the tender process for a condition of rezoning, he noted.
He also noted there could be environmental issues for some of the properties, and the high cost of repurposing some of the buildings will be a daunting task.
Corpus Christi is in a flood zone, as is its parking lot across the street.
And in small towns, it’s likely local businesses might be reluctant to buy out from under the church, Ellsworth said.
Geoff Budden, the lead lawyer for the victims — he successfully won the case after more than two decades of working on it — said it’s hoped there will be an interim distribution to claimants by the end of 2022.
“That is our goal,” he said. The claim adjudication process is still being worked on and that will be finalized over the summer and into the fall.
Victims continue to come forward.
As for the parishes, Budden noted the process gave them several months this year, and all of 2021 (since the Supreme Court of Canada declined to give leave to hear the archdiocese’s appeal).
“It’s been pretty clear since then, if not even before then, this was the way things were going to unfold,” he said.
On Tuesday, the Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court ruled on a request from the RC Episcopal Corp. to convert the insolvency to the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act rather than the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. That loosens the timeline restrictions.
It takes effect May 17. The victims’ legal team had opposed it, arguing it was premature and that it would increase costs, thereby diminishing the funds available to distribute to them.
Budden said the court’s Tuesday decision — released publicly Wednesday — shouldn’t have a great impact on the timeline for the survivors, however.
Ernst and Young will continue to oversee the process.