Home Fit for an Archbishop ; $1.1 Million House Is at Assumption Seminary

National Catholic Reporter
August 4, 2014

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/religion/article/Home-fit-for-an-archbishop-1-1-million-house-5667128.php

painter.jpg FOR METRO - A painter works by one of the chapel's windows as construction continues at the Good Shepherd Center, future home of Archbishop Jose Gomez, Tuesday, June 2, 2009. JERRY LARA/glara@express-news.net Photo: JERRY LARA, SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS / glara@express-news.net Photo By JERRY LARA/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS FOR METRO - A painter works by one of the chapel's windows as construction continues at the Good Shepherd Center, future home of Archbishop Jose Gomez, Tuesday, June 2, 2009. JERRY LARA/glara@express-news.net

Center.jpg A view of the Good Shepherd Center, future home of Archbishop Jose Gomez, Wednesday, June 3, 2009. JERRY LARA/glara@express-news.net

Editor's note: This article was originally published on June 4, 2009.

For about 30 years, home to three San Antonio archbishops has been an 800-square-foot apartment above administrative offices at Assumption Seminary.

By late summer, the doors will open on a new $1.1 million house for Archbishop Jose Gomez on the same seminary campus. Called the Good Shepherd Center, the 5,000-square-foot building will be paid for by private donations, San Antonio archdiocese officials said.

Donors described it as a long-awaited upgrade for Gomez and his successors, a reward for his long hours and a tool for future fundraising and improved hospitality of religious and civic dignitaries.

Its construction comes as the archdiocese slashes costs to make up a $1.5 million shortfall this year and has fueled criticism that donations for the new home should have gone to save jobs. At least 11 full-time employees will be laid off by July 1.

Archdiocesan officials said the construction's timing is unfortunate but stressed the home is a separate project funded privately and initiated before the economic meltdown last fall and after they had signed off on construction contracts.

"I haven't been able to have a good night's sleep since starting this process" of budget cuts, Gomez said Wednesday. "I know how difficult it is for people to lose their jobs. I tried to do all I could. (But) the donors decided to make a contribution for this specific project."

The new home, he said, will match other dioceses that provide comparable accommodations for bishops.

It has a master bedroom for Gomez connected to a two-car garage and a separate study room. There are two guest rooms and a chapel that opens to a living room with a fireplace and wet bar. The kitchen and dining room can accommodate up to 25 guests. An outdoor courtyard with a small fountain is planned in the center of the home.

$300,000 more

The cost was kept down by building on the archdiocese's West Side campus, officials said. The house was budgeted to cost about $800,000 but foundation work to mitigate drainage problems on the site bumped it up to $1.1 million. Landscaping and some furnishings have not yet been funded. Gomez, who travels constantly and works hard, deserves the new home, donors said.

"The time this man spends on ministry is enormous. You're going to burn someone out if you don't give them a place like this, " said Harry Flavin, a major Catholic donor.

The campaign to raise money for the house was not publicized, in contrast to the high-profile fundraising drives for such projects as San Fernando Cathedral's renovation.

It started in spring 2008 with solitications to established Catholic donors and was led by Gomez and Ed Benninger, former Valero Energy president.

While Gomez was helping raise money for the house, the archdiocese was conducting two other major fund drives - for the missions and the annual Archbishop's Appeal, which provides money for Catholic services to the community.

The archdiocese requires all of its 139 parishes to give it 2 percent to 12 percent of their total collections.

As disappointed as he was to lay off employees, Gomez said it would have been difficult to mount a fundraising drive to save the jobs. Twice he told department heads to cut operational costs, but that wasn't enough to meet the shortfall.

Three archdiocesan staffers who will be let go by July 1 declined to comment publicly, citing the potential to jeopardize their job search.

One former 20-year employee - Judy Cervera, who retired in February 2008 - said it was clear back then that the archdiocese was facing financial stress, even before the national economy began to falter last fall.

Gomez should have stayed longer in the seminary apartment like his predecessors, said Cervera, who was advertising manager for the archdiocese's newspaper.

"I don't care if it was private money. People are losing their jobs, " she said. "Why didn't they raise money to help these people stay in their jobs? What happened to social justice here? They love to preach it, but they don't practice it."

Not the first home

San Antonio archbishops lived in off-campus houses - a Monte Vista mansion and later a house in Hollywood Park - until the late 1970s, when former Archbishop Francis Furey first moved into the seminary's second-floor unit.

The apartment is across the hall from a kitchen, dining room and lounge where Furey and his successor, former Archbishop Patrick Flores, entertained guests. Flores happily lived there for his entire 25-year tenure, and when Gomez arrived, moved into a retirement home for priests. The new home, Gomez said, will free up space for use by the seminary, which is critical to support its growth and in turn providing priests for parishes under his care.

For many years, the seminary enrollment was small - between 30 and 50 - and the apartment wasn't needed for faculty, seminary rector Father Larry Christian said. But in the past two years, enrollment has jumped above 90, and faculty housing is becoming scarce.

An archbishop's house originally was included in the seminary's $13 million capital campaign completed two years ago. But the cost to build the 80-room dorm, called Flores Residence Hall, escalated to the point the house was cut out.

"The future of this archdiocese is a lot better now. It's time the archbishop's home moved into the 21st century, " said Benninger, who gave $1.1 million for Flores hall. The chapel there bears his family name.