Cathedral ‘cannot Meet Its Obligations’

Guam Daily Post
March 25, 2017

https://www.postguam.com/news/local/cathedral-cannot-meet-its-obligations/article_a0481558-104c-11e7-983e-13b25bb25bc4.html


The newly created Archdiocesan Receivership Committee is taking over the management of finances and assets of the Guam Catholic Church's main edifice – the Dulce Nombre de Maria Cathedral-Basilica.

The Cathedral-Basilica's finances have fallen "in such a state requiring this urgent action," said Coadjutor Archbishop Michael Byrnes.

"The Agana Cathedral-Basilica ... is under severe financial strain," Archdiocese Finance Council President Richard Untalan said during a press conference yesterday. "It cannot meet its obligations. Within the last two and a half years, it incurred a debt of $1.9 million, $800,000 of which is a refinance portion of a loan and the rest are outstanding payables."

Businesswoman and former Sen. Toni Sanford has been named chairwoman of the receivership committee. Ricardo C. Duenas and former Department of Revenue and Taxation Director Art Ilagan are the committee's members.

The receivership committee's chairwoman will have unrestricted financial, administrative and operational management powers, including: bank account signatory; hiring or firing staff and volunteers; and reconstituting or establishing finance and pastoral councils.

In the case of the Cathedral-Basilica, it has undergone financial challenges, according to Byrnes, "through no fault of ... Father Paul Gofigan."

Gofigan was named rector of the Cathedral-Basilica after Archbishop Anthony Apuron was stripped of his leadership over the archdiocese last year. Protesters against Apuron, who is facing sex-abuse allegations, have called on island Catholics to hold off on their financial support for the Cathedral-Basilica.

"Our office pledges our continuing support of rector Father Paul Gofigan and the Cathedral-Basilica," Byrnes wrote in a March 23 letter addressed to the local Catholic community. Together we can right the ship and restore the confidence of the faithful we have promised to serve."

Gofigan told media at the press conference the ARC was a "prayer that (was) answered" from when he was first assigned as the rector of the Cathedral-Basilica.

"Upon looking at the financial statement (when he was first appointed as rector), I knew right away that there was going to be problems in trying to get above water," he said. "I knew that the Basilica was deep in debt – that it was drowning."

Gofigan said he reached out to church leadership in order to seek help in getting the Cathedral-Basilica's finances in order. With the ARC now in place, Gofigan said this might be the model that other parishes follow in the days to come.

"Perhaps what's happening today is a glimpse of the changing face of parish administration in the future," he said. "I think it's important that, as a priest, we don't spend 90 percent of our time dealing with fundraisers trying to get our parishes above water. As pastors, we need to spend most of our time tending to the spiritual nourishment of our people."

Sanford told media the goal of the ARC was to "win back the trust of the people" and to develop a plan to pay back the Cathedral-Basilica's debts to the local and federal governments, as well as various vendors.

In answer to questions by the media, Gofigan reported weekly collections of the Cathedral-Basilica as currently averaging at $4,000 a week, down from $7,000 weekly when he was first assigned his new post. He said current collections were "not enough to pay our monthly obligations." Two years prior to that, when Monsignor James Benavente was rector of the Cathedral-Basilica, collections were somewhere in the area of $10,000 a week.

Despite financial difficulties at the Cathedral-Basilica, Untalan reported other parishes are stable and attributed the decline in monthly collections at Guam's "mother church" to Benavente's removal by Archbishop Anthony Apuron and "recent church divisiveness" connected to the child sex abuse scandal.

Untalan added membership on the ARC is voluntary and that the receivership does not have a time limit, but will continue to have administrative responsibility for the Cathedral-Basilica until the inflow of cash stabilizes with outflow of expenditures.