With $300 Million in Real Estate, Allentown Diocese Has No Excuse to Cry Financial Distress
By Paul Muschick
I hope Catholics didn’t buy the Allentown Diocese’s story this summer that it had to cut jobs so it could pay victims of priest sex abuse. It was common knowledge that the diocese was flush with real estate — some in prime locations for development. A Morning Call investigation published online this week revealed just how flush the diocese is. It controls more than $300 million worth of property on more than 1,200 acres in Lehigh and Northampton counties. And little of that property has been tapped to raise cash for its victims compensation fund. That figure doesn’t include more real estate in Berks, Carbon and Schuylkill counties. I argued in July when the diocese claimed “severe financial stress" that it could sell more of its assets instead of creating new victims, diocese employees. Twenty-three workers were let go, many through attrition and a voluntary retirement program, and pay was frozen for others. The diocese said in a news release then that “cost reductions were necessary to enable charitable and pastoral programs to continue.” I’ll argue that was preventable. The release of a grand jury report in August 2018 should have expedited property sales. The report detailed sexual abuse accusations against 301 priests statewide. They had abused more than 1,000 children over several decades. The report named 37 priests from the Allentown Diocese, and the diocese itself added another 19 names. The diocese had to know it was going to have to pay a price for its sins of the past. It could have sold real estate and stocked money away sooner. It didn’t have to wait for the grand jury to conclude its investigation, which took two years. All signs pointed to it being damning. Morning Call investigative reporter Emily Opilo reported this week that in the past year, the diocese has sold four properties, for a total of about $1.65 million, across the five counties it covers. A fifth sale is pending. The diocese told her it intends to sell more to raise millions for the compensation fund. I recognize it takes time to sell real estate. But other dioceses were more proactive. The Philadelphia Archdiocese sold its 16-room, 23,350-square-foot bishop’s mansion to St. Joseph’s University for $10 million in 2012, following a grand jury investigation that prompted criminal charges against a church official and priests. Allentown Bishop Alfred Schlert, as previous bishops did, lives in an 11-room, five-bathroom home on Chew Street in the city’s West End. The 5,000-square-foot brick Tudor Revival is assessed at $487,000, according to Lehigh County records, and valued at around $580,000. Last spring, the diocese transferred that property for $1 to the Allentown Diocesan Priests Retirement Plan Trust. The trust leases the property back to the diocese, generating income for the plan. That’s an example of the church taking care of its own. It should have been just as focused on taking care of others. Morning Call columnist Paul Muschick can be reached at 610-820-6582 or paul.muschick@mcall.com
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