NEW JERSEY
The Raw Story
By Jonathan Allen
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The Roman Catholic archbishop of Newark, New Jersey, is facing mounting criticism over his plan to spend $500,000, mostly from the sale of church assets, on a extension to a countryside house where he will soon spend his retirement.
Some local Catholics are refusing to contribute to church collections in protest at Archbishop John Myers’ planned 3,000-square-foot (280-square-meter) extension, saying he is failing to follow the austerity of both Pope Francis and Jesus Christ.
“It’s vulgar … The church is changing around him,” said Kevin Davitt, a parishioner at St Catharine’s Church in Glen Rock who has stopped donating to church appeals.
“He loves the pomp and circumstance, he loves the robes. That’s his world. There’s an obvious tone-deafness about him,” said Davitt in a telephone interview.
News of the three-story extension has consumed worshippers in the archdiocese since the plans were first reported by the Newark Star-Ledger two weeks ago. The building will include a library, an indoor exercise pool and what the newspaper described as a hot tub.
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