NEW JERSEY
The Record
MAY 26, 2014
BY JEFF GREEN
STAFF WRITER
THE RECORD
MAHWAH – After urging people during a Memorial Day Mass to sacrifice for the poor, assistant Archbishop Bernard A. Hebda of Newark said the church needs to reevaluate its spending amid a controversy over lavish upgrades to the retirement home of the prelate he stands to succeed.
The archdiocese has been besieged by criticism, some of it directed at Hebda, for a $500,000 expansion under way at the 8.2-acre property in rural Hunterdon County used by Archbishop John J. Myers. The 4,500-square-foot house is getting a 3,000-square-foot addition complete with fireplaces, a “therapeutic whirlpool” and a second office.
While Hebda did not directly criticize Myers or the use of church money for the archbishop’s personal residence, he said in an interview that Myers and the archdiocese must pay close attention to the words of Pope Francis, who has over the past year used the world stage to focus on the suffering and the impoverished. Asked if Myers needed all the new amenities, Hebda said, “Clearly, all of us have to hear what the Holy Father is saying – that’s not just for priests and bishops, either. It’s for all of us.
“We have to find those ways of being really faithful to the Gospel and figuring out what it is that we need,” he said. “Not always what we want, but what it is that we need.”
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