LUZERNE
and LACKAWANNA COUNTIES- Raw
emotions linger two weeks after Scranton Catholic leaders announced a load of
changes.
School closings proved to be the big story. Catholics
continue to cry foul over how that news was delivered. Promises
of backlash persist. Many
told us they had it up to here and would boycott donations to their parishes.
The
I-Team takes a before-and-after look at church offertories. Did
Sunday collections suffer, enough to even be noticed?
Anger
erupted after Bishop Joseph Martino's televised news conference announced a
list of schools would be no more after June, 2007. Hazleton
area parishioner Tom Yale threatened “we'll get rid of all those contributions
you got down there.”
Emotions
have cooled a bit, nevertheless, a number of financial threats were made,
including the boycott of collections and other church capital campaigns. So
about two weeks ago, the I-Team deployed people to collect church bulletins. Parishes
routinely print results from collections. We
took bulletins from two consecutive weekends to have a look at individual
church finances.
In
Pittston, right next door to soon-to-be extinct Seton Catholic, Saint John
the Evangelist Parish collected $7,264 before the announcement. A week later,
the church saw a 16-percent slip in donations.
Coincidence? I-team sources
suggest it's directly related to the Catholic schools snafu.
In
the Conyngham Valley,
Saint John Bosco parish saw a loss. That
parish's bulletins reported a 12-percent drop: the collection was down $956. Its
sister parish, Good Shepherd, in Butler Township,
reported donations were down by nearly a quarter. Dave
Pedri, a Bishop Hafey alum, told WBRE news last month “the bishop has
effectively turned his back on catholic education.” It’s feelings like that
fueling much of the reaction.
The
I-Team continued its dual-week investigation.
At
Saint Anthony parish in Dunmore,
collections weren't affected with results from bulletins showing only a minimal
loss.
At
Saint Therese parish in Shavertown, donations were on the rise, there was a five
percent gain in reported figures from parish bulletins.
The
story was much the same at Holy Rosary in Hazleton.
The collection was up seven percent.
Sources
tell the I-Team there's no science to determining the habit of giving. There's
really no rule for accounting losses or gains based on such circumstances. Diocesan
Spokesman Bill Genello told us at last month’s news conference, “they're not
hurting the diocese per se, but are hurting the individuals and families who
rely on these programs.”
