[City of St. Francis Mayor Al] Richards said any redevelopment of the property could include demolishing the aging, underused Cousins Center building, which houses the archdiocese's central offices.
Motivated seller!
The archdiocese wants to sell the Cousins Center to help pay for a multimillion-dollar settlement of clergy abuse lawsuits, and so it can move to smaller offices that are less costly to operate.
When the Cousins Center was built in the early 1960s, it housed the Archdiocese's minor seminary. "Our" Milwaukee Catholic Herald noted the Archdiocese contained as many as five minor seminaries at one time.
Update: Everything must go!
In the following Sunday's homily, our pastor said that parishes are being allowed to remove items from the Cousins Center for re-use. The bell tower, he said, is being re-located. He has his eye on some stained glass windows for possible future use at St. Al's. This should put to rest the stereotypes that the threat of stained glass windows at a self-styled progressive parish would have the members of the Liturgy Committee spinning in their graves.
I wonder if the rummage sale includes the life-size bronze bust of Archbishop Weakland. As far as I know, our Archdiocese did not take up my earlier suggestion that it be beaten into ploughshares. That might now be a good fundraiser for the Capital Campaign at, say, $100 a hammer blow, but there could be some concern that not everyone would partake in the spirit of light-hearted fun. As an alternative, the bust could be sliced in half and used as bookends for a parish library's collection of the works of Fr. Bernard Lonergan, S.J..
So, while the Cousins Center is about to be sold, Archbishop Dolan is embarking on a "Faith in Our Future" campaign to raise $105 million.....for the charitable and educational work of the diocese? :-) Does Dolan know whose money paid for the Cousins Center in the first place?
ReplyDeleteDoes that mean +Rembert will have to find a new home...?
ReplyDeleteGive me 20 minutes to get a 50-lb. sledge from Home Despot and I'll be there!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, I'm sure he does, but our leaders sometimes get so caught up in telling us that the money goes into different pockets that they forget it comes out of the same ones. Hence the magical thinking about distinguishing capital and operating budgets.
ReplyDeleteGor, I assume he has or will.
Dad, your enthusiasm bodes well for the Capital Campaign. But why buy retail? Surely many parishes have leftover sledges from renovation projects. Just wipe off the altar, communion rail, or statue dust and you're good to go.