BY DAN
KENNEDY
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Saturday, August 09, 2003
O'Malley's mysterious signals.
Archbishop Seán O'Malley today is receiving well-deserved
credit for making a concrete (if underfunded) proposal to settle with
the victims of pedophile priests (Globe coverage
here;
Herald coverage here),
and for announcing that he'll move out of the archbishop's mansion in
Brighton.
What strikes me as a ruse, though,
is the notion that the archdiocese will not sell the chancery
property even though O'Malley will decamp for more-austere quarters
in the South End.
The Herald
quotes a "source familiar with church finances" as saying, "The
chancery is categorically not for sale." The Globe
offers, more obliquely: "O'Malley suggested he did not plan to sell
the heavily mortgaged Brighton residence, which is coveted by Boston
College, but instead would use it for church offices."
Why would O'Malley want his staff
across town, inaccessible to him? Why does he need to keep St. John's
Seminary, also located on the property, when the number of priest
candidates is way down and another, cheaper location could easily be
found?
The answers are obvious. Which is
why it makes sense -- purely as a matter of sheer speculation -- that
O'Malley is being coy in order to drive up the price. If he publicly
announced he was going to sell the property and commenced
negotiations with Boston College, then BC would hold the upper hand
in a down market.
This way, he can delay negotiations
indefinitely, and allow another potential buyer to come along and
blow him away with an offer that he can't refuse. Assuming the
settlement is behind him by then, that would mean more money for the
Church's mission -- including its extensive social-services network,
which has been badly hurt at the worst possible time by the
mind-boggling misdeeds of his predecessors, especially Cardinal
Bernard Law.
If I'm right about what O'Malley
may be thinking, then he deserves all the credit in the
world.
posted at 10:34 AM |
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Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
