This is one of those I was looking for something else and found
this instead kind of thing.
I was looking for the possible digital archives of the defunct
Catholic Standard and Times for reference to articles of Msgr. Hawks of Saint
Joan of Arc Parish in Harrowgate Philadelphia, its doors recently locked under
the new Denver bean counter regime of Charles Chaput.
I also found the beginnings of a story about the Standard and
Times announced shutting down, getting the axe for budgetary reasons and that
40 employees would lose their Jobs. As far as I can see about 25 full time
employees got the sack.
Being a tax free religious institution, the Archdiocese,
employer at the Standard and Times is not liable to pay unemployment
compensation to the 25 canned employees. There were also 20 freelance employees who more or less I would assume
were self-employed contractors.
Through the transition, the old General Manager of the Standard
is Matthew Gambino who probably handed out the pink slips and a holy card to
departing fellow employees when the Standard was more or less put on line under
the Catholic Philly site label.
Have seen a few headlines of Matthew Gambino who now is the
Philly Archdiocese equivalent of one man with a computer a la Bill Donohue over
at the Catholic League who being the PR man and gatekeeper to the Archdiocese of
NYC.
And not to forget Gambino's many many articles at National Catholic Reporter and
Catholic News Service.
Here is a sample of Matthew Gambino’s writing style and bedside
manner that no doubt was one reason for the demise of the Catholic Standard and
Times in Philly.
A candidate for the Knight of Saint Gregory for his writing
skills or merely keeping the secrets of the Devil’s Tower at 222 N 17 th
Street, in his corner office, one or several floors below the Cardinal’s
Penthouse Executive Suite on the top 13 th floor?
Well to get to the point, apparently the Archdiocese does expose
or disclose what it calls a financial disclosure statement that admits to
spending close to six million dollars on the Child Abuse Trial of Monsignor
William Lynn in the following article.
The supplemental report indicates $534,000 was spent investigating the fraudulent actions of former archdiocesan CEO Anita Guzzardi, convicted in 2012 and currently serving a two-to-seven year sentence; $4.6 million spent on an investigation related to scores of archdiocesan priests placed on administrative leave from their duties as a result of the second Philadelphia Grand Jury on clergy sexual abuse; and $6.7 million spent on the criminal trial of a priest, and an independent legal and financial review of archdiocesan operations.
Of course, none of this keeps any of the inner city churches of
Harrowgate or Frankford in Philly open. Those closings were not financial as they were more due to
attendance and probably more so than that to the fact of the lack of priests to go around.
Whatever.
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