Meeting with Don Carson, Director of Communications & Public Relations for the Diocese of Birmingham
St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church – Birmingham Diocesan Watch (BDW) met on April 11, 2022 with Donald Carson, Director of Communications & Public Relations for the Diocese of Birmingham, in lieu of a request we had made several months ago to meet with Bishop Raica. The meeting was cordial, with BDW submitting numerous questions, most receiving no clear answers, but with a promise to obtain additional information and email it to us.
Our primary questions focused on the closing of Sacred Heart School in Anniston at the end of this school year. The minutes of the College of Consultors for May 16, 2019 indicate that the school and parish were given clean bills of health and rated as good financial risks by the staff CFO, Robert Sellers:
“Financials: sale of the corner property to Burger King for 1.25 M; after paying other expenses, $867K; Building fund $152K; insurance proceeds of 500K net; Bob Sellers is working with Laura Pratt in the parish office and is comfortable with the financial situation of the parish; risk rating 2.13 (acceptable); estimated cost of the project $2.1 M with a maximum loan of $983K. There’s been no presentations to the parish regarding a capital/building fund campaign. The parish has no debt. If the parish ever decides to sell the property where the school was to be built onsite, the parish must pay the diocese $500K.”
As we understand it, any investment with a risk of 2.5 or less is considered a worthy of investment and this investment received a 2.13, and then in 2021 a 2.0. A motion to approve the plan to invest $1.3M in the church and school was unanimously approved without a single dissenting vote, as can be seen in the attached minutes. BDW asked what happened in the last six months, after two years of planning and subsequent approval by this Diocesan group that approves such matters. Don had no answers, and said that he was not familiar with the College of Consultors documents.
According to the June 10, 2021 College of Counselors minutes, Fr Mc Donald said “The school is doing well. The parish has consistent financial support.”
The link to these documents, available to the public through Tuesday April 14, 2022, was then suddenly eliminated.
We drew attention to the fact that in the December 3, 2020 minutes, Diocesan General Counsel John Whittaker had stated that planning and savings need to be made for future legal action.:
“If there is a large judgement against the diocese, parish, etc., lawyers will look for as much money as they can and now, if this scenario did occur, it could bankrupt the diocese.”
What sort of legal action was the Diocese anticipating? Was it the purpose of the Diocese to sell the Anniston assets to build a war chest to pay legal counsel for the defense against other prosecutions? Once again, Mr. Carson was not familiar with the 2019 College of Consultors minutes, so could not comment, but he did promise BDW to investigate and get back to us shortly with the answers.
We left the meeting with an open-door agreement to keep communication flowing smoothly. The ball is in the Diocesan court now to answer these and other questions openly and accurately. These answers will be posted on the BDW site if and when we receive them.
Birmingham Diocese College of Consultors Minutes May 16, 2019:
Bham-Diocese-College-of-Consultors-Minutes-May-16-2019Birmingham Diocese College of Consultors Minutes December 3, 2020:
December-3-2020-College-of-Consultors-Meeting-Minutes-pgs-1-and-2Birmingham Diocese College of Consultors Minutes June 10, 2021:
College-of-Consultors-Meeting-Minutes-June-10-2021