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I was a member of St. Francis de Sales Church before Fr. Murr was made pastor. It followed Jesus' call to feed the poor, house the homeless, opened its doors to everyone in need. Fr. Murr, as I was told, closed down the homeless shelter (which was in the basement of the school), closed the soup kitchen, stopped the Weekend Meals Program (which delivered meals for Sat/Sun to homebound seniors, those disabled with mental and physical problems and people with AIDS), we supplied grocery bags for people in the neighborhood who were without food for reasons we didn't go into (how can you look an 87 year old woman in the face and tell her there is no food to tide her over until her social security check comes or a woman with two small children who wasn't able to feed them since breakfast the day before?), these are just a few things that St. Francis de Sales Church used to do BEFORE Fr. Murr. The Academy was financially separate from the Church - it was set up that way when it was established by the Christian Brothers who run the school... when St. Lucy's school was combined with St. Francis de Sales school the Christian Brothers took over leadership of the new Academy and there was much fanfare in the diocese of the great job it was doing. One of the main religion problems was the fact that the majority of the students were not children of the parish or even Catholic, there were many Muslims, Protestants, etc. as a matter of fact the majority of the students were not Catholic - they attended mass every week in the Church but it was difficult to teach religion in a class where only a few students were Catholic while the others didn't have to take the lessons. The majority of students didn't even live in the neighborhood because there were waiting lists to get into the school due to its scholastic renown.
If the Archdiocese was having problems with the finances of the school they should have had someone sent in by the Supertendent of School from the Archdiocese to audit the books and deal with the problem. The pastor was not only responsible for one church but also for St. Lucy's in a deal worked out with the previous pastor, Fr. Robert Lott, so with all the work of two active NYC parishes, Fr. Murr should have turned to the Archdiocese to deal with the Academy financial and religious problems.
It would be interesting to find out the process that was taken, the meetings with staff and administrators at the school and with the parents board.
Also it would be interesting to know who was on this Parish Council and where they lived, for I was told that there were a number of "non-parishioners" on the Parish Council. That they came in from other parts of the city to run the parish.

I have asked one of the former parish council members to clarify:

First of all, let’s stay with what’s relevant here. Fr. Murr made wanted to make some personnel changes at the school because the school was grossly mismanaged financially and because two-third of its students were failing standardized religion tests. You may not agree with other decisions Fr. Murr made, say about the soup kitchen, but those matters are not relevant here. The question is whether Fr. Murr was right about the school.

Most of the points this post makes about the school are demonstrably mistaken.

First, it is true that the St. Francis de Sales School/St. Lucy Academy is financially separate from the Parish of St. Francis de Sales. This is true about every parish in the Archdiocese that has a school: the parish and the school prepare separate financial statements. In fact, this arrangement highlights the problem: the parish has prepared and filed its financial statements with the Archdiocese through the most recently completed fiscal year (which ended on August 31, 2004). The school has not prepared any financial statements for any period after August 31, 2001—over two and a half years.

Second, it is absolutely false that a majority of the students in the school are non-Catholics. For 2003, the statistics were as follows:

Third Grade: 42 of 50 students (84%) Catholic
Fourth Grade: 50 of 59 students (85%) Catholic
Fifth Grade: 38 of 55 students (69%) Catholic
Sixth Grade: 34 of 51 students (67%) Catholic
Seventh Grade: 39 of 46 students (85%) Catholic
Eighth Grade: 37 of 60 students (62%) Catholic

It is also false that non-Catholic students in Catholic schools do not study religion. They are required to receive religious instruction just like other students. In any event, since about 66% of the students were failing the Archdiocese’s religion examination, even if we assume that all non-Catholic students failed, the failure rate would still be tremendous, ranging from about 28% in the eighth grade to 51% in the fourth grade.

It is true that a majority of the students do not live in the neighborhood, but this has nothing, unfortunately, to do with the academic quality of the school. The school attracted children from various parts of upper Manhattan and Bronx because its tuition was about $400 below the Archdiocese’s average (about $2300 versus about $2700).

Third, Fr. Murr was dealing with the Archdiocese to deal with the problems at the school. He informed the Archdiocese as early as last November about the severe financial management problems at the school, any by January the Archdiocese had agreed that the principal and vice principal would be replaced. At Fr. Murr’s request, the Archdiocese agreed, in writing, that the financial problems at the school were so severe that the Archdiocese was going to send its own accountants to prepare and audit financial statements for the school for the past periods for which no financial statements had been prepared.
As to the entirely irrelevant issues raised in this post, I shall say but a few words.

Yes, Fr. Murr did close a soup kitchen and other activities operated out of the church’s basement, but only so that the basement could be renovated. This work is now almost complete, and when it was completed, the soup kitchen was going to reopen. All this was announced to the parish at the time and is well-known. The implication in the post is that Fr. Murr closed the soup kitchen permanently merely because he is unsympathetic to the poor, and that is a slanderous falsehood. Everyone in the parish knew why the soup kitchen was closed and that it was planned to reopen in the near future.

As to who the parish council members are and where they live, the members of the parish council are the following:

Robert T. Miller, Esq.
John M. Olin Research Fellow in Law
Columbia Law School

Jennifer L. Marino-Miller, Esq.
Attorney-at-Law
Wachtel & Masyr, LLP

James Caravelli, M.D.
Attending Radiologist
Sloane Kettering Cancer Center
Professor of Clinical Radiology
Weill Medical College of Cornell University

Paula Caravelli
Board of Directors
The Narnia Clubs

Demetrio J. Aguila, III, M.D.
Resident Surgeon
The Mount Sinai Medical Center

Jennifer Aguila
South Campus Residential Life Coordinator
Pratt Institute

John Palmer
Metropolitan Artisans, K.F.T.
The John D. Palmer Trust

Abigail Palmer
Department of Classics
Fordham University

Noel Cordero
Director of Religious Education
St. Francis de Sales School/St. Lucy Academy

Mr. and Mrs. Miller line on East 90th Street. Dr. and Mrs. Caravelli live on East 93rd Street. Mr. Cordero lives on East 106th Street. Dr. and Mrs. Aguila used to live on East 105th Street, and Dr. Aguila continues to work at Mt. Sinai, which is located on East 102nd Street. Mr. and Mrs. Palmer, who joined the parish council only in the last two months, live on West 92nd Street. So the claim is that these individuals are “non-parishioners” is untrue.