One of the more troubling aspects of these closings is disposition of liturgical vessels, vestments and sacramentals. Many of these churches are filled with beautiful, old windows, pews, confessionals, tabernacles, candlesticks, chalices, et al. When my pastor began looking to purchase a larger church to accomodate his growing congregation, he approached the RC diocese. They turned him down. After acquiring a 150 y/o Methodist/Episcopal Church, he returned to the diocese seeking furnishings from the closed parishes. Again, he was turned down.
This is most disheartening. On one occasion, he was told to come to a particular church on a specific date, only to find wreckers ripping out pews. He had no means to transport them to our new church.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/1605408/posts
I just posted this, one of the few good things to come out of the mess. I was familiar with the old Parish these things came from. It was an old Italian Parish turned into a Hispanic Personal Parish, that was slated to close long before the official reconfiguration.
If the local Latin Rite Bishop refused to sell the Church I'm not suprised (you have Hubbard right?) though that is not always the case.
This Melkite Parish is now located in a former Latin Rite Church:
http://mysite.verizon.net/vze4ndg9/index.htm
(they got their Pastor from the Latin Rite too!!!)
Oops, almost forgot, Bishop Muldoon, OFM, a Bishop in Honduras who's a Mass Native got truckloads of stuff to build Churches.
As a sidebar, Muldoon is a very interesting man, he stopped wearing his Franciscan Habit because he felt it made him stand out too much since he was the only one around, he felt it more humble and true to his Franciscan vows to scarifice the habit he loved so much and dress like every other Priest.
It really pained him to do it.
In the case of Albany, it's probably because Bishop Hubbard rightly views the Maronites as competitors, not co-religionists. Bishop Hubbard is in the destruction business.