Tell me again why the church shouldn't pay taxes?
The 4,500-square-foot home sits on 8.2 wooded acres in the hills of Hunterdon County. With five bedrooms, three full bathrooms, a three-car garage and a big outdoor pool, it’s valued at nearly $800,000, records show.
But it’s not quite roomy enough for Newark Archbishop John J. Myers.
Myers, who has used the Franklin Township house as a weekend residence since the archdiocese purchased it in 2002, is building a three-story, 3,000-square-foot addition in anticipation of his retirement in two years, The Star-Ledger found. He will then move in full-time, a spokesman for the archbishop said.
The new wing, now just a wood frame, will include an indoor exercise pool, a hot tub, three fireplaces, a library and an elevator, among other amenities, according to blueprints and permits filed with the Franklin Township building department.
The price tag, the records show, will be a minimum of a half million dollars, a figure that does not include architectural costs, furnishings and landscaping.
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"Archbishop Myers obviously is not paying any attention to the pope," said Charles Zech, who has studied bishops’ spending as faculty director of the Center for Church Management and Business Ethics at Villanova University’s business school.
"The pope is calling on clergy to live a simpler lifestyle and to be in touch with their people," Zech said. "This is extreme, way beyond what you’d expect to happen. I can’t believe the parishioners of Newark are going to allow this to happen."
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According to guidelines issued by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, all dioceses must provide a residence for retired bishops. The guidelines don’t specify, however, what kind of residence is required.
New Jersey ‘bishop of bling’ criticized for spending $500,000 on home expansion | The Raw Story
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