Catholic

Newfoundland’s Archdiocese of St John’s sold 42 properties, including 12 churches, to pay Mount Cashel abuse survivors, with the basilica bought for $2.3 million by a coalition and St Patrick’s sold to a real estate group.

The Vatican sold its scandal-hit London building at 60 Sloane Avenue to Bain Capital for £186 million after investing about €350 million, a loss of more than €200 million that led to a criminal trial and a cardinal’s conviction.

Catholic orders and dioceses in Ireland have sold more than €1 billion of land since 1999, including a €95 million Dublin seminary site, and new zoning requests suggest far more church land could soon be developed.

The Diocese of Charlotte sold 73 acres of surplus land in south Charlotte for $36.5 million. The buyer kept 18 acres for housing and sold 55 acres for a public high school, while the diocese put the proceeds into land, buildings and an endowment.

Dublin’s Catholic archdiocese asked the city council to rezone 33 church sites and several schools so homes could be built on them in future, arguing many sit in disadvantaged areas where housing need should take priority.

Ethiopia’s Orthodox Church and Addis Ababa’s city administration clashed over ownership of Meskel Square, which the city had recently renovated with underground car parks, after a Protestant fund-raiser was held there.

Rev Douglas Haefner, pastor of St Matthias Parish in New Jersey for 27 years, was jailed for seven years for taking nearly US$517,000 in parish funds, uncovered only after an audit he had repeatedly delayed.

The Vatican’s property office published its accounts for the first time in 2021, revealing it manages 4,051 properties in Italy and about 1,200 abroad, cut rents for struggling tenants and uses income to fund charity.

The Delhi Development Authority demolished Little Flower Church in Lado Sarai, used by about 1,500 Catholics for 13 years, saying it was an illegal building on government land; church leaders said they received no notice.

The African Martyrs of Uganda Roman Catholic Church in Bull Bay, which also runs a clinic and basic school serving over 800 people a month, faced demolition for the Southern Coastal Highway, with no clarity on an alternative site.

A 3.16-acre former Sisters of Mercy convent complex in Passage West, Cork, was listed at €1.2 million with full planning permission for 35 apartments, 13 detached homes and two shops, keeping the historic convent facade.

Kingston’s Holy Trinity Cathedral, rebuilt on North Street after the 1907 earthquake, marked 110 years in 2021. A restoration begun in 2006 with Spanish, corporate and local help uncovered its hidden artwork tile by tile.

A closed Catholic church on Duluth’s Park Point, on just under an acre beside Lake Superior, was offered for $650,000, with the land expected to become nine house lots and proceeds going to a poorer parish.

The National Works Agency announced minor alignment changes to the Southern Coastal Highway at sections including St Benedict The Moor Catholic Church in Bull Bay, at a town hall meeting held in the church itself.

St Vincent’s Finance Minister told Parliament the Catholic Church raised its asking price for six acres at Buccament after learning farmers were being offered EC$523,000 an acre, and the government agreed to the revised offer.