Tom Gallagher's blog

It's finally here (and I'm not talking about the Catholic corproate craziness within the church). I'm talking about college basketball. It always seems to arrive just when we need it the most -- the middle of Lent. Naturally, Catholic colleges are among those vying to win it all, or at least get into the NCCA tournament and advance farther than they did last year.

Here's a quick selection of Catholic college basketball stories that have appeared today or yesterday:

In the words of Dick Vitale, "Let the games begin, baaaaby!"

Millionaire priest dies in squalor, relatives inherit $

In a strange, but apparently true, story, a Wheeling-Charleston, W.Va., diocesan priest, died while living in "appalling" conditions without a will, according to this story.

"Twelve brothers and sisters in Poland will soon receive about $150,000 each from the estate of a Kanawha County priest who lived like a pauper, despite having nearly $2 million stashed away in cash and investments.

For nearly three years, Chief Tax Deputy Allen Bleigh and members of the tax department have been investigating the estate of Fr. Anthony Wojtus. Following his death in 2007, the millionaire priest was discovered to have been living in squalor.

Wojtus left no will or known family members. The county was appointed as estate administrator shortly after the priest's death, leaving officials with the job of tracking down next of kin."

It's no secret that the distribution of wealth is inequitable in the United States across racial, regional, and socio-economic groups. But there is a distinct variance among and within America's faiths as well.

This transparency takes a look at the income levels of America's major religious groups, as compared to the average U.S. income distribution.

Read more: Transparency: America's Wealthiest Religions

Monday, I blogged on money woes in the Scranton, Pa., diocese. Last week I blogged on money woes in the Rockville Centre, N.Y., diocese. Now this comes from New York Newsday:

The sad legacy of Bishop Joseph Martino, Cardinal Justin Rigali and those mysterious others who appointed Bishop Martino to the Scranton diocese continues.

The Catholic missal is not the only document going through a revamp.

Today's Wall Street Journal reports on the changes coming to "the draft revisions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders—the bible for mental health clinicians and researchers—unveiled Wednesday could have effects that ripple through mental health care."

These changes will impact patients, clinicians and larger healthcare providers. For example, Asperger's disorder, which is currently considered a separate condition than autism, will be subsumed into the broader spectrum of autism disorders.

Just when you think you've seen it all or Technology inside the church, Polish-style

"A Polish priest has installed an electronic reader in his church for schoolchildren to leave their fingerprints in order to monitor their attendance at Mass, the Gazeta Wyborcza daily said Friday.

The pupils will mark their fingerprints every time they go to church over three years and if they attend 200 Masses they will be freed from the obligation of having to pass an exam prior to their confirmation, the paper said.

The pupils in the southern town of Gryfow Slaski told the daily they liked the idea and also the priest, Grzegorz Sowa, who invented it.

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal carried quite a story. The story discussed the slum tour business -- that's right slum tours -- where the wealthy travel to impoverished communities around the world to observe poverty. It's worth a read..

For years the bylaws of most not-for-profit organizations contained a provision related to dissolution and transfer of assets. Rarely has this provision ever been invoked.

These days, however, it is employed, studied and used as more and more charities fold their tents and/or merge with other charities. Today's Wall Street Journal describes this relatively new phenomenon.

For many boards of directors, casting a vote in favor of closure is not a comfortable role to be in. However, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of charities which should close.

A new perspective needs to shine on Haiti that transitions to the view of "substantial opportunities" from "permanently impoverished," as outlined in an op-ed piece today in The New York Times.

The article is co-written by Paul Collier, an economics professor at Oxford, was a special adviser on Haiti to the United Nations secretary general in 2009, and Jean-Louis Warnholz, the managing director of a business consulting company, who was an economic adviser to Haiti’s prime minister in 2009.

A new study reports a sharp increase in the number of U.S. troops evacuated for psychiatric reasons in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

In fact, more troops were evacuated for mental health problems in 2007 than for combat injuries. That's according to a Johns Hopkins study recently published in the Lancet.

Almost 300 members of St. Vincent Pallotti parish in Haddon Township, N.J., have sued the Camden diocese, seeking the return of more than $1 million in donations made before the diocese announced a controversial merger plan for their parish.

The donations funded capital improvements that were dedicated in November 2007 -- four months before Bishop Joseph Galante revealed plans to merge St. Vincent Pallotti with St. Aloysius Parish in Oaklyn.

Under the plan, St. Aloysius would be the seat of the combined parish -- and Haddon Township parishioners contend that puts St. Vincent Pallotti's facilities at risk of closing.

The suit asserts Galante approved the multi-year capital campaign at St. Vincent Pallotti, then did not tell parishioners that he intended to restructure the diocese, said John Wilson, a Collingswood attorney representing the parishioners."

Classic.

An encouraging sign on volunteerism occurred in 2009.

"Both the number of volunteers and the volunteer rate rose over the year ended in September 2009, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. About 63.4 million people, or 26.8 percent of the popula- tion, volunteered through or for an organization at least once between September 2008 and September 2009. In 2008, the volunteer rate was 26.4 percent.

"The volunteer rate of women increased from 29.4 percent in 2008 to 30.1 percent in 2009, while the volunteer rate for men, at 23.3 percent, was essentially unchanged. As in previous years, women volun- teered at a higher rate than did men across all age groups, educational levels, and other major demo- graphic characteristics."

A heart-breaking story about the children of Haiti, but one that impels immediate and long-term attention.

"Haiti’s children, 45 percent of the population, are among the most disoriented and vulnerable of the survivors of the earthquake. By the many tens of thousands, they have lost their parents, their homes, their schools and their bearings. They have sustained head injuries and undergone amputations. They have slept on the street, foraged for food and suffered nightmares."

Reinhard Marx, the Catholic archbishop of Munich and Freising in Germany (a position Pope Benedict held from 1977 to 1981), will be on a panel this week at the World Economic Forum held annually in Davos, Switzerland. http://www.weforum.org/en/index.htm

The panel is on “Restoring Faith in Economics.” Joining Marx on the panel are Niall Ferguson, a Harvard Business School professor, and Thabo Cecil Makgoba, Anglican archbishop in South Africa. Ruth Simmon, president of Brown University, will moderate, according to Sarah Kidwell, a spokeswoman for the university in Providence, Rhode Island.

One wonders why a Catholic archbishop would attend such a tony event among the global elite. A few mouse clicks later and it's clear: Marx wrote a book titled, "Das Kapital: A Plea for Man", published in October 2008, in which he criticizes capitalism and highlights Catholic social teaching.

Online, text giving fuels record fundraising -- more than $380 million

"Two weeks after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake leveled Port-au-Prince, U.S. relief organizations in Baltimore and beyond have collected more than $380 million for Haiti, an outpouring of support unprecedented for a foreign disaster.

With the images from Haiti still dominating news coverage and advances in technology allowing more ways to give, fundraising for Haiti has more than doubled the record pace set in the days following the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the Chronicle of Philanthropy reported Friday. Given economic conditions at home, relief officials say, the response has been remarkable.

"It's clear that people are rising to sacrifice," said Mark Melia, deputy vice president for charitable giving at Catholic Relief Services, which is headquartered in Baltimore. "People are making large gifts that are not easy to make."

Relief organizations raising $5 million or more

• American Red Cross $153 million
• AmeriCares $6 million
• CARE USA $9.2 million

Last week I noted that the City of Springfield, Mass., unanimously voted to create an historic district thereby preventing the demolition of a beautiful church. The diocese then sued the city.

Now we have the same dynamic playing out in Cleveland, according to a story in today's Columbus Dispatch:

"The Roman Catholic Diocese of Cleveland says it doesn't want the city to grant landmark status to its churches.

Cleveland's Landmarks Commission is recommending that six Catholic churches be designated as historical city landmarks, which would give them some protection against demolition or structural changes."

The diocese is considering closing four of the six churches because of a priest shortage. If they're declared historic they could be difficult to sell.

On the one hand, dioceses all over the country, especially in the Northeast, are closing parishes and Catholic schools at breathtaking speed reflecting many factors, including abysmal diocesan and parish planning.

On the other hand, there are some stunning Catholic churches being moth-balled.

An 8-0 vote by the City of Springfield Council to create an historic district thereby preventing demolition of Our Lady of Hope church is impressive. On a casual trip through Italy, one can visit beautiful churches-cum-museums in practically every town.

Back to Springfield, the usual freedom of religion crowd will no doubt start pounding the table and rallying around an empty building. Classic.

Earlier this week I blogged about a U.S. military contractor placing Bible verses on rifle scopes.

Well, the contractor has decided to stop that practice.

"Trijicon Inc. also said it would take off Biblical references from all U.S. military products that are still in the company's factory and ensure future items do not have any inscriptions on them.

The rifle sights, in use by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, raised concern that the inscriptions break government rules barring proselytizing by American troops."

New York Times op-ed writer, Nicholas Kristof, debunks popular, and tragic, myths about Haiti in yesterday's column. Like poor the world over, Haitians want jobs, as well as decent water, schools and health care. If Catholics want to help Haiti, our focus should be on adding jobs to the island, as the non-government organizations focus on health care and schools.

Kristof concludes:

As the blockbuster show, "American Idol," has begun its 9th season this week, a new show this spring on the BBC is its polar opposite:

An Anglican priest turns pauper: A new BBC series to show clergyman living without money for eight months in return to "the simple life."

The priest, Peter Owen Jones, will be begging for food and shelter, bartering his skills for scraps and living off his own produce.

Jones previously presented the BBC series "Around The World In 80 Faiths." The new show "How To Live A Simple Life" will be broadcast in the spring.

The Jan. 12 earthquake in Haiti left massive destruction and widespread uncertainty. An unknown number of people remain missing, with estimates ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.

What is certain is people around the world await word on loved ones. Are you searching for a family member or friend? Search this list to connect.

CNN's iReport page: http://haiticrisis.cnn.com/

The Red Cross: http://www.familylinks.icrc.org/wfl/wfl_hti.nsf/DocIndex/locate_eng?open...

Google Person Find: http://haiticrisis.appspot.com/

Here is some positive news coming out of the Haiti disaster: Haiti's orphans adopted by Florida parents.

It is a headline that, conceivably could be repeated often in the coming months. See this Catholic News story from the Miami archdiocese about Operation Pierre Pan: Miami prepares for Haiti orphans, child refugees.

This is an important story with broad implications. More needs to be done to shore up our military families' mental health. The sooner, the better.

Scientists have studied troops coming back from wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and found high levels of mental health problems. Now, researchers are starting to look more at the families of those fighters.

A study in the New England Journal of Medicine finds that Army wives report a lot of stress when their husbands are sent to Afghanistan and Iraq. And the longer the deployment, the more likely the wife is to experience depression, anxiety, trouble sleeping and other mental health problems.

Bible verses inscribed on scopes used by U.S. forces in Iraq, Afghanistan

One can surely imagine the the "No-God crowd" is not going to be happy with this story:

The Wall Street Journal offered this angle on the tragedy in Haiti:

While many churches and aid organizations have been scrambling to send whatever help they can to Haiti, others are searching for information about their own members who were caught in last week's devastating earthquake.

Friends and relatives of nuns with the Daughters of Mary, a Catholic religious order, have sought information for days since learning that the nuns' house in Port au Prince was destroyed. Julienne Jules of Lawrenceville, Ga., said she has heard that as many as 17 nuns may be dead, with several more injured and missing, including her 84-year-old aunt. "We know several are under the debris and we are trying to get someone to go in and rescue them," Ms. Jules said. "They need machinery to get them out."

"The collapse of traditional channels of communication in Haiti has again highlighted the role of social media and the internet in disasters.

Twitter is being used as a prime channel for communications, while sites such as Ushahidi are providing maps detailing aid and damage.

Both Google and Facebook are producing missing persons lists.

Satellite networks are also diverting resources to provide communications to aid agencies and the military.

The very first images to escape from the region after Tuesday's earthquake came from citizens, capturing video with mobile phones."

Bill Canny, a good friend, headed back to his beloved Haiti to help lead the overall CRS response to the continuing tragedy in Haiti.

Photos of the Port-au-Prince Cathedral, before and after