N.J. Catholic diocese sells archbishop’s controversial ‘luxury’ retirement household for $910K
A sprawling retirement dwelling used by former Newark Archbishop John J. Myers — that drew protests from some parishioners for getting much too lavish for a Catholic priest — has been offered, church officers stated.
The Hunterdon County residential residence, which involved two elevators, indoor and out of doors pools and a three-story addition, bought previous thirty day period for $910,000 to an undisclosed customer, the Archdiocese of Newark reported in a statement.
The true estate listing named the property a “private luxurious estate on 8+ acres.”
The sale arrived 9 months immediately after Myers died at age 79.
The five-bedroom property located on 8.3 wooded acres in the Pittstown area of Franklin Township had been controversial for a long time. In 2014, much more than 22,000 persons signed a petition calling on the Catholic Church to offer the residence immediately after The Star-Ledger published a story detailing a planned $500,000 addition to the residence with a library, indoor exercising pool, therapeutic whirlpool hot tub and many fireplaces.
Some parishioners mentioned they were being withholding donations to their regional church buildings to protest Myers’ “tone deaf” use of the personal home at a time when Pope Francis was preaching about austerity in the church and dwelling in a modest condominium in the Vatican.
Myers was also under scrutiny at the time for his managing of priest sexual abuse conditions in the archdiocese.
But the Archdiocese of Newark retained the property and Myers used it as a weekend home right until his 2016 retirement, when he moved in entire-time.
The archdiocese declared it would place the dwelling up for sale in January 2020 just after Myers moved back to his native Illinois to live close to family members users as his bodily and psychological wellness declined. The dwelling was initially shown for sale for $945,000 in July 2020.
The authentic estate listing stated: “Over 7,300 sq. ft of luxurious dwelling area all set on a absolutely non-public 8+ acre estate. So lots of choices for this exclusive personalized residence. Facilities consist of 2 elevators, a heated outside Gunite pool as well as an indoor 14′ countless exercise pool, 4 fireplaces, large plank wooden flooring, new septic system in 2014, exterior sprinkler method, entire household generator, security system, central vacuum and so much more.”
The money from the $910,000 property sale will go again to the Catholic Church, officers claimed.
“A true estate transaction commission will be deducted from the sale selling price, and proceeds will return to the Archdiocese of Newark to benefit ongoing ministries, primarily these impacted by the pandemic,” the archdiocese stated in a statement.
There are no strategies to acquire a further weekend or retirement household for Cardinal Joseph Tobin, the latest Archbishop of Newark. Tobin lives in the archbishop’s residence in Newark. Most clergymen reside in church rectories and quite a few live jointly soon after they retire in retirement houses operate by the Catholic Church.
Myer’s retirement residence was the final private residence owned by the Archdiocese of Newark.
“Except for parish-owned qualities, this is the only personal household house that is owned by the archdiocese. The archdiocese has no strategies to obtain any long run residences,” Archdiocese of Newark officers claimed.
It seems the archdiocese did not make a income on the residence. The dwelling on Reduced Kingtown Road was procured in 2002 for $678,000, the archdiocese explained. But the archdiocese used at the very least yet another $500,000 on the property to create a new three-tale wing off the first home.
Although the archdiocese is a tax-exempt group, it paid house tax each and every calendar year on the residence since the home was not mostly utilised for religious applications, an archdiocese spokesman mentioned in 2014. The 2020 taxes ended up stated at $27,749 a 12 months.
The original cash to get the property in 2002 came from the archdiocese’s sale of a different home — a Jersey Shore seashore dwelling at the time applied by then-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick when he was Archbishop of Newark. McCarrick was afterwards accused of sexual misconduct right after he allegedly invited seminarians and other clergymen to share his mattress at various Shore residences owned by the Catholic Church. McCarrick denied any wrongdoing, but has due to the fact been laicized and stripped of his obligations as a priest.
The cash for the $500,000 addition to Myers’ retirement house arrived partly from donors and the sale of other church-owned attributes, which include a Connecticut property utilised by retired Newark Archbishop Peter Gerety, who moved to a residence for retired priests in Rutherford just before his demise, church officials stated.
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Kelly Heyboer may perhaps be arrived at at [email protected].