Albany Diocese: Letter from Bishop Bena
From: PRIESTS & DEACONS UPDATE
Date: February 14, 2006 3:42:55 PM EST

Update from Bishop Dave

Greetings, friends,

I decided to write this Update last night, after reading and praying about that awful article in the Albany Times Union. I am not a subscriber or a reader of the T.U., but was alerted to it Sunday morning as I was making a parish visitation. When I finally got home about 9 p.m., I checked the Times Union online, and there it was!

First of all, let me explain that although I am the SUFFRAGAN Bishop and thus serve as Bishop Dan’s assistant, he is not able to fire me if I disagree with him (Suffragans can’t be fired - they are elected by the people and are free to serve until they retire, regardless of whom the Diocesan Bishop is), nor can he really reward me if I do something he likes (the Diocesan Convention sets my salary; and I am too old to appreciate “gold stars” on my homework). So my observations in this Update regarding the T.U. article are from my heart, with no ulterior motives to advance myself in any way.

I am incensed!!!!!! The Times Union article is absolutely the shabbiest piece of so-called reporting I have ever read! It uses innuendo, inaccurate statements, and just plain deception in order to make a frontal attack on the character of Bishop Daniel Herzog. I have known this man for over ten years. For the last six years, I have walked beside him practically every day. He is a holy, honest, and forthright person. He is not a crook! He sometimes speaks with such frankness that people get angry with him. But as far as I have determined, he has always spoken the truth. I have also watched the finances of this diocese for the past six years. There have been no financial improprieties; there are no secret funds; there has been no cooking of the books. As far as I can determine, nothing illegal, immoral or unethical has happened either with diocesan finances or Christ the King Spiritual Life Centerfinances.

Let’s lay aside the reason this article was written for a moment so we can focus on some of the terrible things this article says. The article seems to give the impression that we have spent beaucoup bucks on ”Herzog’s pet project” by selling off valuable diocesan properties. Well, Christ the King SpiritualLife Center is not “Herzog’s pet project.” A Futures Committee was created eight years ago, composed of a cross section of the diocese, to pray about and study the future needs of the diocese. The Committee concluded that our current retreat facilities were not adequate to keep up with the spiritual needs of the diocese. Bishop Dan did not request that we sell off those two retreat properties. The Futures Committee did, and the Trustees, Standing Committee and Diocesan Council all voted to do so, BECAUSE THEY ALL SAW THE NEED WE HAD FOR ONE FACILITY, a facility where people did not have to walk up three flights of stairs to get to their room, a room that had six beds and two bathrooms. Both retreat centers were judged to be inadequate for future needs. Bishop Dan and I worked hard to find a way to expand both facilities and bring them up to Code. Professional advice was that there was not enough acreage. The facility in the Adirondack Preserve had so many building restrictions that it was hopeless to do anything there. The facility down near Cooperstown was too hilly to expand. The Futures Committee kept Diocesan Convention, Trustees, Standing Committee, and Diocesan Council in the decision making process all the way in determining to sell our present facilities and find a location for a new Center.

The property eventually was found, and the decision was made to buy it. The decision was not made by Bishop Dan. It was made by the Trustees, the Standing Committee, and the Diocesan Council - all decision making bodies of the Diocese. Since we bought the property, we have spent about nine point something million on it, and that includes the price of the property. I just read a few months ago that the city of Albany was reconditioning one of its public schools - price? Almost twenty million dollars! If you compare what we have done at Christ the King Spiritual Life Center for less than ten million and what Albany is doing to recondition one school for twenty million, I think you will find that we were extremely frugal in how we spent money, and what we got for the money we spent.

To buy the property and build on it, we sold some properties which were either too small or were not being fruitful. These sales could be considered controversial in that everyone was not on board that they should be sold. But they were not sold by Bishop Dan. They were sold after extensive study by a cross section of the diocese, and the sales approved by the Trustees and Standing Committee. One of our Trustees was able to get us a good Line of Credit with Merrill-Lynch, using diocesan owned unrestricted endowment funds for collateral. We did not use any parish endowment funds, and we did not borrow more than the value of our diocesan owned unrestricted endowment funds. The total of the Line of Credit is 3.85 million dollars, with an extremely low interest rate. Close to a million of that will be paid off next month when we close on the old Beaver Cross. We are now in the process of a major fund campaign to raise the rest of the money needed to pay off the Line of Credit. So far, we have raised one point five million in pledges and gifts, and we are about half way to our goal. Again we have exercised good stewardship in building Christ the King Spiritual Life Center. The construction is not finished. We still need to build another adult lodging facility and some smaller buildings. These will be accomplished when we are financially able to do so.

We have watched our finances like a hawk. A Construction Oversight Committee meets each month to go over the building plans and funding. Watchful eyes make sure money is spent correctly. The Diocesan Council closely watches the Diocesan Budget to make sure we are making the proper use of our funds. The Trustees closely monitor our endowments and the Line of Credit to make sure we are keeping to our fiduciary decisions. An End of Year Report is being sent out to all parishes to let people know about the programs and funding of the Spiritual Life Center. And lastly, we have a top notch auditing firm - UHY - audit our books every year. The audit for 2004 was a clean one, with no reportable findings. The 2005 audit is going on right now, and we expect to once again have a clean audit. The audit reports are open to any member of the diocese and are available by appointment at the diocesan office. Our auditor, Bill Kahn, and his team, are excellent professionals. Bill feels that we are doing a good job. A letter attributing words to him some time ago did not correctly state his position. On reading the letter, he flatly stated that he did not say anything negative about our financial transactions or anything else negative about us. The Diocesan Budget is submitted every year to the Diocesan Convention and a summary statement that the audit is complete is given by the Diocesan Treasurer. BOTTOM LINE: WE HAVE BEEN TRANSPARENT IN THE USE AND MAINTENANCE OF OUR FINANCES.

Now back to the T.U. article. It is extremely inaccurate in just about everything it says. Nigel and Lynn Mumford’s salary is nowhere in the $147 thousand range!!! Both work fulltime, long days, at the Center. Nigel literally travels all over the world, and does not keep the honorariums he receives. He gets $34 thousand a year, plus a housing allowance, medical, and pension. Lynn, in addition to her duty as administrator of the Healing Ministry Center, is also the manager of the Spiritual Life Center Gift Shop. She gets $32 thousand. The $147 thousand number is salaries for the ENTIRE Healing Center – part-time staff psychologist, part-time trainer, maintenance. Nigel’s ministry is touching thousands of people. It IS health related, even though pills are not dispensed. The T.U. article tried to make it look like this healing ministry is some weird magical thing. Unfortunately, the article shows a 1950’s perspective on healing - totally divorcing the physical from the spiritual and complaining that we are really not doing healing there because no medicine is being dispensed. That is an old mentality. Today, most medical schools teach doctors the importance of the spiritual in the healing of persons. One of our deacons has to have surgery at a major medical center in another state this week. The pre-op literature advised patients to bring meditation and healing CD’s with them because of the belief by the Center that the spiritual is very important in the healing process. Nigel provides a ministry and setting where spiritual healing takes place everyday! and in the process, a large number of people have even been healed physically.

We did hire Ron Baker, Matt Baker’s father, to oversee construction. By doing that, we saved thousands of dollars. We did not have to hire a construction firm and give them a percentage to make sure the construction was done. Ron was the construction manager, on a salary rather than on a percentage. He was able to be clerk of the works, contracting out jobs that needed that kind of work, and hiring a small crew to do the construction they were able to do. We estimate that we saved at least a third by doing it that way. And Ron Baker did not work for his son; he worked for the diocese and made a personal report every month to the Construction Oversight Committee. No nepotism or “reverse nepotism.”
Matt Baker has done an outstanding job as Christ the King Center Director. Staying within financial guidelines, he has assembled a positive-oriented, hardworking staff to run the Center. It is a bare-bones staff where everyone wears at least two hats. If you have been at the Center, you know what a great staff we have there.

OK. Now that I got that off my chest, I have to ask why this article was written in the fashion it was - a vicious attack on the bishop and people of the Diocese of Albany. Several people who have an agenda spoke to the editor and told them we would be a great story. These persons obviously did not have the best intentions in mind for our diocese when they did that. I won’t go into personalities, but I will say that they obviously wanted to see Bishop Dan and the diocese embarrassed by this article just before the election of a Coadjutor. Trying to cause fear, shut down financial gifts, and steer the election to someone who is totally unlike Bishop Herzog? Maybe. In the process, several other people were hurt. Mr. Tom Maggs, a fine and honestAlbany businessman, was used horribly. He did in fact resign as a Trustee last autumn over a disagreement with our Diocesan Treasurer. Mr. Maggs thought the Trustees should have oversight of ALL diocesan funds; the Treasurer believed Mr. Maggs was crossing boundaries and that the Diocesan Council should have oversight of diocesan budget funds rather than the Trustees. In the exchange of disagreements, Mr. Maggs resigned and sent an angry private letter to Bishop Herzog and the Trustees expressing his frustration over the disagreement. I am sure he had no intention of his letter being used as a weapon against the diocese. But it was. Dean Gary Kriss sent a letter to the bishops, Trustees, and nominees asking for more transparency as the election approached. We had just finished our End-of-Year Report this past weekend when the T.U. article came out. We were this week going to send Dean Kriss this report with a cover letter to him, thanking him for his concern. And we are right now sending that report out to all parishes. I am sure Dean Kriss did not intend to contribute to an article that would deeply embarrass the Diocese of Albany, but his letter was used to paint a terribly inaccurate view of what we do as a diocese. And that has to have pained Dean Kriss.

But the article happened. I am deeply disappointed in the Times Union editorial staff. Since it happened, all we can do now is try to set the record straight. We hold up Jesus Christ as God in the Flesh and we proclaim the eternal Gospel of Salvation. We are all honest, hardworking people, building a Spiritual Life Center dedicated to Christ, which is already touching people with healing, caring for our children, and training disciples to be solid Christian citizens. This Center will be a training center for generations to come. Come and see this wonderful place. Be our guest and have a tour. Talk to the staff. You will see what a work God is doing among us.
When Joseph (of the coat of many colors fame) was finally vindicated after being sold into slavery and treated harshly, he said to those who were trying to apologize to him, “You meant it for evil, but God used it for good.” My prayer is that even though the Times Union produced an article which wrongly condemned our bishop and diocese, God will use it for good. Will you join in that prayer?

Bishop David Bena

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