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ROAMIN' CATHOLIC

Contents © 1997
by Jim Holman.
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Towers of Babble

ARCHDIOCESAN CONTRACTS WITH CELLULAR COMPANIES

By Lesley Payne

A June 20 LA Weekly article about archdiocesan entanglement with cellular phone companies suggests "Southern California is run from the cockpits of Lexuses and BMWs," noting that "the Archdiocese of Los Angeles has become the unlikely business partners of empire-building cellular companies from Chatsworth to Long Beach."

Troubles arose for the archdiocese, however, when parents at Holy Redeemer School in Montrose refused to allow placement of a 70-foot high microwave tower on the school playground.

It was not until the first week of March 1997 that the school principal, teachers and parents heard of the archdiocese's $1,200/month lease of part of the playground to Nextel Communications, when work crews arrived and began surveying the proposed site.

Over 300 parents protested the plan, fearing health risks from microwave emissions, risks of the tower falling over in an earthquake, and the fact that the unsightly equipment would take up 40 percent of the small playground. One of the parents, attorney David Smythe, filed a legal challenge on behalf of the group. The parents convinced the Regional Planning Commission to revoke the conditional use permit they had granted the project in January, on the grounds that notices about the construction were placed improperly--in front of the church rather than near the school, where parents would be likely to see them. Nextel demanded a court hearing, and on June 18 Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Diane Wayne gave a tentative ruling in favor of the parents. Nextel agreed to relinquish its permit before her ruling became final.

According to the LA Weekly, the archdiocese is signing a new contract with a telecommunications firm each month; press reports quote archdiocesan employees as saying more than 30 parishes currently have such leases. Many of the contracts are for smaller antennas, sometimes mounted on rooftops or in out-of-the-way places. At least five other Catholic schools have transmitters on the grounds.

An employee at Pac Bell privately told one of the Holy Redeemer parents that the Archdiocese has a "master contract" with that company for installation of telecommunications transmitters. "This means," said the parent, "that the Archdiocese gave them a list of all their properties and said take your pick."

It is unclear whether any money from the contracts goes directly to the archdiocese. The Holy Redeemer parents initially suspected that the telecommunications contracts arose from the archdiocese's desperate need for funds, or for the new cathedral project, reportedly running to $50 million. However, the archdiocese, Nextel and the few parishes who admitted to having such installations all said the monthly rental money goes to the parish.

Although the LA Weekly article quotes Archdiocesan Real Estate Director Neal Blaney as saying the local pastors are "driving the cellular deals," the contracts appear to initiate in the chancery, with each pastor giving final approval to the proposal.

Holy Redeemer pastor Father Jack Foley was unhelpful in shedding light on this arrangement. With the first parent complaints, Foley claimed that the archdiocese had entered into the Nextel contract without his knowledge or consent. He said that the archdiocese told him that the lease could not be broken, and he suggested that the parish should just accept the fait accompli. Then, at a March 18 parish meeting, he claimed to have had a change of heart, vowing to fight the lease, giving the much-publicized quote, "It's more important to build the body of Christ than to build a tower." But in a May 12 memo to parents, Foley said that, since the lease could not be broken, the parish should "ensure Nextel lives up to its pledge to install the antenna as sensitively as possible while also delivering our promised playground improvements."

Then Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich forwarded to the parents' committee a copy of a May 5 letter he received from Nextel leasing manager Gina Pappas. The letter revealed that Foley's change came about after an April 24 meeting with Pappas and the parish management committee. Pappas told Antonovich, "I shared with them photo enhancements of what the site would look like when completed. Everyone unanimously said they were please[d] with our plan." The letter also stated that Foley and the committee told her that only a few vocal parents were complaining, and the majority of the parish supported the project. Pappas noted that the pastor had denied use of the parish meeting facilities to the parents' group, demanded that they remove the parish name from their flyers, and that on one occasion "Fr. Jack had to escort a member of this group off parish property for distributing flyers that pledged the parish supported their opposition." Pappas noted, "I have had many conversations with Fr. Jack and the Archdiocese and we all agree that this project would be a positive one for the parish."

In their May 8 press release, the parents' group complained, "The disclosures of Father Jack's attempt to strike a closed-door deal with Nextel shocked all concerned. School staffers were reduced to tears, long-time friends of Father Jack felt horribly betrayed, and members of the Parent-Teacher Organization resigned in protest. At the same time, Father Jack continues to impose an information blackout at Holy Redeemer, choosing to communicate only with a mysterious 'management committee' of his own designation."

In her May 5 letter to Archdiocesan Chancellor Sister Cecilia Louise Moore, parent committee member Angela Smythe noted, "it came to our attention that there had only been some vague, haphazard form of verbal communication between the Archdiocese and our parish priest with neither side agreeing who initiated and approved the decision. Our parish priest claims he knew nothing about it and that the Archdiocese made all the decisions, yet the Archdiocese representatives claims the parish priest approved it and it was up to him to get our approval."

Early in their campaign against the tower, the Holy Redeemer group contacted County Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who asked Cardinal Mahony in a March 18 letter to suspend the agreement. In his March 24 response, Mahony said that over 30 parishes have such installations and that "the pastors and the parishioners are thrilled and grateful to have them located on their grounds because of the income to the parish."

But the LA Weekly article noted that most of the towers are located "in parishes serving minority and non-English-speaking Catholics." Asks the paper: "Is their acquiescence a knowledgeable choice or simply evidence of their lack of sophistication? It is probably no accident that the first protest stirred in Montrose, an upscale residential area north of Glendale."

The archdiocese did not release names of other parishes with telecommunications leases. St. Martin de Tours parish has had a transmitter for several years. Ascension parish in southeast Los Angeles has a transmitter in the bell tower. A March 19 Glendale News-Press article notes that parishioners at St. Bede's Church successfully fought off a proposed telecommunications tower last year. In 1995, Sister Moore and Jerome Porath signed a contract (on behalf of the Archdiocesan Education and Welfare Corporation) for an installation at Holy Trinity church in San Pedro.

In a July 1 phone conversation, the accountant at St. Martin of Tours stated that the parish receives $2,500 per month lease for their telecommunications installation, with the amount increasing each year. She was unaware whether the Archdiocese receives a "cut." An employee of Ascension also confirmed that the lease money is paid to the parish.

Pastors who feel pressured to sign such leases or turn the money from the leases over to the Archdiocese do have canonical recourse. Parish councils and parishioners have no specific protection under canon law. However, even though the Archdiocese of Los Angeles technically owns all Church property in Los Angeles, leases signed against the wishes of the pastor and/or parishioners might be considered invalid in civil courts.

One source suggests that concerned pastors or parishioners call the St. Joseph Foundation, a private canon law firm in Texas: (210) 697-0717 for a confidential consultation.

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