Consider that this week’s meeting in Baltimore was originally scheduled to take place at the luxurious Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Santa Barbara, Calif., a $600-a-night resort overlooking the Pacific Ocean, owned until recently by Catholic multimillionaire Tim Busch.
It revealed much about how the bishops view themselves to see them book a place more suited to a corporate CEOs’ getaway than a “retreat” for pastors living humbly in service to their flock. Only when the 22 bishops of California threatened not to come to the Ritz-Carlton did USCCB leadership change the venue, saving the church from responding to the Bransfield story even as the prelates lounged around a pricey Pacific Coast spa.
The above comes from a June 13 story in Religion News Service.
The California bishops did the right thing by boycotting a conference at a posh hotel like the Ritz. They don’t have to stay at Motel 6, but the Ritz is, well, too ritzy. A conference hotel that can accommodate 250 prelates plus staff will be one of the big ones and it will be expensive. How about in the future they try something more modest, like Holiday Inn, National Conference Center $300/day R&B, or other similar places. It’s our money they are spending. They are bishops, not corporate CEOs with unlimited budgets. I wonder how many flew to the meeting on private jets?
You’ve got to be kidding me!!! $600 per night. I recognize there a lot of Bishops and staff, so not every venue has the necessary facilities. But the optics are awful.
It still cost them six figures in cancellation fees, according to reports. Way to go, usccb. by the way, I don’t believe the California bishops were “taking a stand”. They get to see the ocean almost every day, most of them. They wanted to party in D.C.
I missed this and thought maybe others might have to.
From the combox on another article:
FrMichael says
June 18, 2019 at 9:30 am
Not to divert attention from the commencement speech, but is CCD aware of the deaths of Bishops Emeriti Pierre DuMaine of San Jose and Stephen Blaire of Stockton?
The USCCB meetings have always been at secular hotel venues — with only a few exceptions! Never at Church retreats or other Church facilities! I have always wondered too, about this!
I’ve stayed there when it was owned by Tim Busch. It’s a beautiful place and I have a lot of memories of that beach from when I was stationed in Santa Barbara. But then it was free for Priests. All I did was celebrate Mass in the chapel. Now I wouldn’t go there ever. It’s WAY too expensive.
What Church facility has the space for such a gathering?
How about Mar-A-Lago for next year?
GREAT idea, if President Trump gives it to them for free or even $100 a night! LOL