The Kool-Aid Drinkers

Since the Our Lady of the Atonement parish began to show up on this blog in a big way, I've heard from about half a dozen former communicants at the parish, who tell a consistent story. Most, by their account, were cradle Catholics and never actually registered there, but they attended mass and got involved for reasons like sending children to the school or a preference for the Latin mass that was offered. Thus they were able to maintain detachment while closely observing what went on -- and when the kids left the school or the Latin mass was discontinued, they left, too.

One impression they've all given me, consistently and independently, is of a core group of families, committed Phillips acolytes, who developed an intricate set of mutual favors and obligations within the parish. Not only were they members, but they, and often their children, were also employees. They were major donors, but of course, the donations effectively became kickbacks from their salaries, and at least some of those went not to the parish but to the Our Lady's Dowry off-the-books charity, where the expenditures were completely under Fr Phillips's control.

Another influential family had a building contractor business, and construction work for the parish and school went to them. Their big donations thus amounted to kickbacks as well. At some point before 2016, this family became fed up and left, but other families in this core group have remained up to now. The San Antonio visitors here say that although Fr Phillips has been prohibited from having a pastoral relation with the parish, and even from coming on the property, he continues to influence the donations of the core group, and they suggest that this group withholds donations without Phillips's OK. This has Fr Lewis, as one visitor puts it, "over a barrel".

The visitors who've told me about this situation pretty consistently refer to these families as "Kool-Aid drinkers". One visitor said recently,

[Redacted] was a member of the administration for many, many years. She had two boys who were there at the same time my kids were there. They were also untouchable. She was a gatekeeper and gatherer of info for Fr. Phillips and was in a position to protect him if and when issues raised by children and parents from the school arose as she held the titles of School Administrator, Lower School Administrator, etc. If parents had issues with teachers or other students, they had to go through her. And of course, if you complained incorrectly, you might just get “disappeared”. Don’t know that was because of [redacted], but she was certainly a conduit to Fr. Phillips of the pulse of the school and who were drinking the Kool-Aid and who weren’t.

I am not surprised by the big money donors. There were quite a few more I could rattle off, some of whom gave big, really big, until they got crosswise with the powers that be and disappeared never to be heard from again. The level of giving of the average parishioner at OLA blew the doors off the average amount giving by a run of the mill diocesan parishioner, not including the mega donors. Getting money out of people was Fr. Phillips's specialty, he could smell a mark from a mile away. I don’t know if Fr. Phillips is still pulling strings. I would guess he has Fr. Lewis over a barrel. Fr. Lewis needs the money and the street cred, Fr. Phillips has the power with the true believers in the project. How it is playing out is still shrouded in ambiguity.

It's not hard to extrapolate that if complaints about the school and faculty went through such screening, these core members were also covering for Dcn Orr.

Another former member said recently,

Fr Phillips and Dcn Orr were very creative. We know of the flimflammery and sleight-of-hand tactics used by the both of them. Let's assume for a minute that Fr Phillips wants to take on a very expensive project. He still has to go the traditional route of applying to the diocese for what he has in mind. Remember, no pastor can do anything to a parish without the Bishop's approval because the diocese owns the parish/property. Now let's play a little game here. Fr Phillips wants to build something. He has to raise half the money and the parishioners rebel.

Fr. Phillips does not want to wait to raise half of the money so he goes to his wealthy parishioners and gets them to cosign a loan to raise half of the required money. The Bishop has no knowledge of this arrangement, but says to himself, "Wow, Fr Phillips has raised the required half of the money in record time. There must be a good need for this project. I will get behind it and apply for the additional commercial funding." But, all along, the Bishop has no knowledge of the additional indebtedness that the parish has taken on with the cosigned loans. Now, you talk about a good con game, here it is. I am not saying this happened, but this is morphing into a really good book or movie!

As I've suggested, I'm increasingly convinced that some sort of deception like the one the visitor outlines here came to light during 2016, and in addition to the allegations of covering up for Dcn Orr, this became a reason for Abp Gustavo to remove Fr Phillips in early 2017. But it sounds as though Fr Phillips is still pulling strings. According to the first visitor above, the funding of the $4 million project still can't be separated from Fr Phillips's involvement:

[P]eople funding a direct need and then getting recognized for it was in place with Fr. Phillips. This would include people who donated $10,000 could sponsor a classroom that would have their names on a plaque outside the room as recognition. There were $5,000 sponsorships for something I don’t recall and various other things that they used to raise funds, all of which was great except all the checks for these fundraising efforts were to be made payable to Our Lady’s Dowry not Our Lady of the Atonement Catholic Church. That was the shell game Fr. Lewis and the faithful parishioners inherited.

It's hard to avoid thinking that in key ways, Fr Phillips is still running the show at Our Lady of the Atonement and indeed still getting kickbacks. It sounds as if he may have personal control of money in Our Lady's Dowry that had been intended for the $4 million construction project as well. I wouldn't pledge a penny to that thing in the first place, but donors ought to be able to assure themselves that no money previously intended for that project is still held by Our Lady's Dowry.