What Is The Status Of Our Lady's Dowry?

As we've seen over the past few years, Our Lady's Dowry is a non-profit that has been connected with the Our Lady of the Atonement parish that was set up to receive donations on behalf of Fr Phillips, but which was off the parish books. As such, it was not subject to the archdiocesan parish tithe, nor to audit by the archdiocese. Its function has never been completely clear, but over much of Dcn Orr's time with the parish, it appears to have been used to pay him a salary in addition to his salary from the parish and school, in violation of archdiocesan policy for deacons.

My regular correspondent and a San Antonio visitor have both pointed out that, although Fr Phillips was removed as pastor of OLA by Abp Gustavo in early 2017, and Fr Phillips returned to the parish only as "pastor emeritus" under Bp Lopes's authority -- and subsequent to that, his pastoral faculties were removed, and he was prohibited from entering the property -- the Our Lady's Dowry charity continues in operation, at least as of its most recent IRS Form 990, filed November 18, 2019. Our Lady's Dowry is still in existence and lists its mailing address as 18415 Red Robin Drive, San Antonio, TX 78255.

This is also the address of the Our Lady of the Atonement parish, and it says pretty clearly that although Fr Phillips is prohibited from the property, as of late 2019, he's still apparently allowed to conduct business from the parish address. As I suggested in yesterday's post, although Fr Phillips is officially retired and as well had his priestly faculties withdrawn, he still seems to claim some remaining prestige in connection with the parish and apparently continues to have an influence on its operation through major donors.

A visitor says,

I figured after Dcn Orr’s passing and the [parish's] entry into the Ordinariate, the Dowry fund would have been dissolved. Since Fr. Lewis mentions specifically an endowment, I wondered if the dowry was still going on. What a surprise, it is! Some folks funneled over ¾ of a million dollars ($874,078 to be exact) through that fund since 2014. I know some of that money was supposed to be earmarked for classrooms for the new school building because I know someone who contributed specifically for that purpose and was told to make the check out to Our Lady’s Dowry. I wonder where that money actually went. Here is some publicly available info regarding the charitable Our Lady’s Dowry organization. Check out the financials and the Form 990s. They clearly show Dcn Orr was paid a salary for 40 hrs/wk (ranging from around $64K to $65K per yr) as Treasurer until the year of his death when he was replaced as Treasurer by a guy who made $0 in compensation.

Some of the money went to San Antonio Water Service to the tune of $150,074 in 2016, presumably to bring water/sewer to the new school building. Some of the money went for organ repair ($22,486 in 2015 and $124,788 in 2016). Some of the money went to produce videos for the priest ($11,500 in 2015) and advertising ($20,000 in 2016).

The information from 2017 is not available so it is difficult to say where that money went.

It is interesting to note that income from Hall Rental, which had been increasing year over year dropped to $0 in 2018. I suppose because Hall Rental was no longer controlled by an Our Lady's Dowry tool in the office and Fr Lewis began directing money from the rental of the parish hall back to the parish and not the slush fund he was not a party to.

Was the money used for nefarious purposes? Mostly, no. Was it used to circumvent reporting to the Diocese/Ordinariate and thereby circumventing the cathedraticum tax, yes. Is that moral, no. Was it used to provide a salary for a Deacon who was assigned to a parish, yes. Was that legal? I don’t know but it doesn’t pass the smell (and morality) test. What a mess, and what a con! I tip my hat to the creative shell game masterminded at Our Lady of the Atonement. I just wish they worked as hard at being authentically Catholic as they did at gaming the system.

The From 990 for 2018 lists a reduction in net assets of $64,300 on line 20, but this would have been explained on a Schedule Q that isn't shown on the PDF of the form. As a result, we simply don't know what happened to substantial amounts of money that had been in Our Lady's Dowry control before Fr Phillips's removal as pastor, when he was raising these amounts on behalf of the parish but placing them in the separate charity under his control not subject to audit.

I think it would be appropriate for the parish to ask Fr Lewis what became of substantial donations to the Dowry for classrooms in the school addition.

Another puzzling question is how the Dowry was involved in financing the home at 8003 Shady Hallow Lane formerly occupied by Dcn Orr that adjoins Fr Phillips's residence. A visitor told me,

when I asked Fr. Phillips what happened to the "Our Lady's Dowry money" Fr. Phillips told me that this money was used to buy Dcn Orr's house for the parish. This home today is where Fr. Lewis and his wife reside.

But another visitor suggests the ownership has been more complicated.

If you read the ownership history , it seems to go from Atonment as owners, then Orr, then Atonement and Orr together (i think). The current owner, Hivnor, is a very wealthy parishioner. Under Mortgage once Hivnor bought it, it says: "Mortgage Modification Agreement". I have little knowledge on mortgage terms but it stood out.

So who actually owns the house at 8003 Shady Hallow Lane now occupied by Fr Lewis and his wife, if the parish doesn't? Was money from Our Lady's Dowry used to buy it from Dcn Orr? Who benefited from this whole transaction?

There are lots of questions, and I would think more than a few secrets.

UPDATE: My regular correspondent comments that In the parish's 2018-19 financial report,

the Business Manager reminds readers that “contributing to Our Lady’s Dowry is not [underlined] an offertory contribution that directly supports the parish,” and that OLD is not governed by the parish. Looks like they have the desire but not the power to wind it up.