Bishop vows to sell £1m mansion and give proceeds to the poor

David Ward
Monday May 20, 2002
The Guardian - UK
 

A radical bishop announced yesterday that he plans to sell his £1m official home - with magnificent wine cellar but no wine - and spend much of the proceeds on relieving the problems of the poor.

Patrick O'Donoghue, Roman Catholic bishop of Lancaster, plans to strip himself of many of the trappings of the job. He will hit the road, spending time with his priests and people rather than episcopal paperwork. "I want to become a bishop on the move," he said.

Bishop O'Donoghue described Bishop's House in Lancaster as a beautiful 16-room Victorian mansion. "But these are symbols of another era," he said. "I want to say to my people, and hopefully other people too, that the church is more than big houses which are status symbols from another era.

"We need a revolution in the church. It's a dangerous word to use. But we need to look at our structures, otherwise we are going to end up as caretakers of mausoleums and museums rather than as caretakers of the poor."

A substantial amount of the money raised from the sale will be spent on projects aimed at easing deprivation and drug problems in Preston, Blackpool and Barrow-in-Furness. Some of the cash will also be earmarked for inter-faith projects.

Bishop O'Donoghue, 68, will use a small suite of rooms in his cathedral but spend most of his time on tour, staying with his priests in presbyteries around the diocese, which stretches from the river Ribble to the Scottish border.

He announced his decision in a Whit Sunday pastoral letter addressed to the diocese's 116,000 Catholics and read out yesterday in all 109 parishes.

Bishop O'Donoghue moved to Lancaster after spending 40 years, successively as student, priest and bishop, in the diocese of Westminster. A close associate of the late Cardinal Basil Hume, he is described as being a believer in "service not status" and has frequently spoken up on behalf of asylum seekers.

"The Church has always been an evangelical Church," said Bishop O'Donoghue in his letter. "My job is not that of managing director of The Church plc, but servant of the word of God and shepherd of the flock."