D.C. Papal Museum Struggles For Financial Foothold, Focus

A Pope John Paul II statue welcomes center visitors. The pope endorsed it as a place that would explore interfaith issues from a Catholic perspective. It was designed to be a museum, think tank and public meeting space. (Photos By Susan Biddle -- The Washington Post)

This refocusing could mean fewer special exhibits and possibly fewer hours of being open to the public, Kerr and Fletcher said.

The center was essentially the vision of Maida, who had proposed to Pope John Paul II that an institution like a presidential library be built in his honor. The pope instead said he wanted a center that would explore interfaith issues from a Catholic perspective in Washington.

The center does have one exhibit space about the pope called the "Papal and Polish Heritage Room." The current exhibit there traces the pope's lifetime in four parts and focuses on his connection with the Jewish people.

But most of the displays are not about John Paul. Several permanent exhibits use computers and art to explore the teachings of different religions, for example. One current temporary exhibit displays massive models of the historic Temple Mount; another shows 57 portraits of popes through history.

Center officials said it has been hard to draw paying customers in a city where people expect major museums to be free. They also cite the center's location near Catholic University, a 20-minute walk from the nearest Metro station, and some bad timing -- soon after the museum's opening, Washington tourism dropped because of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Ned McGrath, a spokesman for the Detroit archdiocese, said that although the center is "an underperforming loan," Maida still believes it is worthwhile. McGrath said the closing of parish schools is linked not to the center, but to Catholics moving out of the city and auto industry layoffs. He noted that many Detroit public schools also have closed.

Finance officials at the archdiocese have long known about the growing debt, he said. But Detroit area priests did not find out until a letter from Maida on Feb. 2, the same day the National Catholic Reporter published its story.

The center has a five-member executive committee, including Maida. The four other board members either did not return calls or declined to comment.

Kerr said there wasn't a schedule for repaying the Detroit archdiocese. "I think there were presumptions, not per se a plan," he said. McGrath said that "the matter is under review" and that the archdiocese "remains confident that its investment is secured by the building and the property."

But there is debate among Catholics about what constitutes an appropriate investment and appropriate oversight. About 70,000 people and institutions around the world gave money to build the center, including the Knights of Columbus and various Catholic dioceses.

"There is no controlling these guys once they decide to spend money, and they don't have to report what they spend," said Rea Howarth, a liberal Catholic activist in Maryland. "They are like feudal lords."

Francis J. Butler, who heads a consortium of Catholic foundations that donates hundreds of millions each year and does polling about Catholics' philanthropic habits, said the center's difficulties reflect financial troubles that Catholic institutions are facing nationwide.

In the midst of this, he said, Catholics are losing the sense of what the denomination's values are and what it has contributed to the country. Now is just the time for an institution such as the Pope John Paul II Center to explain Catholicism's relevance, he said.

"There is a place for the John Paul Center -- to tell this enormous history of Catholic life that we're losing because no one is providing a cultural center like this," Butler said. Maida's effort "was not a trivial endeavor," he added. "I think his fellow bishops ought to join him and rally up to him."