It *is* rather ugly, but I'd be skeptical about the $500K repair amount. The archdiocese has become notorious in inflating repair figures as part of the excuse for closing parishes. My parish, Holy Trinity in the South End, is a case in point. It has been let out that we "need" $250,000 in repairs, but outside contractors have been brought in by the parishioners, and the repair total is closer to $50,000, and some of that is merely cosmetic, not structural.
Maybe the Archdiocese wants to put the steeple back on...that might bring it up to 250k.
Oh, maybe it's 50k in repairs and 200k kick back to the Archbishop.
Few people know it, but you have to be on a special contractors list to do work for the Archdiocese and it's very difficult to get on that list (my Uncle is a Contractor that does Slate and Copper Roofs) and they typically use the same contractors over and over (who suprise, suprise are BIG donors)