From the San Jose Mercury News:
When San Jose’s Bishop Patrick J. McGrath went hunting in Silicon Valley for a place to settle down and retire, he knew it wouldn’t be easy to find a modestly priced abode in one of the country’s most-expensive real estate markets.
But his decision to buy a $2.3 million, five-bedroom home in the city’s desirable Willow Glen neighborhood on the Diocese of San Jose’s dime raised some eyebrows among the diocese’s 640,000 Catholics, given the church’s mission of charity and serving the poor. Real estate websites gush about the “grand-sized chef’s kitchen,” “soaring ceilings,” “lush lawns” and “luxurious master en-suite” with a “spa-like marble bathroom” in the 3,269-square-foot “Tuscan estate” the diocese purchased for McGrath earlier this year.