Mind-bogglingly expensive

white elephant

"It was to be a presidential library of sorts, though both the Pope and the Cardinal, as the project moved forward, emphasized that it was not to be a monument to John Paul II, but rather a cultural and intellectual mecca for the 21st-century church".

Cardinal Maida's construction of a "Catholic" Mecca contrast strongly with the "downsizing Detroit archdiocese, which has closed three dozen schools over the past three years and is considering consolidating or closing dozens of parishes, which might yet foot the bill for the financially struggling center."

This is what the center means by culture.

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