Fallen Angel

It wasn't the mounting cost of the project that bothered her or even the amount of money spent on fund-raising activities. What chafed Harper was the secrecy. Harper says that Piazza and board members were not forthcoming to the congregation, leading them to think all of their money was being used to construct the Johnson cathedral.

She supported the church's expansion while privately questioning the scope of the project, but it was the financial discrepancies that compelled her to resign. Money that should have been used for construction was being spent on fund raising, she says.

Sources say that Piazza sponsored lavish fund-raising events despite their failure to net much money. He took groups of potential donors to the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas and to Johnson's home in Connecticut, spending tens of thousands of dollars wining and dining people who never came through.

Frey's records show that less than $200,000 was raised through national sources.

The Observer reported in 1999 that the bulk of the $7 million then raised for the new cathedral's construction came primarily from the congregation and Dallas arts patrons, not through national fund-raising efforts. The following year, the cathedral received another local windfall when Texas philanthropist Sam Frech died and bequeathed his $4 million estate to advance the building project.

"Everyone knows that to raise money you have to spend money," the former executive director says. "You're casting bread upon water. But if money's not coming in, you have to wonder."

Fund raising is an appropriate use of capital campaign money, she says, but in the cathedral's case, it was obvious the endeavor was a bust. Yet Piazza continued to spend money regardless of the fact that the church couldn't meet its monthly obligations.

Harper says the cathedral may be intent on seeing the new building completed, but as it appears on the books today it isn't possible.

Documents put together by the cathedral's financial team show that since Piazza came on staff, the church has purchased 19 parcels valued at $12 million. The church's footprint has been enlarged to 14 largely contiguous acres near Nash Street and Cedar Springs and Inwood roads. The church owes $2 million on the properties and pays close to $40,000 a month on their loans.

The former executive director says Piazza set up a parallel organization, Cathedral of Hope Inc., so that in case the church ever split with the denomination, the property and assets would remain with the cathedral. After the start of the capital campaign, properties bought by the church were purchased under Cathedral of Hope Inc.

Copies of a legal summary prepared by the board of directors and obtained by the Observer suggest cathedral leadership may have been preparing for a break. In January 1998, the board discussed the results of a list of goals presented to its legal counsel, Gardere Wynne Sewell LLP. It included making COH Inc. a legally and operationally separate entity from MCC-Dallas (MCCD) "in the unlikely event of separation from the denomination. The only property in MCCD ownership is to be the condo."

The condo was a parsonage purchased prior to Piazza's hiring and has since been sold.

The summary also shows that the cathedral was establishing a nonprofit status for the new corporation to get out from under MCC's tax-exempt umbrella.

The purpose was clear, former church leaders say: Piazza was planning to leave the denomination and make sure all the assets remained with the church.

Spin Cycle

A number of former staff and board members were having a crisis of faith. They didn't trust Piazza's leadership; they questioned the direction of the church and the reality of the Johnson cathedral to which they had devoted so much time and energy.

It took the sudden departure of a much-loved minister, Brock, to coalesce a small group of reformers.

Calling themselves the Cathedral of Hope Reform and led by Terri Frey, former members began to speak openly about their experiences and ask questions. They went to board meetings, they wrote letters, they agitated. And in April 2003, Frey filed a complaint that sparked MCC's investigation. Two days before the results were to be made public, Piazza resigned his credentials from MCC, spiking the investigation and sealing the findings from the public.

Even his resignation letter to the congregation is controversial. As the Voice reported, Piazza sent a letter to congregants claiming, "I repeatedly asked the board to allow me simply to resign and to go away, but they were clear that would be wrong because they know that I am innocent and this attack is really aimed at the church, not me." The Voice noted, however, that Upton said he knew of no offer by Piazza to resign and that Piazza himself had called speculation about his resignation "wishful thinking."

Brock called his resignation "masterful--unethical but masterful. He did it before anyone could say, 'Wait! If you're innocent, why not wait to be exonerated?'"

At the end of July this year, on the cathedral's 33rd anniversary, Piazza asked the congregation to vote on disaffiliating with the denomination, saying that it was a "post-Will and Grace world." He said the vote to disaffiliate, while painful, was necessary. It could no longer be simply a gay church and survive. (The church is still predominantly gay but is casting a wider net to draw progressive heterosexuals.)