Really. Even though that corner of DC is a hotbed of Catholic life, the John Paul II Center seemed like an overreach to many when it was announced.

Four years after it opened, there are, indeed, problems. Joe Feureherd reports:

Billed as a first-class museum, high-tech exhibit hall and Catholic think tank that would promote the church within the broader culture, the center today is a 100,000-square-foot-money pit. Expensive exhibits go largely unviewed, interactive displays mostly untouched, while annual foot traffic through the facility is less than one-tenth of the neighboring National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

“There are no busy days at the center,” said a former employee.

Constructed on a 12-acre site purchased from the neighboring Catholic University of America in Northeast Washington, the center was the inspiration of Detroit Cardinal Adam Maida, who, while serving as bishop of Green Bay, Wis., first proposed the idea to Pope John Paul II. But it’s 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.

The archdiocese has loaned or guaranteed loans totaling approximately $36 million to cover operating costs at the center, a source familiar with the center’s finances told NCR. Ned McGrath, spokesman for the archdiocese, confirmed that the Detroit church has supported the center both monetarily and through in-kind contributions, but declined to put a dollar value on that aid. “The cardinal thought it was a worthwhile project and still thinks so,” said McGrath. “But we just don’t talk about our investments.”

The center’s executive director, Msgr. William Kerr, told NCR the $36 million figure is “probably close to right” though some of those funds, he said, went toward construction costs and not operating expenses. In addition, the center owes the Catholic University more than $2 million for the property on which the center sits. “There is just no doubt that the archdiocese of Detroit was the real force behind the establishment [of the center] and therefore the guarantor of the center’s survival,” said Kerr.