B4 EZ SU THE WASHINGTON POST.MONDAY, AUGUST 3 , 2020
between afraid and reckless, and
that’s prudence.”
D.C. posted a seven-day aver-
age of 71 new cases on Sunday,
compared with an average of 33
new cases a day in early July.
While the current average is
still far below the city’s peak of
nearly 200 new infections a day
in May, D.C. Mayor Muriel E.
Bowser (D) has already warned
residents that she may tighten
coronavirus-related restrictions
and has ordered visitors from
most states to self-quarantine for
two weeks when entering the
city.
In Maryland, Baltimore City
and Baltimore County — where
new cases have soared to record
highs in recent weeks — a dded
171 and 178 cases on Sunday,
respectively. Prince George’s
County, where cases are again
climbing rapidly after weeks of
gradual inclines, added 137 new
cases, while neighboring Mont-
gomery added 93.
New cases in Virginia have
started to decline after three
weeks of surges that were fueled
primarily by the state’s Hampton
Roads area. Virginia Beach on
Sunday added 121 new infec-
tions, bringing its seven-day av-
erage to 107, down from 146 a
week ago.
[email protected]Twitter, said she felt “insulted” by
the priest’s articles and speeches
urging Catholics not to be afraid.
“He has used his platform to
mock and ridicule Catholics who
are taking precautions,” Gold-
stein, whose church is about a
mile from Pope’s, said in an
interview. “It’s so un-pastoral, so
unlike a pr iest.”
Goldstein said she encoun-
tered Pope on June 6, a day of
mass racial justice protests in
D.C., while he was leading a
rosary procession with about 30
priests, nuns and congregants,
most of whom were not wearing
facial coverings.
Goldstein, who was distribut-
ing water and masks with other
members of St. Joseph’s, said she
offered Pope a mask but he
declined — a decision she felt was
irresponsible.
It was not mandatory at the
time to wear facial coverings
outdoors, though city officials
had urged residents who were
attending protests to do so.
Pope said he had a mask in his
pocket during the procession but
was not wearing it when Gold-
stein approached him. He called
her criticisms a “grossly unfair
accusation” of his behavior.
“When I say, ‘Do not be afraid,’
that is not to say, ‘Be reckless,’ ”
he said. “There’s a m iddle groundadding that he stands by the
perspective he shared on his blog
and during sermons. “We are
Christians. We believe that
there’s a role for su ffering. It’s not
appropriate for a Christian to be
afraid.”
Pope said he does not know
how he caught the virus. He was
hospitalized July 27 with a h igh
fever and low levels of oxygen,
but he has since returned to the
rectory, he said. He apologized
for the “inconvenience” he had
caused parishioners who were
asked to quarantine.
Epidemiological research sug-
gests that the coronavirus is sig-
nificantly more lethal than the
seasonal flu, with a crude case
fatality rate of about 6 p ercent.
While the majority of people who
are infected experience only mild
symptoms, it is a very contagious
virus that can cause a high death
toll if allowed to spread to large
sections of the population, ex-
perts say. In the wake of a
dramatic surge in infections that
has devastated parts of the West
and South, local and state of fi-
cials are calling for a coordinated
national shutdown of commer-
cial and social activity.
Dawn Goldstein, a Capitol Hill
resident and member of St. Jo-
seph’s Catholic Church who post-
ed about Pope’s diagnosis onthat public officials have issued
to stem the spread of the virus,
including limiting worship ser-
vices.
“There is more to life than just
not getting sick and not dying,”
he wrote.
H e told a religious radio show
on the morning of July 27 that he
thinks some parishioners who
have chosen not to return to
in-person services are “luke-
warm” Catholics.
Even after being hospitalized
with covid-19, Pope continued to
urge followers not to be afraid of
the disease. “I wonder, when will
be the endgame?” he said in a
video message posted Saturday.
“When will it be safe enough to
play in the park again? That still
remains my concern, even after
having contracted this.”
Pope said Sunday that he has
never violated city regulations on
mask-wearing or physical dis-
tancing, nor has he urged his
followers to do so. He wore a
mask when speaking to con-
gregants one-on-one, he said,
and sanitized his hands with
alcohol when providing Commu-
nion.
“Whenever I w as told to wear a
mask, I always did,” he said,REGION FROM B1Priest apologizes for ‘inconvenience’ to parishioners
tied to the stock market. When
that started plummeting, are
they going to start tightening
their belts?”
Kim Jones, executive director
of the Nonprofit Village, which
helps groups in the region
expand capacity, said in some
cases mergers and closures
would reduce duplication of
effort.
“We do think there’s going to
be a big drop-off” in the number
of nonprofits, Jones said. “A year
from now, we think the
landscape will look very
different.”
The Washington region is
hardly alone. A July report by
Deloitte said early estimates of
contraction in the U.S. nonprofit
sector range from 10 percent to
40 percent. The report also said
the need for nonprofit services
will “dwarf”available resources.
When demands on its
coronavirus fund vastly exceeded
donations, the Greater
Washington Community
Foundation had to make difficult
choices. Its grants, ranging from
$10,000 to $50,000, went to 200
nonprofits out of 1,600 requests.
“ We really had to screen for
organizations that were
providing immediate relief to the
most vulnerable communities,”
President Tonia Wellons said.
“In the first two, three months
of covid, we were incredibly
surprised by the uptick in
philanthropic contributions,” she
said. “What I worry about... is
whether they’re going to be able
to sustain that, both at an
individual and a corporate level.”
United Way has had a similar
experience. Its emergency fund
collected more than $2 million,
only to receive requests totaling
$5 million.
Initially, the region’s biggest
need was for food for households
where people had lost their jobs.
The Capital Area Food Bank said
increase in demand for food at its
distribution sites ranges from
30 percent to 400 percent.
While food remains a major
concern, nonprofits now are also
seeing a surge in need for help
avoiding eviction.
United Communities Against
Poverty in Prince George’s
County has seen an increase in
visits to its emergency food bank
from about 50 customers a week
to 250. When a moratorium was
recently lifted on evictions, the
requests began for housing
assistance.
“Once Monday hit, evictions
just started popping,” President
Rasheeda Jamison-Harriott said
last week. “Our phones have been
ringing off the hook.”
She said her 57-year-old
organization will weather the
crisis better than some others.
“We are able to survive
because of our age and
reputation in the community,”
Jamison-Harriott said. “For my
smaller, sister nonprofits, who
are new and don’t have the
history of serving, they are going
to have an extremely hard time.”
[email protected]If all that weren’t enough,
philanthropists are also dealing
with a growing recognition that
they have failed to overcome
racial inequities in both their
leadership and patterns of
giving. The concern has
deepened with the nationwide
protests after the killing of
George Floyd in police custody.
“I think what we saw in the
confluence of crises in the last
few months is the failure of our
systems, especially as they
handle communities of color,”
Meyer Foundation President
Nicky Goren said. “This is a
moment of reckoning, where we
really need to take a hard look.”
A report last year by the
Washington Regional
Association of Grantmakers
found that less than 3 percent of
overall giving in the area went to
organizations headed by Black or
Latino people, or other people of
color. O’Gilvie’s group is
launching a Center for Race,
Equity, Justice and Inclusion to
address the disparities.
One nonprofit at risk of
closing is Vikara Village in
Rockville, which offers yoga and
art programs for victims of
trauma. It has shut down most of
its activities since losing a
contract with a hospital and a
planned project with a middle
school. The organization has also
been notified that it will not
receive grants it was expecting
and has laid off all five of its paid
instructors.
“On March 13, we had to shut
down in-person programming,
and we have not been able to
resume, which cut our revenue to
zero,” founder Hannah Davis
said. “We were left to scramble
with zero dollars.”
Asked if Vikara Village might
have to close, Davis said:
“Realistically, it makes me very
sad, but that has come across my
mind.... I think we need to
reevaluate in December.”
Gabriel Martinez Cabrera,
executive director of the Literacy
Council of Montgomery County,
or LCMC, is concerned about
losing foundation support. About
2,500 adults each year learn
English or get employment
certificates with LCMC, and it
has been costly to switch classes
to digital platforms.
“It’s a little bit scary on the
foundation side,” Martinez
Cabrera said. “A lot of these
foundations, their budgets are
MEMO FROM B1
REGIONAL MEMO
Slowdown in donations
leaves charities uncertain
“I think what we saw
in the confluence of
crises in the last few
months is the failure
of our systems.”
Nicky Goren,
president of the Meyer FoundationMs. Kennedy has treasured the
Urn as a special and symbolic
artifact of her family’s life and
unique histor y.”
The suit maintains that the
email sent by Dabbiere to Kerry
Kennedy has the effect of a b ind-
ing contract. “The contract is rea-
sonable,” attorney Donald B.
Mitchell Jr. wrote, “certain, legal,
mutual, and supported by valu-
able consideration.”
“I believe this is a personal mat-
ter between me and Kerry,” Dab-
biere said in an email Saturday. He
said that when he sent the email to
Kennedy in 2010, “I was told by
Kerry that the urn had been in the
family of her ‘Aunt Jackie’ (Jackie
Bouvier Kennedy) when she grew
up and was from Jackie’s child-
hood home. This history was the
key reason I agreed to convey the
urn back to her after I believed it
had conveyed to me with the prop-
erty.”
Dabbiere added, “I recently
confirmed that the urn had been
on the property long before the
Kennedy family purchased the
home through a photo from the
[Justice Robert] Jackson Library.
When I discovered this I contacted
Kerry with these facts.” He said the
urn should stay at Hickory Hill. “I
believe this is a mutual mistake of
fact and consequently the email
agreement to convey the urn back
to Kerry is in question. I believe
this is a s ituation where the courts
can and will decide fairly based on
the facts ,” he said.
“Mr. Dabbiere is wrong,” Ken-
nedy responded. “When the urn
arrived at Hickory Hill is irrele-
vant; there is no mutual mistake of
fact that would void our contract.”
She said the le tter from Jackson
“confirms that the urn was always
personal property and did not
convey when he purchased Hicko-
ry Hill. Given Mr. Dabbiere’s ex-
tensive changes to the exterior of
Hickory Hill, including removing
dozens of old trees and adding an
entire new wing to the home, his
claim that retaining the urn is
consistent with stewardship of
Hickory Hill’s history is uncon-
vincing.”
[email protected]would have had to put it in stor-
age, so she agreed to the delay.
“Kerry,” Dabbiere wrote in an
email dated June 16, 2010, “the
purpose of this email is to memo-
rize [sic] our conversation that the
Urn in the front of Hickory Hill
will remain as your property and
we give up any rights to it convey-
ing with the property and in ex-
change you agree that the Urn will
stay in its current place for 10
years from today’s date — June
16th, 2010. At that time, you are
free to take the urn.”
Kennedy said she began reach-
ing out to Dabbiere in May of this
year and told him, “Please, don’t
go back on your word. Return my
urn. He told me to hire a l awyer.”
Dabbiere denied telling Kenne-
dy that and said he hoped to re-
solve the situation amicably.
The suit filed Friday in cludes a
1964 photo of the Kennedy family,
then with eight children, with the
urn in the background. The suit
estimates that the urn is worth
more than $75,000, the minimum
needed to file a feder al claim.
The urn “is the symbolic repre-
sentation of her family’s lives at
Hickory Hill,” the suit states. “It
was something her parents trea-
sured because it was one of the few
things they had that had also be-
longed to President Kennedy, andHickory Hill soon after he took
possession in 2010 and tried to
shield his identity as the owner of
the property, placing it in the
name of AirWatch’s chief execu-
tive and telling Patch.com report-
er Bobbi Bowman in 2011, “I have
gone to great lengths not to have
my name associated” with Hicko-
ry Hill.
Dabbiere entered into a c on-
tract with Ethel Kennedy to buy
the home in December 2009 for
$8.25 million, according to Fairfax
real estate records. Before the sale,
according to the lawsuit, “Ethel
Kennedy gave all ownership rights
and title to the urn that was locat-
ed at Hickory Hill to her daughter,
plaintiff Kerry Kennedy.”
Dabbiere agreed to lease the
home back to Ethel Kennedy until
May 2010, when she moved out.
Kerry Kennedy said that when she
went to Hickory Hill to get the urn,
Dabbiere “refused to allow me ac-
cess. He falsely claimed it was his
property.”
Kerry Kennedy said in an inter-
view that she had “an exhausting
and expensive series of negotia-
tions involving lawyers” with Dab-
biere and that he agreed to turn it
over “in exchange for being able to
showcase it on his yard for 10
years.” She said she was moving to
New York City at the time andF. Kennedy and his wife, Jackie,
but in 19 57 they swapped homes
with Robert and Ethel Kennedy,
then building what would become
a family with 11 children.
John Kennedy had purchased
the home from the estate of the
recently deceased Supreme Court
justice Robert Jackson, who also
served as a prosecutor during the
Nuremberg war-crimes trials and
as U.S. attorney general. Jackson
also claimed the urn as private
property, a le tter from 1941 shows.
That means it is not a permanent
part of Hickory Hill, said Kerry
Kennedy, a lawyer and longtime
human rights activist who is the
head of the Robert F. Kennedy
Human Rights organization.
Kerry Kennedy, 60, is the sev-
enth of Robert and Ethel Kenne-
dy’s children, born in 1959 and
raised at Hickory Hill. The home
became a renowned gathering
spot for politicians, authors and
cultural icons, both before and
after Robert Kennedy’s assassina-
tion in June 1968. It also was the
place where Kerry Kennedy said
she “learned my uncle had been
killed,” when she was a 4 -year-old,
and “cried in when my father was
killed.” She said it was “where I
learned to play football, the kitch-
en I learned to bake in... the tree I
planted when I started my first
day of work on human rights.”
Dabbiere, 58, is the chairman of
OneTrust and formerly led Air-
Watch, both companies that man-
age privacy and securi ty for the
computers and mobile devices of
both government agencies and
private organizations. He
launched massive renovations onLAWSUIT FROM B1Four-foot-high urn planter is at center of legal fray
RICHARD A. LIPSKI/THE WASHINGTON POST
Hickory Hill, once the home of Robert F. Kennedy and his family in
McLean. The urn planter is shown in this 2009 photo.Your Best Option
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