The Archdiocese of Boston just made a bad business deal, which I'm sure you all have heard about.

Michael Indresano bought the shuttered, century-old St. Mary Star of the Sea church and its rectory and parish hall in East Boston from the archdiocese on Nov. 16 for $850,000.

Indresano then sold the property 19 days later to the Universal Church of New York City for the grand sum of $2.65 million, in essence posting a $1.8 million profit in 19 days.

In the absence of any wrong-doing, I think there's nothing wrong with this deal - a seller sold for what they could get (higher than its appraised value, in fact) and a buyer got a property he wanted.

The old adage is - what is a property worth? Whatever a buyer is willing to pay.

Churches are in high demand. Honestly. There are more religions looking for churches than there are churches. To keep them as churches, not to turn into condo developments.

List prices are very important, and churches priced high or built in a unique architectural design will have a problem, but truth is, if you have a church, you can find a buyer.

(There are two churches I know of in the South End that were up for sale recently. "Jesus Saves" on St George Street, went under agreement after being listed at $6,300,000, I assume to a developer, but I don't know. The gigantic Pentecostal church on Warren Street is still available, for $9,700,000. I don't think that the church could be anything but another church, based on its interior design.)

(The Archdiocese will be selling another church in the South End, soon. We'll have to wait to see whether or not they can sell it for what it's truly worth.)

The Catholic Church might have known this, but decided it didn't want to sell to another church. Doesn't that make some sort of sense? It might even be against Cardinal law (haha!).

Let's congratulate this guy for making a killing on a real estate deal, let's blame the Catholic Church for being stupid, then let's drop the whole thing.

More: Church deal infuriates - By Brian McGrory, The Boston Globe