Catholic priest Paul Lundrigan speaks to a reporter outside St. John's Basilica Thursday. (CBC)

St. John's Roman Catholic archdiocese has lost money in a fundraising bid despite offering half-million-dollar homes as prizes.

Two homes have been given away in the fundraising lottery but the church says it lost money on the tickets it sold for them.

The loss has left the church with a lot of questions.

“Was it the time of year? Was it the fact that we were doing two homes instead of one?” asked Paul Lundrigan, a priest with the archdiocese. “So we are looking at it now and studying what we've done and what we've done wrong — obviously we've done something wrong here."

Lundrigan said he didn’t know much money was lost on the lottery but says the church didn’t sell enough $100 tickets to break even.

The archdiocese is strapped for cash because it is paying compensation to victims of sexual abuse.

Last year, it ran a $1.3 million deficit.

Lundrigan says it's a struggle to continue pastoral care and maintain cemeteries. The church thought the home lottery would be the answer.

Now Lundrigan says it’s back to the drawing board. He says the church is working on a new plan to make money.