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Let them appoint new parish councils.

We elect our parish councils.

If the pastor appoints the council, why have one? Just let the priest run the parish, since he's surrounding himself with "yes" men anyway.

Our pastor never talks about money; the stewardship committee people do that. He never talks about lay ministries in the parish; the stewardship committee people do that.

That's why the number of people involved in ministry has tripled over the past three years, and our average Sunday collection tops $30,000.

I well understand that many AmChurch parishes actually elect parish councils. When I was in legal partnership with my very liberal long-time friend (from the age of 3), he was the Treasurer of the reasonably affluent parish in which we both grew up. He was forever whining that the quite Catholic pastor (a frequent purveyor of the Tridentine Mass at a parish in our then hometown too poor to have been wreckovated) wanted to "waste money" on Catholic religious activity when my partner, as Treasurer, had more mundane priorities like architectural improvements.

Electing parish councils is another failed experiment of the AmChurch revolution. Pastors ought to be pastors. If the pastor does not run the parish (preferably making the real decisions and removing malcontent "council" members as appropriate, and if the pastor is an exemplar, the parish is far better served. An increasing number of pastors refuse to cooperate with the farce of parish councils, call no elections, and hold no meetings. Good for them.

Also, a lot of parishes with "councils" develop imperial ministry structures to provide paychecks to the parish liberals to further subvert Catholicism. It sounds like the "stewardship" committee also needs abolition if it has the consummate gall to replace the pastor in running parish ministries. The pastor might consider spending less time on the golf course and more time doing his job. AND money isn't everything. The poorest parishes in our diocese can do major renovations and restorations (NOT wreckovations!) out of their own collection baskets.

An appointed council, serving at the pleasure of the pastor, will cooperate with the pastor and serve under him or not at all. Much better model. Not unlike pope and curia.