Posted on 07/31/2007 7:49:19 AM PDT by NYer
Listening to the experience of people across the nation, it is clearly important that such an appointment be made officially and formally by the bishop, and that adequate preparation be given to the parish community which will be receiving the team of parish director and assisting priest.
Officially ... formally ... "adequate" preparation. D'you get the sense contrary voices from the pews are likely to get a welcome and judicious hearing?
An opportunity for the parish council to speak with people actually involved in this model seems important to clarify any misconceptions, even before its formal inception, and an official installation by the bishop at one of the weekend parish Masses is necessary for people to appreciate the official character of this model of pastoral care.
"To clarify any misconceptions ..." The misconceptions here referred to are clearly limited to the parishioners, and the "official character" of the "official installation" leaves no doubt that this gift is not the sort that can be returned to sender.
These recommendations have been part of our own practice in Milwaukee from the very beginning. The importance of preaching in the pastoral shaping of a parish community is a given for anyone who has ever filled that role. This poses challenges, given our present liturgical laws.
Notice the little zinger in the last line? The "present liturgical laws" the bishop refers to is, in reality, Canon 767, by which the homily is reserved to a priest or a deacon, which in turn reflects an unbroken Catholic practice with theological roots in Romans 10 ("How shall men believe him, of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear, without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they be sent?" vv 14f). Clearly Sklba feels the "challenges" posed by the doctrine of Holy Orders can be overcome with a little pastoral creativity.
It has become clear to me that parishioners must appreciate the full pastoral authority of a parish director, and that a good match between parish director and assisting priest be established from the beginning. Finding mutually respectful team members can be a challenge.
What is the force of Slkba's "must" in the first line above? Are we to read it as part of an implied conditional hinging on the qualities of the director ("If this scheme is to succeed, the director must be worthy of the respect appropriate to one in authority")? Or is it, more likely, a diktat underscoring the faithful's lack of choice in the matter: You parishioners need to get it through your skulls that the lay director will be planted on you just as an ordained pastor is, and -- get used to it -- your opinion before and after the fact counts for zip.
When they were first dreamed up by woozy ecumenists in the years of the Second Vatican Council, lay pastoral ministers were (in Jerry Fodor's phrase) "a cure for which there is no adequate disease." We have the post-Conciliar liberal episcopacy to thank for working unremittingly to introduce the desired illness: they managed to empty the seminaries with a swiftness no persecution could rival. And finally, having presented us with the disease, they gleefully produce the medicine.
Now get that look off your face, and Open Wide.
Diogenes, as always, nails it! We are witness to this in Albany NY and out in Los Angeles. There is nothing more painful to an orthodox Catholic than to watch a layperson be preceded by line of priests in procession down the aisle of a church, to celebrate a service of carols and readings. I hope never to witness this again.
MMMmmm, I had to drive an hour away for my daughter to receive an award from the Bishop, the bishop and the nun/pastoral assistant, who was dressed in long robes, walked up the aisle....there was music they both spoke, there were some readings......NO mass was offered (which I presume to mean Jesus was not invited in person) and it was over.....we had cookies and punch, then left. It was a letdown. Our Bishop comes to this area once in awhile, but NEVER offers mass. I sometimes wonder if he has a personal relationship with the Lord he would like to share with us, of if he thinks of himself as a celebrity who doesn't need Jesus with him? It is a special pet peeve of mine. ((now I have to go say my ten Hail Marys!))
This should be fun to watch.
Bp. Sklba is the mouthpiece for Weaklandism/Bernardinism in Milwaukee...
Open wide indeed.
A mouthpiece that would be better cemented shut.
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