Remember that secret meeting last year between liberal Catholics and a group of bishops? It was the one that Deal Hudson got so upset about that he called another meeting, this time between bishops and conservative Catholics. Well, the libs had another meeting. This time they met in Philadelphia to discuss how laypeople can have a larger role in the Church. According to the post-meeting press conference, it dwelled on topics of governance, financial management, and personnel. Power and money. Isn’t that what it always comes down to for these people?
“Doing so would increase public confidence and could increase donations, he said.”
Ya know – In our parish, the last pastor was taken away one day after it was discovered that he gambled away all the church’s funds. (Of course, no one had the decency to tell the laity; they had to discover the truth for themselves.) Now we have a financial committee that runs and takes care of all finances – with our pastor having the last say. But at least there is some oversight – so that there won’t be complete malfeasance.
In the same way, it would be a good idea to insist that all compaints of sexual misconduct be made to 1) the bishop; 2) the pastor of the church in question; 3) a committee of lay people with the power to advise; and 3) the POLICE.
Since the bishops have virtually absolute power – and many are heavily corrupted by it – oversight at least by lay people would be, I think, a good idea.
AT the base of it – trust in bishops has been destroyed in many, many areas. To regain that trust, people need to know that bishops (and priests) aren’t committing crimes.
MY Protestant friends tell me that most Protestant ministers have such lay oversight – and it helps mightily to keep things on a good plane.
Geoffrey Boise, a member of the Boston College Board of Trustees, could restore a tremendous amount of faith in his honesty and integrity if he would first require that Fr. Wm. Leahy,S.J., pres. of B.C., rescind his statement in the alumni magazine(Boston College Magazine, winter 2000,p.p.8,9) that he will not accept the Mandatum that would require that Boston College theologians promise to uphold the Magisterium teachings in their theology classes and that Catholic colleges “should recruit and appoint Catholics as professors.” Fr. Leahy responded that “No,” he said,“My position is to hire people who can contribute to our education mission and heritage-no matter what their faith. We will not ask(in job interviews) whether you are a Roman Catholic…”(p.9)
A consequence of this refusal to accept the Mandatum is that John McDargh, a tenured member in Boston College’s Theology Department, “who has always been open about his sexual orientation”, has joined together with Paul Bries,“an openly bisexual tenured faculty member who has regularly taught GLBT history courses”; and Kevin Obi who” teaches queer theory courses” at Boston College, to launch on May 19,2004, the Lesbian and Gay Faculty, Staff and Administration Association at Boston College(LGFSAA) to ” promote change at B.C.”.The “change” desired is to make B.C. more receptive to those faculty members who choose to engage in same-sex sex and to support gay unions. This can be verified by accessing the Bay Windows issue of June 3,2004,“BC faculty band together to promote change” by Laura Kirtsy(www,baywindows.com).
One wonders if Geoffrey Boise will address this kind of “change” at his secret meeting to address the needs of Catholics. Is he supportive of McDargh’s attempt to bring about “change” at B.C. that will make B.C. more “gay friendly”?
DoesGeoffrey Boise intend to support efforts to make the Catholic Church more “gay friendly” ? This is a consequence of what Fr. Leahy, the president of B.C. has done by rejecting the Mandatum for the teachers of Theology at B.C.. To my knowledge, Geoffrey Boise has never publicly stated anything to show that he did not agree with the rejection of the Mandatum by Fr. Leahy. Nor has he publicly stated anything to show his objection to John McDargh, a tenured member in Boston College’s Theology Department, establishing the LGFSAA. Why is Geoffrey Boise allowed to be in charge of this secret meeting? Who has given him this responsibility when he has totally shirked his responsibilities to the students and those who pay their bills at the Catholic college, Boston College? Does anyone else get the smell of fraud? What is Geoffrey Boise’s definition of the meaning of Catholic beliefs?
There are a lot of positives in ‘lay involvement’ especially in the administrative/financial areas of a parish.
Priests are not book-keepers, nor finance gurus—and there are far fewer priests, anyway.
As to ‘taking over,’—nope. One would hope that the pastor and Bishop would give serious consideration to advice of lay people in their area of expertise (at least as much as they gave to the shrinks who said pedophiles can be ‘cured.’)
But in the end, someone with a collar has to sign off.