You’ve heard of the phrase “cut off your nose to spite your face.” Here’s a nice illustration of it. The parishioners at Our Lady Help of Christians parish in Newton, Mass, are withholding their donations until Fr. Walter Cuenin is reinstated. (Boston Globe)
Now the obvious result is that the parish will have to begin cutting expenses. And what is the obvious albatross hanging around the neck of the parish? What is likely the single biggest expense of the parish that can most easily be cut? How about a bloated pastoral staff? On the parish’s web site I count five pastoral associates plus a youth minister. Seems like a lot, even for a big parish. I’d be willing to be that many parishes, even most, have none.
And considering that all these people were originally on Cuenin’s staff, what are the odds that they are actually teaching and preaching the whole, unvarnished Catholic faith and not the watered-down, heterodox Gospel according to Walter Cuenin?
Maybe I’ve just avoided the fringe better, but I do think there are fewer egregious abuses than, e.g., twenty years ago. It’s been years since I’ve seen a church full of balloons, a “liturgical dancer”, or amateur eucharistic bread.
I’m sure BXVI has other sources of information on the state of liturgical abuse here and elsewhere other than the pens of these bishops.
The bishops want to make themselves look good and some of them wouldn’t know a liturgical abuse if it bit them on their ***. With the other poster above, I’m sure Pope Benedict has his ways of knowing these things, and he’s seen enough having been head of the CDF, he’s probably not in denial.
Hmmmm…..funny how this “escrow account” stuff seems to follow Fr. Cuenin around. Don’t I remember something like that when he was involved in the imbroglio in Lexington?
Hmmmm…
You know, when you read their parish newsletter you get some sense of how “progressive” things were there under former management.
A certain MaryEllen Cocks writes, regarding the Sacred Triduum, “As we come to the cross, some bow, some
genuflect, some touch the wood, some kiss it, and some simply pause
before the cross.A beautiful and powerful gesture is to come to the
cross barefoot or in stocking feet. Thursday evening we removed our
shoes and had our feet washed so how fitting it is to remove our shoes
and come to the cross!”
Isn’t that sweet!
Of course, the idea is to invent new “ritual”—which eventually will replace “old ritual” (like the Mass). The reference to having their feet washed is not about 12 viri, representing the Apostles, have their feet washed by the pastor (representing Christ); nooooooo, in this parish it’s about everybody in the joint taking off their socks and shoes (phew!) and wash our neighbor’s feet (with WetNaps?) in a great paroxysm of unfocussed activity.
And the signs of reverence for the Holy Cross—genuflections? What did I miss in CCD class? Don’t we genuflect only to the Blessed Sacrament, Jesus Himself? I thought one bowed to the altar (the liturgical “cross”) and one kissed the Cross at this point in the Good Friday liturgy.
Oh, I forgot . . . they’re “progressive.”
If this is what five Pastoral Associates can do for(to) a parish, I don’t think they’re “quality hires.”
I’m curious: what ever happened with the 2 million dollars Our Lady’s was in the hole to the Archdiocese for?
One wonders if it was really the case that the income dropped – or perhaps there was an accounting change to one that took into account the money owed to the Archdiocese? (Just a hypothetical)
I received an email the other day from someone who said that in her parish three priests have said that the Blessed Virgin had other children besides Jesus.
Of course, that’s not a liturgical abuse.
If you have to close half the parishes down, doesn’t it stand to reason that it would cut the abuses approximately in half? I think they may be right.
We were in a suburban parish 10 years ago that went through a similarly bumpy transition from very progressive/dissident to back in line with the rest of the archdiocese, only it was due to the sudden death of the long-time pastor. I think he had been there 12 years.
It’s a much smaller parish than Our Lady Help of Christians, but so many similarities, and I just want to say that, after a couple of years the hissing, spitting and clawing did subside. The radicals moved to one of the two token dissident “magnet” parishes in the city, and life went on.
This parish was being run by a liberal pastoral associate, and parish council. The pastor had counted his vote as equal with the rest of the council members. They were using the Canadian lectionary because it was “inclusive language”. Also had a bloated staff that the parish could not afford.
When the new pastor arrived and started paring down the staff to save the budget people were just having total hissies. The music director was one of the ringleaders—she started flouting the pastor’s authority during Mass. He fired her and of course, her allies came unglued. And with-held their contributions.
So the weekly donations decreased for a while, but moderate and conservative families returned when the radicals were expelled and the numbers came back up again, within a year or two as I recall. I hope Fr. Coyne stands firm with his parish.
Hey Fr. Jim C, you are quite correct. Sacred Heart in Lexington, where Walter helped run out the pastor did exactly the same routine. Likewise the Globe stood beside him in that trick as well.
Five Pastoral Associates. Here’s one for you, how many parishes cannot even afford one full-time janitor, much less five pastoral associates.
Also have you noticed how many people have an e-mail connected to Our Lady’s Parish. Yet, when you are in the Boston Globe’s back pocket, you do not have to worry about reporters asking those questions. I want to know if any of the settlement money ended up in the coffers of that parish courtesy of any of the lawyers. Have you ever seen the grounds there?
Hey Dom,
VOTF is exclusively white like the protesters at the Cathedral I never saw a person of color among them. Check out the picture of 500 protesters outside the Cathedral on December 9th Boston Globe in your local library. A picture of 500 protesters as white as white can be. (Is it any wonder that you cannot find that picture online).
Further, VOTF people would call my immigrant parishioners (Iberoamericans)superstiticious and uneducated. Catholic means universal and in that sense this gives us another reason to proclaim that there is nothing Catholic about VOTF.
“but in North America and Europe it seems to be as bad as ever. You don>manwithblackhat@yahoo.com
http://manwithblackhat.blogspot.com
205.130.230.13
2005-10-25 09:35:55
2005-10-25 13:35:55
“Maybe there’s directory of priests and put us all on their mailing list.
Their pitch involved putting a picture of a young boy who was allegedly molested by a priest (who was named in the letter) and asking us to help his mother.
NOW who’s abusing kids? Is putting this kid’s picture on a mass-mailing and identifying him as a victim of molestation somehow helping him to deal with his issues? I don’t know a whole lot about psychology, but I know enough to consider this a bad idea!
At any rate, they wasted their full-color printing costs for two 8-1/2 x 14 pieces of vellum paper, the matching full-color envelope and the postage stamp on me. As they said in The Pink Panther, “Now, eet ees gar-bazh!”
We are running into the same problem with our parish since our previous pastor retired, and the new pastor is treating the Blessed Sacrament much more reverently and enforcing eucharistic norms and stopping canon law violations.
Quite a few years ago we (in my opinion) wrecktovated our church. We removed the Crucifix from a prominent place in the sanctuary and moved the crucified Jesus to the side. In the front was placed a hideous arving of Jesus holding out the host and cup. We relegated the tabernacle to a separate room (out of sight our of mind).
I never commented because I follow our pastor. Our new pastor wants to start bringing our church in line what what (I believe) a Catholic church is supposed to look like. We’re looking to place the tabernacle front and center, possibly move the crucifix back, and my suggestion was to add a bank of votive candles (which we got rid of when the church was changed).
Our pastor has had to fire beloved (though heterodox) staff which ticked off a whole contingent of the church (including me when it was done).
But we have a whispering campaign from a group of people who are undermining our pastor, have a phone chain set up when one of them gets news so they can blow it appropriately out of proportion when it gets to the last person, and they are witholding their donations.
I say to these people: “You are adding no value. You are formenting discord, and you’re not even financially adding to this parish. Why don’t you just GET OUT!”
But I’m backing my pastor (as I will back any pastor who is in communion with his Bishop and Rome). I will stick it out until the spirit of renewal catches on, or they close our doors, whichever comes first.
I think the bloat count was a bit understated. I count ten (10) staff. With benefits, this must be costing them a good $45-50K/person on average. Seems like that’s $500K/year in fixed costs, and the weekly collection doesn’t cover that—which is why they need to do a “Grand Annual,” (about to start shortly) and which is why they evidently have no cash reserves. Walter was spending every penny they took in. You’d think if they had no cash reserves and were living hand to mouth, Walter might have cut his own stipend to help get the parish on better fiscal ground, but NO. And the cracker-jack Parish Finance Council didn’t say boo about the bloated spending either. I heard they also have now stopped all repayments on those loans.
Tony, you’re a good guy… what a wrenching time this must be in your parish, especially for the priest.
I hope he’s addressed what he is doing (bringing the parish back in line with what a Catholic Church is supposed to be) via the bulletin or even a bit in the homily… so that people understand that their parish is the house of God and not a social club. I think most people just like to know what is going on – not to gossip or backbite, but as part of the parish family, everyone in the loop.
I guess every parish must have a sort of ‘clique’ that feels that only they know the true meaning of ‘the spirit of Vatican II’ – they were probably the same souls involved in the moving of the tabernacle and the crucifixes in the first place and they are angry that they haven’t been asked for consultation this time around.
Every time I hear a priest or layperson mention “the spirit of Vatican II,” I can be pretty sure that they’ve never read the documents of Vatican II.
Side note to Fr. Clark:
You’re the Padre, but I’m pretty sure genuflecting before the Cross on Good Friday (only on Good Friday) is the rubric when entering/leaving the church. No?
MaryJane,
The parish also rents out a substantial portion of its property to outside groups, which I think garners them a pretty good income. And they are running a parish high school, which requires some administration but also brings in tuition money.
I was only counting the pastoral staff since they are most likely the ones to be spreading the Gospel of Walter. But then I should add the disclaimer, if it isn’t obvious by now, that my brother is the director of finance and operations and is also on staff.
Hey Father Clark: well, the probably have read the documents of Vatican II, but the version explained by Sr. Chittister or Father McBrien or worse yet, Father Vosko.
I once had a parish priest break my heart because he told me (and then walked away leaving me open mouthed) that ‘we should distance ourselves from Rome… they don’t understand us Americans.’ There really is a struggle for the faith and it is palpable here in the Archdiocese of Boston. If it is distressing to those of us in the pews, I cannot imagine how hard it is for you priests fighting the good fight.
The situation at Our Lady’s is scary because it involves the entire reading population of the Boston Globe and Herald plus the viewing audience of the local news… that’s all most people know about it, the soundbites the papers publish and the soundbites on necn. Plus the surrounding area of the parish, Boston College and all the intellectual elites… Father Coyne has a big cross to bear. Withholding the donations is a good thing though, it will only have an impact on the silly paid committees in the parish which were most likely headed up by the most strident ‘change the Church’ people. They will lay off themselves and set up camp somewhere else… but that will stop damaging the regular parish people who just want to follow Jesus as best they can.
Seems like Our Lady’s is a wealthy parish… wonder how they got into all that debt and how, being in debt, they justified paying extra monies to the pastor? That stuff just doesn’t happen in homes or in parishes living within their means. You can’t spend money you don’t really have.
Tony—I guess I learn something every day! I just went to the Missal to see what the rubrics say for Good Friday, and they specifically suggest “a simple genuflection” for the Veneration of the Cross.
I’ve got to admit, I’ve never seen this occur. People in my parishes have always come forward to kiss the exposed Cross (and sometimes to kneel on a prie-dieu as they do so). I’ve never noticed genuflections at this time.
As to whether one genuflects upon entering and leaving church on Good Friday: no, I don’t think so. The tabernacle is empty, the crosses are removed (or covered)—only the altar is there, and it is bare. Even the priests who preside at the Liturgy don’t genuflect, but rather prostrate themselves at the altar, which is a type of the Cross.
At any rate, I’m glad I was forced to actually look at the Sacramentary!
Thank you Fr. for your answer.
I guess I picked up the custom growing up in the Coal Regions of PA in the 1970’s.
People would genuflect before enterring the pews.
During the Liturgy, the Cross was reverenced by a kiss.
But, can we halt the practice of sending multiple ministers (ordained or otherwise) out w/ multiple crosses for veneration. Bad symbolism, methinks.
“I once had a parish priest break my heart because he told me (and then walked away leaving me open mouthed) that is an excellent way to show the unity of our faith.
I’m not so happy about other conclusions. While they admit that pro-abortion Catholic politicians shouldn’t receive Communion, the bishops wouldn’t go the next logical step and say that they should be turned away if they present themselves. The whole point is that because politicians’ act of disobedience to the Church is so public is causes scandal to the faithful and the only way to prevent further scandal is to refuse them Communion until such time as they publicly repent to repair the damage.
I’m also taken aback by the claim that liturgical abuses are “less and less numerous.” Maybe there’s less liturgical abuse in Asia, Africa, and South America (maybe, but I’m not an expert on the situation in those areas), but in North America and Europe it seems to be as bad as ever. You don’t solve a problem by ignoring it. Or, what may be scarier, they really don’t see the problem.
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After all, wasn’t one of our Bishops over there? And is he not a Leading Light of Liturgical Lampooners?