TOP REASONS FOR LAY GOVERNANCE: #3

Ed. Note: In the last two weeks, Pistrina has argued for lay governance based on reasons both practical and charitable. Now we'll begin to explore reasons from the laity's personal vantage point.

Many traditional lay families are willing to support generously a chapel because they want the Mass and the sacraments for their children. In spite of the irregularities, the fierce disputes, and all the uncertainties, they aim to make an investment in the faith for the next generation. They hope that their money, sweat equity, and effort will at least produce a minimum of orthodox Catholic life to give their children some kind of religious grounding.

What many lay people don't see is that when the priest insists he have sole control over the material assets of the chapel, they put at risk the Catholic heritage for which they have sacrificed. Once laymen surrender the property and bank account to unaccountable clergy, they subject themselves to the whims and fancies of a mere man, from whose judgments there is no appeal. Without the safeguards of a hierarchy under a true Sovereign Roman Pontiff, a shepherd is likely to become a sheep rustler.

Just recall the enraging tales of summary banishment, confiscations, re-purposing of funds from original objectives, forced public apologies for minor or imagined offenses to savage clerical pride, humiliation from the pulpit, denial of communion, and multiple shadow corporations in sundry states. At any time, whole families, notwithstanding their record of generosity or service, have been ordered to leave, and then threatened with arrest should they return to seek, as would have been their right in saner times, the sacraments.

The only way to guard traditional Catholicism for your family is to place control of the property and bank accounts in the hands of a lay body as a counterweight to arbitrary behavior on the part of one man. Absent the perfect society of the Church in this continuing crisis, your and your children's only shelter lies in the imperfect union of a governing body organized under civil law to preserve and protect the rights of the faithful and the faith for your heirs.