Ed. Note: Pistrina returns to its 12-part series after last week's special post.
The ill-formed clergy who swarm like flies around the rector and "One-Hand Dan" are a sorry lot. You can't expect them to have too long an attention span or to be able to digest complex demands. For that reason, your steering committee should establish only one objective:
CONVERT THE CHAPEL INTO A MEMBERSHIP CORPORATION GUIDED BY AN ANNUALLY ELECTED LAY BOARD OF TRUSTEES, FROM WHOM THE CORPORATE OFFICERS ARE CHOSEN AND TO WHOM THE PRIEST IS FULLY ACCOUNTABLE IN ALL MATTERS EXCEPT FOR SPECIFICALLY DEFINED RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES.
Boiling down what you want to one statement of claim will prevent your priest's jumping willy-nilly from issue to issue in an effort to distract you and weaken your focus. More importantly, from this one demand, all lay governance flows.
By becoming a membership corporation, your chapel will not be controlled by the selfish whims of one (poorly trained) man. The people who pay the bills will govern themselves by electing a board, which they will be able to boot out if it fails to represent their interests. Gone, too, will be the priest's sleazy clerical cronies who serve as officers of his undemocratic, non-membership corporation. Furthermore, the chapel's accounts, now at long last subject to audit, will be out of the priest's hands, so if you get rid of him, you'll still have your money to start afresh. Best of all, there'll be no more "my-way-or-the-highway" threats.
Perhaps then, finally, the priest, now subordinate in justice to the superior wisdom of a popularly elected body of Catholic stake-holders, will be free to concentrate on the people's and his own sanctification, without the temptation to meddle in secular affairs.
Perhaps then, finally, the priest, now subordinate in justice to the superior wisdom of a popularly elected body of Catholic stake-holders, will be free to concentrate on the people's and his own sanctification, without the temptation to meddle in secular affairs.
Welcome back to the weekly meeting of "Trustees Anonymous" and the 12-Step program of lay control.
ReplyDeleteChris, we're glad you're still around. We have great expectations for you. When the series is finished, you'll be ready to apply what you've learned to bring sorely needed lay governance to St. Gertrude the Great. The poor folks there really need to take back what is rightfully theirs, and they'll be grateful. "One-Hand Dan" and his Keystone Clerks will fold if you do the job right!
ReplyDeleteI'm amused that you refer to these Traditionalist Priests as "poorly trained." Where did you receive your seminary training? I'm a lawyer. Can a non-lawyer pass judgement on the quality of a law school, when he himself has no legal training? The ABA rates law schools, not self-anointed experts. "One hand Dan"? If that refers to ordinations, the Holy Office during the 1950's repeatedly declared ordination with one hand valid for ALL grades of Holy Orders (unless Cardinal Ottavianni was poorly trained--along with Pope Pius XII!!)
ReplyDeleteFrom a letter dated 9/21/90 to "One-Hand Dan," signed by nine priests, one of whom is the rector of MHT "Seminary":
ReplyDelete_________
"In the course of the research which was being done in reference to ordinations and episcopal consecration, it was discovered that sacerdotal ordinations done with one hand are dubious, and in the opinion of two authors, the case would have to be referred to the Vatican for judgment. (See Walter B. Clancy, J.C.L., The Rites and Ceremonies of Sacred Ordination, The Catholic University of America Press, 1962, pp. 70-71 & Rev. Clarence B. McAuliffe, S.J. Sacramental Theology, B. Herder Book Co., p. 361)
"Since your ordination was done with one hand, we must hold your ordination to be dubious, unless evidence can be brought forth that the one-handed ordination is certainly valid."
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The Blunderer's error-laden monograph did not fulfill the writers' condition.
You'll also note the date of Clancy's work. Did a professionally trained licentiate in canon law, writing in '62, ignore all those repeated declarations from the '50s?
Doubt still reigns until the Restoration.