Are we "One body"?

Cleansing Fire and Fallacies & Fashions, two of the blogs that I read daily, have had some very interesting posts the past week or so regarding Bishop Clark’s book, Forward in Hope, as well as information for local Catholics as how to go about writing to Rome with their grievances, which got me to thinking about some things.  I will admit that, in some cases, some of the things that are going on in the DOR are, in my opinion and based on my (limited) understanding of Church documents and Canon Law, not “kosher”.

Here are a few of the things that I see as problematic (not an inclusive list and in no particular order, just a few that come to mind right now):

1. Lack of respect for the “ordained” on the part of some lay ministers

2. Liturgies and homilies (and/or “reflections”) that are usurped by political and/or social agendas, that in many cases are contrary to Church teachings

3. Liturgical dancing (I still shudder every time I think of the “Chrism Mass” last year)

4. Poor catechesis for our young people

          5. Lack of any meaningful adult education programs

6. The confrontational attitudes of people on both sides of the “orthodox vs. progressive” debate

I am sure that many people could add to this list and think that it does not go far enough, and that there are many out there who feel that I am “too traditional” in my thinking (something I have to say I have never been accused of!). But those are the extremes, and quite honestly, I am getting very tired of “extremes”.
Why does it always have to be “either/or” and not “both/and”?

CF has a tag that says

“Cleansing Fire is part of the daily reading of over 300 Rochester area Catholics, as well as several more Catholics across the globe.”

which I think is awesome! I have learned a lot from the guys over at CF, even though in the beginning, I thought they were “the enemy”. But as I was reading this past week, especially the posts linked above, I started to wonder- how many Catholics are we really talking about, on both ends of the spectrum?

If the DOR has 360,000 Catholics (according to it’s website) and 400 (I am rounding up) read and agree 100% with the views of the gang at Cleansing Fire, we are still only talking about 0.1% of Catholics in the Rochester area. 
Now, I will say, for arguments sake, that 10% of Catholics in the Rochester area are “ultra-orthodox, say the black, do the red” Catholics and 10% are “ultra-liberal, let’s throw the book out the window and let the Spirit prevail” Catholics, what about the other 80%? What are they thinking and feeling about Catholic life in the Rochester area? How do they handle the changes that leave them wondering?

I can’t help but to think that our Church would be better served by more cooperation and understanding among the extremes, and less division and “cafeteria-ism” from both ends of the spectrum.
As St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians: 12-27

As a body is one though it has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, are one body, so also Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free persons, and we were all given to drink of one Spirit.
Now the body is not a single part, but many. If a foot should say, "Because I am not a hand I do not belong to the body," it does not for this reason belong any less to the body. Or if an ear should say, "Because I am not an eye I do not belong to the body," it does not for this reason belong any less to the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God placed the parts, each one of them, in the body as he intended. If they were all one part, where would the body be? But as it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I do not need you," nor again the head to the feet, "I do not need you." indeed, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are all the more necessary, and those parts of the body that we consider less honorable we surround with greater honor, and our less presentable parts are treated with greater propriety, whereas our more presentable parts do not need this. But God has so constructed the body as to give greater honor to a part that is without it, so that there may be no division in the body, but that the parts may have the same concern for one another. If (one) part suffers, all the parts suffer with it; if one part is honored, all the parts share its joy. Now you are Christ's body, and individually parts of it.

Are we, here in the DOR, “one body”? As much as I hate to say it, I don’t think we are quite there yet, but I will keep praying!


**I have disabled the comment box for this post.  If you have something relevant to the orignal post  that you would like to comment on please send me an e-mail at oneofthewoman@gmail.com, (names and e-mail adresesses will be held in strictist confidence and not be posted unless your permission is given) and I will post as appropriate.  A special "thank you" to all who added constructive comments to this post and helped to facilitate the dialogue I am always looking for.
Peace, Persis
2/12/10 10:57pm

A missed opportunity?

Jesus said to Simon, “Do not be afraid;

from now on you will be catching men.”

When they brought their boats to the shore,
they left everything and followed him.

Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States, second typical edition

As I was reading through some of the blogs I came across this post from Fr. Kyle Schnipple, the Director of Vocations for the Archdiocese of Cincinnati.

As Fr. Schnipple points out, this weekend’s readings are all about hearing and answering God’s call. What better weekend for priests everywhere to use the opportunity provided them as proclaimers and preachers of the Word, to share the stories of their own vocational call, and encourage other young men to listen to that voice that may be calling them also.

I wish I could say that this is the homily I heard this weekend. I am sorry to say, it is not.

What I got was a well-meaning, yet overly simplistic view of how we are all called, in some way, to serve God. Yes, vocations to the priesthood and religious life were mentioned, but the general theme was that we all have a calling and all of those callings are equal. I should also probably point out that this was not a homily by a priest or deacon, but by a “certified lay preacher”.

Now, I know that many can, and probably will, use this as an example of why lay preaching is “bad”, and in this case I have to say, I tend to agree. This, however, does not change my opinion on lay preaching, in general, as I believe that in the proper circumstances, lay preaching should be allowed.  I do not want to make this post about that, while I agree that it is part of the problem, it is not the problem I see as being the biggest one in this case.

In my vast and varied career, one of the things I have learned is that a little planning goes a very long way. Knowing that these readings are part of the lectionary, one would think that the people, who are in charge of the Office of Vocations, would have used this weekend as an opportunity to reach out to young men in our dioceses. By encouraging priests (and deacons) to use the homily to talk of the importance of vocations to ordained ministry they could have opened the lines of communication for young men who think they are “being called”, planted the seed in the heads of young men trying to figure out what they want from their lives and helped others in the congregation to see the importance of praying for and nurturing of young men in the discernment process.

Sadly to say, I believe what we have here is another missed opportunity here in the DOR.

"Pastoral Planning"- An oxymoron if I ever heard one!

You can find the latest news on the “Pastoral Planning” that is going on in Irondequoit over at Cleansing Fire.

I have been a part of this “process”, both actively in my former parish, and as an “outsider looking in” at another. I also have a good friend who was involved in the “planning process” in her own parish in the Eastern Greece/Charlotte cluster, and we have discussed our general mistrust of the whole process many times.

So I submit to you the epitome of oxymorons-

“Pastoral Planning”

Pastoral: of or relating to spiritual care or guidance especially of a congregation.

Planning: the act or process of making or carrying out plans, specifically: the establishment of goals, policies and procedures for a social or economic unit.

Ummmm…., not -  even -  close- ,  folks!!!

We need much less of this and a lot more leadership here in the DOR. This process, not only in Irondequoit, but in every other instance I know, has dragged on, pitted one parish against another, and has ultimately caused more division, animosity and mistrust than anything else.

I am a department manager, and while I like to give my staff a lot of latitude, sometimes I have to make the difficult and often unpopular decisions, it comes with the territory.  I don't always like it, but "that's why I make the big bucks!" (LOL)

Should we expect any less from our Church leaders?

More questions about the CMA

Here is where the DOR websites new CMA allocation page. ( Sorry, I havn't figured out how to make a "link" yet, any advise would be appreciated.)

www.dor.org/sd/keepingthespiritalive.htm


It seems as though the original, where I got my information for an earlier post is now gone. That information has been replaced by an "Along the Way" column by Bishop Clark that gives a general overview, from his perspective, on what the CMA funds support.


HMMMMM......

I want to believe that the DOR, and the people who run it,
are honest, good-hearted people, who are trying to do good work, for the people of God. I can only speculate as to why the information was removed, and that, in my quest for "dialogue" seems to be counter-productive. I am hoping that this may have been an oversight, or that maybe, what we originally saw was not correct,and it is being corrected so that it can be re-posted. I don't want to believe that there is something "sinister" going on here.

I will be checking with the DOR about this, I guess I will just have to wait and see what their response is.

Peace to All!

Catholic Ministry Appeal??

I have long had issues with the CMA. It is a very big conflict for me because I do indeed benefit from it. I would not be able to attend classes at SBSTM if it were not for the scholarships and tuition-assistance that I receive, and I am grateful for the support.
I am not so naïve that I don’t realize that money is a necessary evil. My problem is, if you (in this case the DOR) are going to ask me for more money, I want to make sure that you spending it wisely. I have seen lots of waste in the “day to day” operations of parishes that I have been involved with. I work in Health Care Management, and it is a struggle to provide the services needed and stay within my budget, and I try hard to keep my administrative costs low so that the majority of my budget goes to direct patient needs. Unfortunately this is not was happens with the CMA. Here is the breakdown from the DOR website-

2009-2010 CMA Allocations

(A)Faith Formation 10%Sacramental preparation, Adult Education, Campus, CYO Young Adult and Youth Ministry Programs
(B)Catholic Schools 5%Support for programs, aid to students and schools
(C)Catholic Charities 13%Support for the 10 regional offices / agencies serving people throughout our 12 counties.
(D)Parish Support Ministries 18%Liturgical, Urban, Rural, Multicultural & Jail Services, Subsidies & Programs
(E)Human Resources 4%Staff recruitment & training, support to St. Bernard School of Theology & Ministry
(F)Bishop's Ministry / Pastoral Planning 10% Bishop's Office, consultative councils and planning services
(G)Diocesan-wide Administrative & Support Services 19% Hospital Chaplaincy, Stewardship, Finance, Information Technology, etc.
(H)Pastoral Center Operation & Services 15% Operational and system costs of the diocesan offices
(I)CMA Campaign Costs 6% Campaign staff, materials, data processing and postage
Total Goal: $5,490,000

I have added the letters for reference, so now let’s look at this-

A-B-C-D, I think we can all agree that these are important ministries of any diocese, and I will call them as such.

E-F-G-H-I are for the most part, what I believe to be administrative (with the exceptions of Hospital Chaplaincy, if this is not ministry, I am not sure what is anymore, and support to STSTM for the reasons stated above.)

So let’s do a little arithmetic!

A+B+C+D= 46%

Which leaves 54% of the money donated to the Catholic Ministries Appeal actually going to administrative costs?

Add to this the whole process for coming up with individual parish goals (based on last year’s collections), and the fact that the individual parish has to make up for any short-fall, and only gets to keep 50% of any overage collected! And finally, there is no real input from the people of the Diocese as to how this money is actually spent (as far as I know)!

Now, I know that this is overly simplified, but it doesn’t change that if you are going to call something a “ministry appeal” shouldn’t the money collected actually go to ministry and not to the administrative costs of the Bishop’s office, the Pastoral Center, IT and Human Resources, and the cost of the actual campaign itself?!
And the fact the admistrative costs associated with the CMA is higher than the allotment for Catholic schools is just plain WRONG!

As I said before, I understand that it is important that we support our churches and our diocese. I am not sure how I would accomplish this, but I really think that the right thing to do for all involved is to prayerfully consider what exactly you are asking for and then do so with honesty and humility.
Our Diocese (and the world) would be a much better place if we all could!
Peace to All!