“Canon 212: #2) The Christian faithful are free to make known to the pastors of the Church their needs, especially spiritual ones and their desires. #3) According to the knowledge, competence, and prestige which they possess, they have the right and even at times the duty to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion known to the rest of the Christian faithful, without prejudice to the integrity of faith and morals, with reverence toward their pastors, and attentive to common advantage and the dignity of persons.”
Going through Deacon Greg Kendra’s blog, “The Deacon’s Bench,” I came across his post concerning a parish in Platteville, WI. The name of it is St. Mary’s Church, and is part of the Diocese of Madison WI. It’s Bishop, Robert Morlino, chose to staff the parish with priests who were members of the Society of Jesus Christ the Priest. These priests have been characterized as being very orthodox, very conservative. There has been criticism of their homilies of been strong on orthodox teaching, but lacking in compassion. They also restricted the role of altar servers to boys only, no girls allowed. Whatever other actions they may have taken, it drove close to half of the registered parishioners to sign a petition requesting that Bishop Morlino remove the priests. He responded by voicing his complete support of the priests, and making some very disparaging remarks about the petition signers, claiming that they were members of the radical left, disobedient and disrespectful. After this response, the parishioners used the last effective leverage they had, they began withholding weekly contributions to the parish, and it appears to be biting. Now, not all the parishioners are of one mind on this, some do support the priests. It appears that the parish is becoming polarized.
Now, I will be the first one to admit that the Church is not a democracy. However, the tone of Vatican II concerning the lay faithful is that they are active participants in ministry of the Church. That our leaders should consult with the faithful on matters that can affect the life of the community. And that we have a right to let our Bishops and Pastors know our spiritual needs. If they fail respond to us, do not at least enter into a dialogue to find some resolution; then we have the right to take any legitimate action to get them to respond, including the power of the purse.
Whatever the motives of Bishop Morlino were in assigning these conservative priests, what he now has is a divided parish. And that is a very sorry state of affairs.
Going through Deacon Greg Kendra’s blog, “The Deacon’s Bench,” I came across his post concerning a parish in Platteville, WI. The name of it is St. Mary’s Church, and is part of the Diocese of Madison WI. It’s Bishop, Robert Morlino, chose to staff the parish with priests who were members of the Society of Jesus Christ the Priest. These priests have been characterized as being very orthodox, very conservative. There has been criticism of their homilies of been strong on orthodox teaching, but lacking in compassion. They also restricted the role of altar servers to boys only, no girls allowed. Whatever other actions they may have taken, it drove close to half of the registered parishioners to sign a petition requesting that Bishop Morlino remove the priests. He responded by voicing his complete support of the priests, and making some very disparaging remarks about the petition signers, claiming that they were members of the radical left, disobedient and disrespectful. After this response, the parishioners used the last effective leverage they had, they began withholding weekly contributions to the parish, and it appears to be biting. Now, not all the parishioners are of one mind on this, some do support the priests. It appears that the parish is becoming polarized.
Now, I will be the first one to admit that the Church is not a democracy. However, the tone of Vatican II concerning the lay faithful is that they are active participants in ministry of the Church. That our leaders should consult with the faithful on matters that can affect the life of the community. And that we have a right to let our Bishops and Pastors know our spiritual needs. If they fail respond to us, do not at least enter into a dialogue to find some resolution; then we have the right to take any legitimate action to get them to respond, including the power of the purse.
Whatever the motives of Bishop Morlino were in assigning these conservative priests, what he now has is a divided parish. And that is a very sorry state of affairs.
