Inaccuracies and spin

[All emphasis below is mine.]

The Catholic Courier has just posted Bishop Clark's weekly Along the Way column.   One of his topics is the Catholic Ministries Appeal.

I report with great pleasure and pride that thousands of you have taken part this year in our annual Catholic Ministries Appeal.

Thousands, yes, but also thousands less than last year.  4,000 less, to be precise.

Current CMA pledges stand at 89.2% of parish assessments.  The number of new donors per day has fallen to about 18 over the last 3 weeks, with their average pledge running at $105.  Barring a dramatic change in this trend the CMA is going to be considerably short of its goal this year.

Our average gift is up $10 from last year, from $137 to $147 this year.

Well, there's just a bit of a disconnect with those numbers.  According to this document last year's average gift was $140 and according to the current Parish-by-Parish listing, this year's average gift is currently $143.  The bishop's numbers would have the average CMA pledge going up by some 7.3% over last year while the other set of numbers indicate a 1.0% increase.

Another topic is Catholic schools.

I am further encouraged by the wonderful things happening at our Catholic schools. In this year of transition after the very difficult closings last year, I have seen firsthand the incredible commitment of our parents and principals, teachers and staff -- and our children -- to keep the spirit of our schools moving forward in hope. We have had a very good response to our extensive television, radio and print advertising campaign and the good work of committees at the schools to get the word out about what an incredible value a Catholic education is.

As a result and as of this writing, we are pacing considerably ahead of last year in registration.

Talk about spin!  What the bishop neglects to mention is that last year there was no advertising campaign whatsoever.  The diocese couldn't afford to risk having so many students apply that they might have had to allow a 12th school stay open.  Their task force of "experts" would not have looked like experts then.

Update on Sister Janice Morgan

About 13 months ago Sister Elaine Poitras suddenly resigned as Superintendent of the Monroe County Catholic School System, a few days prior to Bishop Clark's decision to accept the recommendation of his task force of "experts" to close 13 of our 24 Monroe County Catholic schools.

Stepping into Sister Elaine's shoes almost immediately was the then just retired president of the local congregation of the Sisters of Saint Joseph, Sister Janice Morgan.

The order's quarterly newsletter gives us its take on her time in that office.

Sister Janice Morgan has not had a slow day since leaving office. Almost immediately following her departure as Congregational president, she became interim superintendent for the Rochester Catholic Schools. She took over in January of 2008, a time when the diocese was closing thirteen schools. A trying time that took a skillful, careful and conscientious approach. “It was truly a learning experience,” explained Sister Janice. “A tearful time. A time when all I could do was listen, listen to parents, to faculty, to principals, students, pastors, and be there for them with compassion.” As interim superintendent Sister Janice was in charge of ensuring a seamless closing of the Diocesan schools. She met with principals on a weekly basis to communicate to each the next step along the way. She also set up a transition committee to cover every level of the closures from faculty placement and student enrollment, to packing up books and materials, and making sure that students’ records were sent on to the new schools.

After fulfilling her duties as interim superintendent, she stayed on with the Diocese until February 2009 to wrap up final details of the closures and to do fund development work for the remaining Catholic schools.

A new cheerleader for Catholic schools

The Catholic News Service has published an online report of Monday's press conference given by New York City's new Archbishop, Timothy Dolan.

The Archbishop covered a wide range of topics, but his comments on Catholic schools jumped out at me.

Archbishop Dolan said Catholic schools in New York [City] are "in great shape now" but are a constant concern. Speaking as a church historian, he said keeping schools on a firm financial foundation has been a challenge from the beginning.

"There's never been an easy time," he said. "That's part of our grit. We have to struggle for every dime and muster every ounce of strength to keep them strong. Count on me to be a front-line cheerleader for Catholic schools."

I'm really beginning to like this guy.

Your CMA dollars at work

Campus Ministry in DOR exists "to help meet the needs of Catholics in their twenties and thirties ... on college campuses throughout the diocese." As such, it is one of the beneficiaries of the funds raised during DOR's annual Catholic Ministries Appeal.

The Corning Curmudgeon, aka CPT Tom, has a son who is a student at the Rochester Institute of Technology. Anthony recently attended Mass at the the on-campus Neumann Center, a part of DOR's Campus Ministry.

The Mickey Mouse, Super Soaker, Tie-dyed Vestments, Mardi Gras Mass

Anthony reports that the priest processed into mass behind the cross wearing the Mickey Mouse hat and a gold masquerade mask. Once the singing stopped, the first thing he did was blow a kazoo and say, "Happy Mardi Gras." He then proceeded to sprinkle the congregation with Holy Water, using a Super Soaker to get the job done.

Anthony also took some pictures:

This is Holy Mass, as interpreted by DOR's Campus Ministry Program.

These are your CMA dollars at work.

CPT Tom's full report is here.

Rich Leonardi's observations are here.

450 confessions a week

Last Friday the New York Times published a story about the almost incredible number of confessions being heard at St. John the Evangelist Parish in Stamford, Connecticut.

It seems that shortly after Monsignor Stephen DiGiovanni took over the reins at St. John's in 1998, he pried open the door of the old confessional, refurbished it, and began offering the Sacrament of Reconciliation for 30 minutes prior to virtually every Mass, or some 15 times per week.

The people responded.  The priests at the parish are now hearing about 450 confession every week.

St. John's doesn't appear to be a huge parish.  The have two active priests on staff and a retired priest in residence and offer 5 weekend and 2 weekday Masses.  Their February 15 collection was about $9,700.   According to the Times, "St. John’s is a standard diocesan church with a varied congregation — corporate executives, Haitian and Hispanic immigrants, Stamford’s longtime Irish and Italian middle class."

For what it's worth - and it's probably not worth very much - the Gray Lady goes on to note that Notre Dame's dissident Catholic priest par excellence, Rev. Richard McBrien, chimed in with

Confession as we once knew it is pretty much a dead letter in Catholicism today ... the practice at the Stamford parish is an anomaly, not a sign of anything else [and at best] part of a small minority [of churches].

Bishop Clark wants to work with Archbishop Dolan

According to Channel 10 News, Bishop Clark released a statement yesterday saying,

I have known Dolan for many, many years and consider him a tremendously gifted colleague with a keen intelligence, affable personality and warm and effective leadership style. I very much look forward to working with him in the ongoing work of the dioceses of New York State.

Since our bishop is so keen on working with New York City's new archbishop, perhaps he could ask him for some pointers on fund raising for our Catholic schools.

In 2007 the archbishop launched a $105 million capital campaign, mainly to support Milwaukee's Catholic schools. He leaves less than halfway through that campaign with $57 million in pledges already in hand.

The Archdiocese of Milwaukee has almost twice as many Catholics as DOR. If Timothy Dolan could raise $105 million for Catholic schools there he should be able to show Matthew Clark how to raise $50 million or so here.

"God is not happy with us"

Holy Cross Church in Charlotte is fortunate to have the services of Father Frederick Eisemann. Officially designated as "Assisting Senior Priest," Father Eisemann is a retired cleric who offers his services to the parish every weekend. I'm not sure exactly how old he is but, considering that he celebrated the 55th anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood last year, 80 or so would seem to be the minimum estimate.

Yesterday Father Eisemann celebrated the 10:00 am Mass and also gave the homily. His topic was sin.

Yes, sin! A priest in the Diocese of Rochester actually gave a homily on sin!

Father Eisemann did not get into particular sins, such as sexual relations outside of marriage or divorced Catholics remarrying without first obtaining an annulment. To do that would have been to risk for an invitation to Buffalo Rd. for a counseling session on his need to be a more "pastoral" priest. (See here, here, and especially here for more on this.)

Father's approach was more generic. He began by observing that, given outward appearances, one might think that sin was on the decline. When he was much younger he said that it was common for each priest in a parish to spend 4 hours every Saturday hearing confessions. Today only one priest hears confessions and it's a busy afternoon if he has half a dozen penitents.

Sin, however, is not on the decline, according to Father. To verify this all we need do is to look around, to look at our world, our nation, our state, our city, our own street.

More importantly, we need to take a hard look at ourselves. While Father didn't specifically mention 1 John 1:8 (If we say, "We are without sin," we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us), he did tell the story of a man who showed up at confession after a long absence, only to tell the priest that he hadn't committed any sins. "He committed one right there," said Father, and several muffled laughs among the congregation showed that he had gotten his point across.

"God is not happy with us," when we do not acknowledge our sins and seek his forgiveness, said Father. He is infinitely merciful, but we have to ask for that mercy. He is also often very patient with us, but that patience is not infinite.

Father concluded by reminding everyone that Lent begins on Wednesday and it would be a perfect time to take a good look at ourselves and to get to confession.

Yesterday evening I was talking with a neighbor and fellow parishioner who was also at the 10:00 am Mass. He thought Father's homily was "pretty strong" and something he certainly wasn't used to hearing.

Actually, it's something we need to hear much more of, not just at Holy Cross, but all over the diocese.