Gaillardetz to address Canadian bishops

From LifeSiteNews.com ...

Dr. Richard Gaillardetz, professor of Catholic studies at the University of Toledo in Ohio, is scheduled to present a set of talks at the annual plenary assembly of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) in Cornwall from October 19-23.

Marking the Year for Priests, Dr. Gaillardetz will speak to the bishops about the priesthood and the relationship of bishops to priests.

The article goes on to say that "Gaillardetz may strike some as a surprising choice for the job, however, since he is an open dissenter from Church teaching," including her teaching on women's ordination.  As a reference the article cites SoCon or Bust blogger John Pacheco's thorough post on the subject.

Pacheco cites so many of of Gaillardetz' "nuances" of  - or outright departures from - authentic Catholic teaching that it is amazing that the man considers himself a Catholic, considering his myriad problems with Church teaching.

Darling of the DOR ministerium

Professor Gaillardetz is no stranger to DOR, having given talks here at least 3 times within the last 5 years, including presentations to the DOR ministerium (i.e., priests, deacons and lay people involved in ministry in some way).

This isn't very surprising, given John Allen's comments in a 2007 NCR piece.

Gaillardetz argued that in the United States, liberal Catholicism is less an ideology than a “pastoral phenomenon … alive in parishes that have a flourishing catechumenate, vibrant liturgies, thoughtful and relevant preaching, and multiple lay ministerial opportunities,” as well as “in a growing number of intentional Christian communities that are determined to keep alive a vision of the church that they associate with Vatican II.”

Looking around, observers such as Gaillardetz say that the moderate-to-liberal camp probably represents a disproportionate share of the church’s ministerial workforce, meaning priests, deacons, religious, and laity, as well as the theological guild.

What Gaillardetz (and Allen) fail to note is that, at least in DOR, liberal Catholicism is driving the faithful right out of the pews:  Fully 25% of DOR's Mass-attending Catholics have called it quits in just the last 8 years, "vibrant liturgies" and "thoughtful and relevant preaching" notwithstanding.

"What does a bishop do?"

2nd grader: "What does a bishop do?"

Bishop: "What do you think he does?"

2nd grader: 'Well, he writes letters asking for money."

Thus went an exchange between Bishop Eugene Gerber and one of the younger members of his flock about 30 years ago when His Excellency was leading the Diocese of Dodge City.

"That was when it first struck me that things have to change," Bishop Gerber told a reporter in 2004.

In 1982, when Gerber was transferred to head the Wichita diocese, he began thinking of ways to change how the diocese was governed. Gerber, who had served as a priest in the Wichita diocese before becoming bishop of Dodge City in 1976, knew of one parish where changes had already occurred.

Msgr. Tom McGread told NCR he first began considering a new model in 1959, after he read an article by two Mobile, Ala., priests who were trying to "come up with a Catholic idea of the Protestant practice of tithing."

He explained that when he introduced the model to his Wichita parish, St. Francis of Assisi, in 1969 his "emphasis was getting the people involved in the Parish, with their time and their talents. Once they became involved, they got a sense of belonging. Once they got a sense of belonging, then they got a sense of ownership."

McGread asked his parishioners to work out a percentage of giving, "according to what the Bible told us," he said. "I advised them to start with a lower percentage and work up and see if they missed it. One of the promises I made to them was if they were worse off financially at the end of the year after tithing, they could come back and we'd give them all their money back. In 40 years I never had anyone do that."

Gerber was encouraged by St. Francis' success. He began to hold meetings around the diocese asking three questions: "What are the qualities of a good parish? What are the obstacles? what would you do if you had unlimited resources?" He also began studying ways to meet the increasing challenges of providing Catholic education.

He said the findings "converged into one," and out of that emerged United Catholic Stewardship.

Following the new model, parishes began tithing 10 percent of their donations to the diocese each month, replacing the annual bishop's appeal and special collections.

All parishes agreed to pay for Catholic' education for the children of active parishioners. According to Daniel Loughman, diocesan director of stewardship and finance, between 60 and 70 percent of parish budgets are devoted to paying for Catholic education. The great majority of that money goes to schools, but religious education classes and other education ministries also figure in.

Gerber said that the parables in the Gospels are full of references to stewardship. He said that in order to succeed, the model must be "centered on the Eucharist." That focus on Eucharist is why "probably about 70 percent of our people, somewhere in there, are attending Mass on the Lord's Day. We have perpetual adoration here that I suspect, relatively speaking is unequaled." Currently" perpetual adoration continues in 18 parishes in the diocese. In some parishes it has been ongoing for nearly 20 years.

While free tuition to the schools is one of the fruits of Wichita's stewardship process, it is not the only one. The diocese built The Lord's Diner, a free diner for poor and homeless people, and supports the Guadalupe Clinic, which provides free health care for working poor people.

The conversion to the stewardship model has not always been easy. According to McGread, one of the biggest difficulties has been converting priests, rather than parishioners. Priests, he said, are often afraid that the stewardship process won't be "successful for them."

Gerber said some older priests may have "been schooled more in fundraising than in stewardship. As a consequence, they trust their longtime experience. That doesn't mean their ministry is less for it, but it is not something that I say meets the challenges of our time."

He said that stewardship "very much meets with [the approval of] the younger set of priests because it is a part of their theology, they know the scriptures, and they haven't been a part of any other models."

Gerber said he's been asked by bishops how to get started, and he tells them, "Well, just go start. Just go begin preaching it, go begin learning about it. If nothing else, get a cluster of parishes and start. If it takes one parish, start with one parish."

He said, "Some dioceses have decided they want to do it incrementally. We did it as one fell swoop. It takes a leap of faith to do that."

(Full source here. This story is the "RELATED ARTICLE" beginning here.)

That is how the Diocese of Wichita transformed itself into what is today a model of Catholic stewardship that any other diocese in this nation is free to emulate. What is amazing is that their story has been out there for years and yet so few dioceses have been willing to follow their lead.

Perhaps the reason is that Bishop Gerber neglected to mention the other necessary component (besides faith): Total loyalty to the Church as exemplified by full acceptance of all that she teaches.

That last part is a deal-breaker in far too many dioceses these days.

Opening conversation, updated 30 years and translated to DOR

So how would our opening conversation play out today here in DOR, were Bishop Clark ever to visit a Catholic school?

I suspect it would go something like this:

2nd grader: "What does a bishop do?"

Bishop: "What do you think he does?"

2nd grader: 'Well, he writes letters asking for money."

Bishop: "That's only part of my job, honey. I also close parishes and schools, appoint dissenters to head up parishes, allow non-ordained people to preach at Mass, appoint agenda-driven gatekeepers to make sure few if any orthodox vocations get sent to seminary and turn a blind eye to just about any liturgical abuse anyone can dream up.

"I also try to get out parishes to push stewardship, but that doesn't seem to be going very well."

Wichita Catholic schools enrollment up 20% in 16 years

Buried in a recent blurb announcing a future guest speaker is this little tidbit (my emphasis):

Mark your calendars! September 2 - Mr. Bob Voboril, Superintendent of Schools for the Catholic Diocese of Wichita since 1993. In the 16 years he has been here our schools collectively have grown over 20% and have been recognized nationally for putting the Catholic faith as every school’s priority.

The announcement comes from this month's online bulletin of the Downtown Wichita Chapter, Serra International.

2009-10 Enrollment is up, parishioners continue their support

Other news coming out of Wichita indicates that, contrary to the trend in the rest of the country, Catholic school enrollment is actually up a modest amount.

The 20 Catholic schools in Sedgwick County had an increase in enrollment from 8,005 to 8,052 students, according to the Wichita Catholic Diocese.

Kapaun Mount Carmel High School reached an all-time high of more than 900 students, an increase of about 30 from last year.

Growth in the east-side K-8 Catholic schools that feed students into Kapaun, such as All Saints and Magdalen, has been faster than expected, said Bob Voboril, superintendent of the diocese schools.

"The feeder schools are doing a better job," he said.

The growth has led to larger class sizes and waiting lists to get into those schools, Voboril said.

"For the most part, schools are trying to add students without adding staff," he said.

Wichita Catholic schools don't charge their mostly Catholic students tuition individually. Instead, all church members pay for their parish's school.

Funding has kept up with growing student populations, Voboril said.

"It's amazing that in the middle of a recession, our parishes are willing to support more students," he said.

"They could've just as well said, 'Cut off enrollment.' "

Story here.

Former MCCS Superintendent involved in fatal accident

Sr. Elizabeth Meegan, Monroe County Catholic School Superintendent from 2001 through 2006, was involved in a 2 car accident Sunday afternoon in North Fort Meyers, Florida.

Two other nuns in her car died. Sr. Elizabeth was reported to be in good condition in a local hospital

Story here.

Confusion to the north

International Studies in Catholic Education is a scholarly journal that began publishing this year.  It's second issue contains the following article (emphasis within the abstract is mine).

Can there be ‘faithful dissent’ within Catholic religious education in schools?
Graham P. McDonough
Pages 187 - 199

Abstract

Catholic education struggles with an apparent tension between student-centred methods and remaining true to the official Church teaching. The traditional view holds that students are to learn ecclesial facts, but contemporary pedagogy promotes a wider range of experiences. Consequentially, teachers struggle with the question of how to deal with reasonable student dissent on non-infallible teachings like contraception, female ordination and homosexuality. This essay comments on interview findings that religion teachers attempt to accommodate dissent, but since there is no firm theoretical grounding for student-centred methods the possibility of nurturing a reasonable intra-Church intellectual plurality becomes lost in the Catholic school.

Keywords: dissent; pedagogy-religious education; Catholic school-aims; critical thinking

Editor’s Note: This is Canadian research based on Catholic schools in Saskatchewan.

Dr. McDonough is listed as an Assistant Professor of Education at the University of Victoria.  His 2007 doctrinal dissertation is entitled "The moral and pedagogical importance of dissent to Catholic education."

A few of the terms in the good doctor's abstract are just begging for translation into plain English.

• "Contemporary pedagogy promotes a wider range of experiences" actually means that, sadly, many of today's Catholic teachers and their schools are heavily into experiential theology.
• "Non-infallible teachings like contraception, female ordination and homosexuality" is pure gobbledygook. If the solemn teachings contained in Humanae Vitae and Ordinatio Sacerdotalis are not binding on one's conscience, then hardly anything taught by the Church is. Ditto for any teaching proclaimed by the pope and bishops always and everywhere.
• "Reasonable intra-Church intellectual plurality" is double-speak for dissent which is, itself, the politically correct term for heresy.

Lay ecclesial leaders get CMA assessment reductions

While DOR may have removed the Parish-by-Parish listing from its website, it is still possible to glean CMA information from other sources.

I've been looking through online bulletins and have thus far managed to learn the 2009-10 CMA assessments for 6 parishes. While that is not enough to draw any real conclusions, it is interesting that the 3 parishes which have seen reductions in their assessments are those being run by Sr. Joan Sobala and Nancy DeRycke.

If anyone out there knows of 2009-10 CMA assessments for these (or other) parishes, please leave a note in the comment box.

One priest, one roof

If you think we have seen too many church closings here in DOR, be thankful we don't live in the Diocese of Syracuse.

In the last decade that diocese has closed 37 churches, with 15 of those closures coming in the last 30 months.

The diocese has a "one priest, one roof" policy which forbids a priest to pastor more than one parish even if he wanted to.  This effectively eliminates clustering, which is the only thing keeping several DOR parishes open.

Story here.