All Saints Parish....Hiring Again--UPDATE

We have 16 (count 'em) paid employees at All Saints Parish. Lest you think I am exaggerating, that is the number that the pastoral administrator mentioned at a recent parish gathering. We have one individual retiring this month. Now, the parish is advertising for one full-time (faith formation director) and one part-time position (coordinator of children's faith formation). That will bring the number of paid staff to 17, plus two deacons.

UPDATE: The May 13, 2012 bulletin clarifies that though the parish is advertising two positions, there will only be one position filled, which may or may not be full time. So, paid staff will remain at 16, not 17. Still six or more positions too many.

Most parishes of our size have 10 or less paid staff.

This is not stewardship. It is fiscal insanity.

And while I'm ranting, how much does it cost to send out three (or is it now four) parish fundraising letters using 45-cent stamps? With over 2,000 enrolled households, postage alone is about a thousand bucks. Why aren't they using their bulk rate for a non-profit? I don't get it. Imagine what the cost to print these appeals must be!

I moseyed on over to the Victory Highway website. Guess how many staff they have? Yep. Seventeen. Don't know if they are all paid or not (they have 10 pastors, God bless 'em) and seven administrative staff people. Their website says they currently serve about 1,500 people weekly.

Who'd a thunk it...Catholics were the first mega-churches...and didn't even know it. They just went about their business with a couple holy priests, a couple of paid staff, and a bunch of lay volunteers. The community of believers pitched in according to their God-given talents and inclinations, and it all worked.

Not to take anything away from the 10 pastors at Victory Highway, but our two priests are priceless. I wouldn't trade them for anything or anyone. In persona Christi. It makes all the difference in the world.

The family that sings together...

The hope that is in us...

Read here for yet another reason why the phrase "the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death" is so very important to our culture.

Not so 'brain dead' after all

Epitome of God's Grace

From Fr. Z (blogger magnificent) comes this video of a boy named Garvan Byrne.

What happened to the nuns? UPDATED

I always wondered what happened to them: We Overcame Their Traditions and Their Faith

From the article:
"Coulson deeply regretted the impact they had had on religious communities. He said,

“…it destroyed Catholic religious profession, just as it would destroy the practice of medicine if medicine took seriously the idea that all the answers are within the students; so, too, did it destroy the vows of the nuns. There were many priests who didn’t even bother to get laicized. They just left, saying, “My vows don’t count for anything, because they came from somewhere else; they didn’t come from within.”

 And this:

"Coulson warns that practitioners of humanistic psychology, having wreaked destruction with their self-centered theories, have now moved on to a “fourth plane” that he calls New Age psychology."

There's a video to watch, too.

UPDATE:

Here is George Weigel's article about the sisters: The Vatican and the Sisters

Cleansing Fire weighs in, too: Once in a While....

It's not going away

The religious liberty issue is not going away. The gauntlet was thrown down by our president. Here is a detailed response from the bishops. It is long, but worth the read: Our First, Most Cherished Liberty

Vincent Phillip Munoz at The Weekly Standard has written about the confrontation. Short and to the point. From the article:

To their credit, the bishops appear to understand this and are now willing to lead the battle to preserve religious liberty for all, Catholics and non-Catholics, church institutions and private employers.

But it won’t be without confrontation. This statement from the bishops sets up a dramatic showdown between the leaders of the Catholic Church and the Obama administration, a confrontation that may not be good for either side. It is hard to see what middle ground exists, or even if it does.

The Constitution was designed to prevent such fundamental clashes between church and state. Perhaps the best way out of this thicket would be for the Supreme Court to step in and stop it from happening. Striking down the contraception mandate would avert the disastrous situation of the president sending bishops to jail for being faithful witnesses to their religious convictions.

Traditional Catholicism Waxes Strong

Gotta read this article about how the traditional Roman Catholic faith is on the upswing. The DOR is mentioned. Here's a snippet:

Cardinal Francis George, the longtime leader of the Chicago archdiocese, once gave a homily that startled the faithful by pronouncing liberal Catholicism "an exhausted project . . . parasitical on a substance that no longer exists." Declaring that Catholics are at a "turning point" in the life of the church in this country, the cardinal concluded that the bishops must stand as a "reality check for the apostolic faith."
Such forthright defense of the faith and doctrine stands in clear contrast to the emphasis of an earlier generation of Catholic theologians and historians. Many boomer priests and scholars were shaped by what they believed was an "unfulfilled promise" of Vatican II to embrace modernity. Claiming that the only salvation for the church would be to ordain women, remove the celibacy requirement and empower the laity, theologians such as Paul Lakeland, a Fairfield University professor and former Jesuit priest, have demanded that much of the teaching authority of the bishops and priests be transferred to the laity.
This aging generation of progressives continues to lobby church leaders to change Catholic teachings on reproductive rights, same-sex marriage and women's ordination. But it is being replaced by younger men and women who are attracted to the church because of the very timelessness of its teachings.

Transferring the teaching authority of the bishops and priests to the laity is a losing proposition.

 

April Newsletter in the mail

Yeah, it's been quiet of late. But the April 2012 newsletter is in the mail. Here's the PDF copy of it:

April 2012 fidelis newsletter

Because the media won't cover it...

Yesterday, a work day, there were religious freedom rallies around the nation. You won't hear much if anything about them in the mainstream press (who are shills for Obama), so pass along that thousands of people rallied for freedom and against the HHS mandate.

Catholic Vote has a roundup of pictures

Here the Anchoress discusses how obeisance to the culture of death drives our president and the HHS Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius.

Jennifer at Conversion Diary writes about evil in societies (a must read) and how to spot it.

And take a look at this video from Denmark. It's a short deconstruction of Obama's rhetoric (not about abortion, but his statements regarding our allies). Does Obama believe what he says? Why does he say what he says? What is behind the veneer? Very, very interesting. Obama cannot be re-elected. Our religious freedom depends upon it. See below.

For your viewing pleasure

Read the Decree...and Rejoice!

Here's the decree from Rome regarding the closing of 13 churches in Ohio. Cleansing Fire provides a copy of it. I love my  Church--One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic!

Never
Give
Up!

Viva Christo Rey!

A couple of must-reads about the HHS mandate and the Catholic Church and us...Catholics.

This Astonishing Moment

I Didn't Sign Up For This

Take down that sign!

In the upcoming parish bulletin, Deacon Dean writes about our parish situation--its ministries, finances, and facilities. While he lauds an upswing in giving, he is careful to warn parishioners, too. He writes, "The strategy of our parish’s Facilities Council has been to hold off on improvements as much as possible until we can see the full results of the commitment people made last year. We’ll use this year’s surplus for next year’s improvements."

 He also writes, "Some major changes have occurred since last year’s Stewardship of Treasure Appeal. Providence Housing has dropped its offer to purchase the St. Vincent Church campus and the likelihood of its sale is remote. Currently we have no one interested in purchasing Immaculate Heart of Mary Church which has been up for sale for many years. Consequently, we must continue to maintain these buildings to assure that they do not fall into disrepair. This will add to our financial challenges."

And he further states, "Some of our staffing costs will significantly increase this year. We will have the blessing of two fulltime priests, thus a larger staff and an additional salary on the payroll."

First, I would like to address the Facilities Council strategy of holding off repairs. At the August/September 2010 rollout meetings, parishioners were informed that repairs had been deferred for so long on our church facilities that literally millions of dollars would be needed to repair them. Current leadership has been at the helm since 2006. We are now headed into Spring 2012. How long we will continue to defer repairs? How long before a reasonable and coherent plan for repairs and maintenance is promulgated? If the budget, as is, is not enough to cover needed repairs, then a plan must be put in place as quickly as possible.

To put it bluntly, the strategy of relying on future giving is exactly what leadership has condemned in the past when it was decided the parish could no longer rely on future bequests to budget!

Second, to mention that a future of sale of St. Vincent's is a "remote" likelihood means that if a "remote" offer would happen to come along, it would be accepted. So that tells us St. Vincent's is still on the chopping block, even though, according to Deacon Dean's article, "...we must continue to maintain these buildings to assure that they do not fall into disrepair."

Third, is the fact that Immaculate Heart of Mary continues to have a Big.Fat.For.Sale sign propped up in front of the church--a church in which our priests reside, and which continues to have masses and be used for numerous activities and events. So, even though no one is "currently" interested in buying it, the Big Fat For Sale sign maintains its ugly presence. Do the right thing. Take down that sign! Include the parishioners in making plans to repair and maintain our churches and facilities, and start a capital campaign.

And for good measure, read all about how the Vatican has just reversed the closure of 13 parishes in Cleveland, Ohio. As one parishioner there says, "Rome is saying to this bishop and to all the bishops: 'You can't close churches just because you don't have the money or the staff.' Budgetary constraints can't be used to suppress parishes."

More on this most recent decision from Rome here and here, too. And one more for good measure.

We were conned

I Have a Say

This is a must-watch video about the abortion/contraception/HHS mandate debate. Fr. Hollowell speaks plainly, boldly, with the courage of conviction. Here's his blog, too. Catholics MUST OPPOSE the degradation of our people through the culture of death. Here's the latest about Planned Parenthood, guaranteed to turn your stomach. Don't you think the line has now, finally, been drawn? We must choose. Life or death. (H/t to Fr. Z.)