2019.11.09 RBAT LRSP Presentation Thanks . My name is Carl Scheider. My family has been a part of this Catholic Community since 1976 - 43 years. When this initiative started, I pretty much ignored it. Who can ever change this failed Church? Some of our friends have left for other churches, or no church. We did not leave - but I was not hopeful that we could do anything. Then I was specifically invited to join this Responds effort - and it has given me new hope. We love this parish. We love the sense of community and belonging. We believe that being Church is not about a building, not about membership, not about competing with other churches. We believe that our mission is to make the risen Christ present to our neighbors and in our world - and we think Guardian Angels does that better than most. So it is our home - we are not leaving. Introductions This presentation covers the Network Action Team, and the Rebuilding Action Team. I would appreciate it if the members of those teams who are present would please stand and be recognized. We have spent many evenings and considerable personal time researching and discussing ways to reform our Catholic Community in the face of this scandal. LRSP Goals The second initiative of our Long Range Strategic Plan defined these goals for us: ● Healing opportunities for those sexually abused by clergy. ● Increased lay oversight and transparency to prevent abuse in the future. ● Increased role of the laity and especially women in church leadership and worship. ● Achieve these goals here at GA and at the diocesan level. This is a summary of what has been accomplished toward these mandates. This is not an end result - it is clearly a long journey. AND - as you will see, we could use some help here - if you want to be involved in where we are going as a church, we would love to have you as a member of one of these teams. Outline My task this morning is to give you an overview of the work of these groups: NAT - Network Action Team - to understand what others are doing in this area, here and elsewhere. RAT - Rebuild Action Team - focused on governance options, and lay preaching. Lay Preaching - a part of the Rebuilding Team effort. NAT - Our goal is to build a network of parishes locally and nationally that are engaged in reform. We can learn from each other, and we are stronger if we work together. We have discovered that there are very few nearby parishes doing anything at all in this area. We have found some other parishes nationwide - but not many. There are several national Catholic
groups that are focused on this kind of reform, but they are not present locally in any effective manner. We will continue this work to create a communications infrastructure to share our efforts with others. There is a document summarizing this work on the GA website. RBAT - This group has studied governance options, and looked into the causes of this problem of clerical abuse. Men who abuse children are always among us - and they are in many organizations. What about our church allowed this to happen here, more than in any other organization? Clericalism We discovered that one of the root causes of this is an attitude we all share called clericalism . “Pope Francis has described clericalism as an attitude embraced by priests and bishops in which they see themselves as speci al or superior to others” (Sadowski). To paraphrase another author, clericalism is an excessive deference to the clergy. It places them above the body of the faithful, and reduces the lay role to one of childish obedience and false reverence. (Hattrup) Pope Francis also points out that clericalism can be a sin for both clergy and laity: for clergy, if they demand to be treated as superior to the laity; and for laity, if they resign themselves to the status quo — or “Father can do no wrong”. We, the faithful people of God, have discovered that we are complicit in this crime, because we put our clergy on such a high level above us that we did not question them, we did not challenge them, we did not chastise them. We stood by as our clergy covered up the problem, and moved these priests from one post to another, exposing ever more victims to their crimes. But no more. WE are the church - the clergy are OUR servant ministers. In the past, we have hardly considered the priest or bishop as actually members of the faithful. We put them on such a high pedestal that they hardly seemed human. They are anointed by God, they can do no wrong, they are above reproach. But now we say - you and I say - NO MORE. NEVER AGAIN . We published a paper that summarizes these findings of clericalism, which is available on the GA website. A Story It is difficult to understand the pervasive power of this clericalism mentality, and how difficult it will be to correct it. A story might help. A Dutch sociologist, Geert Hofstede, did a study of cultural views around the world for IBM - Culture and Organizations . He found that people think about the world in profoundly different ways. Take our idea of the height of our society - from bottom to top - some countries see the gap as quite large - a few as quite small. The smallest gap is in the Scandinavian countries. On December 23, 1988 (Hoffstede, p. 47), the Swedish king, Carl Gustav was in a department store in Stockholm buying Christmas presents for his children. He wanted to pay with a check - but he did not have a store check card. The clerk would not take his check. Some shoppers tried to help by showing the clerk a one crown piece with the king’s picture. The clerk finally relented, but only after noting his name and address on the check.
In my world view, that scene is incredible. Imagine the President, or the Queen of England trying to write a check in a department store, and having it refused. The Swedes see the king as just another citizen, who serves them. They were never part of the Holy Roman Empire - they never saw the king as someone given to them by a higher power. For our clergy, Catholics are more like the British view of king. We need to find a way to change our world view of our clergy to be more like the Swedish - the priest or bishop is our servant. He is still our leader, but he is not above and beyond - he is one of us - he is our servant leader. Our clerical servant ministers are part of the laity, they are one of us. And we need to hold them accountable to be our servant ministers - not our lords. Clericalism is not just something that clergy have - it is a worldview that we all share - that we have in our heads since childhood. It will not go away in a hurry. To rid ourselves of it, we need to change our governance structure, our seminaries, our catechism, our sacraments, our liturgy, our symbols. Governance So we researched governance options - how our church is organized and governed, and what other options might exist. We looked at the history of our church, its legal structure, how it has been governed in other places and other times. We looked at other Christian sects, and other religions. That research resulted in another document, which is also provided on the GA website. We developed a list of recommended changes to the legal structure of our parish corporation, parish council, and diocesan governance. Our goal with these changes is to eventually have the lay women and men of our church be on an equal footing with our servant ministers - our priests and bishops. These recommendations will be presented in detail to our parish council for their consideration. This is basically offering our final vision - a fully democratic church. But that will take a while to accomplish. That presentation will also be on the GA website. We also recommend some symbolic first steps, because the cause, this clericalism, is full of symbols of clerical power and prestige. We will not be free of that distorted view of the church until we dismantle many of these symbols that hold such power. Lay Preaching Our scope also included lay preaching as an option - for several reasons. During our initial listening sessions many people asked what happened to our lay preachers. They asked that we reinstate this practice. If you are not familiar with the history, at one point we had 6 to 8 men and women who would preach once monthly. They would read the gospel, and proclaim the word. Lay preaching is a powerful symbol that the laity of our church have an equal footing with our servant ministers. They have real world experiences that can speak to us about their faith and commitment. And it is especially powerful for our women members to see a woman representing them, standing and proclaiming the word of God from the altar.
Conclusion It is very important that we change our symbols , that we change our governance structure , that we foster full and equal participation of the lay women and men that are the church, to make certain that this type of scandal never happens again. But it is even more important that we not lose sight of the real goal and mission of the Body of Christ - to bring about the Kingdom of God. We are gathered here every Sunday so that you, our local Catholic Community, can strengthen us, inspire us, send us forth to be the presence of the risen Christ. Our ultimate mission is to spread the good news of the Gospel of Jesus of Nazareth, that the poor and lowly are the first members of the Kingdom of God, so that peace and justice may reign on Earth. Luke 6:20: Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the Kingdom of God. And the people said “ AMEN ”.
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