Rules and Tools for Radical Pastors #8 – Bishop With a ‘Fresh View’
Bottom Line Up Front: Our Shepherd is bringing a “wolf” in to speak to the flock at St. Peter’s on December 6. That “wolf” is actively working towards influencing Pope Francis to install a bishop in the Diocese of Arlington who is less orthodox than Bishop Loverde and who would be more in line with the beliefs of Modernism, Americanism, and “Social Justicism”.
Please read: Local Catholics Ask For New Arlington Bishop With a ‘Fresh View’ and Requested Considerations in Selecting the Next Bishop of the Arlington, VA Diocese. Also take note of the many comments in the section Individual Comments Made by Signers. At least one comment demonstrates that this type thinking already resides within our parish:
“I would like to see a bishop focused on social justice issues and one who supports a more active role for women. I would like to see our diocese move in a more moderate, less conservative direction. — Sperryville, Virginia“
Analysis and Commentary
Earlier today, we posted For the Sheep in Exile – Bulletin 2015-11-29. We found one item in the Pastor’s Piece to be a clear sign that we have not seen a cessation of our Pastor’s radical agenda for St. Peter’s and the Diocese of Arlington. We draw your attention to:
ADVENT PROGRAM NEXT SUNDAY, DEC. 6TH–JOIN US!
Pope Francis’ Joy of the Gospel is a call to action for us as Catholics. It calls us to invigorate our parish community, to share the Gospel message of joy with others, and to care for each other and especially the poor – topics we recently discussed in the Pastoral Council. Since Advent is a good time to reflect on our personal faith journey, on Sunday, December 6, we’ll be hosting a discussion program on Joy of the Gospel after the 8:30 am Mass in the parish hall. Fred Pugarelli will lead the discussion. I think you will find it interesting and informative. ALL ARE WELCOME! Coffee, Tea, etc., will be served.
Before we examine what we might expect from the “Advent Program”, let’s review Father’s radical rules of engagement as presented in our post Rules and Tools For Radical Pastors #2:
RULE 1: Build an organization through individual meetings
Building and sustaining an organization requires a great deal of time meeting with people one-on-one. The reason for this is to discover where your leadership is and to develop relationships of trust so that you may call upon that leadership.
RULE 2: Build an organization by presenting a vision of where you are going and moving toward it.
Saul Alinsky said that people were to have the power, that their ideas and programs should come to the surface. But he also understood that the organizer had to capture the best of those ideas and present them as a vision so that people could move toward them. Alinsky wrote, “The organizer’s biggest job is to give people the feeling that they can do something”
RULE 3: Build an organization through leadership development.
Alinsky had a strong notion that leaders are made and not born. He believed that people’s leadership skills could be developed. He started working among the poor, people among whom some would say leadership skills are lacking. He didn’t let that deter him. Remember the “iron rule” –IAF has a principle called the “iron rule” of organizing. It goes like this: “Never do for others what they can do for themselves.”
RULE 4: Teaching happens best through an action-reflection model.
The fourth principle is that teaching happens best through an action-reflection model. Alinsky felt strongly that the best model of education is not one of training people and then sending them out to do their work. Rather, the best model involves sending people out to do their work and then helping them to learn about what they are doing.Alinsky was very intolerant about taking a long time to get things started. He hit the ground running. Get going. Then do your learning through reflection upon what has happened.
“OUR WEBSITE – I have a friend, Fred Pugarelli, who has offered to update our website and make our website more interactive. …”
For the Sheep in Exile – Bulletin 2015-11-29
Here is Bulletin_2015-11-29
It is early in the morning on Thanksgiving Day. We are thankful for this day and everything the Lord has given us. We look back and see a year filled with family joys. We see children and grandchildren growing in their faith. There is good health and God is providing for all of us. Yet, we each have our personal crosses and burdens. We are especially thankful for these! How else can we join with Jesus and follow Him. He knows the way – He is the Way. His yoke is easy and His burden is light.
Analysis and Commentary
CCHD: The collection for CCHD at St. Peter’s brought in $1,406.25. Our bulletin tells us:
CATHOLIC CAMPAIGN FOR HUMAN DEVELOPMENT (CCHD)
· THANKS YOU for your contribution to the collection last week. Your generous gifts will help CCHD end poverty in the United States through better education, improved housing, and economic development. Through CCHD and its beneficiaries, we demonstrate Catholic social teaching and carry our Jesus’ mission to “bring glad tidings to the poor…to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free” (Lk4:18).
Our Catholic social teaching is clear. We have a responsibility to the poor, but Matthew 26:11, Mark 14:7, and John 12:8 would lead us to the conclusion that, no matter how generous our gifts might be, CCHD will never “end poverty in the United States…“. There is, however, great hope that, through our prayers and good works of Christian charity, we can have some success in leading lost souls to Christ. He alone can end the greatest poverty – the absence of sanctifying grace. Unfortunately, that is not the goal of CCHD.
A Continental Divide – Post Script: In our post A Continental Divide we reported that at the 5:00 PM Mass on November 21st, as the CCHD collection was being taken, Father said the following:
“Oh, by the way, did you know the postcards you get are not approved. //pause// Did you all get postcards this week? //Affirmative answer from some person// Ignore them. I talked to the person who’s sending them and he can’t make sense. So. This is a very good collection, it does a lot. So, ignore them [if you get] any postcards in the future.”
We now have reliable reports from attendees at the two Sunday Masses that Father made similar remarks to the congregation. It is pointless, to go into this in more detail. We have done our homework and we have substantial data to support our position regarding CCHD. We also know without doubt that the author of the postcard did homework equal in depth to our own.
A Continental Divide
Wikipedia would tell you this about the topic of this post:
“A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea, and the basin on the other side either feeds into a different ocean or sea, or else is endorheic, not connected to the open sea.”
From the very beginning of the Sheep of Kephas blog, we have done our best to make it clear that our Pastor is a good man and we pray for him daily – and it is a sincere prayer of good will. More importantly he is an ordained priest with the ability to do things that are beyond my capability or vocation. It pains me that people in the parish don’t make more use of his priestly faculties – there is never a line for Confession at St. Peter’s. We pray fervently that some day there will be.
Yet, I can’t help but thinking about the divide between us. Perhaps it is more philosophical than spiritual, but it is a great divide nevertheless. Although the same God looks over us and He showers His graces on us, they seem to be flowing in different direction – towards different oceans and seas.
In the post For the Sheep in Exile – Bulletin 2015-11-22, we mentioned the CCHD collections that were held this evening and to be held tomorrow. Our comment was simple:
Perhaps you received a postcard concerning the CCHD collection this week. We did not send those postcards, but we commend and support the effort. If you have the time, please read the following: CCHD Gives $65,000 to Group Led By Donor to Pro-Abortion and Same-Sex ‘Marriage’ Causes
At the 5:00 PM Mass this evening, as the second collection was being taken, Father said the following:
“Oh, by the way, did you know the postcards you get are not approved. //pause// Did you all get postcards this week? //Affirmative answer from some person// Ignore them. I talked to the person who’s sending them and he can’t make sense. So. This is a very good collection, it does a lot. So, ignore them [if you get] any postcards in the future.”
And therein lies the Continental Divide between us. Please go to the search box on this site and search for CCHD. Please look at the sources my wife and I have cited. We have taken great pains to know our sources. I can speak first hand concerning the quality of research and training that has gone into this open source research effort.
At this point, I can only say. Look at our sources, reflect on what Father said. Then, go out and do your own research.
For the Sheep in Exile – Bulletin 2015-11-22 – Supplemental
Thought you would like to see the Pastoral Council Minutes for November 7, 2015. No time for comments now, but will have some later.
For the Sheep in Exile – Bulletin 2015-11-22
Here is Bulletin_2015-11-22
This is where we were last evening and that explains why this post is late. Our granddaughter received the Holy Sacrament of Confirmation at St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church. So, that makes two grandchildren confirmed in as many months, and there will be many more over the course of the coming years. We pray for all the Confirmandi and ask the Holy Spirit to guide and strengthen them – they are the next generation of the Church Militant.
I chose not to crop the upper portion of this picture. That is because the painting of the beheading of St. John the Baptist clearly illustrates what is expected of those confirmed in the faith. Whether it is the sanctity of marriage or the many current signs of sinful cultural decline noted by Bishop Loverde, our Catholic doctrines are bound to run contrary to the practices of society and the mandates of the government. Confirmation is not just an evening in a red robe, it is a lifetime of spreading the Gospel no matter what the personal cost.
Analysis and Commentary
There is insufficient time this morning to address several worthwhile topics for comment. So, we will provide just one reminder,
CCHD: Perhaps you received a postcard concerning the CCHD collection this week. We did not send those postcards, but we commend and support the effort. If you have the time, please read the following: CCHD Gives $65,000 to Group Led By Donor to Pro-Abortion and Same-Sex ‘Marriage’ Causes
For the Sheep in Exile – Bulletin 2015-11-15
Here is Bulletin_2015-11-15
Today was a day of great joy for us. Was there a birthday, a wedding, a new grandchild? No, none of those things. Life must not be tied to momentous events to be joyful. This day we were together. We attended Mass at St. John the Baptist and Fr. Fasano shared his great love for St. Frances Xavier Cabrini (Mother Cabrini). In these times of mass immigration in Europe and the “hot potato” issue of immigration in our own country, we find ourselves dismayed and confused. Yet, there she is, Mother Cabrini, patron saint of Immigrants. Perhaps a prayer or two for her intercession will help us to understand God’s will and will provide consolation to those in great need.
Today was a day of great joy for us. Once again, we were able to visit St. Peter’s Cemetery and pray for all those souls who need our prayers. Many times we feel as though we can do nothing of note or worth in our lives, yet God gives us the great power to pray for those in need. And for those in need, He always listens.
Analysis and Commentary
1. Statement of Financial Activit
ies: Last week we made it quite clear – We are not bean counters. When it comes to finances, I find it necessary to quote A. A. Milne and Winnie the Pooh, “I am a bear of very little brain…”
Nevertheless, while talking to my juvenile, 14 lb. Main Coon cat, I had time to ponder and “Think, think, think” about things I have heard about the way it used to be at St. Peter’s. For example, the Statement of Financial Activities noted the existence of the John Paul Storey Fund, but there was no mention of other funds that exist, such as the Building Fund, Church Fund, Cemetery Fund, and the Outreach Fund. By not calling out those funds separately, it becomes impossible to interpret the parish’s financial health accurately.
As my wife and I prayed for the souls in our parish cemetery, I briefly remembered that we had purchased two plots for a total of $1,200. Did the financial statement include that purchase as “Other Operating Income”? We don’t know and won’t know because the Cemetery Fund wasn’t listed separately. That becomes important because, as my cat reminded me: “From a pure accounting view, these are one time asset sales (i.e. once sold, the church will never receive any future revenue from any particular plot that has been sold). Including these plot sales as income overstates “Total Operating Income” as well as well as the “Net Surplus.” Moreover, absent the spike in cemetery plot sales last year, there would be no “Net Surplus” – instead, there would have been a “Net Loss” for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2015.”
What all of that means is that, when I’m pushing up daisies in St. Peter’s cemetery, our pastor, whoever he might be at that time, won’t be getting any more money from me. By the way, have I told you that my juvenile, 14 lb. Main Coon cat has quite a knack for networking and linking up with some pretty savvy subject matter experts.
In the end, even Winnie the Pooh would be able to figure out that collections were down 13% for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2015. – Oh, bother!
2. We Grow Numb: Drat! And double drat! And triple drat! – I repeat myself. I’m tired of repeating myself, and you are tired of hearing me repeating myself. Last year at this time, you had to read what was said in For the Sheep in Exile – Bulletin 2014-11-30 Part II about the situation caused by eliminating the missalettes and adopting the use of Reading God’s Word.
So, here we are a year later. The same ridiculous situation remains. Walk into Church this weekend and you will find a brand new copy of your favorite substitute for sanity. It will go home. It will remain unopened. People will come to Mass and sit there with no written anchor to the readings of the day. Meanwhile, they will never see the additional prayers that are a part of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. It will all be lost to them, unless they are super heroes of attention and understanding, capable of hearing, understanding, and comprehending everything that comes through the public address system.
During tourist season, visitors to our parish will continue to be lost. I’ve seen them commenting to each other. Some with dismay and some with disgust.
Quadruple drat!!!!!! We have become numb to the change and no longer complain or call notice to this, just one of the many insanities and foolish impositions upon our ability to enjoy the Mass as Holy Mother Church has given it to us.
3. Ecumenical Thanksgiving: From the Pastor’s Piece:
COME TO THE ECUMENICAL THANKSGIVING SERVICE
10:00 AM AT REYNOLDS BAPTIST CHURCH, SPERRYVILLEYou are invited to the ecumenical Thanksgiving service at lOam on Thanksgiving Day at Reynolds Baptist Church in Sperryville, I will be participating with other members of the Rappahannock Ministerial Association in this service. Come and be a part of this joyful celebration.
We have two comments besides the obvious one that will remain unspoken. First, in his announcement, Father tells us that he will be “participating”. Trinity Episcopal Church has an announcement about the same event. It says: “Rev. Horace H. (Tuck) Grinnell of St. Peter Catholic Church will be preaching.”
Our second comment is that it appears that the Rappahannock Clergy Association has now become the Rappahannock Ministerial Association. We suppose that this is more inclusive.
4. CCHD: As we said earlier, we grow numb. Once again, we receive a full page flyer (two sides) extolling the virtues of the Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD). Rather than argue the point about what abuses occur with our contributions, I merely ask you to ponder one thing (Think, think, think.) In the pie chart on the second side what percentage of your money goes to saving souls? Think, think, think.
Now that you have your answer, why did Jesus Christ become man and die on a cross? What percentage of His life went to saving souls? Think, think, think.
For the Sheep in Exile – Bulletin 2015-11-08
Here is Bulletin_2015-11-08
An Indian Summer Reflection: These warm days, highlighted by gentle breezes and vivid Autumn colors, bring the most peaceful feeling imaginable to those who take the time to visit St. Peter’s Cemetery and pray for departed friends and loved ones. Families with young children can be seen there spending the afternoon – their good memories caressed by a most loving God. His arms are open to all who take the time to remember. My wife and I have made these visits and prayed for each and every soul. We are uplifted with the knowledge that there are places in that cemetery where our earthly remains will rest, and there will be those who come to pray for us some day. Let us continue to pray for All Souls.
Analysis and Commentary
1. Statement of Financial Activities: I like beans. My wife likes beans. Yet, there are two unavoidable truths in life. Sometimes beans don’t like us. Sometimes beans can cause an odor. There is another truth. Neither my wife nor I count beans. Not that beans don’t count, but we don’t count beans – we are not bean counters.
What? Where am I leading? This weeks bulletin includes our yearly Statement of Financial Activities. Interestingly, it provides a comparison between this fiscal year (7/1/14 – 6/30/15) and last fiscal year (7/1/13 – 6/30/14). For your general information I have scanned last year’s statement so that you can observe the change in presentation format.
Because, we’re not bean counters, Fre3d Capra doesn’t know scat from a pile of beans, and Petition can’t count anywhere nearly as good as Roy Roger’s horse Trigger, we’re having trouble interpreting what all these numbers mean. So, when we see that this year’s “Total Operating Income” is $23,217.00 less than last year’s, and that this year’s “Total Operating Expenses” are $4,952.00 more than last year, we have trouble determining if that is a bad thing.
I know that some of you out there have had experience with the Parish Financial Council. Perhaps you could respond by private email and enlighten us on what all these beans mean. Could it be that some of this is because we are in imposed exile?
2. Parish Collections: This weeks bulletin also includes a flyer entitled “Charities Worthy of Your Prayerful Support 2015-2016.” We don’t presume to know all that much, and sometimes we get things wrong. For years we gave faithfully to the Campaign for Human Development. However, one year we did some homework and came up with information that was somewhat unsettling. Now we don’t give to that collection. We now follow a Catholic version of the Reagan Doctrine “trust but verify”. The flyer in the bulletin affords you the opportunity to do your own homework.
3. Too Bad: I suppose it’s too bad that I haven’t ever stopped in to check out the St. Augustin Reflection Group. Obviously, the scheduling is not good for working folks. Also, if you look back on other posts, you’ll see that we have had reservations concerning this group. But, … but, look at this exiting advertisement. How intriguing. Have I been missing a fantastic opportunity?
ST. AUGUSTINE REFLECTION GROUP – ”WOMEN”
“Perhaps if Augustine had a more positive understanding of human sexuality and its creative role in loving relationships, beyond procreation and a release for concupiscence within marriage, his theological legacy on the role of women would have been less destructive.” (taken from pg. 164, St. Augustine of Hippo.)
If you want to know more about this, come join us Monday morning for the St. Augustine reflection group (9:15-10:15 am) in the back meeting room at church.
Since neither one of us will be there, we won’t ever know where this discussion is going to go. I’m just wondering if this might become the moral equivalent of what I do to my dear, poor, dead horse Petition. Is this discussion going to be the beating of a dead Doctor of the Church when he’s down? Who knows?
The Sheep of Kephas 