Priests Council hears, accepts archbishop's apology

The May 5, 2005 Catholic Herald reports that Archbishop Dolan concedes he should have consulted with the priests of the Archdiocese before promulgating regulations permitting, among other things, unannounced searches under certain circumstances.

When Archbishop Dolan signed off on the policies in December, he thought he was "signing approval to begin the process" of consultation.

And the policies didn't have a "Sign Here" sticky, so he had no excuse. Anyway, our Archbishop's abject apology seemed to satisfy disgruntled priests.

Fr. [Jeffrey R.] Haines [moderator of the Priests Council and a member of its executive committee] said he himself "entered the meeting with anxiousness" because the documents had touched priests' nerves. "I was very pleased with the way it (the meeting) came out. It was almost a dream come true," the moderator said.

Sounds good if you've forgotten a Nantucket Dream that almost came true.

Some priests, at least, view the scope of consultation broadly.

Fr. Kenneth Mich, spokesman for the [Milwaukee Archdiocese Priests] alliance and pastor of Good Shepherd, Menomonee Falls, told the Catholic Herald, "Consultation has occurred, but not consistently on all issues."

He cited Archbishop Dolan's decision requiring children to celebrate their first confession before receiving their first Communion as one on which the priests were not consulted. Prior to the archbishop's decision, which sacrament was celebrated first was a parish decision.

"We want to be consulted on matters on a significant level, matters that have an impact on the lives of the priests and the faithful," Fr. Mich said.

Fr. Mich is quite mistaken. The proper order of first confession and first communion was the subject of two Vatican documents.

Fr. John Schreiter, dean of District 5 in western Waukesha County, said that one of the concerns priests have about documents developed since 2002, e.g., the Dallas charter and its accompanying protocols, are their tone.

"The feeling priests have is that they are presumed guilty until proven innocent," he said. "(The thinking among the public is) if something is brought up, it must be true. Our fear is that we are presumed guilty."

Based on what Fr. Mich says, they might well be presumed scofflaws. If they have to be consulted about complying with Vatican decrees, do they think they need to be consulted about complying with the Dallas Charter?