MAPA Convening Board Minutes March 13, 2006

Our local priest's union has posted the minutes of its executive committee's meeting March 13, 2006. Among the committee ("focus group") reports

2. Fraternity of Priests--Bill Burkert reported that he held a meeting at his and that five priests attended. The consensus seemed to be that the best way to accomplish this goal is for guys to host drop-in sessions at their residences especially on a Saturday night after mass.

Guys hanging out together when they're not working sounds like fraternity. They needed a committee to figure this out?

Speaking of bureaucracy

3. Priests' Rights--Steve Avella reported that he made contact with Tom Green who referred him back to Patrick Lagges. Patrick Lagges has done a review for us. We have received other input on the flyer that the Alliance mailed out some months ago. We all agreed that we needed time to study and read all of this carefully before making any decisions or taking any actions. We will also refer materials to the Priests' Rights focus group for input as well.

The meeting of the whole membership was two days away.

4. General Meeting Presenters--Chuck Schramm reported that Dr. Paul Priester would give his presentation: The Vatican Document on Homosexuality and the Priesthood in the Light of Current Research on Human Sexuality ...

Paul Priester's is assistant professor in the Department of Educational Psychology of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

And Noreen Welte will present the second talk: In the Light of the Statistical Facts Published by Fr. Brian Mason in "the Cincture", Are the Current Strategies Being Used Adequate for Dealing with the Growing Priest Shortage?

Noreen Welte is Director of Worship and Pastoral Services for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee.

Then we will deal with an announcement for a new focus group: Wisconsin Legislative Referenda & Pastoral Implications – Steve Avella;

This gets further explanation.

6. Legislative Referenda Group – Steve Avella committed to contacting interested priests to work on a legislative group that would respond and study two issues: the proposed amendment on marriage (limiting marriage to one man and one woman) in Wisconsin; and the re-instatement of the Death Penalty in Wisconsin.

We'll see if they can start by explaining the bishops' positions on both issues.

P.S. You might recall that when Fr. Aiken was pastor at St. Al's he said he could not preach against abortion unless he also preached against the death penalty. I assume he cannot now preach against the upcoming death penalty referendum without also preaching against abortion.