Weakland also had help. Auxiliary Bishop Richard Sklba and archdiocesan financial officer Wayne Schneider knew of the payment. Did they raise questions about it, or did their loyalty to Weakland outweigh their loyalty to the church and its parishioners? And what does this episode say about Sklba's ability to lead the archdiocese until the Vatican appoints Weakland's successor?
It also left the question about what Bishop Sklba, who continues as Auxiliary Bishop, learned from the experience. It appears he learned nothing, according to this "Herald of Hope" column in our Catholic Herald on the recent meeting of the Catholic Biblical Association.
I was re-elected to my third term as chair of the board of trustees ... a minor task which simply requires a five-minute stand up report on the health of the investments of the society.
As a trustee he has what the law calls a fiduciary duty to oversee the activities of the association. A bishop, whose very title I understand comes from the Greek word for overseeing, has at least as high a duty to the people of his diocese. Yet here he is making a joke of his duties as chairman of a board of trustees. It might make for an interesting line of questions in his next deposition.
While our Archdiocese might be headed for bankruptcy, the CBA is not.
We have a substantial nest egg, generated from royalties to the association because of the generous work of our members in producing and revising the New American Bible.
That's the Bible translation required to be used at Mass in the U.S.
How does Bishop Sklba spend his time at the CBA after rubber-stamping whatever financial report the staff hands him? He tells the rest of the U.S. bishops how they should be doing their job, as in this CBA Executive Board Letter to American Bishops.
Yah, and all that "teach, govern, sanctify" stuff--that's in the pile, too, right?
ReplyDeleteInteresting discovery there--the copyright royalties--by the way, ICEL gets them, too. That's one of the reasons that ICEL fought (successfully) to retain the rights to the translation(s) of the Mass, even though Rome humiliated them.
Might be interesting to find out exactly what CBA does with all that jack, eh?
Per Bishop Sklba's column, "The interest from those funds is then distributed to support two archaeological expeditions in the Middle East (Tell Mozan / Urkesh and Tell Qarqur in northern Syria), scholarships for young students, archaeological stipends to members seeking that unique experience (which both Fr. Tom Suriano and I had at some point in our teaching careers), subsidized periodical subscriptions for our members and money for the support of visiting professors to Rome and Jerusalem."
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