St. Alphonus Parish Council Minutes February 4, 2008

Posted on the bulletin board in the church foyer. (Notes taken on the back of a Catholics for Peace and Justice Engage! promotional insert in the bulletin.)

In the Pastor's report,

b. Clergy opening - St. Al's not listed for a clergy opening by mutual decision including finances, candidates & availability of regular alternate.

Whose mutual decision is not specified. He didn't make it sound anything but unilateral in his subsequent letter. There it sounded like he had a cadre of cronies (or compatibles if you prefer) to substitute for an associate pastor but in the minutes it sounds like he has just one.

c. Upcoming Staff Meeting to reassign job duties & responsibility based on time study eval.

In "From the Pastor's Desk" in the February 24, 2008 bulletin, he puts it this way.

I have been working on some pastoral re-organization. When all the pieces are in place, I will be sending a letter to each family, outlining all the details. It is my hope that when this is finished, we will be in a better position to help carry out our mission to bring Jesus Christ to this part of the world.

I'll be surprised if the staff reorg doesn't include some changes that, when formerly suggested by parishioners or by committee or council members, were rejected because the status quo was claimed to be essential to that mission.

In Committee reports, there were none from five of eight committees. The March 9, 2008 bulletin says

Each year at this time we seek new and additional members for Parish Council and Standing Committee Leadership.

There are four openings for Parish Council, and openings for most Council Standing Committees...

The parish practice is to pass out cards at a Sunday Mass for parishioners to nominate themselves or others. After reflecting on my parish council experience, I stopped nominating people.