Supporters lobby for Catholic lay worker in Beloit

(1) [Ruth] Kolpack insists she upholds Catholic teachings in her work as a pastoral associate but may hold some views contrary to the church as a matter of personal conscience. ...

(2) "It's a question of private conversations vs. my professional role in the parish, and they have to be kept separate," said Kolpack...

(3) Kolpack ... said they [the allegations] might stem from hypothetical situations she presented in discussions with a Catholic student group at Beloit College or in a private conversation with students afterward.

That was a slippery slope on which she slid out of a job as a pastoral associate at St. Thomas the Apostle Catholic Church in the Diocese of Madison. Annysa Johnson reported in Sunday's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Spokesmen for the diocese have declined to comment on the allegations, but one said Friday that lay workers responsible for teaching the faith cannot stray from established church doctrine.

Even I, as an untrained catechist (see Catechists Needed) assumed if I said one thing to students in class, I was not to undercut it in conversations with them outside of class. Presumably that would likewise apply to a catechist with a master of divinity degree.

Here is her thesis, which she says is involved in the controversy. Among other things she finds the Church's theological and liturgical use of words like "Father" and "Son" problematic, to say the least. While this sounds like an alumni magazine class of 1973 reunion anecdote, it was still masters thesis material in 2003 at St. Francis Seminary.


P.S. It happens that in last year's presentation St. Al's by Jim Smith from Pastoral Planning.com (see Spontaneous combustion), he cited as one source of parish problems staffers who think they know how everything should be done because they have masters degrees. That got a hearty laugh from the parishioners and staff present.


Elsewhere:

Frankly, the fastest way to terminate Kolpack's reputation as a scholar is to keep her thesis on-line and give it the widest possible readership. --Diogenes, Madison Hatter, Off the Record

She denies that this was ever done in her role as a lay minister, but that she may privately hold views that dissent from Church teaching. --A Faithful Catholic, Morlino fires Woman for Private Thoughts, Catholic Wintertime In Milwaukee

Moreover, how many DREs and pastoral associates share these views but are too clever -- or lazy -- to publish them? --Rich Leonardi, A troublesome overall teaching mentality, Ten Reasons