Death panel

Looks like the St. Al's parish council was found non-responsive, and our pastor's column in Sunday's bulletin notes the DNR order.

At the October Parish Council meeting, it was decided to have a formal process regarding guests who wish to address the council about a specific issue. Anyone wishing to do so is asked to contact the Chair at least 3 days prior to the meeting, if possible, to communicate the issue of concern. At the meeting, those who have requested time will be allotted 5 minutes each to state their concern. The council will listen and then refer the issue to an appropriate committee. The council will not act as a committee of the whole and engage in discussion or debate. Guests are reminded that during the meetings, except for their allotted time, it is appropriate to be good listeners. Only council members are engaged in active discussion.

He always likes to close with a joke.

We hope that this will make for better communication.

But serially, folks,

All parish members are invited to all council meetings.

It's been a long time since I went to raise an issue. After all, if I wanted to waste time, I could have stayed on the parish council.

In fact, the November 5 meeting will be our ANNUAL PARISH MEETING. A revised Constitution and set of By-Laws will be up for approval. All are welcome to attend.

Nah, I'll wait and read about the meeting in the minutes.

Just kidding! You might get the impression from the parish council's page on the parish website that minutes will be posted there (perhaps in pdf). Note the Internet Archive shows the council page has been up since at least January 2, 2007 and no minutes have ever been posted.

So far, no reason to change my earlier conclusion that the real, unstated, parish policy is against communication, just as it is against evangelization.