Beloved 1988 Cadillac won by recent neighbor of retired Greendale priest at St. Alophonsus

Jane Ford-Stewart for Now News Group at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

(See my earlier post.)

Pristine 1988 Cadillac to help raise money for St. Alphonsus Parish, Greendale

Jane Ford-Stewart for Now News Group at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

A small point, Father Wally came to our parish when old enough to be retired, had he so chosen, and served as an associate pastor, not pastor.

Raising the Wrecktory

"And, we should remember, Milwaukee is at odds with the vast majority of dioceses around the globe. In almost all places in the world, priests still live in rectories. The twenty year period of priests moving out of rectories in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, is more likely an historical aberration than a trend for the future."

Our now-Pastor Fr. Aaron Esch so wrote in his column in last Sunday's bulletin (page 2) to answer another of the 'Rectory/Outreach Building—Frequently Asked Questions'.

Seems reasonable, considering this from the Code of Canon Law.

"Can. 533 §1. A pastor is obliged to reside in a rectory near the church. Nevertheless, in particular cases and if there is a just cause, the local ordinary can permit him to reside elsewhere, especially in a house shared by several presbyters, provided that the performance of parochial functions is properly and suitably provided for."

That was not how closing the Rectory came about at St. Alphonsus, see The once and future Rectory?

So how has the proposal to return to the Rectory as priests' residence been received?

The 'Rectory/Outreach Building Survey Results' in the July 19, 2015 parish bulletin(page 2) say that out of 410 respondents given five options, 343 (83.66%) favored "renovate existing building".

The 'Rectory/Outreach Building Survey Results' in the July 26, 2015 parish bulletin (page 2) say respondents supported "a capital campaign for debt reduction and renovation of the rectory" 406 to 42.

The once and future Rectory?

Two weeks ago our parish Parochial Administrator (not yet formally made Pastor by our Archbishop) included with the bulletin this letter about a possible Capital Campaign. And in doing so he says,

"I wanted to introduce into the conversation the possibility of reclaiming part of the Rectory building for housing."

More on that below.

The possible campaign stems from two issues, the condition of the Outreach House, which had been the Rectory, and the mortgage balance. Both the Rectory conversion and the mortgage came out of the parish building project early last decade.

That project, you might recall, also included a new Day/Adoration Chapel. Its proposed design was, from my perspective, the bait that got me to pledge for the first round of that capital campaign. And the switch to construct it to a very different design (see as-built photo) was what got me to not pledge or give to any subsequent rounds of capital fundraising. As I've said, fool me once, etc..

You might also recall that our Parochial Administrator not long ago announced that the Chapel would be rearranged to better accomodate Eucharist Adoration. (see second photo) This rearrangement is essentially that shown in those architects renderings around 15 years ago. So what could I do; even though there was then no campaign, I started sending in checks designated for the mortgage.

A lesser bitter taste had been left by the closing of the Rectory as a residence for priests in connection with that circa 2002 project. For a very brief summary of how that came about, see the later part of my June 28, 2005 post and my comment to it. When I joined the Parish Council in 1996, there was already an evaluation of the parish's use of its buildings in progress. This included consideration of possible changes in the use of the Rectory building, then occupied by two priests and some parish offices. There was not, as far as I can see, a parish decision to convert the Rectory to other uses. And a proposal to demolish it as part of the circa 2002 building project drew enough objections (including from me) that the building remains.

That bitter taste wasn't just from seeing "how the sausage is made", here someone's desired result of not having a Rectory as such at St. Al's. It was that a priest-tenant not assigned to our parish would otherwise have continued to live there, and within a few years a new Associate Pastor was surprised to learn it was not available to live in. As far as I can tell, we might have had four priests living in it now if it had remained a Rectory.

In his letter, our Parochial Administrator went on,

"It would be my dream to be back in residence at St. Alphonsus. The parish is my family and I would love the ability to live in the family home. Therefore, some of the options that the Finance Council will present to for our consideration will include space for several priests to rent from the parish, still leaving room for vital ministries critical to our mission."

I see that our Pope made a point of encouraging our priests to live simply. Owning a home, or even a condo, and commuting to work never struck me as simple compared to living in a parish rectory. Given that there had been that push to demolish the Rectory 15 years ago, it's hard to believe it's essential for office space today, other than than offices for the priests.

And then there's Maudy Thursday

From our parish bulletin for last Sunday.

"Maudy Thursday—The Last Supper

"Jesus understands his time on Earth is nearly over. He gathers his friends and followers (his 12 Disciples, including saints John, Matthew, Mark and Simon—the men who went on to describe their experiences with Jesus in the four gospels, which feature in the New Testament of the Bible) together to share a final meal with them—the 'Last Supper.' ..."

It's attributed to, and quoted from the Maundy Thursday section of this post, at NetMums.

Might make a good catechetical 'What's wrong with this picture' exercise.

Ah, capella

The February 1, 2015 column by our Pastor Parish Administrator brings news of a couple more small steps.

"On Fridays in Lent, the parish will offer the Stations of the Cross. This beautiful devotion is conveniently scheduled at 7:00 p.m., right after our excellent Fish Fry. In order to do this devotion, we needed to move the Stations into the Church (they had previously been in the chapel.)...

As you might expect, this being a modern adoration chapel, the stations were a few feet apart. It was almost as if this devotion was an afterthought, or even that someone wanted to discourage it.

Even more surprising...

"Since the stations are moving out of the Chapel, we also thought it might be a good time to try something new in that space. So, you can expect a slightly different look. The walls will be patched and painted, and the furniture that is already there will be rearranged."

Could this mean rearranged so that the seating will be perpendicular to the long axis of the room, with the altar at what would have been regarded as the front of the room? That's how it was portrayed on the architectural drawings that induced me to contribute to the capital campaign that included building it. I was a bit chagrined when the room as built had the altar on one side of the room, with the seating then facing that side. By chagrined I mean this was a factor in my discontinuing pledging to church fund appeals. I don't mean stopped giving, just stopped pledging. Fool me once, etc..

Perhaps these changes will be steps toward de-chagrining.

Going on 40 years plus 40 years in the vocation desert?

In his From The Desk Of The Parochial Administrator column in Sunday's bulletin (page 2) Fr. Esch notes,

"Monday, July 28, is the Annual Seminary Golf Outing. It’s one of two major fundraising events each year that support St. Francis de Sales Seminary."

and

"The chances are good that a young man studying there right now will serve at St. Alphonsus in the near future. ... Pray for our seminarians, and pray for more vocations to the priesthood."

Maybe even a vocation from St. Al's. If that's ever happened in our parish's 75 years, I've never heard it mentioned.

Monstrous (sp?) changes at St. Al's

With Fr. Alan Jurkus's retirement, Father Aaron Esch takes over at our parish (St. Alphonsus, Greendale), though not yet with the title Pastor.

And so his column, June 22, 2014 bulletin, page 2, is "From the Desk of the Parochial Administrator", and includes this.

"if I have any pastoral plan for the future it is this: Pray! Pray! Pray! In particular, it’s a great hope of mine to begin Eucharistic Adoration as soon as possible. In order to do this, we must first purchase a monstrance, since the parish doesn’t own one."

Without getting into specifics, I calculate a monstance today will cost less than half what our parish spent on a Liturgical Consultant for the 2002 building project.

I hear the money was pledged in short order. In his column two weeks later, July 6, 2014 bulletin, page 2, Fr. Esch says,

"The response to the request to raise funds for the purchase of a Monstrance has been tremendous. Thank you! When the Monstrance is purchased, we can organize a period of Eucharistic Adoration, hopefully, at a regular time each week."

Spring 2014 priest appointments announced

Our Milwaukee Catholic Herald reports

"Archbishop Jerome E. Listecki, in consultation with the Priest Placement Board of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, has appointed the following priests for ministry in the Archdiocese, effective June 17, unless otherwise noted."

As I understand an explanation Dave Pawlak once provided in a comment, the listed appointments of priests as "administrators" are until our Archbishop formally makes them pastors.

For our parish,

"Fr. Aaron Esch, from associate pastor, St. Alphonsus Parish, Greendale, to administrator, St. Alphonsus Parish, Greendale."

and

"Fr. Kevin Barnekow, from shared associate pastor, St. William Parish, Waukesha, and St. John Neumann, Waukesha, to associate pastor, St. Alphonsus Parish, Greendale."

Fr. Esch succeeds Fr. Alan Jurkus, who is completing an extension of his term as pastor and delay of his retirement.

Often the brief flurry of excitement at the appointment of a new pastor turns out to be like that which occurs between the alarm clock going off and hitting the snooze button, but we can always hope and pray that this is not such a time.

Elsewhere in our cluster of parishes, Fr. Chuck Schramm completes his time as pastor.

"Fr. Brian Mason, from associate pastor, St. Mary Parish, Hales Corners, to administrator, St. Mary Parish, Hales Corners."

and

"Fr. Gideon Buya, newly ordained, appointed associate pastor, St. Mary Parish, Hales Corners."

No news for St. John the Evangelist, Greenfield, or St. Martin of Tours, Franklin.

Watching the readers

Our parish (St. Alphonsus, Greendale) has lately been keeping past weekly bulletins on its website longer. Our pastor fielded a question in his September 22, 2013 column (page 2).

"Someone asked why the Sunday readings are not in the Breaking Bread book. Readings are to be proclaimed and listened to. We are blessed to have excellent readers who actually rehearse the readings. When we go to a play or movie, we usually do not take the 'script' with us and 'follow along.' So, too, at Mass we need to listen attentively. If there is a hearing problem, we do have assistive devices available in the sacristy. For those who would like to read the readings in advance, they are available online. I hope this is helpful in understanding our custom."

For reference, here's the Breaking Bread Annual Subscription edition at Oregon Catholic Press, "Also available with full Lectionary readings...".

Our pastor is in that long period between announcing he will be retiring and the end of his term. Over on the secular side we referred to this period as "dead man walking". It's a time for, among other things, making lists of changes to pitch to the next person in charge.

By list might include suggesting to the next pastor that the anathema be lifted against those who genuflect when receiving Communion (See my earlier post Sailing the Pharisees.) Or at least that various references to being a "welcoming" parish should footnote this example, just so people know what they're getting into.

Storm clouds

Today's Statement from Peter Isely, SNAP Midwest Director, on How Pope Francis took 2013 by storm, also includes elaboration on SNAP's agenda.

"Pope Francis taking on the self styled 'traditionalists' (fetishists may be a more accurate description) and rejecting the rhetoric of the culture wars has made a very good first impression, especially with the liberal press."

Count me among those who saw parallels between how bishops and pastors dealt with claims of sexual abuse and how they dealt with liturgical issues. It appears that SNAP's idea of "reform" will still leave as standard operating procedure dismissing people raising some issues as actually just manifesting psychological problems.

In the interest of full disclosure, during my stints as a catechist at my parish (St. Alphonsus, Greendale), I have raised the issue that our parish liturgy was inconsistent with what our Christian Formation texts have us teach. Among responses I received over the years was that this concern was just my projecting some deeper disillusionment.

Mr. Isely notes Pope Francis's emphasis on simplicity, but does not see that as getting at the underlying problems.

"it doesn’t mean he is going to alter the authority structure, rules, and libidinal economy of the male and allegedly celibate priesthood which engenders and even enjoins abuse and cover ups."

My analysis is that the problem is a self-protective bureaucratic outlook, and that our lay leadership is susceptible to it. My idea of reform would be an end to jerking people around over any issue, as opposed to Mr. Isely's that only the right people, e.g., "traditionalists", would get jerked around.

Consultation by Clergy Placement Board

In our parish's (St. Alphonsus, Greendale) bulletin for last Sunday,

"Consultation by Clergy Placement Board"

was the only business on the agenda for the Parish Council meeting tonight at 7pm.

In his column, our pastor elaborated.

"This Thursday, a representative from the Clergy Placement Board will be meeting with the Parish Council to discuss the procedure for the transition of a new pastor. The meeting is expected to last about two hours. The purpose is to have a dialogue as to what qualities and talents the new pastor should have to meet the needs of our parish."

Since I had, as a parish member, attended the Parish Council Pastor Replacement Consultation back on March 13, 2007 (see my earlier post) I thought I'd attend.

Though there was nothing in the bulletin to indicate this would be any more of a problem than last time, since I had checked in advance last time I again checked with the parish if it was okay to attend. This time the parish checked with our Archdiocese of Milwaukee and it turns out the meeting is supposed to be open to parish staff and parish council only.

I look forward to seeing what report we parishioners receive from the Consultation.

Perpetual motion

In the October 13, 2013 bulletin at our parish (St. Alphonsus, Greendale), one of our deacons reports a discovery.

"Besides our weekly liturgies, there are many other activities that take place at St. Alphonsus Parish, too numerous to mention. But I think that there is one that has been hiding, or at least kind of kept in secret unintentionally, since it is listed in the weekly bulletin."

Which just goes to show that publishing something in the bulletin, even every week, doesn't mean it's been communicated to the parish. Next,

"It was a discovery, or at least to my wife, Joan, who became aware of the Rosary and Mother of Perpetual Help Devotions this past January after a right to life prayer service in the chapel. After the prayer service, a few people stayed, including Joan, to recite the Rosary, and then the prayers for the Mother of Perpetual Help Devotions. Joan had no idea that this special devotion to our Blessed Mother was going on every Tuesday from 6:30 p.m., to 7:00 p.m., in the Chapel."

And has been at least back to the 1990s, when I happened upon it when arriving for a meeting.

"Do you remember the Rosary with the joyful, sorrowful, and glorious mysteries, Hail Marys and the Our Father? Joan remembers as a child her father praying the Rosary and going to Mother of Perpetual Help devotions every Tuesday evening at their southside parish."

That "remember the Rosary" etc. might be nostalgic. These might not all be known to recent decades' graduates of a parish's religious education program.

Faith In Our (mortgaged) Future

In a recent bulletin, the Trustee-Treasurer of our parish (St. Alphonsus, Greendale) reports,

"Our outstanding mortgage was $2.158 million."

That balance is after paying for the more than ten years since the building project completion?

"With funds collected from our prior debt reduction campaigns and Faith In Our Future (FIOF), we should have enough funds to make the monthly payments until 2016."

As opposed to until the mortgage is fully paid?

Wrecking the curve

As I briefly mentioned sometime back, our pastor reported in his column in a Sunday bulletin,

"our parish day school enrollment is the highest it has been in years. It will be about 475. This is really good news, given the fact that so many of the parish schools are experiencing a declining enrollment."

For this to be good news, doesn't it have to be something other than a fluke? And if it isn't a fluke, isn't it a result of taking a different approach? If it's from a different approach, shouldn't other parish schools try to replicate it as a best practice?

And if one parish can get better results in this area, why isn't it at least possible for it to get better results in other areas? If that's possible, then it isn't an answer to declining Mass attendance to observe that it's a problem throughout the Western world. And it isn't an answer to 30% attrition in the religious education program between First Communion and Confirmation to observe that the kids can't be forced to receive the latter.

How many minutes in six and one-half years

As I've noted before, at least as far back as January 2, 2007, the Parish Council page of our St. Alphonsus parish website indicated that Council Minutes were going to be posted online (see Internet Archive).

There is now a Parish Council Minutes page with the Minutes from August 1, 2013 [doc].

Seems like this took a long time, but at least it's a few months ahead of the 50th anniversary of Inter Mirifica.

P.S. This might not be the record for our parish website being out-of-date, see this June 5, 2008 post.

James Arimond at St. Alphonsus

James Arimond was assigned to our parish as an Associate Pastor from January 13, 1969 to October 16, 1979. [pdf]

He was reported to police January 16, 1990 for sexual abuse of two minors that occurred during the period 1985-1989. He was charged, was eventually convicted under a plea bargain, sentenced to probation, and ultimately laicized January 29, 1996.

The Archdiocese's file summary includes,

"In 2002, two abuse reports were made to the archdiocese; one that took place in 1975 and one that took place in 1980."

I assume the 1975 incident involves sexual abuse of a minor during his assignment at St. Alphonsus. If this has ever been publicly discussed at our parish since the 2002 report, I missed it. (I had learned, by other means, that there had been an incident of abuse by a priest assigned to St. Al's.)

The last document in the Arimond file is a March 2005 [pdf] settlement of an abuse claim after mediation, but it does not indicate when or where the abuse took place.

Update: Priest Suspected of Child Abuse Worked in Greendale: Church Records, by Charles Gorney at Greendale Patch.

Clapping At Mass

Some might applaud, figuratively, what our parish's Director of Liturgy and Music wrote [pdf] in last sunday's bulletin,

Though we know so many of you are moved by the Spirit when the choir sings after Communion at Sunday liturgy, it is really not a time for clapping. The members of the choir and instrumentalists know that you support all their hard work, and we thank you for wanting to show your response at times. However, it is a time of reflection, and it would be best if we could just let the music be what it is supposed to be ... a prayer. Our choirs do work hard and are very dedicated to their ministry, but we would appre-ciate it if you just prayed the words to the music as we sing them.

Confirmation of the problem

Our pastor reported in his April 14, 2013 bulletin column [pdf]

"This afternoon, Bishop Sklba will be with us at 2:00 p.m., to preside at the Confirmation of 86 of our young people."

Our parish's 2005 Status Animarum indicates that nine years before, in 2004, when these 11th graders were 2nd graders, 126 received First Communion.

That's over 30% attrition by my calculation, pretty much the same as last year.

The Pew Forum reported that nationwide

"Approximately one-third of the survey respondents who say they were raised Catholic no longer describe themselves as Catholic."

I can't help but notice the similarity in those statistics.

Good intentions or good results

John L. Allen Jr., posted from Argentina, where Pope Francis was Archbishop [Jorge Mario Bergoglio] of Buenos Aires for 15 years. Most of the report is on our new Pope's general outlook and what we might call his management approach. As to actual results, though,

'vocations to the priesthood have been falling in Buenos Aires on his watch, despite the fact they’re up in some other dioceses. Last year the archdiocese ordained just 12 new priests, as opposed to 40-50 per year when Bergoglio took over.'

Mr. Allen reported goes on to describe the then-Archbishop's missionary vision, including that

'Perhaps the signature pastoral innovation associated with the Bergoglio years is his emphasis on putting priests into the slums and shantytowns of Buenos Aires'.

But before you can put priests anywhere, there first have to be priests.

Rocco Palma does note at Whispers in the Loggia,

'it is indeed conspicuous that Papa Bergoglio's first American personnel moves – more than any other aspect of a pontificate, the place where the rubber hits the road – have both gone to priests of [the Diocese of] Lincoln',

Specifically, he appointed Bishop Michael Jackels of Wichita Archbishop of Dubuque, and Msgr. John Folda, rector of Lincoln's St. Gregory the Great Seminary, as Bishop of Fargo.

'In any event, as Francis' identikit for nominees begins to emerge, both appointments reflect a premium on picks who've yielded impressive, concrete results.

'On that front, Jackels' Wichita has set a national high-watermark both in priestly vocations and a stewardship-based Catholic school system believed to be the US' lone outfit that (get this) doesn't charge tuition to active parishioners, while the Lincoln seminary – whose fairly recent establishment [1998] bucked the prevailing trend – has served as the engine behind the building of a formation group numbering over 40 men, a figure barely equaled even by most of the largest local churches on these shores.'

Around my parish and archdiocese I've often heard that better results elsewhere are solely due to unique circumstances and so we ought not reconsider our current approach even as things deteriorate. We'll see if Pope Francis has empathy or impatience with that outlook.