Minutes of the General Meeting, March 16, 2004

Friar’s Lounge Mission Santa Barbara• 7:00 -9:00 p.m.

Theme: “The Lay Vocation and Voice of the Faithful"

Anne Heck, member of the Leadership Team, welcomed the members present and led a beautiful opening prayer.

Marie Foley and Bob Kroes explained the Parish Survey handout about the activities of parishes in our deanery, particularly regarding the Safeguard the Children program and Pastoral Councils. Members were invited to provide additional information to complete the matrix, since answers to many of the questions were unknown. View the draft of the Santa Barbara Parish Survey.

Peter Kruse introduced Rev. Thomas P. Rausch, S.J., Ph.D., the T. Marie Chilton Professor of Catholic Theology at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angles and author of a recent article in America titled “The Lay Vocation and Voice of the Faithful”. He is a specialist in the areas of ecclesiology, ecumenism and the theology of the priesthood, and has published 9 books and over 90 articles.

The first major theme of Fr. Rausch’s presentation dealt with the alarming trend towards the concentration of power in the Vatican at the expense of the Bishops, the clergy and the laity. He suggested that the work of Vatican II resulted in many documents which reflected a schizophrenic split of opinion between those who wanted to open the process up to take advantage of the world wide input of the Church and those who wanted to maintain control for the Vatican. The trend towards concentration of power in the Vatican is certainly consistent with the philosophy and practice of the latter group but is inconsistent with the majority opinion of Vatican II and the will of the world wide church. He cited numerous examples of Cardinals and Bishops who have openly and publicly criticized the trend towards centralization. He explained the historic balance between various members of the Church, namely the pope, the bishops, the national conferences of bishops, pastors and the laity. There is always a competition between these various members, but it is very important to maintain a proper balance. It is the distortion of this balance that is being criticized.

He then presented the themes and arguments contained in his America article. He described his three models that VOTF might adopt in seeking structural change--the parallel structure model, the advocacy model and the incorporation model--giving the relative merits and disadvantages of each. He suggested that VOTF may well need to operate in each way for a particular problem but encouraged the use of the advocacy approach for matters which require a more confrontational approach and the incorporation model for changes which will be more lasting.

Regarding structural change, he agreed that the Church is not a democracy, but stated it is also not an absolute monarchy. He suggested that local churches, including the laity, should have much greater say in the selection of their bishops. There is much Church history about the role of the local church in picking a bishop and then having the candidate approved by Rome, rather that Rome picking someone and sending him without the selection by the local church. In addition, he spoke with great affection about adoption of the principle of subsidiarity--that those who are most affected by a decision be the ones to make the decision--for decisions which can and should be made locally. From an ecumenical perspective, the practice of this principle and the actions of the local churches to make their own decisions is of crucial importance to our Protestant brothers.

Finally, he ended with some signs of hope. The first is the dramatic increase in the number of lay ministers willing to serve the Church. The second is the tremendous influence of the Catholic schools, hospitals and active charities. These are signs that the Church is alive and well despite its present growing pains.

Following a short break Fr. Rausch answered many questions. The first dealt with how the sense of the faithful can be incorporated in the magisterium, that is, the teachings of the Church. He explained that often the consensus of the faithful is the origin of magisterium, but that in all cases, the role of magisterial authority is to articulate what the Church believes.

He was asked to comment on the role of VOTF in the resignation of Cardinal Law. He said it was part of the reason the Cardinal resigned, but that it was clear to the Vatican he had to resign when his priests sent letters asking for that result. He pointed out the Cardinal Law had offered to resign six months earlier, but the Vatican would not let him because it did not want to confirm the power of the laity who were demanding that result. He said the perspective that must be considered is how to change a 2000 year old institution with over one billion members. His comment was “slowly”. He praised our Parish Survey as a way we can point out the present situation and get the local Church to recognize the need to move in the direction of collaboration.

Someone suggested that new priests from the seminary seem to be very clerical and conservative in their view of the Church. It was suggested that some sent to Santa Barbara were actually members of Opus Dei. Fr. Rausch suggested we consider the world of chaos in which these new seminarians were raised and thinks that might be crucial in their predisposition towards order. He said he was not aware of seminarians being members of Opus Dei.

Commenting about “new evangelization,” he suggested we have not agreed on what evangelization is. Does it mean converting Protestants to Catholicism, or does it mean sharing faith with others, or changing the structure of the Church so that those who object to the existing practices and prerogatives of the hierarchy might be assuaged? He suggests that we need to have a collaborative dialogue in the Church about this question and our approach.

When asked to comment on the papal election, he pointed out that 130 of the 135 electors have been appointed by Pope John Paul II, but that what those men will actually do in the election will be informed by their pastoral experiences. Only a few are members of the Vatican, and many of the others have great problems with the Vatican bureaucracy.

Announcements:

Next meeting: All members are invited to participate in a Day of Prayer, on Wednesday, March 31^st, keeping prayerful solidarity with survivors of sexual abuse, as our response to the recent reports by Cardinal and the National Lay Review Board. Members and their guests are invited to join the Taizé prayer service at 6:30 p.m. at the Blessed Sacrament Chapel of the Old Mission, and then to gather in the Friars' Dining Room at 7 p.m. for a simple Lenten meal.

The latest copy of the VOTFSBA Newsletter was available for distribution to the members.

The meeting was adjourned after a rousing rendition of Christ be our Light.

Respectfully submitted

Peter Kruse, Recorder