Please pray for a friend of a friend, Jo, who should be induced into labor sometime today in an attempt to address the declining birth rate in America. Ellie is her daughter's name.
Thanks for your Stika article. I’m sure you guys know this but that is EXTREMELY worthwhile reporting. It is a reality that the internal accountability mechanisms of the Church do not perform their intended tasks, at least at this point, and we rely on “exterior” checks like your reporting. So thank you.
My reading of the McCarrick affair suggests that it was primarily reporting outside the hierarchical chain of command (for instance, by Richard Sipe and Matt Abbott), or threats to go public with damaging information (for instance, by Gregory Littleton) that propelled any kind of forward movement inside the Church bureaucracy toward actually disciplining McC.
With that in mind, your story makes me think one of the underrated elements of this Vos Estis process is that it generates discrete "things" that can be leaked and reported on. True, the investigations VELM triggers seem so far to be highly intransparent and otherwise insufficient, but "A Vos Estis investigation has been triggered" is a reportable story in a way that "There are all these rumors but no one will go on record" is not.
Sounds like JD needs to make a spotify list for these wine-induced nights he's talking about...something to set the right mood while avoiding scandalous lyrics...
The running joke in my family was that my youngest brother, born in 2001 was the 'missing' WMDs from Iraq. We renamed his toy chest 'The Armoury' because that's what it was. Thank you for making me giggle about your 4 year old 'eco-terrorist'. :D
Thanks JD for reminding us about what marriage is all about. I'll be sharing your thoughts with my wife to see if she has the same reaction! Appreciate all the work you and Ed are doing. Keep it up.
A key predictor for stable weekly parish giving...”. 1. How about Stay open?
When bishops ceased the celebration of Mass last year, and capitulated with their secular overlords to restrict occupancy, most parish priests took that to mean they could lock their doors and disappear. Ours stayed open. We Complied with the occupancy limit and social distancing by having volunteers who would be there throughout the day. We were even sanitizing every pew when ever anyone left or the parishioner did it themselves. We had adoration in the church so 25 people could be very separated. Confession was by appointment and from what I understand our priests were busy. When finally permitted to celebrate Mass we were at the new permitted maximum immediately. So the pastor scheduled more masses to be celebrated. Other parishes restricted attendance above the secular dictate. And they cut Masses celebrated so they didn’t have to sanitize.
According to our bulletin, weekly offerings declined in the first week of the closing ...only. Once the people found out we were open they came by to drop off their donation and then stuck around when they saw adoration was available. Financially it was if the pandemic never took place. Later that summer neighboring parishes which had closed were pleading for money. And blaming COVID and not their own disregard for the spiritual well being of the parish.
Please pray for a friend of a friend, Jo, who should be induced into labor sometime today in an attempt to address the declining birth rate in America. Ellie is her daughter's name.
Thanks for your Stika article. I’m sure you guys know this but that is EXTREMELY worthwhile reporting. It is a reality that the internal accountability mechanisms of the Church do not perform their intended tasks, at least at this point, and we rely on “exterior” checks like your reporting. So thank you.
My reading of the McCarrick affair suggests that it was primarily reporting outside the hierarchical chain of command (for instance, by Richard Sipe and Matt Abbott), or threats to go public with damaging information (for instance, by Gregory Littleton) that propelled any kind of forward movement inside the Church bureaucracy toward actually disciplining McC.
With that in mind, your story makes me think one of the underrated elements of this Vos Estis process is that it generates discrete "things" that can be leaked and reported on. True, the investigations VELM triggers seem so far to be highly intransparent and otherwise insufficient, but "A Vos Estis investigation has been triggered" is a reportable story in a way that "There are all these rumors but no one will go on record" is not.
Sounds like JD needs to make a spotify list for these wine-induced nights he's talking about...something to set the right mood while avoiding scandalous lyrics...
The running joke in my family was that my youngest brother, born in 2001 was the 'missing' WMDs from Iraq. We renamed his toy chest 'The Armoury' because that's what it was. Thank you for making me giggle about your 4 year old 'eco-terrorist'. :D
Thanks JD for reminding us about what marriage is all about. I'll be sharing your thoughts with my wife to see if she has the same reaction! Appreciate all the work you and Ed are doing. Keep it up.
A key predictor for stable weekly parish giving...”. 1. How about Stay open?
When bishops ceased the celebration of Mass last year, and capitulated with their secular overlords to restrict occupancy, most parish priests took that to mean they could lock their doors and disappear. Ours stayed open. We Complied with the occupancy limit and social distancing by having volunteers who would be there throughout the day. We were even sanitizing every pew when ever anyone left or the parishioner did it themselves. We had adoration in the church so 25 people could be very separated. Confession was by appointment and from what I understand our priests were busy. When finally permitted to celebrate Mass we were at the new permitted maximum immediately. So the pastor scheduled more masses to be celebrated. Other parishes restricted attendance above the secular dictate. And they cut Masses celebrated so they didn’t have to sanitize.
According to our bulletin, weekly offerings declined in the first week of the closing ...only. Once the people found out we were open they came by to drop off their donation and then stuck around when they saw adoration was available. Financially it was if the pandemic never took place. Later that summer neighboring parishes which had closed were pleading for money. And blaming COVID and not their own disregard for the spiritual well being of the parish.
Thank you for the excellent reporting on Bishop Stika. My husband and I are parishioners in the Diocese of Knoxville, so this is very relevant to us.
Although this may be a painful process, I sincerely hope that an investigation is opened and that the truth will be made clear.
Thank you J.D. and Ed, for your excellent journalism!