Saturday, December 14, 2013

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU DEFEND

An anonymous defender of the of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary says this:

How can you deny the "selfishness" of not wanting to contribute to the formation of "foreigners". Yes, the reality is that because of the "missionary" role of the Redemptoris Mater Seminary, the newly ordained may indeed at one point have a calling to go on mission. This does not mean that we will never see them again. To think that they we have invested our resources in to something that does not benefit us is of the contrary. The missions benefit not only us on this island but the whole world entirely. The faith was brought to this island in the form of missionaries. In a sense we are only returning to the world what has benefited us. (See the full comment here.)

MY RESPONSE:

Dear Anonymous defender. The real issue is not that we want these priests from RMS to stay here. In fact, because they are not prepared at this seminary for parish life let alone the duties of a pastor, it is better for them they are sent elsewhere rather than be stuck in jobs that they did not sign up for.  I can say this because the Neocatechumenal Way blatantly views the parish model of Catholic life as dead and the NCW model of the small closed community as the new model of Catholic life. In fact, I have been told this on numerous occasions. 


But the larger issue is that the Archdiocese of Agana will be lying if it further applies for grant money from the Catholic Extension Society as it has for many years. In fact, because the Redemptoris Mater Seminary was missionary to begin with, the Archdiocese of Agana could be seen as having falsified its status as a "mission diocese" ever since the seminary was established. 

As detailed in my post NO LONGER A MISSION DIOCESE, the Archdiocese of Agana cannot be both itself a mission diocese and wealthy enough in both money and vocations to fund and support missions elsewhere. 

I don't think you want to say much more about how wonderful we are for sending our priests elsewhere. There are plenty of salaries up at the chancery that depend on the money from the Catholic Extension Society, money that could be sent to TRUE mission dioceses but is sucked up by our own diocese to keep certain folks on the hill on the payroll. (Would you like to know what some of them make? I'll save that for later.) 

Perhaps the chancery would like to tell us how much money our "poor" archdiocese has received from the Catholic Extension Society over the last decade while we have been funding our missionary seminary. Perhaps they can also tell us where it was spent and on whom. 

2 comments:

  1. Seems to me that a lot of the problems with the NCW is in its structure. They are a diocesan based movement, with a hierarchy that leads to a global leader. Not different than other movements, such as Cursillo, Couples for Christ, etc, and like organizations such as Kof C, Catholic Daughters, etc.

    However, the big difference is that they have their own seminaries, which makes them more like a religious order. But they are not a religious order. Why after all these years have they not gone this route?

    If they were an order like the Capuchins, or Dominicans, or Jesuits, they would be free to develop their rule and their goals, which is obviously missionary in nature. And they could also have a secular structure like the secular franciscans for the laity.

    But they remain a movement rather than an order...not sure why, unless it is a money issue? In the case of Guam the NCW is heavily subsidized by the Archdiocese, whereas if they were a full-fledged religious order they would not be subsidized. Also, if they were a religious order Kiko, a lay person, would not be able to remain in the power that he is, it would have to go to a priest.

    So, most likely then, this issue could be resolved by making the NCW a religious order, except for power and money issues. Oops, maybe that's it, power and money. Take those away and the problems go away? Is that too simple, or is this where we should be headed to?

    Ray S.
    Tumon

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    1. The NCW is unlike any other Catholic organization or church society. Other groups are usually organized around carrying out the work of the church mostly in regards to the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. The NCW is a path to becoming Catholic, a supposed take-off on the RCIA. But of course in having its own priests, seminaries, catechism, and even its own liturgy, it goes way beyond RCIA and anything else the church can recognize as an order, a movement, or a society within the Church. It is of course it's own church, as we are now clearly seeing. But yes, you're right, there's money involved. LOTS OF MONEY! We'll be bringing that to everyone's attention soon.

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