Thursday, July 17, 2014

THE ARCHBISHOP NEEDS TO CHANGE (OR WE NEED TO CHANGE THE ARCHBISHOP)

A Prayerful Priest responds to Anonymous' call to "let the clergy solve this problem" (in other words "lay people, stay out!)


A Prayerful PriestJuly 17, 2014 at 12:01 AM
Anonymous July 15, 2014 at 11:52 PM said:
" ... I pray for everyone that we should all let the clergy solve this problem. ... Remember that each priest share in the priesthood of the bishop."

Please remember that the clergy tried to solve this mess in 2011 when they hired CARA from Georgetown University to intensively study the Archdiocese. After months of individual and group interviews, assembling questionnaire data and analysis, the clergy met for three days to discuss as an entire group and CARA helped them come up with quite a long list of actions to move in the right direction. 
It is was epic effort. But nothing ever happened after CARA left. Only the outcry from the laity has worked to bring this back onto the radar screen. If you stop now we will have no way to push the Archbishop to make the necessary changes.

While it is true that we share in the same priesthood as the Archbishop, we do not all share in his practices and values, and spirituality. It is the beauty of diversity many of us are fighting to retain. Clearly, the Archbishop needs to change, if he doesn't we will all continue to see our Church slowly erode.
A Prayerful Priest

A copy of the CARA report is available here.

1 comment:

  1. excerpted from CARA report p.30
    "When compared with other dioceses, many of the greatest concerns of Agana clergy regarding clerical unity appear to revolve around relationships between the Archbishop and the clergy. In addition to having concerns about the negativity of clergy toward the Archbishop, Agana respondents are more likely than those from other dioceses to view lack of support of the clergy by the Archbishop as at least “somewhat” challenging."

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