| L.A. priests, Mahony seem poles apart at
meeting
By ARTHUR JONES
Los Angeles
Priests here want a moratorium on the archdiocese’s
ministerial cutbacks (NCR Sept. 27and Oct. 4). But they’re probably
not going to get it. During an Oct. 7 meeting they asked Cardinal Roger Mahony
to engage the priests and laity in a more collaborative way to deal with
fallout from the current $4.3 million budget deficit.
At least half -- one priest estimated perhaps a majority -- of the
archdiocese’s 1,200 active priests attended the Presbyteral Assembly in
the new Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels conference center. It was a closed
annual gathering.
One pastor told NCR, “The cardinal was very explicit
in inviting the priests to speak. He was saying how problematic it is when
there is one set of issues being brought up in the formal meetings and another
set in the corridors and over coffee, so he wanted it all put on the table.
“But we were not encouraged by his response to the major
thrust of the priests’ remarks,” said the pastor, “which
questioned not the cutbacks, not that they needed to be made, but the manner,
the process -- or lack of it. The response was a constant one-note symphony --
‘I had to do this because we are in such dire financial straits.’
”
During the meeting many priests voiced their objections to the end
of essential ministries to many of the five-million member Catholic
archdiocese’s diverse population.
In a prepared statement, Msgr. Timothy Dyer of Nativity Church in
South Los Angeles -- which has a large African-American and Hispanic population
-- said, “It strains the credibility we have with our people when we
dedicate a $189 million cathedral -- rejoicing that it is fully funded -- and,
one week later, declare that 60 lay and religious employees must be let go
because we have not planned wisely enough to raise the $4 million needed to
fund their ministries to prisoners, ethnic ministries, gay and lesbian
outreach, and religious education to children.”
Another priest told NCR, “Mahony was taking note of
all these things, but I believe he sees his hands as tied because of the
finances.” He said that still other priests felt that “finances and
budgets are all about decisions, so I think that’s where the rub is -- how
the decisions were made.
“I think [the cardinal] really feels for the guys who are
hurting and suffering in the ministries that will hurt and suffer,” said
this priest, “but he feels the real possibility of bankruptcy if the
archdiocese goes into deficit financing for these ministries.”
Another priest suggested that the Archdiocesan Catholic Center was
mainly populated by bureaucrats “who do nothing for the parishes, where
the real ministry is.”
The real questions, one priest told NCR, were: “
‘How did the process come about? And what did that process do for
trust?’ Those were the real questions,” he said.
Msgr. David O’Connell, pastor of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini
Church (African American-Latino) in South Los Angeles, told the Los Angeles
Times the decision to cut prison ministries “was especially galling.
It affects an awful lot of families in our area, and it’s a ministry that
is vitally necessary.”
The archdiocesan detention ministry was halved, the numbers
reduced from 24 chaplains to 12. Some detention units will be completely
unserved unless local parishes and priests step in.
Said another priest, “No one’s questioning the financial
problems.”
Yet there didn’t seem “to be a connecting between the
cardinal and the priests,” he said. “Speaking for myself, I came away
feeling that he wanted to connect with the priests. We ritualized that in our
closing prayer, we laid hands on him, and that expressed to me the fact that
included in the prayer was his desire for that communion. But it really
didn’t represent what actually happened in the conversation.”
That priest also said, “We were very disappointed in what
happened. While the people who spoke were quite eloquent, and showed their love
for the disenfranchised and marginalized people being served by the programs,
and while the cardinal expressed that love, too, he didn’t seem to take
responsibility for the process.”
Mahony has a familiar, one-on-one rapport with his priests, most
of whom call him “Roger.” And at the cocktail hour, if previous
practice was repeated, he probably stayed to mingle.
Meanwhile, at the Archdiocesan Catholic Center, some senior staff
whose positions were secure have chosen to resign. Leaving are Adrian Whitaker,
who has run the archdiocese’s nationally known and highly successful
annual religious education conference; Monica Hughes of the education
department; and detention ministries director, St. Joseph Sister Suzanne Jabro.
Jabro said she resigned so that her paid position could be used to fund a slot
for another chaplain.
Arthur Jones is NCR editor at large. His e-mail address
is arthurjones@attbi.com
National Catholic Reporter, October 18,
2002
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