I apologize for the break in posting. I was called to "emergency duty" at my parish. Our parish has three choirs- a folk choir, an informal choir and a full 4 voice choir. Last summer, our long time music director retired. The transition to a new music director was difficult. Things developed to the point where the music director and many members of the 4 voice choir refused to be in the same room together. In order to keep the music program going, I have been called in to accompany the 4 voice choir. This means a 90 minute practice on Wednesdays evening, playing at 10:30 Mass on Sundays and, since I am not a great sight reader of music, about 3 hours of practice each week. Given that I have a fairly demanding work schedule, the added responsibility with the music program leaves very little time for much of anything else. I agreed to serve on a temporary basis in order to give our pastor and parish council some time to figure out what direction the music program should go.
Onto the main issue for Catholic bloggers in the past week: Is Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy Dolan headed to the Archdiocese of New York? Speculation is that an announcement of this move is imminent. This will be a loss for Catholics in Milwaukee and the rest of Wisconsin. Archbishop Dolan has proven to be a very pastoral leader. I have only seen Archbishop Dolan twice. I first saw him when he presided at the Mass at Irish Fest in Milwaukee a couple of years ago. Last year, I saw him at a Milwaukee Brewers game. It was a refreshing sight to see him with no ecclesial entourage other than a beer in one hand and a brat in the other.
Several years ago, Dolan developed and announced implementation of a plan to monitor priests that were alleged to have abused people in any way. Unfortunately, he developed the plan with little input from priests. Several priests came to him privately and expressed their anger and concern about the plan. To Dolan's credit, he publicly apologized for his oversights and expressed that he felt badly that he angered so many good priests. He "deep sixed" the priest monitoring plan.
Perhaps Dolan's shining moment during his tenure as Archbishop of Milwaukee came in the Diocese of Green Bay. After Bishop David Zubik left Green Bay for Pittsburgh, Dolan was appointed apostolic administrator of the Diocese of Green Bay until a successor to Zubik was appointed. During that time, St. John the Evangelist Church in Green Bay developed plans to start a homeless shelter to address a critical need in the community. While most community members were supportive of the shelter, a few community "leaders" really didn't want "those type of people" around. The zoning required to open and operate the shelter was denied. The city threatened that, if the shelter plans went forward, St. John's would likely face litigation and substantial daily fines. As diocesan administrator, Dolan sent an "upus yoursus" (is that correct Latin?) to Green Bay Mayor Jim Schmitt. In the letter, Dolan mentioned that the mission of the Church includes providing shelter to the homeless. Pulling an "ace from his sleeve", Dolan made reference to a Supreme Court case in which the Court ruled that the actions of a municipality to thwart a church program were unconstitutional because those actions denied the Church the ability to fulfill its mission. The city had no choice but to approve the zoning. The shelter now serves several people each evening from November through April.
If the speculation is accurate, Milwaukee's loss will be New York's gain.
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