How long should it take

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Lutheranteach

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How long should it take a bishop to respond to a letter regarding possible abuses of liturgy, etc? I wrote on May 5th and haven’t heard a word. I know my letter was received as it had to be signed for, but I’ve not heard nary a word.
 
Well, it can vary. For example, a lot of bishops do confirmations in May and June so that their schedules are ‘fuller’ and they have less time than perhaps in July and August when often they might even have a few days of ‘vacation’ as the schools are closed and there are usually fewer functions, holy days, etc. (at least until the Assumption in mid August).

You don’t need to answer this but if the letter was only a letter from you (one person) the odds are that it may not receive much attention anyway. If it was from simply you, the bishop might call the priest in question, accept whatever the priest says, and not even bother to contact you should the priest say, “What? I never did any such thing!” figuring that he would have more reason to trust his priest who supposedly is obedient to him, than you, not even a Catholic.

OTOH, if the letter was signed by several people, the bishop might be contacting others who signed first. It is often suggested when it comes to ‘possible’ abuse letters that any letters sent to the bishop (after, of course, one has approached the priest first, and only if there is no response from the priest on the subject) be signed by as many people as you can find so that it is seen as an issue that is important enough to affect many people.

This isn’t limited to Catholic bishops either. (My sister had no response from her bishop in TEC regarding an issue --not an abuse issue either!–simply because he was ‘too busy’ to worry about one ‘nonentity’. )
 
Lutheranteach said:
How long should it take a bishop to respond to a letter regarding possible abuses of liturgy, etc? I wrote on May 5th and haven’t heard a word. I know my letter was received as it had to be signed for, but I’ve not heard nary a word.
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I would send another letter. If he does not respond to the second one, then, a letter to the CDWDS is in order.

My father had a similar situation. He sent his certified, return receipt requested, but the bishop never even returned the acknowledgment card. The next course of action was to write to the CDWDS. He, too, had the correspondence certified, return receipt requested. Three weeks later, my dad received the orange acknowledgment card. The next day, he received a formal letter of acknowledgment from Francis Cardinal Arinze’s secretary. The matter took two years and more correspondence between my dad and the CDWDS (including a personal meeting between me and the secretary to the CDWDS when he was in the United States), but, it was finally fixed.
 
You may not receive a reply at all. I wrote to a bishop in a neighboring diocese regarding liturgical irregularities I witnessed while attending a mass at one of his parishes.

I did not receive a reply. That does not mean the bishop did not take action. In pastoral matters, things are often handled privately. OTOH, it may mean he didn’t take action. Since I was visiting, I haven’t been back to see if the abuse is still occurring.

If it were something in my own parish/diocese and I did not receive a reply, I might continue up the chain of command as outlined by benedictgal.
 
Lutheranteach said:
How long should it take a bishop to respond to a letter regarding possible abuses of liturgy, etc? I wrote on May 5th and haven’t heard a word. I know my letter was received as it had to be signed for, but I’ve not heard nary a word.
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as long as it takes for the bishop to get it on his desk, open it, read it, determine if there seems any validity to the complaint, call the priest in question if he thinks the situation calls for it, otherwise investigate, and dictate or write a reply. And I imagine he will get to this type of correspondence after he deals with things higher on his priority list. If this is only “possible” abuse my first guess would be that a quick scan of your letter convinced him there was no problem and no action needed. Or conversely he may have added it to a tall stack of similar complaints and delegated someone to investigate what may be a larger problem. So I guess you will have to wait either way.
 
WOW!! Nothing like being made to feel like a non-entity. I think no answer is your answer.
How hard can it be for a bishop’s secretary to send even a form letter acknowledging the receipt of the parishioner’s concern and saying whether he will look into it or not.

It certainly makes it clear that the Archdiocese does not “answer” to you. In our customer service world where we think monetary transactions give us cause to feel that we have influence and a voice in a “company”, the Church is anachronistic.
 
I had a friend who was Catholic. The priest refused to baptize her daughter because my friend wasn’t married in the Church.

She went to the bishop and he immediately responded and the priest recanted and baptized the child.

I have Lutheran friends who also have immediate responses from their bishops.

Where does one go if the bishop ignores you?
 
Lutheranteach said:
How long should it take a bishop to respond to a letter regarding possible abuses of liturgy, etc? I wrote on May 5th and haven’t heard a word. I know my letter was received as it had to be signed for, but I’ve not heard nary a word.
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First it would be extremely bad form for any bishop not to reply (albeit perfunctorily in some cases) to a letter of concern. I would think in almost all cases that you will at least receive a note acknowledging your letter within 6-8 weeks even if your letter was abusive or otherwise difficult to deal with. I wrote my former bishop twice. Each time it took about two weeks for a documented response.
 
JadeStarr said:
I had a friend who was Catholic. The priest refused to baptize her daughter because my friend wasn’t married in the Church.

She went to the bishop and he immediately responded and the priest recanted and baptized the child.

I have Lutheran friends who also have immediate responses from their bishops.

Where does one go if the bishop ignores you?
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If the complaint is bona fide, then, the person proceeds to the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. In the case of the OP, he needs to include copies of his correspondence along with a copy of the signed acknowledgment card that he received from the chancery. In my dad’s case, we sent copies of the certified, return receipt paperwork and indicated that the bishop never acknowledged receipt of the letter.
 
You may send another certified letter stating, “Since I haven’t heard back from you I need to take it to the next step”. then see what happens.
 
DSJJ said:
You may send another certified letter stating, “Since I haven’t heard back from you I need to take it to the next step”. then see what happens.
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That is the wrong approach to take. Even RS does not say to go that route. The OP should write another letter and send it certified, return receipt requested, but make no threats. That will get you nowhere. If the bishop again fails to respond, then send copies of all correspondence, including the certified receipts, to Rome along with a letter detailing the abusive matter.
 
benedictgal said:
That is the wrong approach to take. Even RS does not say to go that route. The OP should write another letter and send it certified, return receipt requested, but make no threats. That will get you nowhere. If the bishop again fails to respond, then send copies of all correspondence, including the certified receipts, to Rome along with a letter detailing the abusive matter.
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Yeah, and Rome will get right on it. :rolleyes:

Just curious, if the OP is Lutheran, what business does he have sending in a letter complaining on abuses to the local Bishop?
 
If you’re not Catholic then what do you care? Its not your liturgy…
 
Lutheranteach said:
Much
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I’m quite serious. I’m also not being critical of LT, but this begs the question as to if a bishop has any obligation to respond to a non-Catholic about matters within the Catholic Church.

Not that he would know, unless you told him in the letter, but I’m curious.

Regardless of whether or not this is a legitimate concern, does the Bishop have any obligation to respond to the concerns of a non-Catholic?

Again, I don’t want to sound critical, but it seems a little “off” that someone should feel that being outside the faith that they have any “right” to complain to a Bishop.

That, to my way of thinking, would be like me complaining to the LCMS that my (former) Lutheran Church is using “shot glasses” instead of a common cup for the Lord’s Supper. I have no standing in the LCMS, not being a member, and I’d have every expectation that they would tell me politely to bugger off, it’s none of my business, or ignore me.
 
Newbie2 said:
Again, I don’t want to sound critical, but it seems a little “off” that someone should feel that being outside the faith that they have any “right” to complain to a Bishop.
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I say let’s give him a break here. It’s not like non-Catholics never had any say about our Catholic liturgy. I just hope LT identified himself as such to the bishop.
 
I sorta wonder what the “liturgical abuses” in question actually are…
 
Newbie2 said:
I’m quite serious. I’m also not being critical of LT, but this begs the question as to if a bishop has any obligation to respond to a non-Catholic about matters within the Catholic Church.

Not that he would know, unless you told him in the letter, but I’m curious.

Regardless of whether or not this is a legitimate concern, does the Bishop have any obligation to respond to the concerns of a non-Catholic?

Again, I don’t want to sound critical, but it seems a little “off” that someone should feel that being outside the faith that they have any “right” to complain to a Bishop.

That, to my way of thinking, would be like me complaining to the LCMS that my (former) Lutheran Church is using “shot glasses” instead of a common cup for the Lord’s Supper. I have no standing in the LCMS, not being a member, and I’d have every expectation that they would tell me politely to bugger off, it’s none of my business, or ignore me.
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If your child was abused by a minister of the LCMS Church, you’d have every right to complain. If you lived next door to an LCMS Church which rang bells every Sunday at 5am you’d have every right to complain. If they did ANYthing, as part of their liturgy or not, which affected you, then you’d have a right to complain.

Say your spouse was a member of their congregation and they were preaching homilies telling people that they must leave their non-LCMS spouses. Of course you’d have every right to complain if they were trying to break up your marriage!

Or your (Catholic) kids went to an LCMS service with your spouse and were forced in some way to receive LCMS Communion contrary to the beliefs of the church into which they were baptised.

I’m sure I could find other examples if I thought some more.
 
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