* Dismissed the lay chancellor who had held the position for 21 years, the vice chancellor, a religious woman stationed in the diocese for nearly 40 years, and the chief of pastoral planning since 1990, and replaced them with a** priest **
chancellor
*** Cancelled the diocese’s lay formation programs and a master’s degree program in pastoral ministry.**
- Cut in half the budget of the Center for Pastoral Life and Ministry, effectively forcing the almost immediate resignation of half the seven- member team. Within 10 months all seven would be gone and the center shuttered.
- Ordered a “zero-based study” of adult catechesis in the diocese and appointed a layman as vice chancellor to oversee adult catechesis, lay formation and the catechesis.
- Ordered the editor of the diocesan newspaper to immediately cease publishing columns by Notre Dame Theologian and well-known dissenter, Fr Richard McBrien.
As his first year in office unfolded and budgets were prepared for a new fiscal year, Bishop Finn’s priorities emerged:
- The budget of the Office of Peace and Justice was cut in half. One of two full-time staff positions was eliminated, and the other may be reduced. In response to questioning of his commitment to justice and peace, he pointed out that abortion is the holocaust of the modern world.
- In this regard, a separate Respect Life Office was established to handle pro-life issues and battle stem-cell research.
- The Vocation Office went from a part-time priest vocation director to a full-time priest vocation director with a part-time priest assistant and additional support from the head of the newly established Office for Consecrated Life.
- The diocesan-sponsored master’s program, administered for eight years by the Aquinas Institute of Theology, a Dominican college affiliated with Jesuit-run St Louis University, was transferred to the Institute for Pastoral Theology at the orthodox Florida-based Ave Maria University whose chancellor is Fr Joseph Fessio SJ.
- A Latin Mass community, which had been meeting in a city parish, was upgraded to a parish in its own.
Dr Jeff Mirus of Trinity Communications (see
www.CatholicCul- ture.org) commented, "What is most remarkable about these changes is that much of the** longtime middle management
of the diocese has simply been swept away. Career professionals **over a period of twenty years, those who had been highly regarded by the previous bishop (and sometimes by his predecessor), the cognoscenti, the inner circle - in short, those who were always consulted before anything was ever done - were as so much chaff before Bishop Finn’s new broom.
The reality, of course, is simply that Bishop Finn didn’t consult those who were accustomed to being consulted. This diocese had been RUN by those members who, being priest-wannabes & priestettes, reminded me of the tales I’ve read about Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall. They were hangers on & built their own self-image by using the Catholic Church.
These people, almost entirely members of the laity, had run the KC/St. Joseph diocese since 1961 when Archbishop John Cody & his “housekeeper”, Mrs. Helen Dolan Wilson, left our Diocese.
“In the short time since Bishop Finn has assumed leadership, the number of seminarians for the diocese has doubled from ten to twenty, according to the Director of Vocations, Fr Steve Cook.”
ad2000.com.au/articles/2006/jul2006p6_2286.html
And by today’s numbers, it has more than tripled.
We have one seminary for diocesan priests & religious in our Diocese & it’s provided us with 75% of our priests.
It’s enrollment peaked at 549 students in 1965 but went into decline following the Second Vatican Council. We barely kept it open during the 70’s, but we’re back up to 27 Seminarians there & more are studying to be FSSP t the Seminary in Denton, Ne. Since the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, is now running the Old St. Patrick’s Oratory, they are also experiencing new vocations & some of those men will serve in our Diocese.
institute-christ-king.org/kansascity/
We’re still a long way from 549 Seminarians, but we’re on our way…thanks to Bishop Finn’s house-cleaning, we’re looking like Catholics again. Today was our parish picnic & our pastor could not celebrate the Latin Mass at 12:30PM. Instead we had an even younger priest, ordained in May, & he did a fabulous job.
It’s confusing, the whole Kansas/Missouri thing, since we share a city. Sort of. Well, you’ll figure it out once you’re here. 