My purpose in these posts is to bring a variety of Christian and other writers in a desire to share significant writings that in my estimation contribute to the common good and directly or indirectly give glory to God and extend the Lord's work of salvation to all of humanity. G.S.
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The Roman Catholic Church of Montreal has been going to bold, innovative, and costly lengths in her efforts to implement "responsible pastoral ministry" and accountability in our diocesan Church's use of its "servant authority" - with the explicit intention of protecting, defending, and promoting the safety and the rights of all members of the population - and with particular attention to the most vulnerable, such as those who have suffered abuse.
How our secular society "views" our efforts VS what that looks like in the "inside"
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The Press
Morgan Lowerie of The Canadian Press posted on April 19th, 2022 an article titled "Montreal Catholic church ombudswoman details delays, resistance to complaint process." At first view, the impression given is that the institution of the Roman Catholic Church in Montreal is "dragging its heels" in following through on its commitment to move away from "the way things were done" to doing things with greater responsibility, transparency, accountability, and especially with commitment to take the point of view of vulnerable people, especially those who have suffered any form of abuse.
Perhaps it is inevitable that anyone standing "outside" the local Church would see the situation that way, which is precisely the stance of the Ombudswoman herself, Me. Marie Christine Kirouack, Ad.E.. One of the reasons she was chosen for the role of Ombudswoman for the Diocese of Montreal was precisely because she is not a R. C. Christian, and therefore, not part of the R. C. Church of Montreal. She is completely independent and, it is therefore believed, completely impartial.
The models of responsibility and accountability from society's governments
However, from the point of view those on the "inside" of the local R. C. Church, this can at times seem to be a great disadvantage. Our society generally has several "measuring sticks" for honesty, transparency, accountability, responsibility, and many other "values" held by consensus in our society to be important. Such values are important in government in order for the said government to be seen as, and actually to be, true to the population, to whom any government is accountable. Members of the general population, in particular citizens, manifest their satisfaction or lack of it at election time. However, all those who work in public service are directly accountable normally only to their superiors, but only indirectly to the public through people's communications with them.
The models of responsibility and accountability from business, commerce, science, & technology
In business and commerce, as well as in science and technology, the individuals and organizations which "carry on the activity" are equally accountable to those who own said enterprises, which includes shareholders, but also the employees, without whom there would be no activity. These enterprises are more sensitive to the satisfaction of the general population, which manifests itself through success in the quantity and value of total transactions in the course of the business year and its quarters.
The models of responsibility and accountability from educational institutions
In educational institutions as well, the activity carried on in elementary and high schools, colleges, universities, and technical schools also have the means of ensuring that those who carry on the activity do so in a manner sensitive to the expectations of those to whom they offer their services, that is, the student population, which can vary considerably from one year to the next.
The R. C. Church is not at all like government, or business, or commerce, or science, or technology, or even educational institutions
Unlike all of these other realms of society, the "point of contact" between those who carry on the principal activity for which the institution or agency exists, at the "providing or giving end" on the one hand, and all those at the "benefitting or receiving end" on the other hand, that "point of contact" is comparatively minimal or small or even practically non-existent.
Government services and all the apparatus of its bureaucracy - with its thousands of public servants and employees - are "at work" the standard number of hours every week of the year, with possible exception for reduced hours during summer vacations and statutory holidays. There are constant and unceasing "contacts" between government agencies and "the population" all year round.
The same can be said for businesses, commerces, scientific institutions, technological enterprises, and all manner of educational institutions. These all have "business or school hours" and other times during which contact with the public is made possible.
What all these institutions have in common is their ability to implement policies with immediacy and clarity by passing them down the "chain of command" or "channels of communication". They have the liberty and the means to implement "ongoing formation" of employees through statutory formation days by means of the funds generated by their principal activities.
All of society's institutions and organizations are put together in such a way as to entrust specific functions to specific individuals, such that each worker's "duties" are fairly clearly defined and more often than not restricted to a fairly narrow "corridor" of focus of activity. That makes it fairly easy for these workers to implement policies sent "down from above". These institutions also generally have the means to ensure "quality control" by the appointment of supervisory personnel for this purpose.
The R. C. Church is very different from all of these
There was a time, when society was still considered a manifestation of "Christendom", that is, a society principally organized on the principle tenets of the Gospels. The Church's "authority" was generally acknowledged and accepted by the general population, and those who dissented were generally deemed to be in various states of "rebellion" or "heresy" of "disobedience", for each of which states there were very specific "sanctions" or "punishments" or "consequences".
Principally since WW II, the "faithful", that is the "baptized", have questioned and even "walked away" from that authority, and some have even "walked away from God", or at least the "version of God" as presented to them in the R. C. Church. This phenomenon of "walking away" is currently being painfully felt by local businesses who observe their sales volumes shrinking to the benefit of Amazon and other online enterprises.
However, the key difference between the R. C. Church and the rest of our society's institutions is that the "point of contact" between those providing the services in the Church - the clergy and those assisting them, both employees and volunteers - is comparatively minimal. Those who go to Church on Sunday - in Québec deemed to be around 2% of the baptized - are not there every Sunday. Even when they are there, it is only one hour or less a week. The vast majority of the "clientele" or "membership" have no contact at all with those providing the service except occasionally for baptisms, the other three sacraments of initiation, weddings, and funerals; as well as occasionally for the Anointing of the Sick.
So, from the point of view of the clientele or membership, the Church has very little contact with them or means of implementing any policies. This can only be done when people make contact for services or when we manage to reach out to them through social and other media. From the point of view of the workers and their supervisors, the sheer magnitude of the challenge of a severely aging workforce while maintaining services and infrastructure, such as buildings, is so great as to be practically unmanageable, let alone finding time and energy to impart, offer formation for, and actually implement fundamental changes in policy and practice, and for several reasons.
First, the clergy are aging and working well beyond the age of retirement and even working in sickness and disability; moreover, they are almost entirely not being replaced by younger recruits.
Secondly, the attendance rate is so low, that most churches are unable to sustain their very existence, let alone any projects for improvement or expansion. It is the minority of parish churches that have enough people attending, and enough representation from younger generations and families, that they are able to generate such projects.
Thirdly, the rate of contribution of the members is ridiculously low. There is a gap of logic which seems insurmountable between social secular standards in spending and contribution standards within the Church. Most of us go out occasionally to a restaurant. We generally think nothing of giving the 15% tip and those hand held invoice machines even show a choice of 18% now for the tip. This would amount to anywhere from $4 to $20 or more, depending on how many meals we pay for. We don't hesitate to pay such tips but when in Church, for most people their offering hasn't changed from the $2 they thought was generous enough decades ago.
Rare are those who make weekly offerings of $20 to $100. As a result, most parishes cannot even afford the salary of their priest, let alone maintenance and repairs. Most of our churches are so run down they would require millions of dollars of work in order to avoid being condemned by the public health and security authorities in the next few years.
Fourthly, the shrinking financial viability of the parishes has also caused the "well to run dry" for the Diocese's Curia and its central governing services. In the 1950's parishes contributed 3% of all their receipts to the Diocese, but parishes at that time were seeing from 5,000 to 15,000 people every Sunday, including children, youth, and the aged. At Sunday attendance began to drop in the 1970's that 3% "diocesan contribution" was gradually increased to 5%, then to 7%, and finally to 9% in the 1990's. That final measure was almost useless due to the degree to erosion of Sunday attendance.
Fifthly, what this means for the Diocesan Curia is that it no longer has the means to employ all the people it would need in order to adequately serve all the parishes, movements, families, and individual members of the Diocese of Montreal. The personnel it does have are overloaded with duties required of them by the development of all the activity generated by the Church's expansion after WW II when the number of parishes more than doubled. Over the same period, the number of clergy has shrunk and most of these are now aged beyond retirement and health.
Not only that, but it is often a challenge for the personnel that we do have, both aging clergy and laity, to take their weekly day of rest (day off) and annual vacation and annual retreat. Some even find it difficult to take sick days and feel obliged to go on working even while sick or disabled or in varying degrees of convalescence. If women were priests, they would be unable to take maternity leave.
For the size of operation of our Diocese, our Human Resources department should have a staff of at least 4 or 5 people, but we had only one person for three years and only recently hired a second. Our Office for Pastoral Personnel has a few more people but even they are unable to keep up with the sheer magnitude of the challenges arising from hundreds of priests, deacons, and thousands of lay workers, both employed and volunteer.
Sixthly, all of these conditions make it practically impossible for the Diocese to implement with any efficiency and speed the reforms to which it has committed itself. Valiant efforts are being made, and in particular cases, specific attention is being applied to effectively implement many of the reforms made manifest in the Capriolo Report. However, overall, it will take considerable time for all the personnel in all the departments and in all of the parishes to also integrate all of these principles.
Seventhly, we must keep in mind that the "culture" and "ways of doing" and "mindsets" of the Diocesan Curia took many decades to develop over the past century. It will take at least a full generation, so we're looking at a comple of decades, for the new "culture" and "ways of doing" and "mindsets" of the "new paradigm" to be fully integrated and implemented. It took a century for the reforms of the Council of Trent to be more or less fully implemented, and the reforms of the Second Vatican Council have yet to be "fully implemented" throughout the whole Roman Catholic Church worldwide.
Conclusion: If the Roman Catholic Church has not only survived but prospered for two millennia, it is because it follows and observes a timeline that is eminently "human" and which respects the frailties and possibilities of our human nature. In the secular world, governments fall, businesses fail, and all manner of agencies cease to exist. For such reasons, they feel obliged to function on the basis of quarterly reports, even when doing so causes them to lose sight of inevitable developments on the horizon immediately ahead of them.
So, dear Reader, that is why the Press will continue to suspect that our Church is not progressing "fast enough" with these reforms, which is to be expected from anyone who knows nothing of the way the Church actually is "on the inside". For those of us who are on the inside, we can barely manage to keep up with the regular duties from our call to serve the people of God, both those who are "regulars" and those who merely expect the Church to "be there" when they want or have need of it or when it just happens to be convenient for them - let alone take care of infrastructures - while we continue to age and not be replaced by younger recruits.
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Previous posts of interest: It is enlightening and even amazing to see how the Lord our God has been constantly preparing us over time for the trials, troubles, and tribulations awaiting us in the future. Browse the following list of links to posts since this time six years ago in 2016 and see how the key issues of life, both individually and collectively, are brought to our attention when we most need them.
Everywhere we turn, we see the human condition in all of its poverty, struggle, anguish, and dissatisfaction; with life and love just out of reach.... March 30th, 2022
Ukraine - Russia - Europe - NATO - U.S.A. - February 28th, 2022
Note to U.N. regarding U.N., N.A.T.O., the U.S.A., Russia, & Ukraine - February 25th, 2022
Marriage or celibacy? What is better, healthier, more likely to lead to happiness: a life with sex or a life without sex? What about contentment versus loneliness? Does human life have a universal purpose and meaning? - November 26th, 2021
Mercy or “The Law” – God or Man? - August 18th, 2021
Pope Francis - What on Earth is he doing? - May 12th, 2021
Response of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to a doubt regarding the blessing of the unions of persons of the same sex. - March 15th, 2021
"Hail Mary, full of grace, the LORD IS WITH THEE..." - March 11th, 2021
A Catholic wants to come back to the Church... Where do you begin? - January 21st, 2021
Entertainment and the related industry vs art that is true and meaningful as well as beautiful and good. - January 8th, 2021
Human sexuality - gift of God which, used otherwise skews our vision, but used in accord with His plan, calibrates our vision to blessedness. - January 2nd, 2021
The Pharisees, Sadducees, Scribes, and Lawyers are at it again, only this time, instead of going after Jesus it's Pope Francis! - October 22nd, 2020
The Covid-19 Pandemic - an excuse to strangle the practice of religion? September 21st, 2020
How can high level bankers and financiers hold their heads high in public? - September 9th, 2020
DAY 148 of the COVID-19 WORLDWIDE PANDEMIC in 2020 - "Do not be afraid!"- Reflection on the "Law of the Gift". August 4th, 2020
It may be legal, but it remains offensive - the Québec / Newfoundland and Labrador hydro electric agreement and long term contract - July 21st, 2020
Abortion is a failure of manhood more than a woman's choice - Solemnity of the Birth of John the Baptist - June 24th, 2020
Compare Covid-19 to all other deaths worldwide - Day 72 - May 20th, 2020
Communing with God in our everyday life - April 16th, 2020
A Catholic view of life and death inside a worldwide pandemic - April 4th, 2020
The pain of not being able to find a priest - February 15th, 2020
The wonder of our vital human strengths - January 28th, 2020
God's plan to bring us into abundance of life - By mere coincidence, today happens to be the Eve of the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul, the day the Lord Jesus Christ met him on the road to Damascus - January 24th, 2020
The Boeing 737 Max controversy - What about the common good? - January 13th, 2020
A family activity: Reading Pope Francis' Letter "On the Meaning and Importance of the Nativity Scene" - December 15th, 2019
Is the Pope a heretic, or are we Pharisees, Sadducees, Chief Priests, Scribes, or Lawyers? - November 25th, 2019
Green for our environment but toxic for human life? - October 19th, 2019
Canadian Federal Election Guide for Roman Catholics and Other People of Good Will - September 22nd, 2019
Why are some of our beautiful youth killing themselves or turning violent? We can do a lot! - September 10th, 2019
Capitalism - to suck us dry or to build us up - it's our choice - July 31st, 2019
Hope through resistance in the midst of troubled times - Could Venezuela's "social meltdown" happen to us? - July 25th, 2019
Abortion - how has it come to this? - The way it once was and the way it is now. - June 4th, 2019
Value of life - harm of abortion - what to do? - There are different views: society's changing views, "humanistic" views, various religious views, Christian views, and oh yes, what might be God's view? the view of our Creator? - May 25th, 2019
Christians, like Jesus Christ, have always been hated - See the "Letter to Diognetus" from the 2nd century A.D. - May 23rd, 2019
Madonna House Apostolate - from a visit there - April 10th, 2019
Homophobia Schmobophobia - A lot has been happening, has it not? March 2nd, 2019
Baptism by water and the Holy Spirit - what difference it makes - February 18th, 2019
A girl (boy) wants to be a boy (girl) - What do you say? - January 13th, 2019
Why does losing a loved one hurt so much? - November 5th, 2018
Evil, pain, suffering - how can these be God's will for us? - October 24th, 2018
We are never far from God... in fact... - October 17th, 2018
On a Mission... Together! - October 9th, 2018
"The gates of hell shall not prevail against it (my Church)" said Jesus to Peter - August 17th, 2018
To tattoo or not... I feel incomplete.... - August 5th, 2018
Anthony Bourdain suicide - What? But why? - July 17th, 2018
Not every human relation or attraction need be sexual - June 23rd, 2018
Elderly parents - impatience or loving interest? - June 12th, 2018
Why does God allow us to be tried, tested, and made to suffer? - See Saint Ignatius of Loyola's teaching on the "Discernment of Spirits" from his "Spiritual Exercises" - May 30th, 2018
How easily we misunderstand one another as well as life situations - April 27th, 2018
Authority and Service in the Roman Catholic Church - March 13th, 2018
What about Marriage of a Roman Catholic with a Muslim? - February 7th, 2018
Fathers - You are vital; Males - Be Men before God! - January 30th, 2018
Where Love Is, God Is. - On the 1st World Day of the Poor a poor man became a blessing to all who met him in the church. - A World Day of the Poor Story - December 10th, 2017
Understanding and discernment as well as LOVE versus LAW - Understanding, moral development, discernment, and the "Law of Love" - coming to understand the "ways of the Lord" - November 3rd, 2017
Who will defend the innocence of our children? What about women, men, and the elderly in their dignity? The gift of human sexuality? - August 24th, 2017
“Please, talk to me about love, Mommy, Daddy.” Children can best receive formation in their affections and human sexuality from their parents. - April 24th, 2017
The suicide of a loved one provokes an upheaval in the survivors. What happens when we die? What comes next? What can we do about death before it happens to us? - April 8th, 2017
When a loved one dies, our loss plunges us into deep grief. We need God's help to continue caring for ourselves and for others. - March 24th, 2017
Controversy and confusion over Pope Francis & "Amoris Laetitia" Part 2 - In more personal settings and situations we need to show more compassion, wisdom, understanding, and counsel. - February 20th, 2017
Controversy and confusion over Pope Francis & "Amoris Laetitia" Part 1 - Many are uncomfortable with God's mercy and prefer to "lay down the law". - February 18th, 2017
There are more affluent people than ever in human history; yet why are they / we so miserable? The original sin as rebellious selfish will still pulls at us. - February 6th, 2017
How do we discern God's calling in our daily lives? Q & A - Wanting to "be special" versus giving meaning and purpose to our lives. - February 4th, 2017
Eroticization and the unique developmental process of human persons - part 2 with conclusion - January 18th, 2017
Pope Francis vs critics = mercy vs legalism - People have trouble holding to both the truth and mercy as God has always done towards us. - January 18th, 2017
Why do people destroy plants, torture animals, or hurt other people? - November 27th, 2016
Eroticization and the unique developmental process of human persons - part 2 continuation - September 9th, 2016
When did the U.S.A. become the U.S.S.R.? - August 31st, 2016
Fatima, the Church, and the World – Standing Together Before God - April 22nd, 2016
Admirable fidelity to Jesus Christ in the face of death and the onslaught of the conquering armies of Islam - The converging and intertwining histories of Christianity and Islam - April 5th, 2016
We should not stay away from our assembly as is the custom of some, but encourage one another - March 14th, 2016
Older posts.....
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My purpose in these posts is to bring a variety of Christian and other writers in a desire to share significant writings that in my estimation contribute to the common good and directly or indirectly give glory to God and extend the Lord's work of salvation to all of humanity. G.S.
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© 2004-2022 All rights reserved Fr. Gilles Surprenant, Associate Priest of Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montreal QC
© 2004-2022 Tous droits réservés Abbé Gilles Surprenant, Prêtre Associé de Madonna House Apostolate & Poustinik, Montréal QC
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