Laity will train for some duties of priests

The Aquinas Institute is sponsoring the program, which Archbishop Raymond Burke has said is unnecessary here.

Eight parishes in the Archdiocese of St. Louis will take part in a program to train laity for paid ministry positions...Archbishop Raymond Burke, who last summer said the program was unnecessary here, said this week that the archdiocesan pastors involved did not inform him of their participation in the program.

One can only guess why...The Aquinas Institute is not known for its fidelity to the teachings of the Church.

St. Louis Auxiliary Bishop Robert J. Hermann sent a letter to Aquinas saying the archdiocese was not interested in supporting the program and that it was preparing its own initiative for training the laity.

Didn't seem to stop anybody from getting involved with this group, did it?

The archbishop said through his spokesman, Jamie Allman, this week that he did not want to comment on the eight St. Louis parishes participating in the Aquinas program.

The Rev. Charles Bouchard is president of Aquinas Institute - just check out his past statements - orthodoxy doesn't seem to be his strong suit.

The archdiocese recently announced a relationship with Ave Maria University in Florida that, beginning in August, will allow St. Louis Catholics to obtain a master's degree in theological studies.

And one can be certain that what will be taught will be in accord with what the Church teaches - Can the same be said of Aquinas?

There is a debate within the Catholic church as to how much responsibility and authority the laity should have in the life of a parish....But a 1987 Vatican document sought to restrict some of the new freedoms allowed the laity by the Second Vatican Council.

I think Tim Townsend gets this wrong on two counts. I believe, though I could be wrong, the document to which he refers is "Instruction on Certain Questions Regarding the Collaboration of the Non-Ordained Faithful in the Sacred Ministry of Priests", which came out in August of 1997. Secondly, the Second Vatican Council did not give the laity the "right" to engage in some of the things in which a few of the laity have been involved and which the referenced "Instruction" sought to clarify. Townsend should exercise more care than he did in that particular paragraph.

Allman said Burke did receive a letter that Aquinas sent out to the bishops whose parishes are participating in the Apollos Project, but that none of the eight pastors from the St. Louis parishes selected to participate had contacted the archbishop. He said Burke had no plans to meet with the priests about the program.

Besides the two participating parishes named (of the eight), another is St. Cronan's - another bastion of heterodoxy and heteropraxy, much of which has been discussed before.

The Post article is here.