Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Group Intends to Mount Challenge of Bishops' "Ownership"

Our "progressive Catholic" friend Joe sent this to us:
We'd have to do a lot of legal research in varying jurisdictions before we could figure out a bishop's "ownership" according to the laws of his state. And different states do have different takes on this question. Morally, of course, the people should "own" their own churches, schools, etc. Historically? Well, we will leave it to good Church historians to tell us just exactly how the bishops seized the power they claim. We know they didn't always have it. And we feel it is time we take it away from them.
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"Take it away?" Well, not exactly. We're not going to lynch our bishops. But.leaning on the Gospel message as it was handed down - that all authority in the Church is for service, not domination - we'd just like to have servant bishops, not lord bishops. There's an easy way to make that power shift. Armed with court orders, we the people of God can set up elected boards and commissions with real decision power over every aspect of Church governance, and, while we're at it, over every piece of Church property as well.
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We will only gain real leverage by going after our bishops' asserted ownership of every piece of Church property in every U.S. diocese. In the case of Los Angeles, this amounts to at least five billion dollars. This is not chump change.
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This is what we mean when we say we want to take back our Church.
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To do this, we need to mount a real, American-style political campaign. This means committeepersons in every state, and loads of volunteers. This means a solid, big- name national board. This means a first-class web site, and regular news bulletins reporting on the progress of our campaign.

We need to find law firms to mount simultaneous legal challenges to the bishops' "ownership" over our stuff in every state.

To do all this, we need a staff of organizers. How big a staff? Who knows? The size of our effort will depend on how much money and how much enthusiasm we can raise, and/or how many volunteers we can find. You can help right now, by volunteering - your time or your money. Or both.

Needless to say, we also welcome your ideas. This will be a people project. Tell us what you think. Above all, tell us about the good, godly people (preferably rich, good, godly people) you know who might want to help us TakeBackOurChurch.

What a bunch a malcontents. I would think that such an attack on the bishops and on the Church would be sufficient grounds for excommunication. But also not to be forgotten, we should pray for their conversion and repentance.

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