Should Pastoral Center Change it's Name
It was brought the the bishops attention that a request was made in writing, that he should change the address information of the diocese Pastoral Center. For years now, the name of our deceased bishop still is shown as the bishop of our diocesan Pastoral center. To support that request, the bishop was reminded (as if the bishop needed to be reminded) that our deceased bishop was listed publicly as one of America's 10 worsts bishops, having moved a number of abusive priests from parish to parish without warning the assigned parish that the priests had abused children. The culpability, for every child abused because of an abusive priest, to continue victimizing other children, has to be shared by any responsible bishop. In addition, as a result of the bishops failure to do the right thing, he compounded the tragic sexual abuse crimes which ultimately caused the diocese to go into bankruptcy because of the financial settlements. Several months has gone by and the bishop has failed to reply to that request. The failure to indicate what action the bishop is planning to do or not to do and his reason why, leaves 350,000 with a mixed message. The name of our late bishop and the diocese involved has not been revealed because of obvious reasons.
Do To little bear" It is
Do
To little bear" It is our Pastoral Center. In my posting, everything you should know about our late bishop has been included. Would anyone need to know anything else about him to justify requesting that he should not have his name placed in a position of honer in our diocese. By the way what is a Dean of a deanery. I never heard that before. Just one other fact, our late bishop publicly admitted before he died that he was responsible for the movement of abusive priest and for keeping it a secret. He also apologized and stated his actions were a mistake in judgement. Yes, so many bishops referred to their movement of abusive priests as a mistake in judgement. Many others, blamed it on the advice of professional people, not themselves. If this was your diocese "little bear," what would you do?
Not being in your diocese,
Not being in your diocese, Ed, I would not know the history of your Pastoral Center.
Is it the Diocesan Pastoral Center? Nor do I know anything about your late Bishop
and the controversy around his actions.
However, if as many Catholics in your Diocese feel the way that you do---and wish to change the name to something else----maybe they need also to write letters, call the chancery, e-mail or whatever, to let the current Bishop know of their feelings.
Maybe, getting in contact with the Deans of each deanery might be a good way, also.
One letter will not do the trick----several might and if the pastors or Deans get behind it, maybe the name might be changed.
Good luck in your endeavors!
Dom, So sorry in getting
Dom,
So sorry in getting back to you this late. Every arch/diocese is divided into smaller areas called deaneries. And many times the deanery is also divided into regions as well. A priest is appointed by the bishop to head the deanery and he is called a Dean. It is the dean's job to visit all the parishes in his deanery at least once during his tenure (2-4 years) and examine their books and sign them. Also some deans meet with the staff of the parish and ask them how the parish is operating. I said "some deans" because not all, visit with parish staff or the pastoral council as well. Deans meet with the bishop to discuss issues of importance to the diocese.
In your case, contact your local parish office as to whom your dean is. Make sure that you inform the secretary that you are not complaining about your pastor or any staff members (you just want to know who he is). Then you could contact the dean of your deanery and let him know how you feel. If there are others who feel as you do, they also could contact the dean by letter, phone or e-mail. It is worth a shot, anyway.