Will Steger to Speak at St Joan's this Weekend

Gerald in San Diego from The Cafeteria is Closed goes off on a tear about St Joan of Arc parish in Minneapolis today. My response:

They are incorrigible, and they are indeed old.

The "speaker" for this weekend is Will Steger, Arctic explorer. http://www.stjoan.com/thumb5fr.htm I'm not sure when the "speaking" occurs. They were told specifically last Fall by our two Auxiliary Bishops that they were not to use lay people for the homilies.

One way they might be getting around that is having the pastor give a very short homily and then cede the pulpit to the speaker. That was the method used by the pastor who started the practice back in the 70s (when I was an attendee for a short time).

If you were Archbishop Flynn, what would you do with them. If you closed the church, there are at least another half dozen "liturgically liberal" parishes (out of 200+) in the Archdiocese. Most quite close. But being that most of these folks have read and memorized Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals", I don't believe that they would go quietly. Some kind of action would be taken.

In the end, they would be out of the Church. I don't think that's what Jesus would want.

They have had a new pastor since last November or so. I understand that he is more orthodox (or would it be "less liberal") than the one preceding him. But gaining control of an organization that has been ruled from below for so many years no doubt is a chore that few would be able to handle.

And the Archbishop seems to have concentrated on cracking down on those pesky, divisive conservatives in his domain.

I pray for them (and their pastor and the Archbishop) daily and ask that others do also.