ST, HEDWIG'S CLOSING - UPDATE THREE

Well. Dave Yonke's article did appear today in the Blade:

Here it is: St. Hedwig, St. Adalbert officially one parish

Thanks Dave.

The priest who was supposed to take over at St. Joseph's was Fr. Hertzfeld - I thought it was "Heinschel" - but that is no matter. He's the one who "volunteered" to go to Rome.

The fact still stands that this happened awfully quickly - little or no warning. It's an internal process.

Internal procedures of any organization that are self-monitored, including (maybe especially) religious one, can be bent to fit whatever circumstance one wishes to make them to fit - whether for good or for evil (my experience is that it is usually to cover-up a mistake or for out right evil).

I know that because I worked in places in which the powers that be who are only accountable to themselves routinely bent internal procedures to cover-up what the real intent was so as to present a 'good face' to those whom those places served or who worked there. Money was usually at stake.

I still think that is exactly what happened in this instance.

I heard what Deacon Jerry said on Sunday, June 27th and he did say that the Mass schedule for July of 2010 would hold, but that schedule for August would have to change and this would result in NO Masses on Sunday at all at St. Hedwigs which would be turned into an oratory.

The bishop's statement that he couldn't turn down Rome was lame when presented and is still lame now. Bishop Blair has Vatican connections - everyone knows that - after all he went to school there and chummed up with several persons who now hold high offices who were former schoolmates. It wouldn't take much to quietly and informally work with one of his cronies in a Vatican office to get what he wanted in the end.

My concern is not what's going to be closed here, but, again, that we are witnessing bishops who simply will not be held accountable to their people, but will act as they damn well please. It's right in line with the way the survivors of sexual abuse have been treated for centuries.

I haven't heard of any protests being mounted in the matter by my fellow parishioners - yet. Maybe there won't be any. If they do it's because they'll want to maintain there little Polish-American ethnic enclave not because they care about the neighborhood which is no longer connected to many of them anymore. Many in fact come from miles and miles away- some as far as Ann Arbor - to come to Mass. For me - it's the principle that matters. If the church is going to be closed - just say so - don't play games.

So, Bishop Blair, Fr. Billian, and Fr. Poggemeyer will have to quell what to amounts to a minor stirring up of the people - who knows maybe they'll let Sunday Mass be celebrated after all (or once or twice a month) until most of this people's angst and anger cools and they accept the inevitable.

Fr. Poggoemeyer got a link to this blog sent to him on this past Sunday. No response - didn't expect one. But I'll be there to see what he's got to say tomorrow at Mass - July 4th - Independence Day.