Extraordinary Ministers Meeting
Extraordinary Ministers Meeting
Dear Fellow Parishioners:
During a meeting Aug. 29, Rev. Brum handed out papers giving the qualifications of Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion. Many of you were present, even some who are not Extraordinary Ministers. Those who weren’t present may want to read this message anyway or simply delete it.
I am not pointing the finger at anyone in particular. I think that any failings are due to the pious, but incorrect, belief by many Catholics that clergy can do no wrong. Herd mentality (where people simply do what the leaders of the herd do) also plays a part. Regardless, I do love you all, how difficult that may be.
There was one mistake in the Qualifications that I tried to bring to the participants' attention, but was not allowed by Rev. Brum’s constant talking, with no room for questions or comments, and the herd mentality of most of the group that went along with him. So I am using this medium to correct one error and offer comment to another point left unclear.
There is a mistake in point 4 that reads: "Extraordinary Ministers cannot be part of any organization that is contrary to the teachings of the Catholic Church such as Pro-Choice, Call to Action…”
Call to Action (CTA) is not contrary to ANY of the teachings of the church. CTA is a progressive Catholic group that wants some things that the Church does not have now, such as women priests, but CTA does not recognize any women priests right now. You can see the difference, I assume. In any case, the local CTA chapter is not pushing for women priests. It has only one issue: Pedophile Priests.
There apparently are pedophile priests in this diocese and CTA wants them out. Do you want a pedophile priest administering to your children? If not, you should support CTA because the bishop is not coming clean on this issue, putting your children in jeopardy. If one more child in the Diocese of Brownsville is molested by a priest, then your opposition to the one group that is trying to prevent this, CTA, will not go unnoticed by God.
Now for some clarification of another point:
Qualification no. 3 said that "Extraordinary Ministers must follow the teachings of the Catholic Faith.” Of course, the teachings are many, but some that we might keep in mind, given our present society are:
- Birth control: the pill, condoms, sterilization, and all artificial forms of birth control are prohibited; if you practice any of these, you cannot be an Extraordinary Minister.
- If you have been divorced and "remarried" without proper and complete Decree of Nullity, you cannot serve as an Extraordinary Minister.
- If you are not married in the Church, you cannot serve as an Extraordinary Minister.
- The Church opposes the death penalty; you cannot be an Extraordinary Minister if you accept the death penalty.
- The Church opposes the war in Iraq; you cannot be an Extraordinary Minister if you support the war.
- Although the Church is not opposed to homosexuals (many clergy are homosexual), one cannot practice homosexual sex, nor have heterosexual sex outside of marriage and be an Extraordinary Minister.
- And because Vatican II is the current law of the Church, if you do not accept and follow the teachings in the 16 documents of Vatican II, you cannot be an Extraordinary Minister.
About what transpired during the meeting: Many of you present acted in a very unchristian and herd-mentality manner. The same way that the Jews of their time treated the prophets and Jesus. You should be ashamed. St. Stephen would call you a “stiff-necked people” (Acts 7: 51). Read in Acts what your spiritual ancestors did to St. Stephen. You think Rev. Brum is correct simply because he is the priest. Jesus has much condemnation for priests who led the faithful astray. He called them many nasty names, as those of you who read the gospels of Matthew and Luke know.
Yours very truly in Christ,
Guy Hallman
And yes, I am praying for all of you, but like Christ, I not only pray, I act.
Dear kanickers:
I read with much interest and enthusiasm Mr. Guy Hallman's letter concerning the most hypocritical Eucharist Ministers meeting that Fr. Brum conducted at Holy Spirit. He spoke in his usually loud and authoritarian voice to perhaps threaten anyone from asking any questions.
He and only he was going to speak and no questions were allowed from those in attendance. When Mr. and Mrs. Hallman asked for permission to speak, Fr. Brum quickly denied their requests saying that he was not through speaking.
Later, he concluded the meeting by intentionally ignoring Mr. Hallman, who had already stood up to make a comment of the requirements of a Eucharist Minister in this parish, which stated that no one could be a member of Call To Action, etc., and continue to serve as a Eucharist Minister.
As we all got up to leave the meeting, some of Fr. Brum most ardent supporters surrounded Mr. Hallman so that he would not bother Fr. Brum with his comments and questions concerning the requirements of a Eucharist Minister.
Mr. Hallman was right on target when he stated that we were like a herd following the illogical and most contemptuous leader that our parish has ever seen. Nearly 20 or more people should have stood up and remained standing until Fr. Brum allowed us time to voice our concerns about the lies he attributed to the goals and objective of our Call To Action chapter.
However, most of us, myself included, were scared to death of what Fr. Brum would have done to all of us. And the worst part is that he would have immediately removed us from serving the most wonderful ministry I feel that the church has to offer; that of giving the most Precious Body and Blood of Jesus Christ to our parishioners.
Now, my query is this: What action are we going to take as a group to prevent Fr. Brum from denying us our civil rights to assemble and speak about problems within the church as we do in our local chapter of Call To Action? Do we file a lawsuit immediately for violations of our First Amendments Rights and obtain a Temporary Injunction Order?
Let us all pray that this coming weekend will not be a disastrous event at every Mass when Father's new Eucharist Ministers leaders tell some of us we can no longer serve in this very important Ministry so dear to our hearts and which we do to serve our Lord Jesus Christ.
~A Concerned Parishioner
Call To Action
It’s interesting that at the Extraordinary Ministers meeting, of all the issues that Fr. Louis claimed that Call To Action supports, he neglected to mention the biggest one of all (and the only one that the Local RGV Call To Action works on), which is Full Disclosure On The Sexual Abuse Scandal. Maybe his bishop wouldn’t want anyone to be reminded about that one!
And Married priests? The Roman Catholic Church had married priests up until the 12th century and the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church has married priests all over the United States, but of course, all of them were former Episcopalian priests. And in dozens of other Rites of the Roman Catholic Church, there is married priests and only the bishops have to be celibate. Maybe someone should let Fr. Louis know about this!
~Parishioner
Did Father Louis Fire Chayo?
I didn't understand everything about this meeting, it was all so well orchestrated. Has Father Louis fired Chayo?
~A Parishioner.
Chayo
I don't think Chayo got fired. Fr. Louis did change her job assignments. I understand that she is no longer in charge of anything at the Sunday masses.
There is a problem with how this was all done. According to their union agreement, no job duties were to be changed without union review. That didn't happen.
I talked to her after the meeting and I think Chayo was upset because of the way it was done. Everybody else knew about the changes before she did. It seems Fr. Louie had been planning this for weeks and it all was planned out before she was made aware of it.
She did get a little hint of what was going to happen the afternoon before the Extraordinary Ministers meeting, in a brief meeting with Fr. Louie, but wasn't given all of the details until they were uncovered at the meeting that evening.
~A Parishioner
Same old story. Management by secrecy!
~A Parishioner
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