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hobgoblinnand wonders if this is a Bad Thing.
Got a call from the Head Usher/ director of the Cathedral Foundation today. I'll call him Barry. He said during his meeting with the rector of our church, that the good Msgr. was very upset by the behavior of Wee Hobgoblinn during services. While I am singing, he is wandering around exploring, particularly at masses later in the weekend after he's already attended one or more.
The Msgr's solution to this problem? Talk to me before or after one of the myriad services I sing there every week? Call me directly and express concern for the boy's spiritual welfare? No. Tell Barry to call me tonight and decree that Wee Hob "Can only be in Church if he is supervised by a Family Member." His godfather does not count. Neither, therefore, do the many extended family members available through my membership in the choir and Anawim.
Do you know how many "Family Members" this boy has? One. Me. And he is only allowed in Church if I am sitting right next to him, and he is in the pew.
I haven't asked the obvious question yet-- "Or what?" but rest assured, I intend to, at my earliest opportunity.
Neither I nor Wee Hob's godfather, who called and got another version of this discussion from poor Barry, know quite what to make of this. Some months back, Wee Hob asked to train to be a server, which would give him something to do during masses and let him be helpful, which would certainly solve the boredom problem. At the time, this same Msgr. said no without giving any reason, even after Barry had made arrangements with me to bring him in on a Saturday afternoon to start the training. At the time, I figured he just didn't know Wee Hob well yet, and he wasn't making a good impression as a "serious, religious lad" (he's 12, remember) and I didn't make an issue of it.
Should he be wandering around in the back during services? No. I get that. In fact, the incident that seems to have precipitated all this happened Christmas morning, when I thought he was working as an usher. Some seminarian's cell phone came up missing and someone remembered seeing him wandering. He has his own cell phone, and I really doubt he went through people's stuff hanging back there. But wrong place, wrong time, I suppose. And they don't have the balls to accuse him of theft to his face, much less mine, so this is how they handle it instead.
I keep reminding myself how stunningly well the Institutional Church has been handling so many other things of late. And this particular representative of the fraternity is more troubled than most, locking the church gates from the garden to the main parking lot while CCD is still going on, just to keep the "homeless" people out of his backyard. Which means everyone has to walk clear around the block in this terribly dangerous neighborhood to get to their cars after CCD is over. Of course, the Church itself stays locked when services are not going on.
Sorry, had to vent. On the upside, I have to take Wee Hob to his godfather's Sunday afternoon for him to be there Monday, as I have to sing the Vigil masses both days and he's apparently Not Welcome. Which means I get to see Sweeney Todd Sunday night after mass, while Wee Hob has an elsewhere to be. And his godfather spent a long while over here today helping him organize his room and talking to him about life.
Still, if I could pull it off, I would love to emulate my icon and bitch slap an Ordained One. Seriously.
Am I going to hell, do you think?
Got a call from the Head Usher/ director of the Cathedral Foundation today. I'll call him Barry. He said during his meeting with the rector of our church, that the good Msgr. was very upset by the behavior of Wee Hobgoblinn during services. While I am singing, he is wandering around exploring, particularly at masses later in the weekend after he's already attended one or more.
The Msgr's solution to this problem? Talk to me before or after one of the myriad services I sing there every week? Call me directly and express concern for the boy's spiritual welfare? No. Tell Barry to call me tonight and decree that Wee Hob "Can only be in Church if he is supervised by a Family Member." His godfather does not count. Neither, therefore, do the many extended family members available through my membership in the choir and Anawim.
Do you know how many "Family Members" this boy has? One. Me. And he is only allowed in Church if I am sitting right next to him, and he is in the pew.
I haven't asked the obvious question yet-- "Or what?" but rest assured, I intend to, at my earliest opportunity.
Neither I nor Wee Hob's godfather, who called and got another version of this discussion from poor Barry, know quite what to make of this. Some months back, Wee Hob asked to train to be a server, which would give him something to do during masses and let him be helpful, which would certainly solve the boredom problem. At the time, this same Msgr. said no without giving any reason, even after Barry had made arrangements with me to bring him in on a Saturday afternoon to start the training. At the time, I figured he just didn't know Wee Hob well yet, and he wasn't making a good impression as a "serious, religious lad" (he's 12, remember) and I didn't make an issue of it.
Should he be wandering around in the back during services? No. I get that. In fact, the incident that seems to have precipitated all this happened Christmas morning, when I thought he was working as an usher. Some seminarian's cell phone came up missing and someone remembered seeing him wandering. He has his own cell phone, and I really doubt he went through people's stuff hanging back there. But wrong place, wrong time, I suppose. And they don't have the balls to accuse him of theft to his face, much less mine, so this is how they handle it instead.
I keep reminding myself how stunningly well the Institutional Church has been handling so many other things of late. And this particular representative of the fraternity is more troubled than most, locking the church gates from the garden to the main parking lot while CCD is still going on, just to keep the "homeless" people out of his backyard. Which means everyone has to walk clear around the block in this terribly dangerous neighborhood to get to their cars after CCD is over. Of course, the Church itself stays locked when services are not going on.
Sorry, had to vent. On the upside, I have to take Wee Hob to his godfather's Sunday afternoon for him to be there Monday, as I have to sing the Vigil masses both days and he's apparently Not Welcome. Which means I get to see Sweeney Todd Sunday night after mass, while Wee Hob has an elsewhere to be. And his godfather spent a long while over here today helping him organize his room and talking to him about life.
Still, if I could pull it off, I would love to emulate my icon and bitch slap an Ordained One. Seriously.
Am I going to hell, do you think?
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-30 05:43 am (UTC)If head elder has a problem with this, then there's a bigger problem--namely, that the leadership of your church isn't behaving in a godly manner towards the people.
And if you're truly worried about excommunication, I'm not positive how it works in Catholicism, but you're only supposed to be able to be excommunicated Scripturally for living in unrepentant sin--again, according to Matthew 18. Wandering around the sanctuary and narthex area may be . . . problematic, but it is not unrepentant sin.
And since when is ANYONE excluded from church for any reason? Even the excommunicated are welcome and encouraged to attend worship, even if they aren't allowed to receive the sacrament(s).
I'm not Catholic, but I am clergy. If you have any questions, I'll see what I can do.
Oh . . . and as for bitch slapping the Ordained One? It wouldn't be the first time--nor, likely, the last time--it happened to clergy. Some more deserved than others.
This might merit a letter to the Bishop/Archbishop. (I don't remember which is above a Msgr.)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-31 03:04 pm (UTC)I'm a convert, and an amateur historian/ medievalist (how I got drawn to the Catholic Church in the first place), so I have a pretty decent grasp on canon law/ history, and a protestant's healthy skepticism about the holiness and infallibility of Ordained Ones, so that's a plus. One of the things that bugs me about the current Diocesan climate (and makes my reaction to all this more volatile) is that the bishop and a number of his Minions seem to want to revert worship to some 1950's ideal that never existed in reality anyway (or if it did, spawned all manner of evils because people who should have been paying attention were off living in some kind of religious fantasy world) and the handling of this situation is just another example. Thanks for pointing me to Matt. 18, though. And if my meeting with the Ordained One does not end satisfactorily, I think you know me well enough by now to know that a letter to the Bishop, or his superior if it comes to it, is something well within my capabilities. Watch this space. And thanks.