![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-31 01:04 am (UTC)Some of what you're talking about reminds me of a situation at another church my husband and I attended for a time. If the people there are truly so willing to believe the worst of everyone there, then I would suggest attending at another church. The body of Christ is meant to build up one another - not tear itself apart from the inside.
Not being Catholic myself, I can't completely sympathize with your position, though I understand how placing apostolic authority in the figure of the church itself could contribute to a hesitancy to voice your concerns, however, I would humbly suggest that what your priest is suggesting is no more representative of the views of the Church than they are scriptural. Francis of Assisi certainly didn't get sainted for that kind of attitude!
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-31 03:18 pm (UTC)I had kind of drifted away from the Choir to cut down on the time Wee Hob would have to be bored, but I went back a few weeks ago in support for friends and family after K's death, and because they kind of needed me anyway. I'm going to make an appointment and see what we can work out directly with His Holiness or whatever. But he's not running us off. I was there First, damn it. And the way the position of Rector at the Cathedral Basilica changes (3 times in 5 years) I will probably be there long after he's been sent out to Maysville KY or some equally lovely backwater.