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Posted on 04/30/2005 8:21:18 PM PDT by BizzeeMom
On Valentine's Day, a dozen or so Belleville priests gathered to discuss what kind of bishop would best be suited to lead their diocese.
Belleville's former bishop, the Rev. Wilton Gregory, had been installed as the new archbishop of Atlanta just a month before.
The members of the Presbyterial Council had been asked by Cardinal Francis George of Chicago to assess three things: the qualities they would like in their next bishop, the current state of the Belleville diocese and the future needs of the diocese.
(Excerpt) Read more at stltoday.com ...
Can you believe this guy?
Bernardin legacy bump
He didn't like Louisiana and he let those cajuns know he didn't like having to "waste" his extensive theological education on people who regularly sucked the brains out of crawfish.
I'm happy for your relatives, I'd be kissin' the bus, too!
Some are furious that the input from the clergy members was ignored and that George may not have been consulted.
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In the days, weeks and months to come, I believe there will be more Bishops and Cardinals replaced by Rome without the consent of the Priests or laity.
I hope Braxton is one of them and that his tenure in Belleville is short.
I've had the impression Belleville is fairly conservative; don't understand who would go over Cardinal George's head to put Braxton in there.
From the article:
According to three priests who were at meetings with Braxton in March, the bishop-elect said he would like a priest to live in the residence with him for prayer and conversation.
"We don't have any priests to spare," said Stec. "Our priority needs to be to keep the parishes going."
What do you know about Braxton? I am in the North and never heard of him.
He was an auxiliary bishop here in St. Louis under Archbishop Rigali for a few years before he went to Louisiana.
My husband and I went to Mass at the Cathedral in St. Louis one weekend (quite a few years ago) and he was the celebrant. The homily centered around his close relationship with the late Cardinal Bernardin, and how the Cardinal had passed his legacy on to Braxton. As a sign of that legacy, the Cardinal gave Braxton his ring, shortly before he died.
Bishop Braxton kept a pretty low profile in St. Louis and then was shipped off to Louisiana where he seems to have been keeping that tradition. But now in Belleville he's stirring things up. Curioser and curioser.
Priests and laity have never been consulted. Only the kingmakers change. Rigali is now the kingmaker, and Braxton served under Rigali as an auxiliary.
It is not standard operating procedure, and this is a slap at Wilton Gregory, previous bishop of Belleville, who, apparently, lived rather modestly. Braxton is a bit of an aristocrat, who asked, at a shrimp peel in Lake Charles attended by my father-in-law, that someone please peel his shrimp as "he didn't do that sort of thing."
Braxton is being groomed for higher office, possibly a curial appointment or an archdiocese. You folks are merely a stepping-stone.
His idea of importing African priests has been tried by other bishops, with more or less success.
America is a culture shock to these men.
I may be wrong, but I don't believe priests and laity are consulted when a placement of a new bishop is made by Rome.
They're not. If Cardinal George does this, he is the exception.
I am not sure anymore since Vatican II. Before VII, I'm sure they were not consulted. This sounds like a NO practice. I placed that in my post because it was in the news article, if you read the whole article you would see it.
I was just trying to call attention to it too. These priests sound quite eccentric to me.
Braxton is being groomed for higher office, possibly a curial appointment or an archdiocese.
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But but but.....he's the protege of a Call to Action guy. Why promote him?
"Is it standard operating procedure for new bishops to remodel their residences,..."
Can't speak to 'bishops' but have been in a few priest residences; the very best of whom appear to need nothing more than a fresh coat of paint - flat white - if even that.
If the bishop required some company there are a fair number of retired priests who no longer can serve in a pastoral capacity whom I suppose could accomodate this need. Seems like an odd request to me though.
I guess we will see in the near future. I think B-16 is getting his men in place. I also think that Cardinal George will be in Rome shortly.
Rigali likes him. And Rigali is even tighter with BXVI than he was with John Paul II.
Rigali seems to be an affirmative action kingmaker: he has promoted more Hispanics and blacks than Bernardin did, hands down. Most of these appointments are deserved, to be sure. I fully expect over half the bishops of Texas to be Hispanic in ten years.
Rigali likes him? That is surprising.
If they can't find a priest to move in, they can always go down to the bus station and get a 15 year old hustler to bunk with them, like Bishop Ryan of Springfield, Illinois.
see rcf.org
Rigali promoted him to Lake Charles, then pulled him into a more "mainstream" diocese.
Can you think of an occasion in the last 50 years in which a bishop of a Southern diocese was promoted to a "red hat see"? (Madeiros of Brownsville in 1969 doesn't count; he was originally from Massachusetts.)
Cardinal Rigali does have a large amount of influence over who is slected Bishop, since he was head of the conregation of Bishops when he was in the Vatican, but so far most of the men that seem to have been influenced by Cardinal Rigalis advice have been sound, such as his repalcement, Abp. Burke.
That said, B-16 may have a more hands on approach on who is appointed to the bigger sees. Belville is a small diocese, and its only improtance was that then Bp. Gregory was the president of the USCCB. It will be intresting to see if the holy father accepts the resignations of Cdl. McCarrick and Cdl. Madia this year.
My assumption had always been that (then)Archbishop Rigali sent Bishop Braxton to Lake Charles to get rid of him. It had never entered my mind that they liked each other but it would certainly make the Belleville appointment seem more logical.
I have seen rcf.org! Very interesting.
ping
Priests and laity have never been consulted.Technically that’s not true. I’ve firsthand knowledge of priests, deacons, and laity being consulted on the next Bishop in a couple different dioceses. Once they were properly consulted they were properly ignored, of course.
The only complaint that these priests really have is that they were ignored before they were consulted instead of after they were consulted. Otherwise this is business as usual.
patent
If the bishop required some company there are a fair number of retired priests who no longer can serve in a pastoral capacity whom I suppose could accomodate this need. Seems like an odd request to me though.I doubt that a retired priest would fit the Bishop’s needs. My take is that he is looking for a servent who will fetch him a glass of tea and run his various errands. He needs a young guy, not a retired priest who can barely make it up and down the stairs. He could always hire for this, but really, who could be better than a priest who has already sworn obedience, and can’t readily quit?
I suspect this is why there are big objections to the idea. It wouldn’t be a big deal for a priest to live there, but still minister to his parishes nearby. It would be a big deal if that priest was so busy doing stupid chores to hear confessions or say Mass, and due to the lack of priests they had to cut the Sacraments somewhere as a result. It would also stink for the priest who was assigned to this.
patent
Years ago, the then-Father Braxton spoke at a clergy conference in a New England diocese. He began by noting his displeasure at the fact that the Bishop and the Auxiliary of the Diocese were not present - when he had agreed to give the clergy day only on the condition that ALL the clergy (and that included the two bishops) would be present. (The two bishops were attending the funeral of the mother of one of their priests). During the luncheon between his presentations, he insisted upon eating alone, all by himself, in a separate room from the priests. To someone in French cuffs with manhole-cover sized cufflinks and one of those fancy button front vests from Rome, I'm sure the "working-class" clergy of this largely urban diocese must have seemed like the lower peasantry. At least that's the impression he clearly gave. Nor did he bother hanging around when, before leaving, the clergy dutifully lined up to buy a book he had written - that none of them would ever read. I remember thinking, "Well, at least when he DOES become a Bishop, it will be somewhere in the Midwest." Insufferably arrogant. Figures he'd be impressive to higher-ups whose character judgments are based on the initials after your name, the obtuseness of your writing, and where your clerical clothing comes from! The people and "lower" clergy are not fooled, of course.
The Diocese of Fort Wayne/South Bend has brought in several priests from Sri Lanka. Without these men, several parishes would have closed.
It sounds as if he may be looking for a rector.
I saw that this morning in the paper and cringed. He was the one auxiliary we've had in the last 20 years who never should have been a bishop. There were things I saw that curled my hair.
In some ways they are conservative, in other ways, not. The decision may have been to put him there to have George keep an eye on him.
Rigali never liked Braxton. Nobody here liked Braxton and we were really happy when he was shipped off. He probably was elevated because he was one of the few who had the degree at the time.
Seriously, Belleville isn't St. Louis and both sides of the river will tell you that. Braxton likes the trappings of bishop too much and that is going to get him into big trouble in Belleville.
Is it America, is is it doing un-natural things to shrimp that's a shock, Sinky?
Something is very strange about this whole story. I guess maybe "progressives," conservatives and traditionalists all dislike Bp. Braxton.
He was on the board of directors (maybe still is, I'm not sure) of the American College of Louvain, prominently featured in Goodbye, Good Men (and not for good things).
Rigali and Bernardin are (were) both of the same stripe..politics first, seamless garment, yada, yada...
The little I know about Belleville is that it is very German which usually implies frugal, hardworking, stoic people.
Braxton may be hardworking, I don't know. Never got that impression. Definitely anything but frugal. What a mismatch of temperaments.
He was on the board of directors (maybe still is, I'm not sure) of the American College of Louvain, prominently featured in Goodbye, Good Men (and not for good things).
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Oh my, I didn't know that.
the best mud bugs in the country..
Back in the mid-80's, Bp. Braxton was theologian-in-residence at the N. Amer. College in Rome for a semester, where I met him a few times. He surely considered HIMSELF a up-and-comer, and was supercillious and paraded both his doctorate, how work with Salier (?) publishing, and his expensive clergy garb. He considered himself the superior African-American priest of the entire US, and was appalled that Bp. Gregory was held in higher esteem with Cardinal Bernadin. He is almost the directional opposite of the sort of priest whom I admire, who is devout, prayerful, humble and calm. From my experience with him, he is the opposite of all 4 traits.
I just moved from the Belleville Diocese to Chicago. It is nothing like St. Louis and it is in really bad shape. There is a critical priest shortage and vocations are practically dry. Ironically, the region is very conservative but the diocese is basically run by extreme heterodox priests and religious. Liturgical abuse is rampant and in some parishes it can make you sick.
I am not sure what to make of Bp. Braxton, but the Fellowship of Southern IL Laity is the Call to Action contingent down here. Furthermore James Margason is currently in charge of two parishes- one consecrates honey cakes- the other stands for the during the consecration. Anything to make them unhappy is great. Of course they wanted a "pastoral" bishop like Gregory that they could manipulate and brow beat.
He really needs to put an end to the parish clustering. This spread the priests out and of course Bp. Gregory allowed feminist unhabited nuns to be pastoral associate. The old parish I attended is one of those clustered- the first thing she did was put her name at Pastor and referred to the priests who conducted masses as "sacramental ministers"
This kind of story is scary for those of us in the diocese of Raleigh. Our bishop turned 75 last month and his letter of resignation sits on the Holy Father's desk now. Our diocese has been riddled with heretics and all sorts of liturgical abuses for 30 years now and we have got to get somebody good down here.
Thanks for your insight into this wierd situation! I had not heard about the heterodoxies going on in the Belleville diocese. I guess I had assumed that Gregory was running a tight ship. It just amazes me how often radical liberal clergy are able to get a foothold in conservative areas.
good grief
I hope you get someone good!! I'm sure you will.
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