Posted on 03/19/2009 11:42:58 AM PDT by NYer
OK, so why did Madison's Bishop Robert Morlino pick a PR fight he will certainly lose, and which he must have known at the outset he would certainly lose? Well folks, you won't find out from the NCR article.
Headlined, "Wisconsin parish worker fired for feminist views: Allowed no opportunity for defense nor to face accusers," Mike Sweitzer-Beckman's piece tells the story of Ruth Kolpack, long-time pastoral associate at St. Thomas the Apostle Church in Beloit, who was just minding her own business when Morlino called her in and fired her.
Kolpack said that when she met with her bishop she was given no opportunity to defend herself, nor did she have a chance to face or respond to those who had accused her.
When she met with Morlino, he stated that her views on the teachings of Jesus were "off base," according to Kolpack. She also said he informed her that he had not read her thesis in its entirety, only "bits and pieces."
She said that during the meeting he asked her to denounce the thesis, make a profession of faith, and take an oath of loyalty in order to remain as a pastoral associate at the parish.
She said she could not refute the thesis in good conscience, that to do so would risk her reputation as a scholar and academician.
How about a little reality therapy?
The Diocese of Madison is not giving details about the firing, claiming that its personnel policy prohibits going into specifics and that doing so would prejudice Kolpack's good name. This is obviously two-edged. The dismissed person's good name is protected by non-mention of the actual failings on which the firing was based, but made vulnerable by public speculation as to imagined failings that played no part in it. Journalists, however, are free to question anyone they wish, and it's remarkable that the NCR's man failed to ask, or report, which of her opinions Kolpack herself believed controversial.
If Kolpack was as universally esteemed as the NCR makes her out to be (no person favorable to her dismissal was interviewed), why was she dimed-out in the first place? Well, there are such things as parish busy-bodies, and misunderstandings often occur, so why not put to her the obvious hot-button questions: does Kolpack accept or does she not accept Church teaching on abortion, contraception, divorce, sexual morality, women priests? If she supports the doctrine, then there's simply a communications problem. And if she doesn't, then it's not at all clear how Morlino is at fault.
To some Catholics, after all, it matters whether or not the Church is right about what she teaches -- in fact it matters more than whether the person who conveys the teaching is lovable or not -- and the same Church insists Catholics deserve sound teaching as a right, not as a favor bestowed according to the whim of their pastors. Morlino has defended this right.
That the problem had to be addressed by the bishop in the first place is lamentable. Back to the NCR story:
A news release issued by Kolpack supporters stated that over the past three years, Madison diocese officials received “several accusations” against Kolpack. It added that last January, Fr. Steve Kortendick, pastor of St. Thomas and St. Jude parishes in Beloit, met with Morlino about those accusations. Since then, the release said, Kortendick and the diocesan chancellor, Kevin Phelan, had met in an unsuccessful effort to find a "positive resolution."
If the Catholic principle of subsidiarity were taken seriously, the pastor would have dealt with Kolpack himself. Either he shares Kolpack's theology or lacks the nerve to confront it, so the buck gets passed upstairs to the bishop, and Call To Action and the NCR get into the act.
There are few more thankless tasks than coming to the defense of Church teaching. The defender is invariably painted in the colors of the Grand Inquisitor, and every heretic is a Galileo. With Call To Action pushing and the media pulling, public sympathies will naturally favor Kolpack over Morlino. Happily, this bishop isn't afraid of being the Bad Guy when doctrine is at stake.
NCR does it again.
If Fr. Kortendick had dealt with his employee in the first place, none of this would be happening.
Maybe he's afraid of all the harpies that would come screeching around his ears.
Doesn't look like a super-active parish, at least their website isn't, and they only have one Mass on Sunday and only three the rest of the week.
This incident has VOTF written all over it.
Here in the northeast, we have lots of Pastoral Associates. They have been entrusted with running the priestless parishes; hence, they take top billing. A few years ago, a group of local parishes came together for an afternoon of 'Carols and Lessons'. The hosting parish was run by a Pastoral Associate, who took top spot on the long list of clergy filing into the Church. In the Rochester Diocese, the bishop recently tossed a pastor and replaced him with a PA. He even held a commissioning service that some claim resembled an ordination.
But this isn't a "priestless parish", unless that guy in the collar is a fraud, or a figurehead, or a whole lot dumber than he looks.
What was the Rochester bishop's justification for tossing the priest and replacing him?
We need many more people committed to praying regularly for our CHURCH. We need to consistently thank God for granting our Bishops and other clergy the gift of discernment and the wisdom as to how to pragmatically apply it....
.... to eradicate radical feminism and relativism from the Church.
God is good!
pulled from NCR it seems.
Apparently, there is much more to this event. It was posted to the forum last year.
His justification:
“I am a heretic and I love to undermine the Pope.”
Here is a working link:
http://ncronline.org/news/faith-parish/wisconsin-parish-worker-fired-feminist-views
Employer: St. Thomas Catholic Church
Person:
Ruth Kolpack
Pastoral Associate
St. Thomas Catholic Church Updated
3355 RIVERSIDE DR
Beloit WI
Candidate:
Donation of $320
to Barack Obama
Presidential elections 2008
Q3/2008
We have a Pastoral Associate, an ancient Sister who does this and that. She helps with the RCIA, coordinates some adult education events, mainly for the elderly, does some counseling, and gives Father somebody to talk to when the secretary is too busy. She’s listed on the bulletin above the deacons, maybe because she’s been here longer than either of them (or the present or previous pastors), or maybe just to be nice because she’s older than the hills.
I make an appointment to talk to her sometimes, when I feel like I’m not accomplishing anything. She’s the youngest of 10 children and put in over 45 years as a schoolteacher, and she has very traditional views on child-rearing and education.
Ruth Kolpack can be contacted at kolpacks@charter.net
Fr. Ruth Kolpack is also a Obama-style community organizer - no kidding:
http://www.gamaliel.org/default.htm
http://www.gamaliel.org/MidWestern%20Territory.htm
Fr. Ruth Kolpack is also a Obama-style community organizer - no kidding (one more):
http://www.brewcitybloggers.org/?p=192
In all the digging, was there any information on her posted at Roman Catholic Womenpriests(esses)?
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