Convening Board Minutes August 5, 2004

Present:            Joe Hornacek, Ken Mich, John Lukaszewicz, Dave Cooper, Brian Mason, Mike Erwin, Bill Burkert

Excused:           Steve Amann, Alan Jurkus

Prayer: John Lukaszewicz gave a reflection on the day’s reading from Jeremiah.

Review of the Minutes from the July 9^th Meeting

The minutes were approved with the following corrections:

• Bill Burkert did attend the last portion of the meeting
• Issue #6 – the proposal on the incardination of priests will not be part of the September 30^th general meeting

Treasurer’s Report

Brian Mason reported the following:

            Balance forward 7/9/04            $3,234.20

            Deposit-7/28/04                          $275.00        Dues from 10 members (plus $25 donation)

            Deposit-8/5/04                            $100.00        Dues from 4 members

            Balance as of 8/5/04                 $3,609.20

TCF Bank informed Brian that the checking account we have set up for the Alliance is a personal account and needs to be changed.  The Convening Board gave Brian approval to take care of this.

As of August 5, 2004, 107 priests have registered as members of the Alliance.

September 30^th General Meeting

We had a lengthy discussion about the September 30th General Meeting.  The following points were discussed:

We see three components of this meeting:

1. Action Items
2. Proposals
3. Open Space

Focus Groups already formed may get together as well as focus groups that may be formed at the meeting.

We discussed the following issues/statements that could be part of the meeting:

• Steve Avella’s document regarding the withholding of Eucharist from Politicians
  • A few editing changes were suggested. Brian Mason will contact Steve with regard to these changes.
  • We are all still in favor of including this document in the general meeting
  • The document will be sent out prior to the general meeting and we will seek the Alliance membership’s approval for the document.
  • After much discussion on what constitutes the approval, it was decided that a voiced consensus would be the best way to ascertain approval or disapproval of an Alliance issue.
  • We will also ask the Alliance membership to whom this document should be sent: to all priests? To the bishops? To the press? To Wilton Gregory? Etc.

• The Salary Statement
  • This will be discussed at the Deanery meetings.
  • We urge the deans to affirm this statement.
  • This will not be an action item on the general meeting agenda, but rather a report on the outcome.

• Incardination Issue
  • The question surfaced as to whether or not including this statement on the agenda of the general meeting would offend some priests who have come from outside of the archdiocese?
  • The intent of this statement is to address the acceptance of priests with differing ideologies
  • This is a multi-faceted issue: financial, cultural, ideological, etc.
  • It was decided that it would be best to set up a focus group to write a statement as this will allow a forum for discussion as to whether or not to bring this issue forward for consideration

• Letter to the Seminary Commission
  • This will be sent out to the membership now for approval or disapproval
  • Ken Mich will get a copy to Dave Cooper to send out

• Issue of Reception of Reconciliation before Reception of First Eucharist
  • Joe Hornacek will write a proposal. He wants to consult Kathy Amidei to get input regarding questions that have been posed to her office.
  • The Question and Answer email form the archdiocese seems to have taken some of the emotion out of this issue
  • Joe will have a statement ready for the August 27^th meeting

Ken Mich brought up his observation of hearing people speaking of the pain of seeing the vision of Vatican II falling apart.  Bill Burkert added that he had recently spoken with two groups who were actually looking in to the possibility of joining the Episcopal Church.

• Can we as an Alliance do something about these feelings of hopelessness?
• We can continue to offer the opportunity for people to gather to discuss these issues.
  • Should we have more meetings?
  • Should we hold regional meetings?

Reports from Focus Groups

Priests’ Rights

• In reference to the Archbishop’s announcement of a review the process of investigating priests from the perspective of the accused priests, Mike Erwin reported that Barbara Anne Cusack stated that this review has already taken place and so the review announced by the Archbishop will not be like we thought it would be.
• This focus group wants to be in contact with those removed from active ministry; however they are finding that getting phone numbers and addresses is difficult. Sr. Kathleen in the Clergy Office cannot give out this information.
• This group will meet again in August.
• The Convening Board affirmed the group’s work on a flyer to advise priests on what to do and not do if they are ever accused of sexual misconduct.

Ecclesiology

• This focus group is waiting to have a meeting with the Archbishop.

Overworked Priests

• Since several priests have marked on their membership registrations that they are interested in working on this issue, Brian Mason suggested we get this group together to determine who would like to lead this group and who is really willing to work on this issue.

The next meeting of the Convening Board will take place on Friday, August 27^th at St. Roman Parish from 1:30-3:00 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Brian Mason