Meeting Minutes

of the Milwaukee Archdiocesan Priests’ Alliance

Convening Board

November 5, 2004

Present:            David Cooper, Joe Hornacek, Brian Mason, Mike Erwin, Bill Burkert, Steve Amman, John Lukaszewicz

Excused:           Ken Mich and Alan Jurkus

Prayer: Dave Cooper led the opening prayer.

Review of the Minutes from the October 11^th Meeting

·        Brian Mason reported that the balance reported in the minutes was $1.00 over the actual balance.  The balance stands at $3968.80

·        The minutes were approved with that correction.

Treasurer’s Report

Brian Mason reported the following:

            Balance as of 10/11/04 $3,968.80

            Received $50.00 in dues

            Paid St. Mary Parish, Waukesha for postage and printing - $12.75

Reimbursed Brian Mason for express mailing of letters to Cardinal McCarrick and Bishop Gregory - $27.30

Balance as of 11/5/04               $3978.75

            As of this date there are 127 priests registered as members of the Alliance.

September 30^th General Meeting

Bill Burkert distributed a response letter from Bishop Sklba regarding the letter to Cardinal McCarrick.

Brian Mason provided the following information regarding the actions taken since the September 30^th meeting:

At that meeting, the membership approved three documents:

-          A letter to Archbishop Dolan requesting greater consultation among the priests of the Archdiocese on issues such as his directive at the beginning of summer that all parishes implement the policy of celebrating First Reconciliation prior to the celebration of First Eucharist;

-          A letter to Rev. Dan Pakenham and the commission charged with examining the future of St. Francis Seminary and ministerial formation for the Archdiocese;

-          A letter to Cardinal Theodore McCarrick expressing our affirmation for the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death and expressing our disagreement with the practice of withholding the Eucharist from Catholic politicians who do not vote in accord with the Church’s teaching on abortion.

The letter to Archbishop Dolan requesting greater consultation before directives such as the 1^st Reconcilaition/1^st Eucharist directive are handed down was approved unanimously at the general meeting and the letter was sent on Thursday, October 14^th.

Regarding the Letter to the Seminary Commission:

After discussion of the original letter that was presented by Kenneth Mich on September 30^th, a consensus was reached in which a totally new letter would be written expressing our desire to see the continuation of seminarians being formed with lay students.  The revised letter would also contain an affirmation of the formation approach that is already in place at St. Francis.  It was agreed that the letter would then be forwarded to the membership for a vote on whether to approve or disapprove sending the revised letter. Following are the results of the votes cast on this document:

-          85 members voted on this document out of 124 total members (68.5% of the membership)

-          82 members voted to approve the document (66.1% of the membership)

-          3 members voted against the document (2.4% of the membership)

-          39 members did not respond (31.5% of the membership)

-          Several members asked that the letter be revised to clean up long sentences and grammatical errors. That was done prior to sending the letter.

-          The letter was sent to Dan Pakenham, Archbishop Dolan, Bishop Sklba and Mike Witczak

Regarding the Letter to Cardinal McCarrick:

At the September 30^th meeting, Steve Avella presented this document and after discussion, the membership approved sending the document with some revisions. Those revisions were completed and sent to the membership for approval.

A second vote was taken on who the document should be addressed to.  The majority of the membership indicated approval of the following:

• The document will be sent as a letter to Cardinal McCarrick who chairs the committee studying this issue;
• Archbishop Dolan and Bishop Sklba will receive copies first so they are not taken off guard;
• A copy will be sent to Bishop Wilton Gregory, President of the USCCB;
• A copy will be released to the press.

The results of the voting are as follows:

-          84 members voted on this document out of 124 members (67.7% of the membership)

-          82 members voted to approve the document (66.1% of the membership)

-          2 members voted against the document (1.6% of the membership)

-          40 members did not respond (32.3% of the membership)

-          The document was sent to Archbishop Dolan and Bishop Sklba on Thursday, October 14th; it was sent to Cardinal McCarrick and Bishop Gregory on Friday, October 15th via express mail.

-          I will have copies ready to go to Tom Heinen and the Catholic Herald on Monday, October 18^th.

The Alliance also received a letter from John Yockey in response to the letter written to Cardinal McCarrick. We decided a response would be appropriate and we will ask Steve Avella to draft a response.

Updates on New Focus Groups

Retired Priests:             We have not received any word back form Mike Dineen who surfaced this issue.

Vocations:                    Joe Aufdermauer would like to continue with this group.  We will ask him to put into writing a proposal about the Alliance supporting the national mailing form the Priests’ Forum on the Eucharist.

Planning for November

Bill Burkert distributed drafts of the nomination form and ballot.

The nomination forms will be sent via surface mail to all members by November 10^th. The deadline for returning nominations will be November 24^th. All forms will be returned to Bill who will then contact nominees.

Ballots will be sent out by Monday, December 6^th.  We will be electing nine members of the Convening Board – three will serve three years, three will serve two years and three will serve one year. After this election, one-third of the Convening Board will be replaced each year. For this year’s election, the three nominees receiving the highest number of votes will serve for three years, the three receiving the next highest number of votes will serve two years and the three receiving the next highest number of votes will serve for one year.

Review of Constitution

Steve Amann will contact people who worked on the original draft of the constitution and bylaws to assist the subcommittee in reviewing these documents. They hope to have the review completed by the next meeting.

Reports from Focus Groups

Priests’ Rights

• They will continue to follow up with the committee set up by the Archbishop to review the process used for priests who have an accusation brought against them.
• The group wants to insist on a meeting with the review committee as well. However, they are not sure whether or not the committee has met yet.
• They are working on two flyers:
  • The first is on the initial steps a priest should take after receiving an initial call from the Vicar for Clergy informing them that an accusation has been made against them.
  • The second will contain information on how to respond if a priest is put through the review process.
  •  

The December 9^th meeting needs to be rescheduled.  It will take place on Friday, December 10^th at 10:30 AM at St. Matthias.

Respectfully submitted,

Brian Mason

Secretary/Treasurer