Let us rise and speak our minds

The Chocolaty Morsels Affair (CMA) is upon us again. Just as chocolaty morsels are not truly chocolate chips, the CMA does not spend nearly enough on actually CATHOLIC Ministries. Every year an assessment is made on each parish of the diocese (much like New York "assesses" our electric bills, coercively and in support of profligate spending) for a program that spends more money keeping itself going than it does on Catholic schools. Not surprisingly, many Catholics in Rochester are opposed to feeding a huuuguh slush fund, particularly those who have felt its administrators' coldness.

We have no issue with certain aspects of CMA spending. We fully support the funding allocated to Catholic Schools, Faith Formation, Parish Support Ministries, Catholic Charities, Stewardship, and Hospital Chaplaincy. However, this amounts to between 50 and 60 percent of CMA funding. It is unreasonable to ask the remaining Catholics in a failing diocese to spend over $2,500,000 on HR, IT, overhead costs, and a pastoral center in which very few regularly set foot. Why, precisely, do we spend CMA dollars on St Bernard's, when we need a separate drive to fund our semenarians? Shouldn't funding the education of our future priests come ahead of funding the educations of lay folks? And what of planning services? Why should any parish slated to be closed be the very folks who pay for their own demise? This seems not only illogical, but absurd! Finally, $329,400 went to...fliers and a video which makes many parishioners at St Stanislaus sick to their stomaches? This is an outrage!

It is time that more Catholics in Rochester stand up to this bullying. Some have been doing so admirably for years, but not enough. And it is not enough merely to refrain from sending money to the diocese for this fund. If we do nothing, the money will be extorted from our parishes like a tax and that will be the end of it. We need to be more active.

That is why Arialdus and I are proposing a different kind of campaign to counter the CMA. In his recent "envirolope" message to the diocese, Bishop Clark states that: "Your pledge to this year's annual appeal will help us to continue to preach, to teach, and to serve." He is right about one thing, we must preach, teach, and serve. But what does he preach, what does he teach, and whom does he serve? It seems not to be the children in our Monroe County Catholic School System. He seems not to serve our parishes as still more are slated for closure. It certainly doesn't seem to be that he wants the truth of Christ to get out, what with lay "pastoral" administrators like Joan Sobala running around. It seems that the CMA would not be an appropriate place for our scarce funds in such difficult economic times.

What we can do, however, is give to other, more reputable, more orthodox organizations who preach, who teach, and who serve God and His Church faithfully. We propose that you let the diocese have its cake and send back the envelopes with a message of our faith and a pledge to support other, more orthodox, ministries. Enclose a note explaining clearly your actions and their reasons.

For example, we will be donating $20 to:
the Catholics Come Home Campaign for its preaching.
Una Voce for its preaching and teaching.
the Sisters of Reparation for their serving.
the Seminarian Fund for their preaching, teaching, and serving.
the Station of the Cross for its preaching, teaching, and serving
and the Archangels School for its preaching and teaching.

We will be happy to contribute to the CMA when 1. Schools stop closing, 2. Parishes stop closing, 3. Catholics stop leaving, 4. Nuns in albs or jeans stop ruling with an iron fist, and 5. Talks by notorious dissenters like Charles Curran cease to be sponsored by diocesan entities

In the interim, however, this is our approach. It serves dual purposes--it sends the message that we disagree with the spending of the CMA, and it supports Authentic Catholic Ministries, which is, after all, the whole point of the CMA.

Let us pray for the restoration of authentic, traditional, Catholic faith to the Diocese of Rochester.

-Arialdus and Bellarmine