About This Website
The Goals of This Website Are to:
- Increase the awareness of the importance of lay governance and decision-making in the Catholic Church in the United States involving matters other than “faith and morals;”
- Aid Pope Francis in his proposal to increase lay decision-making in matters other than those concerning “faith and morals” (see embedded pamphlet, Letter to the Imperial Bishops, A Laymen Speaks Out on Catholic Church Governance in The United States, pg. 21) (pamphlet):
- Answer Pope Francis’ call for greater “co-responsibility” among all believers (see the pamphlet, pg. 21);
- Support Pope Francis’ effort to create processes to evaluate bishops’ performance of their ministries (see pamphlet, pg. 21);
- Make the laity aware of the little-known sin of clericalism, “a belief that priests and bishops should have prerogatives, privileges, and entitlements, and that they should be treated as nobility with a clout and authority that demands deference and obedience” (see pg. 23 pamphlet);
- Oppose the closing of a financially viable parish in Bloomington, Illinois, Holy Trinity parish, by Bishop Louis Tylka, bishop of the Diocese of Peoria (see pgs. 1-10 pamphlet);
- Make sure that the parishioners who are elected to make important financial decisions for their parish are actually the ones making those critical choices, not an unelected, authoritarian bishop;
- Resist all Catholic bishops in the United States who have the authoritarian belief that they have absolute unchecked decision-making powers involving all temporal issues, including financial ones, regarding every parish in their diocese;
- Bring together like-minded people, including non-Catholics, who believe in increased lay governance and decision-making in the Church under a single umbrella;
- Show people they have the means to participate in determining the path of the Church's development;
- Unite scattered groups into a single powerful organization that promotes democratic reforms in deciding matters concerning temporal affairs of the Church by using social media, the internet, investigations, petitions, peaceful marches, and demonstrations;
- Be a place to discuss current issues concerning Church governance in the United States;
- Allow people to participate in surveys, bishop evaluations, and questionnaires; and
- Fight church apathy and indifference among the Church laity, who often find it easier to just swim with the current and “quietly pay, pray, and obey.” (see pamphlet, pg. 29)