Kevin and I (Leah) attended the Bishop's meeting with St. Teresa's parish in Bridgeton last night.  Two main issues dominated the meeting.  The first was the circumstances under which Fr. Michael Spagnolo left the parish for a one-year leave of absence.  Several people blamed the Bishop for forcing him out, saying that their former pastor told them he would have been demoted from pastor if he stayed.  Fr. Terry Odien's response was that the assertion was "not true" and that he would have been "co-pastor" along with Fr. Ariel Hernandez.  A person later asked Bishop Galante, "Is there such a thing as 'co-pastor' in Canon Law?"  Bishop's response was, "Yes, there is." 

For anyone who cares to know, Canon 526, § 2 states:

"In the same parish there is to be only one pastor or moderator in accord with the norm of can. 517, § 1; any contrary custom is reprobated and any contrary privilege whatsoever is revoked."

So, there is no such thing as a "co-pastor" under Canon Law.  In fact, it is expressly forbidden under Canon Law.  I did catch up with Fr. Terry Odien outside the meeting because, in the interest of fairness, I wanted to give him a chance to explain his position.  He explained that a team of priests can be used to meet the pastoral needs of a parish, but acknowledged that there can only be one pastor or moderator.

So the bottom line is that if Fr. Ariel Hernandez was to be pastor (or moderator of a priest team) of the future merged parish, Fr. Michael Spagnolo would have been effectively demoted to something less than pastor, just as the parishioners asserted (and in complete contradiction with the Bishop's "That's not true" statement - used repeatedly throughout the evening).

The second main issue was the merger itself and what would happen to St. Teresa's church after the merger.  At first, the Bishop stated that all four churches would remain open, but when pushed for a commitment, he avoided making one.  When someone suggested the diocese would close and sell the church later, he again responded, "That's not true."  He stated that the diocese cannot sell property because it is owned by the parish and only the parish decides what can be done with the property.  But that's really not true either.  The "parish" he's referring to here is the civil religious corporation, which is controlled by majority vote of a board of five trustees, which are as follows:

• The Bishop
• The Vicar General (appointed by the Bishop)
• The Pastor (appointed by the Bishop)
• Two Lay Trustees (appointed by majority of Bishop, Vicar General & Pastor)

So basically, in saying that the parish controls what happens to the property, that "parish" would be....the Bishop.  Again, this is obvious by the fact that we currently have no say in whether our parish is merging or our church closing.

This lack of honesty and forthrightness is a real problem for the Diocese.  They are losing a lot of credibility.