March on the Reform of the Reform and the turning of the once incredibly influential Roman Catholic Church into a remnant for the insecure and an irrelevant museum for the vast masses of ordinary people once enormously proud of their Catholic heritage and active participants in the sacramental life of the Church. Today's lead commentary by John Hushon, one of the co-convenors of the forthcoming American Catholic Council was recently published under the title "Recent History of the Diocese of Venice in Florida—or How To Destroy a Diocese" on the Voice from the Desert Blog. John has given us permission to re-publish the essay on Catholica and in fact this is an updated version to the one published earlier. Educated at Brown and Harvard Law, John Hushon was a successful international lawyer and CEO of a multinational energy company before retirement. Since 'retiring' John has obtained a graduate degree in theology, served as chair of a social justice group, taught in the RCIA program, sponsored a well-attended theology series with outside speakers, taught an adult religious education program with a syllabus pre-filed with the pastor, and served as a trustee and volunteer at many charities, organizations, and institutions of higher learning. Read this and weep. Do these people so enthusiastic for the Reform of the Reform ever sit down and "do the math": their activities might impress the likes of the late JPII and Benedict XVI, neither of whom seem to have a good grasp of math, but do they ever ask themselves if the Almighty is impressed at the persistent effort to turn the vast majority of the baptised out of the pews and turn the assets of the institution over to a tiny, totally unrepresentative minority of Pharisees?

+John J Nevins Bio

+Frank J Dewane Bio

THE DIOCESE OF VENICE, FLORIDA, was formed out of the Miami Diocese in 1984 and a 'Vatican II' auxiliary John Nevins was named its first bishop. He presided over an "open diocese"—permitting pastors substantial latitude with respect to community building, encouraged ecumenical "interfaith" outreach, and became especially involved with the poorest members of the diocese—the migrant farmers in the Immokalee area. He retired at 75 in January of 2007 and Frank Dewane became the new Ordinary. Dewane is a native of Wisconsin, a former soft drink businessman, a late vocation, schooled at seminary in Detroit and Rome, where he became a staffer at the Justice and Peace secretariat after ordination. He has had almost no pastoral responsibilities. Over the last three years, he has proven himself to be efficient, hyper-conservative, and very close to the Vatican where he travels quite frequently. His Chancellor was a classmate and close confidant of John Paul II—equally efficient and conservative. As the following indicates, in three short years they have radically changed the diocese—and many say have destroyed it.

The temple police empowered...

Bishop Dewane immediately stamped his philosophy of church on the diocese. He dropped in (unannounced) at parish liturgies and criticized his pastors for liturgical deviations. He replaced many Vatican II pastors with his new guys, many from abroad and outside the diocese, some new seminary grads. This took about two years and multiple changes. Recently he abolished the permanent diaconate program in the diocese and "accepted" resignation of many active deacons as of March 31, 2010. He has demanded rigid conformity with the GIRM (General Instruction on the Roman Missal)—and relies upon an informal "reporting" system which results in calls to pastors on Monday if there has been any deviation. His office has instructed pastors that women should not be Eucharistic ministers, lectors, or acolytes when the Bishop is a presider at a parish liturgy. He attempted to re-establish several Latin prayers in the general liturgy (i.e., the Creed), but relented when the chancery was stormed with protests. He purchased an unused church building and established a Latin-only Tridentine Mass program, using priests from the (canonically suspect) Order of St Peter. He requires a parish in each region to offer at least one Latin Mass per Sunday.

His management-style extended to the parishes. Many parish councils were dissolved—there were few active councils in the diocese. New pastors hand picked a few "loyal" advisors—and until now have not requested any nominations from parish committees. Dozens of parish employees who are "liberal" minded were terminated for "financial reasons"—even those who were working for free. Protests to the chancery resulted in a letter from the Bishop in which he denied having anything to do with parish firings as he subscribed fully to "subsidiarity principles." Several pastors have informally indicated that this statement is not true. (In one parish alone, three quarters of the employees were terminated and half of the volunteers—including, for example, a multi-year, assistant who had the temerity to attend a home mass at which the retired pastor was presider.) National CTA (Call to Action) organizers have collected several dozen names of those discharged and have mounted a protest which has been ignored by the Chancery.

The Diocesan Council created and deemed "helpful" by Nevins was eliminated. A few close friends of the bishop (mostly priests) have been chosen as advisors. Deaneries were re-energized and run by trusted friends who report to him on various parish activities at weekly meetings. All reporting from the Diocesan Council was terminated—there is no transparency on diocesan activities.

Financial control...

The Diocese tightened up financial controls, requiring parishes to deposit their weekly collections into approved bank accounts, monitored and managed by the diocese. The diocese takes 26% as tax/cathedraticum/faith appeal, and "permits" pastors or their business managers to write checks for parish activities from the balance. All parish expenditures must be audited annually. The Chancery "suggests" appropriate compensation for DREs, music ministers, custodians, secretaries etc. No second collections are permitted and appeals for funds going outside diocese are prohibited—unless approved by the diocese. (There are very few approvals.) Parishes are not permitted to raise funds for any purpose except through collections approved and monitored (and subject to tax) by the diocese.

The Diocese reorganized its financial holdings and property ownership. All are divided into two parts: part in a Foundation (with Bishop as trustee and not audited or public) and part in General Diocesan Operations (audited, but the audit is worthless as the auditors refuse to render an opinion of fairness—because of frequent movement of funds between the two sets of books and no audit of the Foundation.) One member of the diocesan office (who requests anonymity) reported that the bishop purchased a large and lavish new property for his "palace," miles from the Cathedral and the chancery in a remote and inaccessible location. Refurbishment costs exceeded budget by a factor of two. At the same time, funding of Catholic Charities was seriously reduced because of "difficult financial conditions."

No speakers, presiders, ministers, retreat leaders, prayer group leaders, or mission conductors are permitted in any parish without specific approval of the chancery. Most are rejected. (There is automatic disqualification of anyone who has spoken in favor of married or female priesthood, pro-choice, CTA or VOTF affiliation etc) Many such activities have been moved to the local Orthodox or Protestant churches. It was reported that the bishop wrote to the Metropolitan of an Orthodox Church and complained that groups "purporting to be Catholic" were sponsoring objectionable speakers at Orthodox locations—and the local pastors were requested out of "comity" to cease. They did so. Protestant ministers have refused to comply with similar requests. Speakers forbidden have included Curran, Doyle, Carroll, Padovano, Townsend, several members of USCCB's Child Abuse Panel, Eugene Kennedy, Berry. Bishop Gumbleton was denied permission to preside at a "Peace Mass."

The general content of parish bulletins was vetted by the chancery before publication—and pastors have been instructed to pre-clear "new announcements". Many announcements are routinely deleted—such as VOTF and CTA meetings. Individuals who place notices on cars at Sunday liturgies have been threatened with trespass prosecution.

There can be no meetings on parish/diocesan property without permission of the chancery. Some examples: YOGA classes prohibited as "affiliated with Buddhism"; concerts prohibited, school plays must be pre-approved. VOTF, CTA, Pax Christi have all been denied meeting space.

Back to rote learning of the Catechism...

Religious education programs must be of the form approved by the diocese—primarily memorization of the catechism. Any adult education programs must have pre-approved leaders. First Communion, Confession and Confirmation preparation have been radically reformatted—and numbers participating have dropped. There have been several reported instances of the bishop expressing anger and disdain for teachers (including those in the diocesan high school) in front of students when a student missed words in a prayer or rote answer to a catechism question.

The diocese has withdrawn from most (perhaps all) "interfaith" activities (hunger, housing, abused women). The Bishop Nevins Center of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers has been abandoned by the diocese. No diocesan funding is made available to the CIW or to the Interfaith Coalition.

All parish and diocesan ministers and employees must sign an oath of loyalty and obedience (and silence) to the bishop in ALL matters. This is administered at a Sunday parish liturgy at which the bishop is present and the ministers/employees kneel around the altar pledging their loyalty and obedience. All parish and diocesan employees are forbidden (under pain of losing their jobs) to attend speaker programs in other (mostly Protestant) venues or to attend meetings (like the American Catholic Council listening sessions, the VOTF speaker series and CTA meetings). Spies (who register with false names) actually report on who attends. One retired brother who teaches an adult Bible study class (first in a parish and then in his home) was asked to stop his support of CTA/VOTF activities—by a letter from the Chancery to his Provincial. When the Provincial responded that he had no authority to require specific actions of a retired person acting on his own, the Bishop wrote back and indicated that if the Provincial did not do something, he (the Bishop) would banish the order from the diocese (they teach in the high school and run a food bank/counseling service for migrant workers in Immokalee).

Controlling communications...

The chancery reviews material (including paid advertising) in the diocesan newspaper and excludes much material. For example, VOTF cannot advertise its speaker series and a local parish's Lenten series announcement was excluded because not all the proposed speakers had been vetted by the diocese.

The bishop has replaced professors at the Rice School for Pastoral Ministry, downgraded it as a school for diocesan ministry, removed many volumes from the library, discharged the librarian "for financial reasons" (although he agreed to work for free)—as he was a member of CTA, accepted a trusteeship at the ultra-conservative Ave Maria University (where Opus Dei is active) and agreed to work toward ministerial appointments from Ave Maria grads (i.e., DREs, etc.).

The Bishop has condemned the "ecumenical" House of Prayer operated by an order of religious women—because it was ecumenical. (He could not close it as he had no ownership rights.)

The Diocese has terminated all support ministries for the LGBT community (and relatives)—and has substituted a discredited and criticized "reconditioning" program (which has reported very high levels of suicides among teenagers).

Mass attendance is way off, so are contributions—far more than has been experienced by other churches and charities because of the recession. There have been many letters to editor—but most of the secular press in the diocese refuses to run critical stories about the diocese. Letters to the Metropolitan in Miami and the Papal Nuncio go unacknowledged and unanswered. The Diocese has denied most, if not all, of these statements—but there are dozens of witnesses—employees who have been discharged without cause, volunteers who are no longer able to volunteer, retired priests who state (without attribution) that the denials are lies. And we certainly have witnessed much.

A Personal Note: While I have not personally experienced all of the events described above, I have collected them from sources I believe to be reliable—and earlier drafts of this essay have been reviewed by others. My own experience bears out these policies. I am well-educated (Brown, Harvard) and was a successful international lawyer and CEO of a multinational energy company before retirement. After retirement and obtaining a graduate degree in theology, I had been chair of a social justice group, a teacher in the RCIA program, sponsored a well-attended theology series with outside speakers, taught an adult religious education program with a syllabus pre-filed with the pastor, and was a trustee and volunteer at many charities, organizations and institutions of higher learning. I co-chair American Catholic Council. In January 2009, I was advised by the pastor that because of my activities (which were "demonstrably at variance with the teachings of the Magisterium of Holy Mother the Church"), "we" will no longer permit you to teach or exercise positions of leadership in the parish. I was advised that I was not welcome in my parish and "should not embarrass myself" by presenting myself for Eucharist. In connection with my work for a major national relief charity, I had chaired major fund raising activities and visited clinics, schools and hospitals (one of the clinics is named for us). The Chancery advised this organization that, if I remained a trustee, no diocesan funds would be made available to the organization and the organization would be removed from eligibility from receiving funds restricted to those on the approved "Catholic List"—nationally. I therefore resigned from all of the diocesan and parish activities and resigned from the charity.

John Hushon, March 2010

LINKS:
Frank Douglas' Voice from the Desert Blog where John Hushon's article was originally published:
http://reform-network.net/?p=2938
Website of the American Catholic Council:
www.americancatholiccouncil.org
Diocese of Venice, Florida:
www.venicediocese.org/
PHOTO CREDIT:
http://reform-network.net/?p=2938 The image used in the headline os of the ruin at Whitby in the UK. It has been adpated from an image located at: travel.webshots.com. Clicking on the other images in the article will take you to the original sources.

We welcome your responses to this commentary in our forum.

©2010John Hushon

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