While checking to see if there was a new issue of More News I came across this externally archived issue from last January where Fr Bergman talks about hiring a headmaster for the proposed school in Scranton, although "we ...know we don't have any money to employ such a person." Fortunately for all concerned no one suitable was apparently located ("someone of faith for whom financial security is a secondary consideration") before the plug was pulled on the project. After considerable reflection on this I have come to believe this willful failure to exercise basic financial prudence is a form of abusive behaviour, disguised as energy and vision.The same newsletter refers to the (foreseeable) legal roadblock to opening the (ill-advised from the start) store in the Guild Building but continues,
[W]hen we bought the church and restored it, we began with insufficient funds. We should have learned by now that when we step out in faith the Lord will provide the means to fulfill His intentions, since this has been proven to us again and again.Where does stepping out in faith stop and Bernie Madoff begin? I wouldn't want to rub things in with Dr Evanish, the purchaser of the Guild Building, but the references to the fact that the poor guy has taken a bath on the store project must have some effect on his continued relationship with Fr Bergman.
This also goes to my reflections on this past weekend's ordinations in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The celibate priests are impressive and have reached their positions in an organic and transparent process that lasted many years. The younger Ordinariate priests, frankly, do not match this -- they seem in some measure to be opportunists whose skills seem more closely related to self-promotion and back-channel deals.
