As usual, no notice has been given of this potential move other than the help wanted ad, although this is a key position in the chancery. I quote from a visitor's explanation of that role that I published in a post here back in March:
The Bishop’s Secretary is really a gatekeeper/handler of sorts. They handle the diary, meetings, functions, event planning and all of the “things” which the bishop is involved in around the diocese. They handle sensitive matters, draft sensitive letters and responses. The discretion most people in this position practice is phenomenal. If you want to get something done or want something to end up at the top of the correspondence pile, you want to be on good terms with the bishops secretary. In many diocese this position is staffed by a lay person. In some cases it is staffed by a religious and in other cases (fairly few) it is staffed by a priest.In brief, this is not something you want handled by a temp. So why is J Henry leaving that position after a fairly short time -- about a year, I would guess, if not shorter? My regular correspondent suggests,
Ms Miller, the assistant to the VG, has just retired, so she needs to be replaced. But is J Henry also on his way out? I mentioned that he can be seen posing in a cassock in a group shot in front of the Benedict XVI House of Formation sign; this picture is now part of the material being furnished to Ordinariate communities ahead of the special collection for the Seminarians’ Fund taking place next weekend. In any event, he has not been an impressive Administrative Assistant.If he's returning to the seminary, well, Godspeed to him. But for much of his tenure, he'd been covering for a bishop under a serious indisposition, so his individual performance would be difficult to tease out as a separate matter from that of his bishop. I think one could advance an interpretation that would be at least equally credible, that the job of secretary to this bishop was not shaping up to be what he might have been led to expect, and returning to the seminary might have seemed a better use of his abilities.
So either the job expected too much of the man, or the man expected too much of the job. I kinda lean toward the second view. The bottom line either way is that in a real world diocese, the bishop's secretary job is too important to have to recruit for it every year or so, as if a temp could hold it down.
Regarding the other open position, to be filled after Ms Miller's retirement, my response was,
Fr Perkins needs an assistant????????Stein's Law: "If something cannot go on forever, it will stop."
