Showing posts with label Regional Revote. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Regional Revote. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Developments in Development

Father Bob Jalbert has been appointed new head of the Mission Education and Promotion Department (MEP). MEP includes fundraising, church dates, appeals, MARYKNOLL & Revista Maryknoll Magazines, Orbis books, New Media and the web. Bob (my classmate from Hingham '73) is immensely qualified for this new position and we wish him all the best, prayers and blessings on his new assignment.

The dilemma now is this: Bob leads the pack in the revote for regional superior, having gotten 13. In the next round, only he and the other three top vote-getters (Fr. Steve Booth, Fr. Mike Duggan and Fr. John Moran) vie for the top position. Does heading MEP help or hinder Bob's election chances?

Stayed tuned!


Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Knoll News is Good News!

One day after our revote for a U.S. Regional Superior and still there are no results posted. The vote was necessary when Rome rejected Br. Wayne Fitzpatrick, the overwhelming choice of both priests and Brothers because, according to the Vatican, as a clerical Society, Maryknollers must not be ruled by our canonically lay Brothers.

Forget that Br. Wayne has leadership experience, having served as an assistant on our General Council for two--Count'em--TWO terms and is highly regarded both in and out of Maryknoll for his even-handed and pastoral approach, this was not good enough for Rome. He is a Brother.

So we expect this revolting revote to surface names such as Fr. Roy Bourgeois, who was excommunicated for participating in an invalid/illicit ordination ceremony for a woman; and Fr. Miguel D'Escoto, former Foreign Secretary of the Sandinista government of Nicaragua, perennial Vatican gadfly, and now ending his term as President of the U.N. General Assembly. They may be lose cannons, but hey, at least they're clerics.

Compared to these, Rome might rue rejecting Br. Wayne.