I ask this with no flippancy intended, but what does it matter if it's merged? As a lay person, if my diocese merged with another, I wouldn't really anticipate it impacting my spiritual life. Thinking of the clergy, they're going to be getting a new bishop regardless. Does it matter if it's +Fernandez or an unknown who's a wild card? It …
I ask this with no flippancy intended, but what does it matter if it's merged? As a lay person, if my diocese merged with another, I wouldn't really anticipate it impacting my spiritual life. Thinking of the clergy, they're going to be getting a new bishop regardless. Does it matter if it's +Fernandez or an unknown who's a wild card? It apparently does matter given the strength of the feelings involved, and I'm not intending to be callous, but I guess I'm failing to understand why as an outsider.
Think about the geography itself. +Fernandez would be stretched even further geographically; there's hardly any way he could give the whole merged diocese equal attention. Inevitably people on the "margins" would fall through the cracks. Moreover, the merging of a diocese allows for less freedom of choice for the people within the area as everyone in the Steubenville diocese would now have to follow rules they had no part in making and no connection to.
Our diocese already takes about 5 hours to go from north tip to south tip. Ironically, from what I have heard, the farther in the diocese you get away from Steubenville, the less objection there is to the merger. I think the people who live in Steubenville are less familiar with the feeling of being on the margins of much bigger things. (Remember, we are only about population 18,000, and less than 30% are Catholic.)
Pierre and Fernandes do not care about Steubenville. Plain and simple.
“the merging of a diocese allows for less freedom of choice for the people within the area as everyone in the Steubenville diocese would now have to follow rules they had no part in making and no connection to.”
Not the impression I got when I was there a decade ago. Poor, and despondent, all the social and economic problems… but not conservative in that sense or insular just forgotten and suspicious of having their collective heart broken. Everyone who could leave had left already and not many but a few foolhardy souls were coming to a poor old steel town.
Nope. You wrote authoritatively but omitted the usual clarification of credibility (e.g. "I've lived there all my life"; "I graduated from Franciscan eight years ago"), so I thought I'd ask.
Also, people sometimes don't want to change for very good reason, and change is often bad. Especially in a downtrodden area like that, I think people are understandably distrustful of anything that upsets the status quo without offering substantial improvement.
Actually I don't think either of you are accurate. In the last year or two there have been dozens and dozens -- maybe a hundred -- new families that have come here, because of the Catholic community, but also because the cost of living, especially housing, is cheaper than almost anywhere else. You will find a few curmudgeons anywhere who are totally closed, but generally we are a welcoming bunch. And half the Catholic talking heads of the world make their way through here at some point, so it's not like we don't mix with the outside world -- lol.
Recently Matt Fradd said something like (I don't remember precisely) 110 families had moved to Steubenville last year to be part of the Catholic subculture there.
To a priest, I think it could matter if he assumed he would serve the people in a particular area and found himself transferred to a parish far away. Similarly, as a layperson used to a higher number of priests “per capita” it could be hard if priests were transferred out of the area, leaving them with fewer priests and possibly fewer parishes. I’m not saying that this will happen, but it is a way that I could see the merger having an impact on a person’s life.
The movements probably would happen, to some extent.
Bishops move priests to the boonies when they do things the bishop doesn't like. The boonies get a lot further away when the diocese gets bigger.
If you have a small, fervent group producing a lot of priests, even if the bishop doesn't get annoyed with any of them, some of them are going to be transferred to areas further away that do not produce so many priests, because the bishop has a responsibility for the care of those souls. It tends to be harder on the priests, as they have more work and less support (and fewer nearby friends).
Sounds a lot like being Punished for Success, like what happens in a lot of toxic business environments.
Those who are the most productive in the work are given more work because they have a record of doing the job well and reliably. The least productive are given less work. So you end up with the best employees burning out and leaving, which leaves the company with the lower performers and new hires. The overall profit of the company nosedive.
I imagine this is what will happen in Steubenville. Priests are transferred to fill positions elsewhere and there are fewer role models and interactions in the areas producing more seminarians.
The number of seminarians plummets, moral decreases, and everything spirals down.
It *can* go that way. But I think you can give good performers more work than poor performers to some extent without burning them out, as long as you give them good support, and in justice give them the rewards of their superior labor.
There is a bit of a difference with priests, in that they work for God first, then the bishop, they gave Him a blank check (we hope), and the bishop a promise of obedience (which has some limits), rather than being able to walk out tomorrow with no breach of their obligations. The level of trust priests have in bishops says something about the support they are getting from them. Either the bishop isn't providing it, or the priests figure he won't, and don't ask.
Exactly what I think is happening. Columbus needs priests and rather than getting their parishioners to make holy hours for vocations they will simply merge the diocese and send the Steubenville priests to what is now the Columbus diocese. Dreadful, and a sure way to decrease the number of vocations and possibly even of current priests right now.
I live here, and frankly I have these same thoughts.
As a town, we have a culture of pessimism, glory days long gone, etc, so I think there is a strong feeling that once again we are going to be relegated to the trash heap . There is great fear of loss. But there is also a great deal of frustration with the mismanagement of our cathedral reconstruction, financial scandal, lack of transperancy, that we have been dealing with over the last several years. I feel like a lot of our clergy has been demoralized by past leadership decisions.
Not particularly. I can understand how it would look better on paper, though. There isn't a single major city, or even a large town, in the whole diocese.
Does the merger elevate Columbus to an archdiocese? If so Christophe Cardinal Pierre can put the archbishop’s pallium on “his guy” and former direct report in the Apostolic Nunciature in Washington, DC - none other than the fast-rising BISHOP Earl Fernandes.
Wreaks of nepotism but I’ll let The Pillar’s investigative journalists try to penetrate Pierre’s Iron Curtain.
• How does Columbus OH benefit (status obviously but financially) by absorbing The Catholic University of Steubenville and Scott Hahn’s St. Paul Institute?
• Does the merger elevate Columbus to an archdiocese and continue Bp. Fernandes’ meteoric rise with an archbishop’s pallium (with a little help from his old boss at the apostolic nunciature in DC, Christophe Cardinal Pierre?
Something tells me Pierre wouldn’t go to Steubenville even with a free private jet ride…
Thank you THE PILLAR. Many more questions than answers here.
Franciscan University of Steubenville and the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology are separate entities not at all tied in any official capacity to the diocese.
I ask this with no flippancy intended, but what does it matter if it's merged? As a lay person, if my diocese merged with another, I wouldn't really anticipate it impacting my spiritual life. Thinking of the clergy, they're going to be getting a new bishop regardless. Does it matter if it's +Fernandez or an unknown who's a wild card? It apparently does matter given the strength of the feelings involved, and I'm not intending to be callous, but I guess I'm failing to understand why as an outsider.
I had a similar question. Maybe there is a worry that their resources will be directed elsewhere?
Think about the geography itself. +Fernandez would be stretched even further geographically; there's hardly any way he could give the whole merged diocese equal attention. Inevitably people on the "margins" would fall through the cracks. Moreover, the merging of a diocese allows for less freedom of choice for the people within the area as everyone in the Steubenville diocese would now have to follow rules they had no part in making and no connection to.
Our diocese already takes about 5 hours to go from north tip to south tip. Ironically, from what I have heard, the farther in the diocese you get away from Steubenville, the less objection there is to the merger. I think the people who live in Steubenville are less familiar with the feeling of being on the margins of much bigger things. (Remember, we are only about population 18,000, and less than 30% are Catholic.)
Pierre and Fernandes do not care about Steubenville. Plain and simple.
“the merging of a diocese allows for less freedom of choice for the people within the area as everyone in the Steubenville diocese would now have to follow rules they had no part in making and no connection to.”
Steubenville is very conservative and insular. I suspect they don't want outsiders.
Not the impression I got when I was there a decade ago. Poor, and despondent, all the social and economic problems… but not conservative in that sense or insular just forgotten and suspicious of having their collective heart broken. Everyone who could leave had left already and not many but a few foolhardy souls were coming to a poor old steel town.
A decade ago. Things change. They don't want change.
Do you live there?
I have friends who currently live there. Do you live there?
Nope. You wrote authoritatively but omitted the usual clarification of credibility (e.g. "I've lived there all my life"; "I graduated from Franciscan eight years ago"), so I thought I'd ask.
Also, people sometimes don't want to change for very good reason, and change is often bad. Especially in a downtrodden area like that, I think people are understandably distrustful of anything that upsets the status quo without offering substantial improvement.
Actually I don't think either of you are accurate. In the last year or two there have been dozens and dozens -- maybe a hundred -- new families that have come here, because of the Catholic community, but also because the cost of living, especially housing, is cheaper than almost anywhere else. You will find a few curmudgeons anywhere who are totally closed, but generally we are a welcoming bunch. And half the Catholic talking heads of the world make their way through here at some point, so it's not like we don't mix with the outside world -- lol.
Recently Matt Fradd said something like (I don't remember precisely) 110 families had moved to Steubenville last year to be part of the Catholic subculture there.
It's significant. Definitely not every new family is Catholic. But I'd venture to say probably most are.
To a priest, I think it could matter if he assumed he would serve the people in a particular area and found himself transferred to a parish far away. Similarly, as a layperson used to a higher number of priests “per capita” it could be hard if priests were transferred out of the area, leaving them with fewer priests and possibly fewer parishes. I’m not saying that this will happen, but it is a way that I could see the merger having an impact on a person’s life.
The movements probably would happen, to some extent.
Bishops move priests to the boonies when they do things the bishop doesn't like. The boonies get a lot further away when the diocese gets bigger.
If you have a small, fervent group producing a lot of priests, even if the bishop doesn't get annoyed with any of them, some of them are going to be transferred to areas further away that do not produce so many priests, because the bishop has a responsibility for the care of those souls. It tends to be harder on the priests, as they have more work and less support (and fewer nearby friends).
Sounds a lot like being Punished for Success, like what happens in a lot of toxic business environments.
Those who are the most productive in the work are given more work because they have a record of doing the job well and reliably. The least productive are given less work. So you end up with the best employees burning out and leaving, which leaves the company with the lower performers and new hires. The overall profit of the company nosedive.
I imagine this is what will happen in Steubenville. Priests are transferred to fill positions elsewhere and there are fewer role models and interactions in the areas producing more seminarians.
The number of seminarians plummets, moral decreases, and everything spirals down.
It *can* go that way. But I think you can give good performers more work than poor performers to some extent without burning them out, as long as you give them good support, and in justice give them the rewards of their superior labor.
There is a bit of a difference with priests, in that they work for God first, then the bishop, they gave Him a blank check (we hope), and the bishop a promise of obedience (which has some limits), rather than being able to walk out tomorrow with no breach of their obligations. The level of trust priests have in bishops says something about the support they are getting from them. Either the bishop isn't providing it, or the priests figure he won't, and don't ask.
Exactly what I think is happening. Columbus needs priests and rather than getting their parishioners to make holy hours for vocations they will simply merge the diocese and send the Steubenville priests to what is now the Columbus diocese. Dreadful, and a sure way to decrease the number of vocations and possibly even of current priests right now.
I live here, and frankly I have these same thoughts.
As a town, we have a culture of pessimism, glory days long gone, etc, so I think there is a strong feeling that once again we are going to be relegated to the trash heap . There is great fear of loss. But there is also a great deal of frustration with the mismanagement of our cathedral reconstruction, financial scandal, lack of transperancy, that we have been dealing with over the last several years. I feel like a lot of our clergy has been demoralized by past leadership decisions.
Do you see any pluses for a merger with Columbus?
Not particularly. I can understand how it would look better on paper, though. There isn't a single major city, or even a large town, in the whole diocese.
Does the merger elevate Columbus to an archdiocese? If so Christophe Cardinal Pierre can put the archbishop’s pallium on “his guy” and former direct report in the Apostolic Nunciature in Washington, DC - none other than the fast-rising BISHOP Earl Fernandes.
Wreaks of nepotism but I’ll let The Pillar’s investigative journalists try to penetrate Pierre’s Iron Curtain.
Columbus gets hidden treasure in Marietta OH
https://stmarysmarietta.org/
Asking a few pertinent questions:
• How does Columbus OH benefit (status obviously but financially) by absorbing The Catholic University of Steubenville and Scott Hahn’s St. Paul Institute?
• Does the merger elevate Columbus to an archdiocese and continue Bp. Fernandes’ meteoric rise with an archbishop’s pallium (with a little help from his old boss at the apostolic nunciature in DC, Christophe Cardinal Pierre?
Something tells me Pierre wouldn’t go to Steubenville even with a free private jet ride…
Thank you THE PILLAR. Many more questions than answers here.
Franciscan University of Steubenville and the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology are separate entities not at all tied in any official capacity to the diocese.
Columbus will not become an archdiocese.