Notes on the Transitions,
Number 2 in a Series

A week or so ago, Saint Joseph held a “town hall” to discuss the upcoming changes as they transition to an Extraordinary Form parish under their new pastor, Rev. Michael Stinson, FSSP.

There were 44 parishioners in attendance, as well as Fr. Maurer and the Vicar of Clergy for the Archdiocese of Seattle, the Very Rev. Gary Zender.

It seems to me that there were three classes of folks there:

• I’m against it,
• I’m worried about how the communities will come together, and
• Yee-hah! Let’s DO this thing!

At some point or another we heard from all three flavours. I think most people – the overwhelming majority – are solidly in the middle camp. A lot will depend on how the new pastor introduces himself to the community.

The number of people there who were angry and clearly going to leave if the change went forward was actually quite small.

Most of the folks there worried more about how the two communities – the current Saint Joseph parishioners and the Latin Mass devotees – would mesh. Saint Joseph is a tight-knit community deep in their history and tradition and culture.

You only have to look at the photos on their Facebook page to see that.

They had a lot of concerned, but good, practical questions. Mind you, some of those questions were quite pointed and probing, and not all of them were answered.

The tenor of the meeting was pretty tense – in some places almost confrontational – until about two-thirds of the way through. There was a woman there who had been asking a lot of tough, on-the-point questions. Not hostile, but certainly not gentle either. Finally, her husband, who had been quiet up until then, stood up.

He gave a short speech. This is me, paraphrasing from memory, so take that for what it’s worth:

I was baptized at St Joe’s. My parents were baptized at St Joe’s. My grandparents helped build St Joe’s. This is my parish as much as it is anybody else’s.

And there have been a lot of changes in that time, and there are bound to be a lot more in the years to come.

The good news is that our parish is staying open, and if that means that I have to go out and buy a Missal with Latin on one side and English on the other, well, that’s what I’m going to do.

The place erupted in applause. It changed the entire tone of the meeting.

One important takeaway is this: more catechesis needs to happen about the Extraordinary Form. This is probably best accomplished by the new pastor, I think.

The little old Slovak ladies, at any rate, are apparently eager to feed the new fellow until he bursts. Seems to me that some sort of social event would probably be a pretty good venue for the initial sort of catechesis they want and they’re going to need.