It seems that whenever I read something by Dolan lately he mentions that he has been here five years. He intimates that it's time to assess. I wholeheartedly agree. In the last five years, the two things that Dolan has done that stick out the most to me: 1) He will forever be known as the bishop who closed St. Francis Seminary and put an end to it grand history. It will be a very long time untll lay people and priestly formation students study together again. 2) The continuing decline of the Catholic Herald. The Catholic Herald was bad under Weakland; now it is plain unreadable. It's a paper devoid of news, it is usually made up solely of propaganda.
It is also true that there are many bishops around the United States worse that Dolan, a lot worse to be frank. But I don't think "He wasn't as bad as others" is much a legacy. He is jolly, but that does not make up for the total lack of consensus that he has shown. Why he asks for opinions that he does not care about I do not know. The grossest example of this is of course the committee he set up to give him a recommendation about the future of St. Francis Seminary. Why even ask? And then why say you'll follow their advice, only to close down the Seminary a year later. He'll listen. He'll smile. He'll tell you that what you said was wonderful. Then he does something completely different.
Five Years Later... And he's not as bad as other bishops.
A Faithful Catholic
2 comments:
The decision to close the Seminary was wise, financially and pastorally.
It was clear to many that the Seminary had been producing bad fruit for many, many years.
The tree's cut down now. Let's pray that better fruits will be found on OTHER trees.
Hopefully the fruit from Cardinal Stritch University program for Lay Ecclesial Ministry will produce.
http://www.stritch.edu/index.php?page=29850
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