Many thanks, Charles. Praying for you as well.

Very sorry to hear, this, TBS. It must be devastating. I hesitate to say that church musicians should live light, knowing that a change of circumstance might snatch away work in which we have invested so much, as I don't rely on it for my living; but equally, new opportunities open up, sometimes when we least expect. God Bless.

I was also saddened to hear about this. It comes on the heels of other friends who have been viciously mistreated at Catholic churches.

If I may preach: It has long been my feeling that the greatest threat to the success of Catholic musical reform is from reform-minded priests. I beg my colleagues here to realize: just because you believe the same things as a priest doesn't mean that he's going to be a good boss to you. Conservative priests can often be much more disrespectful of labor rights than liberal ones.

Also: Get a contract. Never work without a contract. Even if it's just an e-mail saying "this is what I'm paying you, this is what you're doing."

S-
This is so profoundly sad. You're the second church music colleague of mine to be struck down professionally--and grossly unjustly--in the last few weeks. No one will ever go wrong by assuming that the Church continues to perfect the art of shooting itself in the foot.

Tomboysuze, I am so very sorry to hear about your situation! You most definitely will be in my prayers. I too, have suffered such a lashing at one time in my life, for very much the same reasons you have. Most assuredly, there are many of us here who have had some type of situation like this occur at one time or another. There is most definitely something better for you, and God will steer you in that direction! God bless you and your family!

Gavin, Catholic churches do not offer contracts for this exact reason. You serve at the whim of the pastor until his cronies convince him that he has made a mistake and he listens to them.

How many members of this work under contract at a Catholic church? Speak up.

It is very sad for yet another talented and humble musician to be treated like !@#$ (insert your own favorite expletive). If priests were encouraged to have feelings instead of acting to make a few, often wealthy, members happy, this mess and others would never happen.

The "money problems" excuse is ridiculous as the church is wealthy. But as in feudal times, priests are persecuted by their bishops for not forking over his excellency's fair share. Now, if money were distributed from the wealthy to the poor parishes, that woudl make sense.

How many priests have ever had to make a living?

Sounds like another case of "When Sheep Attack".

Is this statement prescriptive or descriptive? I have worked for Catholic churches before, under contract.

43 years at pastors' pleasure, 21 @ current (who happens to be in sabbatical in ROME!) I have a job description that serves as a "contract," but.... it's just paper and ink.
However let's acknowledge that the "whim" factor can work both ways. I don't think any of the pastors at St. Charles Borromeo in Hollywood, CA., or the cathedral in Chicago a few years ago would have give an iota of thought to terminating their directors, and would have quaked in their slippers if they suspected a resignation from their musical treasury.

I do have a contract, and the pastor and I have to give each other 4 weeks notice on ending the job. An interesting thing happened Sunday. A young, newly-minted, priest said two of our morning masses for our absent associate. When I told him we would sing the Kyrie if he said the confiteor, and that we used the ICEL chants, his eyes lit up. He said he would say the confiteor. At the second mass, the incense appeared. As he looked up to the loft at me at the beginning of the second mass, the joy on his face was obvious. Some of these new priests are first rate, and they will make a difference.

I will be praying for you tomboysue, may the Lord bless you and your ministry to find a new home quickly.

St. Cecilia...pray for us.
St. Gregory the Great .... pray for us.

I'm very sorry to hear the news, Susan. I will pray, and please don't forget that you and your group definitely planted seeds in that parish, and your sacrifice has been an example to others. Our Holy Father has been a great model for us in many ways, a true humble servant of God. We will miss our Holy Father, and the parish will miss you and your beautiful music, but we also know that you will be keep doing great works for His Church.

I'm deeply saddened to hear of what has happened at your parish, Susan. Meditating on your troubling experience, and on that of other servants of Sacred Music known to me personally, I was comforted by the text of the Tract appointed for today (Feb 12, The Seven Holy Founders of the Order of Servites of the Blessed Virgin Mary):

Qui seminant in lacrimis,
in gaudio metent.
Euntes ibant, et flebant,
mittentes semina sua.
Venientes autem venient cum exultatione,
portantes manipulos suos.

My prayers are with you.

Tomboysuze,

My condolences to you on your termination from your position. My God find you a parish who desires true sacred music and a priest willing to support you. St. Cecilia, patroness of music, pray for them.

And to all: on this Shrove Tuesday, the eve of Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent in the Latin Church, look only to God and put your trust in no man save that of Jesus Christ through the intercession of His saints.

I am so sorry, Tomboysuze. I know you worked hard to make a great program, and somehow it has backfired. Really awful and confusing and painful. I will be praying for you.

Moreover, priests should be aware that the public nature of this kind of HR disaster is a PR disaster as well. I know a parish where this happened, under different circumstances, but in the same public way. Years and years later people are still emotional about it, both choir members and parishioners.

TBS... what can one say in the "face" of this? Our prayers are with you.

http://vultus.stblogs.org/Sacra-sindone.jpg

better image:

http://bethevenson.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/jesus-0131.jpg

In our prayers.

What everyone else said.....me, too. :-(

I'm so overwhelmed by this outpouring of solidarity that I'm truly at a loss for words and can only thank all of you - - for your kindness. It is a profound comfort and I and my little staff of musicians at the parish - are profoundly grateful. My heart was broken by this, but your understanding has gone a long way toward helping in that regard. Your friendship is an embarrassment of riches.

But, my conscience has been bothering me about posting this whole thing - because it doesn't tell the whole story about my Pastor. So, in fairness to him, I want to be clear in saying that although he allowed himself to be pressured and it's clear now that he intentionally misled me, I feel compelled to remind myself of his goodness. Whatever his faults, I cannot leave my impression of him - and therefore the impression that I've given on this forum - of him as a bad man.

The fact is, I still do have respect for him and I believe that someday he'll remember who he is and be worthy of that respect. So, I'll keep it on the shelf, waiting. It costs me nothing to do so anyway.

Your prayers have doubtless helped me to remember the goodness of this man and the fun of planning this music program with him..... how excited he was when we began this project. It was Father Ze who invited me to try singing from the choir loft that was full of junk. It was Father Ze who got rid of the terrible organ - and helped me push ahead to rent a decent digital one. He was so pleased to hear Palestrina in his church for the first time. He smiled and sat on the steps of the altar while we rehearsed, listening. Happy. He sent me a text telling me that he had prayed for the music program whilst kneeling before a holy relic. He is faithful to his vocation as best he can be, celibate, prayerful, kind, shy and awkward.

He's also an arrogant blockhead, it is true. But he has been thrust into an impossible situation, in a foreign country. The Parish was handed over to his Order (of St. Charles Borromeo) two years ago as a hulking mess. The Archdiocese couldn't be bothered with cleaning up the chaotic, disorganized, debt-ridden parish they had presided over. He had to learn both English and Spanish at the same time when he got here. And for the past two years, he's lived alone in a rectory full of mold. He cooks for himself, washes his own clothes and buys his own groceries. He personally has cleaned out room after room of rotting junk. He has had to manage a parish of wackos out of control and at the end of the day, his head is spinning. He's very private and reserved, but we were friends and I still consider him thus. He's tired, overwhelmed, and weary.

And, he's mourning the death of his mother, who died on Christmas Eve - in Portugal. He cried - very briefly - on the phone when I called to express my sadness and offer help. He had to fly to Portugal to bury her and miss the first Midnight Mass in this parish in 20 years or more.....A Midnight Mass that he happily agreed to and granted at my request. (and, by the way, it was lovely...)

As so many of our situations, it is a complicated paradox.

The fact that anything good has been able to happen in this parish is completely the work of the Holy Spirit - who has quite the ironic sense of humor, as we know. This parish could not be in worse shape; the odds could not have been stacked against us more sharply; and the probability that I could have crafted such a lovely program from nothing is nil. (well, maybe a little more than nil, but not much.) What God has actually done in this graceful, old church -- that is, unfortunately, falling apart - is stunning. Frankly, I'm grateful that He thought of me and brought me along for the ride.

Because, truthfully, I didn't want this job. No one would. The parish is a mess; buildings in disrepair; massive debt; dwindling American congregation; fighting choirs of different cultural origins and no resources at all. The parish had not had a DM in over 15 years - the "choirs' sang from a sort of 'bandstand' area in front of the church and the organ was straight out of a ball park. THe choir loft was used for storage. - When I was offered this job, suddenly, out of the blue during a brief meeting I had been asked to attend just to give my advice - I told God I didn't want it. I ran. I hid. He found me and it was clear that this was a gift. Only God can play such an obvious hand. "here's everything you don't want....try it....trust me..."

I consider this whole thing a great success. Life is messy. We are living anachronisms. The Church is in disarray - attacked from within and without. All we can do is hunker down, do our best and have a very handy sense of humor.

At the end of the day, Father Ze deserves my respect for trying. He fell, quite spectacularly before reaching the finish line, and whilst stumbling took us out -- but he will have to face the cacophony that I'm afraid will come to fill in the void. And that is perfect, holy justice. Not that I need a pound of his flesh, I don't. But, being a priest of the order of Melchizedek is a daunting task and his temperament renders him a lonely leader. I keep thinking of a quote from the Screwtape letters:

“Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point, which means at the point of highest reality. ”

It was a crazy project and a wild, great ride. Who am I not to be grateful?

Thank you again, from the bottom of my heart. And so - "once more into the breach, my friends!"

I think i'll wait a bit, but if you hear of a breach - do write. ;)


Necessary footnotes:

1. Initially, the Pastor wanted us to sign contracts for a year, but his finance committee proposed a six month trial period.That period was extended by two months in December.

2. The Pastor did tell me that budget for the program had to be cut by 50% by March 1 - and only myself and an organist would be kept on. However, I declined that arrangement and instead proposed a plan that would spread the cuts over everyone and buy a little more time for the program. Unfortunately, I have come to find out that this was not, as I suspected, about money. It was about the little group of liberal parishioners who consider this parish to be their province and property - and who they want in and who they want out.

Chuck, you were spot on in your analysis - from the targeted negative announcement that was meant to demoralize the many people that want good sacred music - to the "designed for failure" survey.

And, as Kenneth said, this situation is how he has come to deal with the parish by default and " if the orthodox let the pastors know that they were there and would not keep silent, some things would change."

It's just so absurd that pastors are even tricked into thinking they should take a survey to start with. As a friend said, "Why don't they take a survey on who likes the words of transubstantiation. Maybe those are offending people."

As we can see here, that whenever a priest says that money is the issue and one offers to work for free, money is not the issue.

It's unfortunately a proven fact that this is an excuse priests are encouraged to use by influential members trying to get their own way. So, Father thinks, well, if Bill suggested it - he's well respected in the KOC and in business and all, this is what I'll say.

Bill, being an @#$%^&* and self-centered, is totally unaware that many of us would volunteer to work for free to help out in the awful financial crisis that does not exist, so Bill, remember, he's an !@#$%^^&*, fails to warn Father what to say if we offer to work for free.

After all of this, Father's confused and without a music program, we are looking for other opportunities, but the best part is that Bill's still an !@#$%^&.

[your mileage may vary]

[no, I did not intend to work at the last Catholic church and sincerely, sincerely doubt that I would ever again, so I can say what I please. This makes others on the list look much more appealing to be hired, and I am pleased if this helps.]

That article is so bizarre. Why would the priest restrict use of the CHOIR room for MUSIC lessons?

With the new archbishop on his way, hopefully that group will find some more support from the top-down.

Thank you ryand....It is grace. ...as I am actually somewhat bi-polar at the moment. Still there...doing these last two weeks (in solidarity w/ Benedict). But, not sure what to do and what to think. So - I'm just doing my thing for two more weeks and praying....a lot.

Sad thing is, Father seems to be falling apart. He's obviously in a state of confusion and pain. He's forgetting parts of the mass, saying the wrong part; forgetting to give the final blessing, sitting with his head in his hands, voice cracking, and when two of my young vocalists knelt at the side of the altar to receive communion on Ash Wed., he walked toward them, got a look of panic on his face and asked another priest to give them communion and just walked away. He sat slumped in his chair on the altar while the visiting priests gave communion. He NEVER DOES THAT. Today, he dropped the chalice and consecrated hosts came spilling out onto the rug at the main choral mass.

Please pray for him. I don't quite know what to make of all of this. But last night a parishioner came up to the choir loft and said how much she liked the mass; and then said, I don't think you should go. I said, it's a done deal, I've resigned. She said, just keep an open mind.

Truly, God only knows. Thanks Jeff and Froggie...xo

Ok. That's kind of an amazing co-incidence. A choir member from that choir "Cantores in Ecclesia" sings with my choir! She's always talking about that experience and just remarked, "What's happening to us is the same thing that happened to my old choir in Portland!" She works for the USCCB, too.

How's that for your theory on "things that have some connection surfacing in your life at the same time" Jeffrey - not just for new words, eh?

Guadalupe, I'm so sorry. I do feel betrayed and confused! And, sure, I'm angry and depressed. What I find astounding, tho, is how absurd things have become for all of us. It seems like a majority of the folks on this forum have some type of similar experience to report! This also happened at my last parish 8 yrs. ago.

This is the state of our Church. It's like our work environment has become a Three Stooges movie, where we are definitely "Curly" -- and Mo likes us one minute and is pulling our teeth out with pliers the next! (By the way, do you know who the Three Stooges are?) Although it IS PERSONAL - it's not personal. Priests who engage in this type of behavior have also betrayed God and they will have to atone for their actions.

Ironically, at the rehearsal I held right before the weekend when Father made the fateful announcement, I happened to be praying to St. Cecilia that everything might be ok. Just at that moment, a thought entered my head from John 15:20 "Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.

Then I realized that St. Cecilia had her throat slashed and bled for several days. So, where did that leave me? When I mentioned this to the choir that night, two people gave me a "look" and said they thought I was "over-thinking things."

I just smiled and said, "You've never worked for the Church, have you?"

Guadalupe, you'll be in my prayers.

I couldn't agree more, Mia. That truth is found in every aspect of this vocation. The only thing that works for me, is to strive for a kind of 'kenosis' or emptying of oneself - especially one's ego - so that you can get out of the way and allow the Holy Spirit to come through. And then if we can make it up that mountain, (and often, I can't or don't) then the next challenge is to remain charitable and patient with EVERYONE - as best we can in the moment - (then go to confession and begin again.)

But suffering is always part of the metaphysical equation - at least it always is for me. (and for some reason, public humiliation often gets thrown in.) No one can really prepare us for this, because finding it out on your own is the whole point of the process. No pain - no gain.

You will go through, i believe in that.. God bless you!
http://greenavis.com/