Presbyteral Assembly
2-5 June 2003 Every year the priests and the bishops of the Archdiocese of Louisville to to St. Meinrad Seminary in southern Indiana for a presbyteral assembly for study, reflection, prayer, and fraternity. This year one focus was on the sexual abuse perpetrated by some Louisville priests in the past; another was on developing a spirituality for diocesan priests.
The opening session featured Joe Batcheldor, Tony Olges, and Bill Bowling giving their thoughts and feelings about the sexual abuse that has taken place.
The main speaker for the three and a half days was Ray Carey, a priest of the Portland, Oregon diocese who is a counselor for a sabbatical program for diocesan priests in Menlo Park, California. His articulate, witty, and down-to-earth presentation was very well received.
Mornings and evenings were filled with talks and other parts of the program, but the afternoons were left free by request after some men found the schedule in previous years too busy. Here the speaker has the assembly in a reflective mode.
The opportunity to be together in a reflective atmosphere and the input from the talks encouraged many discussions and exchanges of ideas such as this one between Bill Fichteman and Bert Rapp.
The food at St. Meinrad was excellent! No complaints there from anyone!
Dr. Pat Kelly is psychologist who has much experience counseling religious communities. Her task with the Louisville presbyterate was to surface and address feelings of anger, betrayal, disappointment, and sorrow about the instances of sexual abuse that have taken place in the archdiocese.
A special addition to the program was a celebration of the Sacrament of the Sick because of the news on the day of our arrival of the discovery of cancer in one of the priests attending the assembly. Fr. Bill Miller presided at the anointing service.
Judy Bullock is the director of the Office of Worship for the archdiocese, and she and Barry Mudd prepared and facilitated wonderful opportunities for community prayer for the priests who were gathered. Both are accomplished musicians also.
Archbishop Kelly could not attend the first day of the assembly because of the beginning of mediation efforts concerning the sexual abuse lawsuits facing the diocese. On the final day he gave his annual informal report to the priests about major issues and then celebrated the concluding liturgy with Deacon Jeff Schoon and seminarian Dan Whelan.