Dear Editor,

One of the oldest jobs among humans has been that of the Shepherd.  In our Lord’s time the flock represented a substantial part of a family’s or tribe’s wealth.  It provided wool for clothing as well as meat for food and animals for sacrifice at Temple.  There were then, as today, real threats to flocks – lions, bears, wolves, hyaenas and snakes to name a few.  Shepherds were armed with many different types of weapons – swords, knives, fire hardened wooden spears, slings and the Shepherd's Crook.  This was a long staff to direct the sheep and to fend off snakes as well as other threats.   

Sheep were gathered into flocks and at the end of the day they were guided to a “fold” – a safe place that provided food, water and security from the threats of the area.  Over time the flock came to know their Shepherd and would respond to his call simply because they knew he would take care of them.  As Jesus said – “I know my flock and my flock knows me.”  He told the parable of the “Good Shepard” who left the flock in a safe place while he went out and searched for the one that was lost – returning them to the flock.

This parable was so powerful that it has become a cornerstone of the Christian faith with innumerable images of Jesus carrying the lost sheep back to the fold.

After Jesus’s resurrection he revealed himself to the 7 disciples, including Peter while they were fishing.  He asked Peter if he loved him 3 times.  After Peter’s first response Jesus replied, “Feed my Lambs”.  After Peter’s second response Jesus replied, “Tend my sheep.”  And after his third response Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.”  Thus was the task laid at Peter’s feet – build His church and tend it.

Over the millennia the Shepard’s Crook has become part of the regalia in the Catholic Church of both the Pope and the Archbishop of individual Diocese in the United States.  It is part of the responsibility of the Archbishop to tend the flocks under him – to ensure that the fold that holds them provides nourishment and drink that bring them closer to God – and the Shepard’s Crook is a reminder of that responsibility.

During this Journey of faith I have pondered, prayed, read, searched and worked with others to have the entire process make sense in my heart.  I trust what I feel there . . . in my heart . . . in my soul . . . in my gut.  If something “feels right”, if it sits there and feels like it belongs – I trust that feeling.  If it does not . . . if it causes discomfort and disquiet . . . I trust that feeling as well.    That said, I am certainly not in any position to affect change in the Journey of Faith – I can only watch and evaluate how it sits in my heart.  This Sunday saw the culmination of the “wait” . . . and the initiation of the “interim Mass Schedule”.  And I saw the Shepherd's Crook used as a simple club beating 74 individual “folds” (parishes) to death forcing the flock to scatter and find refuge in the remaining “folds”.  Nothing about it feels “right”.  The level of discomfort and disquiet is simply “off the chart”.  It is “wrong” – pure and simple.

We were told by the Archbishop to simply “go to another church”.  Honestly, I have never, in my entire life, simply “gone to a church” other than during travels on vacation.  My grandfather helped build the first parish I knew – Christ Lutheran Church in Birch Run, Michigan.  I then grew to know Sacred Heart Church in the same little town when I started dating my wife – and it was there that we were married.  In both places we were part of a parish family, an intimate “fold” that we knew and who knew us.

I980 brought us to Vinton, and we became part of the St. Mary’s Parish family.  It has been our “fold” – our family in Christ - for 46 years.  Attendance was never just “going to church” but a real joining with our family to hear the word of God, the message of the Priest and to receive the body and blood of Christ.

Yet, on Sunday – the Vinton “fold” was beaten to death by the Shepherd's Crook wielded by the Archbishop of Dubuque.  The level of “wrong” that I felt . . . that I feel . . . leaves no doubt that this particular path is not in the best interest of the “fold” or any of us being dragged along.

If our fate mirrors the hundreds of parishes that have preceded us – the next step will be to merge our parish with others in our “Pastorate” – a new invention that is meant to consolidate our parishes into some kind of mega parish.  We were not welcomed to St. Mary’s Parish of Urbana this past Sunday, rather we were welcomed to the Cedar Rapids North Pastorate.  The choir was even replaced with one from Elizabeth Ann Seaton Parish in Cedar Rapids replacing the parish choir that has been a standing part of St. Mary’s Urbana.  Once we are merged . . . St. Mary’s simply ceases to exist . . . the word used to describe this process is that St. Mary’s will be “extinguished” . . . wrap your head around that word . . . “extinguished”.   Rather than the warm, comfy feeling in my heart of lifelong friends, being fed the word of God and participating in His worship . . . there is a cold lump, a hollowness, an emptiness, a sorrow that is . . . indescribable.

Yet, the club has been wielded.  We are to be comforted by a Tuesday Night Mass that will not fulfill the Sunday obligation and must compete with school activities.  And the knowledge that Sundays will be simply attending church rather than worshiping with a family 46 years (for us anyway) in the making.

This is not how things should feel . . . 

This is wrong . . . 

With Respect,

Bill Keller