Good News in Health Care

Good News in Health Care

Office of Chancellor

Today’s appointment of Nancy J. Werner as Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Saint Louis (reported here) raises a question to which many may not know the answer:

What does the Chancellor do?

The office of Chancellor is mentioned several times in the Code of Canon Law. Here are the most relevent entries:

ARTICLE 2: THE CHANCELLOR, OTHER NOTARIES AND THE ARCHIVES

Can. 482 §1 In each curia a chancellor is to be appointed, whose principal office, unless particular law states otherwise, is to ensure that the acts of the curia are drawn up and dispatched, and that they are kept safe in the archive of the curia.

§2 If it is considered necessary, the chancellor may be given an assistant, who is to be called the vice-chancellor.

§3 The chancellor and vice-chancellor are automatically notaries and secretaries of the curia.

Can. 483 §1 Besides the chancellor, other notaries may be appointed, whose writing or signature authenticates public documents. These notaries may be appointed for all acts, or for judicial acts alone, or only for acts concerning a particular issue or business.

§2 The chancellor and notaries must be of unblemished reputation and above suspicion. In cases which could involve the reputation of a priest, the notary must be a priest.

Can. 484 The office of notary involves:

1° writing acts and documents concerning decrees, arrangements, obligations, and other matters which require their intervention;

2° faithfully recording in writing what is done, and signing the document, with a note of the place, the day, the month and the year;

3° while observing all that must be observed, showing acts or documents from the archives to those who lawfully request them, and verifying that copies conform to the original.

Can. 485 The chancellor and the other notaries can be freely removed by the diocesan Bishop. They can be removed by a diocesan Administrator only with the consent of the college of consultors.

[…]

Can. 487 §1 The archive must be locked, and only the Bishop and the chancellor are to have the key; no one may be allowed to enter unless with the permission of the Bishop, or with the permission of both the Moderator of the curia and the chancellor. §2 Persons concerned have the right to receive, personally or by proxy, an authentic written or photostat copy of documents which are of their nature public and which concern their own personal status.

Archbishop Carlson Appoints New Chancellor

To: The Curia of the Archdiocese of St. Louis

From: Archbishop Robert Carlson

Date: July 22, 2009

Re: Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Saint Louis

I am very pleased to announce to you today that I have appointed Nancy J. Werner, currently the Chancellor of the Diocese of Saginaw, as the Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Saint Louis. Nancy Werner is a highly qualified individual and possesses an outstanding record as a collaborator in ministry and administration. She holds an undergraduate degree in Religion and Philosophy, as well as a Masters in Pastoral Administration from Regis University in Denver. Nancy brings to the Archdiocese over twenty-six years of parish, diocesan and national leadership experience. The occasion of this appointment gives me the opportunity to name a highly qualified woman to a senior position within the Archdiocese of Saint Louis. Nancy will begin her work in mid-August, after completing her transfer from Saginaw, and will have her office located at the Catholic Center.

At the same time, I am pleased to appoint Reverend Monsignor Jerome Billing to the office of Chancellor for Canonical Affairs of the Archdiocese of Saint Louis. In this capacity, Monsignor Billing will be responsible for marriage dispensations as well as the oversight of the Archdiocesan Archives. In addition, Monsignor Billing is appointed Promoter of Justice and Defender of the Bond for the Metropolitan Tribunal, where his physical office will be located.

In the near future, I will announce the creation of a revised governing structure, with a new organizational chart, for the administrative and ministerial operations of the Archdiocese of Saint Louis.

I look forward to working closely with Nancy Werner and Monsignor Billing in their new responsibilities.

_________________________

Interesting. “I will announce the creation of a revised governing structure, with a new organizational chart…”

I wonder what other surprises are in store. And I won’t hazard any guesses…

Feast of Saint Mary Magdalen

And behold a woman that was in the city, a sinner, when she knew that He sat at meat in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster box of ointment; and standing behind at His feet, she began to wash His feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head, and kissed His feet, and anointed them with the ointment. St. Luke vii. 37,38

“Who is this woman? Without doubt it is the Church,” answers St. Peter Chrysologus, “the Church, weighed down and stained with sins committed in the city of this world. At the news that Christ has appeared in Judea, that He is to be seen at the banquet of the Pasch, where He bestows His mysteries and reveals the divine Sacrament, and makes known the secret of salvation, suddenly she darts forward; despising the endeavours of the Scribes to prevent her entrance, she confronts the princes of the Synagogue; burning with desire she penetrates into the sanctuary, where she finds Him whom she seeks, betrayed by Jewish perfidy even at the banquet of love; not the passion, nor the Cross, nor the tomb can check her faith, or prevent her from bringing her perfumes to Christ.”

Who but the Church knows the secret of this perfume? asks Paulinus of Nola with Ambrose of Milan; the Church, whose numberless flowers have all aromas; the Church, who exhales before God a thousand sweet odours aroused by the breath of the Holy Spirit– viz., the virtues of nations and the prayers of the saints. Mingling the perfume of her conversion with her tears of repentance, she anoints the feet of her Lord, honouring in them His humanity. Her faith, whereby she is justified, grows equally with her love: soon the Head of the Spouse– that is, His divinity– receives from her the homage of the full measure of pure and precious spikenard– to wit, consummate holiness, whose heroism goes so far as to break the vessel of mortal flesh by the martyrdom of love, if not by that of tortures.

Arrived at the height of the mystery, she forgets not even there those sacred feet, whose contact delivered her from the seven devils representing all vices; for to the heart of the Bride, as in the bosom of the Father, her Lord is still both God and Man. The Jew, who would not own Christ either for head or foundation, found no fragrant oil for His head, nor even water for His feet; she, on the contrary, pours her priceless perfume over both. And while the sweet odour of her perfect faith fills the earth, now become by the victory of that faith the house of the Lord, she continues to wipe her Master’s feet with her beautiful hair– i.e., her countless good works and her ceaseless prayer. The growth of this mystical hair requires all her care here on earth; and in heaven its abundance and beauty will call forth the praise of Him who jealously counts, without losing one, all the works of His Church. Then from her own head, as from that of her Spouse, will the fragrant unction of the Holy Spirit overflow even to the skirt of her garment.

…Venerable Bede, gathering up, according to his wont, the traditions of his predecessors, does not hesitate to assert that “what Magdalen once did, remains the type of what the whole Church does, and of what every perfect soul must ever do.”

–from The Liturgical Year

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