Priests to get more say in running diocese

by a special correspondent WESTMINSTER Archdiocese is to make greater use of a Senate of Priests in future, under the provisions of the new Code of Canon Law, due to be promulgated next year.
Last month, Cardinal Hume explained the importance of the Senate at a meeting of priests' representatives. Earlier in the year, the bishops of the diocese had worked out how to develop the process of consultation and co-responsibility. The Senate is expected to be a mouthpiece representing the views of the priests who elect them.
Cardinal Hume has suggested that priests might also act in an advisory capacity at the council of Diocesan Affairs, a Westminster policy making body. Recently a lay woman, Mrs Alex Cosgrave, was invited to a meeting of the Council as Westminster's Social Welfare Development Officer. But in explaining the new role of the Senate of Priests, Cardinal Hume explained: "The first point which I wish to take from the new Code of Canon Law is that a Presbyteral Council only enjoys a consultative vote except where the law itself specifies otherwise. I confess that I have not studied the law in its totality, so I do not know to which occasions the Code is referring."
The Cardinal went on to say that he intended from time to time to give the Senate a deliberative vote. which would mean the Senate actually deciding an issue.
At July's meeting, Cardinal Hume asked for a consultative vote on the adoption of Mrs Cosgrave's Social Welfare Development Plan. It was accepted. The meeting's other decision — the continuing division of the diocese into five pastoral areas was put to a deliberative voia "If you withhold your permission, then I will not carry on with the proposed project ... It is a very serious vote. You carry a big responsibility when you vote in this way," Cardinal Hume told the Senate. They approved the project, • called 'Planning for the Spirit', which continues the pastoral areas for the rest of the Archbishop's terms of Office.
Cardinal Hume outlined his place in developing the work of the Senate of Priests: "The new Code of Canon Law states that it is up to the Diocesan Bishop to convoke his Presbyteral Council, to preside over it, and to determine which questions are to be dealt with. It also says that the Bishop may receive proposals from the members of the Senate itself. In fact, it says 'receive'. but that does not mean that the bishop has necessarily got to accept what is proposed."