Spiritual Alternatives to the Archdiocese of Detroit 2026-2027 Restructuring

Pam and I attend two different parishes in the Archdiocese of Detroit, depending on our schedule and her voluntary parish responsibilities at both. In recent weeks, we've been inundated with requests to attend parish "Listening Sessions," ostensibly to have the curia listen to our concerns about how the AOD plans to restructure due to (1) shifting populations, (2) declining Mass attendance, and (3) the shortage of priests.

There are 209 parishes in the AOD, divided into 15 planning areas. The various proposed plans, 3 for each area, suggest eliminating certain weekend masses at under-populated parishes (who decides what is under-populated?) and require members to travel as far as 40 minutes from their local parish to another where the sacraments are offered. One plan for our area is shown in the image above, and our two parishes in Novi, MI (St. James and Holy Family), which are only a few miles apart, are both vibrant and unlikely to have their Masses eliminated during the restructuring.

The AOD's description of the problem displayed on their webpage (see image below) is described this way:

Over recent decades, we’ve seen significant shifts: fewer Catholics attending Mass, declining participation in the sacraments, and an ever-shrinking number of priests due to aging and retirement. Once serving 1.5 million Catholics, we now minister to approximately 900,000 — with fewer than half attending Mass regularly. At the same time, we’ve struggled to maintain buildings, structures and ministries designed for a much larger Church, and that’s left us stretched thin — making it harder to fully serve where people need us most.

While I understand the administrative issues surrounding finances and building upkeep, the shortage of priests and fewer people taking the sacraments, these problems will not be solved by demographic and geographic adjustments. The problems are spiritual, not numeric; they are quantum, not deterministic.

I cannot help be reminded of a similar problem faced years ago by the Lutheran church Missouri Synod, of which I had a connection before my conversion to Catholicism. The president of the LCMS declared that the solution to declining attendance was to establish new churches in upstate New York, where the population was historically Germanic and thus (supposedly) more psychologically aligned with Lutheranism. The red flag waving frantically called attention to the lack of the LCMS's attention to the fundamental evangelical nature of the Christian Church—The Great Commission (Matthew 28:16–20) and concern instead with adjusting the demographics and geography, for the purpose of increasing attendance. If Lutheranism (of the Missouri Synod nature) was so good and true, then why not evangelize where the churches were currently located? (The answer to that is book-length, and I'll not try to answer.)

I see in the AOD restructuring effort an embrace of similar blindness. I don't see the solution as physical restructuring but rather spiritual revival. Here are four considerations that, if implemented together, would eliminate the need for the AOD to restructure.

1. Do not restrict priests to only 1 or 2 Masses per day.

Canon Law 905 allows a priest to celebrate up to 1, 2 or 3, even 4 Masses per day, especially on weekends and festivals. Canon Law (905) is not infallible, dogmatic, or doctrinal. To rigidly hold to this restriction without considering the spiritual demands of a parish is to be pharisaical...holding rigidly to a law that harms the more important roles for a priest. 

2. Remove all administrative duties from the parish priest and give such duties to a full-time LAY administrator who is trained in or has demonstrated successful organizational leadership in the secular realm.

Acts 6:1-6 establishes the role of a deacon for the purpose of administering the parish, leaving prayer and teaching (and celebrating Mass and sacraments) to the priest (or ordained deacon). I do not think a parish administrator needs to be an ordained deacon, unless seminaries begin granting degrees in Organization Development and Leadership. This move alone would allow priests the time and energy to say more Masses, to pray and study the Word, and administer the sacraments. There are plenty of capable men who can be full-time LAY-administrators who are skilled in organizational development and administration. 

3. Remove ALL restrictions EVERYWHERE for celebrating the Traditional Latin Mass. 

This alone will attract more people to Mass. A simple census will reveal the GREAT attraction of young professionals and their families to the TLM. When I attend a TLM, I'm amazed by the deep reverence and the presence of young families with many children. They avoid the Novus Ordo for a variety of reasons, one being Vatican II's dismissive attitude toward reverence in the TLM. I believe that the invention of the Novus Ordo has resulted in fewer people taking the sacraments and fewer men considering the priesthood. The Novus Ordo has made common the worship of God.  (cf: https://www.youtube.com/c/MassoftheAges)

4. Attract young men to the Priesthood through the mystery of the TLM.

This will solve the shortage of priests. By opening the TLM everywhere and training priests to celebrate the TLM, you will attract more good and intelligent men to the priesthood. The priesthood is special and miraculous. Show young men how special and miraculous worship can be by celebrating the TLM. Avoid the common place of the Novus Ordo rubrics, reinstate ad orientem, chant, Latin hymns, organ, kneeling, communion on the tongue at the rail by ordained men, and the mystery that has been removed by the Novus Ordo (commonly referred to by many as simple "NO.")

5. Reinstate orthodox professors to the Seminary that the Archbishop fired without good cause.

Rejecting these holy men dissuades young men from the priesthood. Arbitrary and questionable decisions by an Archbishop are an offense to young men who want an orthodox faith. Intelligent, clear-minded men, who are called to the priesthood, do not want to pledge obedience to an Archbishop who blindly embraces Post-Vatican II ideology that punishes the centuries-old traditions of the church, and goes so far as to embrace Islam as a valid path to know God, and call Islamic places of worship "sacred." I could easily long to be a priest (although too old now), but I could never promise obedience to our current archbishop. I am sure his woke administrative decisions have turned young, faith-minded young men away from the priesthood in the AOD. Get the archbishop to confession and recant his sinful behavior. Young men will flock to the seminary. 

6. The Archbishop (Edward J. Weisenburger) needs to publicly recant and confess as "sin" his decisions that contradict the tradition of Catholic orthodoxy and worship. 

Weisenburger's accommodation to political liberalism and the LGBTQ trans community, his demeaning the importance of penance and post-Vatican II "reforms," his embrace of the Synod on Synodality with its shift toward modernism, and his championing of the ambiguous and inclusive pronouncements of Pope Francis (Todos, todos, todos), have turned many devout Catholics away from the church, the sacraments, and financial support of the AOD.  Conversion has been replaced by slogans, repentance has been replaced by (DEI) inclusion, and doctrine has been replaced by "lived experience." Weisenburger needs to repudiate all of this and shepherd the Church in Detroit back to the faith. If he does so, God guarantees there will be no need for restructuring. 

Huh!? A Christian Novel about Occultist Hauntings?

NO SPOILER: This author's accounting of The Wizard Clip Haunting contains no spoilers.

After 10 years of on-and-off again effort, I recently finish writing an historical novel based on the well documented Wizard Clip Legend out of what is now West Virginia. 

The resulting book, now available in several editions, is titled The Wizard Clip Hauntings: A True Early American Ghost Story. The novel is necessarily long, due to the Early American history that pervades the time and place of the events that shocked many, and even involved the first United States bishop, John Carroll, S.J. 

At the time, what Adam Livingston and his family experienced was disturbing. Remembering them, (especially in fictional form) can likewise raise disturbing questions. So it was, that I received a sincere email from a Catholic friend who asked an honest question. Here is an excerpt of her letter (the bold emphases are hers).

Hi Stan, 

I hope we can buy your book soon. But I have some questions before we do. I am curious about the topic of hauntings. Just to be clear, and forgive me of my ignorance, but I assume this is safe for a good Catholic to read. I avoid anything that would lead to the occult. And any of its dealings. How do you justify the topic as a devout Catholic? 

I am sure that it is me who is not clear on this, and not you. But could you touch on helping me understand the purpose of writing this book and its benefits?

My husband is intrigued by a bit of this type of topic usually, I am not. But I seem to be this time. 

Hope my question makes sense to you. Thanks for any clarification you might offer me. God bless! 

F. 

I wrote our friend back with an answer that I will expand here:

 Dear F,

Thank you for asking a very good question. I thought about this very dichotomy years ago when I started the project, but not recently. Your reminder prompts me to revisit my motivation. 

The Wizard Clip Haunting is, at its heart, a tale faithful to Catholic teaching. But, because the core story is true and unexpected in several ways, it has also become controversial. The combination of truth and controversy (a great dramatic irony) drew me to it.  Without fictionalizing the historical aspects of the story, a great truth of Catholicism is explicated, and hopefully, my fictional additions do it in an entertaining and narrative way. Professionally, I'm a storyteller. I would much rather explain truth by telling an ironic story than writing didactic apologetics or theology. While I have been accused many times of the latter, I much prefer the former. So I wrote the novel because it tells the truth and can inform readers about the reality of heaven, hell, angel, demons, and what we need to do to live successful under God's grace and within his mercy. 

THE HISTORY 

The core of the story is historically well-documented mostly by several Catholic priests, and the U.S. bishop who were involved in the events in the 1790s in what was then northeast Virginia.  Over the years, the story has been told over and over, and consequently has garnered the label of a legend because the various accounts recount the details differently. The core of the story, however, remains unchanged. 

The story, in real life and in the novel, is told by Fr. Demetrius Augustine Gallitzin, an eye witness to the Wizard Clip events who was known during his lifetime as the Apostle of the Alleghenies. Today, he is known by the Vatican as "Servant of God." A former Russian prince, he was the first U.S. Catholic priest to complete all his seminary training in the U.S. and be ordained by Bishop John Carroll. To fit in with early American society, he took the name Fr. Smith, but his thick European accent—from knowing five languages—gave him away. 

Without giving anything away about the novel, the story is not one, but four, woven into a single fabric no doubt by Providence. The first story, regards a 35-acre plot of land that today is known as Priest Field, a Catholic Retreat Center. The second, is the story of a resourceful but tragic farmer, a lapsed Lutheran, known to history as Adam Livingston. The third, is the story of a pioneering priest, Denis Cahill, who founded six parishes that exist today. He forged an heroic missionary path in the early days of the nation, but then lost his way. The fourth, is of a demonic spirit, which the locals to this day call the Clipping Wizard. 

 

The village where the events took place is known as Clip Town. Today, over 200 years later, the village of Middleway, WV, continues to celebrate its place in history with wood-block badges on the fronts of the historic buildings depicting a crescent moon and a pair of scissors. 

You can read more about the story, or buy one of the editions of the book, at the book's website: https://wizardclip.stanwilliams.com

Catholic Priest in New York replaces Nicene Creed with Maxist Prayer

 Astonishing event during a Catholic Mass in New York Catholic Church and analysis of it by Eric Metaxas on Tucker Carlson

Did God Choose a Reprobate to Save America? (An Open Letter to our Priest)

Over the past years of Trump's presidency, Pam and I (Stan) have been convinced that God found it necessary to answer our many prayers about the cultural war we find ourselves in, by seeing to it that a character like Donald J. Trump got elected as POTUS.  

We think like a lot of Christians, that a Christian should lead us out of moral quagmires, not people like Trump, whom many Christians think is a reprobate.  (Just to be clear, Pam and I never thought Trump was a reprobate, but was like a lot of us in need of salvation....but that's for another discussion.)

Our priest seems to think the election is about personality. We think it's about policy. 

On Sunday our dear priest, who tries hard to be a good priest, seemed to invoke Revelations 3:16 by inadvertently declaring (through his homily) he was very lukewarm about how to vote this election. After all, the Church doesn't like politicians who promote abortion and all sorts of other sexual depravity as the Democrats are promoting. But then the other choice is a man whom our priest thinks is totally lacking in compassion. Lost in the discussion are the policies, executive orders and laws that Trump has signed since being in office. We're not sure why his political accomplishments don't count, but with some folks (hopefully the majority of folks) they do. 

So, we wrote a letter and are sharing it below.  If you don't want to read it, here is the bottom line: 

God wants to answer the prayers of the faithful to turn our country around from moral depravity, but there weren't any Christian leaders (that Christians would like, like Billy Graham) so God tapped Trump to do the job. Christians complain about Trump's personality, but they should look in the mirror for the source of the problem. 

-----

October 19, 2020

Fr. __________\

_____________ 

_____________

Dear Fr. _____

I (Stan) watched and heard most of your homily today (Sunday Oct 19) on-line. 

You were right to call out the importance of the Right to Life in this election. But you missed an opportunity to reinforce its importance after your condemnation of Trump. You sounded like saving the environment and being polite was as important as stopping abortion, homosexuality, transgenderism (even of children), euthanasia, and wide-spread lying to citizens by "news" media. Really? 

This needs some perspective for you to understand. Let's try this.

THE GOD OF JUDGEMENT AND GRACE

When God decided that the cities of the plain in Genesis 14-19 (incl. Sodom & Gomorrah) required destruction for their sexual depravity, he didn't send a polite politician to sweet talk them out of their sin. Nor did he send an evangelist like Jonah to preach to them. God went right to the crux of the matter and sent two angels to utterly destroy them.

But we live in an age of grace, which explains why our country has not experienced a heavenly conflagration of brimstone. And yet in many ways we deserve it. We are surrounded by "legal" depravity far beyond those of the Sodomites. We are in the midst of a moral war of a scope never before imagined in western civilization where homosexuality, transgenderism, euthanasia, abortion are all legal and espoused by many politicians as civil rights and by Catholic leadership by their silence. At the same time, God is also aware that there are far more than ten righteous men and women in the land who pray and fast for its salvation—there are thousands if not millions. We are among them.

So, what is God to do? The people pray, but the depravity looks like Salvatore Dali's painting of hell. 

I'll tell you what. God sends someone like Donald J. Trump. 

Let me explain it this way.

• Since the Catholic bishops have refused to take a public stand against the evil in our country regarding abortion, religious liberty, Christian worship, liberal policies that hurt the poor; and have chosen instead to be silent (so as to avoid controversy), God has sent a political judge not unlike those of Old Testament times—Donald J. Trump. As long as the bishops (and most priests) refuse to speak out in the public square and courageously fulfill their calling as moral leaders, God has reverted to what people can better understand—verbal judgement of their corrupt and evil values by Trump.

• I doubt that you would have liked living next to Samson who bragged about killing a thousand Philistines with the jawbone of an ass. I don’t think you would’ve approved of a Judith pretending to be a whore and then beheading Holophernes. Nor would you have chosen to cheer on King David for killing his tens of thousands, perhaps. Even Trump hasn’t done anything like those “acts of God by the hands of his chosen."

• But like God, Trump has condemned evil and the secular values of a corrupt nation. Did you miss that? Let's try that again. Trump’s assault on all things evil and illegal reinforces that he, more so than our bishops, has been called by God to root out the evil and the corruption which is epidemic in our government and society. Drain the swamp!

• God does not show compassion to the prevailers of evil. He hates those that are in leadership who encourage the killing of babies by the thousands, who commit fraud with impunity and then lie to the public about it, who endorse organizations like Black Lives Matter who have publicly denounced the nuclear family and marriage between a man and woman. Who are they? The media, the Democrats, and many Republicans that care more about their own power and prestige than the good of the American citizens. 

• So, God sent a judge who is "like" Himself. Trump hates evil, and he is not compassionate about evil like the Church seems to be.  It's about time!  Where in the public square are you, or any Detroit priest, or Vigneron on the evil surrounding us? I’m not talking about squirreled away homilies but about seeing you or Vigneron calling out the corruption and evil at press conferences. Shouldn’t that be your job or at least the bishops'?   We believe that if the Church had taken moral leadership in this country back in the 60's, abortion would never have become legal. But the bishops are still hiding from controversies and refusing to lead. Vigneron is a prime example. 

• And so, since the Church has ignored this responsibility of being salt and light, God found another leader to do it—Donald Trump. Trump isn’t scared of calling out what is wrong. He is fearless, unlike our bishops. This is how God works, isn't it? 

• Trump properly denounced his Republican competitors for the 2016 election, because they allowed such political evil in Washington and allowed China to steal from us through the manipulation of currency and disseminating of lies. All those other Republicans tolerated evil and lying, and fraud, and such. 

• In contrast, we applauded Trump and still do, because like God, we are sick of the fraud in Washington. 

God does not tolerate this stuff, and the Church should not tolerate it, but it does. 

And so, God sent Trump. God didn't send a sweet gentleman to war against the satanic purveyors of our age.  No other politician could do what Trump has done to turn the tide back to righteousness. He doesn't cave to evil diatribe and fraud like Romney and the Bushes. He fights. He's not a Neville Chamberlain, Trump's more like George Patton who defeated the Nazi tanks across Africa and Europe, and who said, "May God have mercy upon my enemies, because I won't." 

THE COMPASSIONATE POTUS

But God also sent a compassionate Trump. There are literally hundreds of compassionate policies he's instituted but we'll list just a few. (We're voting for just and fair POLICIES; we're not voting for a sweet PERSONALITY.) 

Former President Barack Obama instructed public schools that they must allow transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that align with a child's chosen gender identity. Trump revoked this. (NBC News)

• Trump's fight against abortion led him to defund federal programs and international aid to abortion providers. And is ACB’s nomination for JOTSC not an act of compassion? 

• Trump's actions to close the border to ILLEGAL immigration is compassionate for those caught up in sex trafficking, illegal drugs, and lost jobs to American citizens.  But the border is still open for LEGAL immigration. 

• Trump compassionately signed the “Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act” (FOSTA), which includes the “Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act” (SESTA) which both give law enforcement and victims new tools to fight sex trafficking.

• Trump's recent police-reform executive order, the First Step Act, released thousands of people from jail (90 percent of whom were black) and addressed inequities in sentencing laws that disproportionately harmed Black Americans and reformed mandatory minimums that created unfair outcomes.

• Trump created “opportunity zones” which compassionately incentivized private investment into marginalized (black) communities.

• Trump (permanently) increased federal funding to historically black colleges and universities by 17%, a total exceeding $100 million—more than any president in history! Meanwhile, the Obama administration infamously removed a two-year Bush-administration program that annually funded $85 million directly to these prized institutions.

• Trump moving our embassy to Jerusalem was an act of compassion to the Jews.

• Trump negotiating (through Jared) the several mid-east peace agreements between Arab lands and Israel has been an act of compassion to the war-torn people of the Middle East, for which Trump has received THREE Nobel Peace Prize nominations. That is a monumental act of compassion to the Jewish state.

• Trump ordering the assassination of Iranian Qasem Soleimani without endangering others was an act of compassion that saved thousands of lives in Iraq. The toleration of evil is not compassion.  

And what has the Church done in the public square to support these programs of his. Anything?  (...have they stood up for LIFE from womb to tomb like Fr. Perone?  ...have they applauded Trump's Embassy move to Jerusalem?  ...have they praised the new alliances Trump has negotiated between Arab people and Israel [TIMES 3!!!]?  ...have they denounced transgender operations or males identifying as female, allowed then to have access to Girls' bathrooms and locker rooms AND to legally compete in Girls' sports?)

We do praise you for the courage to open the parish doors, through all stages of Lockdowns, for prayer (with a mask) and for early opening up of the church for Masses and Confession.

Respectfully, but not happy about the Church’s lack of leadership. 

Thank God for Trump.