The Last Harrumph

He was a thing of awe, the Catholic parish pastor--a force as redoubtable and durable as a Southern Democrat in the U.S. Senate. He was a marvelous blend of Barry Fitzgerald and Boss Tweed: irascible conscience of the stingy, puckish doer of good deeds among the neighborhood's fallen. He was absolute ruler of his realm, certain that parishioners who might doubt the Pope's infallibility would never for a minute dare question his.

That archetype will doubtless persist for a while elsewhere, but alas, he will soon be replaced by a transient imitation in one of his strongholds, New York City. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York--the first in the U.S. formally to do so--announced this month that pastors will henceforth serve for fixed terms of six years, and that none can serve more than two terms in the same parish. Progressives hailed the change, noting that it would allow younger priests to move up more quickly to pastoral positions and give older pastors an honorable excuse for moving on. But Barry Fitzgerald must be spinning in his grave.

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