A rather comic story has emerged on various internet sites about the Pope’s words describing Parish secretaries, uttered when speaking to the Polish bishops in a closed session, the transcript of which was later published by the Vatican.
The Pope’s words were as follows: "There are parishes with parish secretaries who seem to be 'disciples of Satan' and scare people; parishes with closed doors."
Now, I happen to know exactly what the Holy Father means. There are some parish secretaries who are hardly welcoming, and who can, even over the phone, project a cold and forbidding sense that your call really is intrusive, and that you should get off the line at once, because they, and Father, have much better things to do that waste their time on you. But, and this is important, behind every Gorgon of a parish secretary stands a parish priest, and she is simply his public face, and the coldness she projects she learns from him. The parish priest, for good or ill, is the one who sets the tone. The parish secretary is the one who activates his will. So the Pope’s criticism of parish secretaries is really a criticism of high and mighty parish priests.
