Father Franklyn Casale is President of St. Thomas University in Florida.
Franklyn Casale wrote “Chapter 14: The Pastor and the Diocese” for A Pastor’s Toolbox. Before becoming President of St. Thomas University in Miami, he served as Vicar General, Chancellor, and Moderator of the Curia for the Archdiocese of Newark. His chapter extols the benefits to pastors of a close connection with their bishop and the diocesan chancery office.
Chancery offices employ professionals in human resources management, finance, architecture and law, wrote Casale. Pastors should draw upon this expertise when hiring new employees, gauging the financial well-being of the parish, assessing parish plant, and confronting legal problems.
Casale approaches administration with a certain sang-froid. For example, he wrote that a pastor can jettison the employees he dislikes by changing their job description. For example, a pastor may want to replace a pastoral associate with a DRE. “What you may do is change the job description, which give you license to dismiss the pastoral associate and hire a new DRE with the requisite qualifications,” he wrote. “You’ve eliminated that person by dispensing with the job” (152).
The chapter reflects Casale’s tough mindedness. But his approach to human resources management is hard to correlate with the more high-minded approach of David Boettner in chapter 5.