Minutes of the Regular Meeting of the Board of Directors
Of
The Catholic Defense League
On February 19, 2008

A Regular Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Catholic Defense League (CDL) was held, pursuant to notice, on February 19, 2008 in the offices of the CDL, St. Paul, Minnesota. Present at the Meeting were the following Board Members: President Pat Phillips, Vice-President Ed Wollerman, Dick Houck, Stella Lundquist, Pat Shannon and Ray Marshall. The meeting was convened at 4:10 p.m. Kelly Rowe joined us.

Stella Lundquist moved and Dick Houck seconded a motion to approve the minutes of the meeting of November 20, 2007. Carried.

In the absence of the Treasurer, Pat Phillips reviewed the draft Treasurer's Report and announced that we had over $18,000 on deposit. Some discussion was held on what could those funds be spent on, including: advertising in the Catholic Servant or the Catholic Spirit, tickets for the Catholic Servant annual dinner or mailing copies of the Defender to subscribers to the Catholic Servant. Dick Houck moved and Stella Lundquist seconded a motion to accept the Treasurer's Report for the file subject to a review by the treasurer, Tom Schramer. Carried. [Ed. a copy was faxed to Tom and he agreed that the report was "reasonable and consistent". ]

In general open discussion, Pat Phillips reviewed his letter rebutting a Pioneer Press OpEd piece criticizing the Church's position on homosexuality and a rebuttal to Pat's letter that was published last week.

In discussion regarding the March issue of the Defender, Pat reported that Bishop Pates will be submitting an item on the St Paul Outreach organization. It was thought that articles regarding the "Teaching Authority of the Church" should be written, making the distinction between items that must be believed and cannot be changed versus items that might be changed using established procedures. Pat Shannon volunteered to write a first draft.

That would include types of documents such as Dogma, the Catechism, ex-Cathedra proclamations, Encyclicals, Letters, etc. The distinction also should be made between beliefs such as the Divinity of Jesus Christ, and discipline, Church practices such as "Communion "in the hand" versus "on the tongue." Another article might deal with the difference between "abortion as murder" versus a "just war" or "public, legally authorized, executions."

Future articles might deal with the St Paul Outreach organization, Net Ministries, the Serra Club and other lay organizations that are very active in the archdiocese, but probably not well known to many Catholics.

In discussion regarding the "Quick Response" team that was created at the last meeting of the Board, Pat Shannon confirmed that he had willingly agreed to serve as the team's leader but that more organization needed to be done.

It was agreed that the Board should adopt a resolution commending Archbishop Harry Flynn for his nearly 13 years of service to the Archdiocese and place and ad in the Catholic Spirit.

There was a general consensus that we are agreed on doing a Voter's Guide per the proposal in the meeting notice. We did not formally ratify it, however. We will do that at the next meeting. We note that both Fr. Skluzacek and Joe Kueppers while not in attendance, indicated their approval for the motion via email prior to the meeting.

Pat Phillips proposed that someone on the Board should assume the responsibility of serving as a "Membership Head", with the responsibility of contacting likely individuals to serve on the Board or as authors of articles or letters reflecting the Board's positions. After the meeting, Ray Marshall indicated that he would be willing to do that.

Meeting was adjourned at 5:10 p.m.