Regarding: "If he had consulted a book about the history of the Catholic Church in the U.S., Tammeus would have learned that this episode of lay democracy, known as the trusteeism controversy, was a disaster for the early Catholic community, inviting ethnic rivalries, empowering wealthy contributors, and creating venues for mercurial clergy."
- Plenty of historical evidence that the bishops of the US were very unwilling to work with the lay trustees simply because they did not take what the bishop said as gospel. 
- Also, it does not take much research to establish that much of the fuss and bother was cover for the bishops to latch onto assets and real estate of the parishes.
- It was very much -- if you want a presbyter, you have to sign over your assets to me, the bishop. Wait! ArchbRaymond tried to do this with an ethnic church before he was removed from St. Louis? (Later he was dismissed from the Apostolic Signatura,and then side-lined as chaplain for the K&Ds of Malta.)