text: Fifty years ago, we Catholic college graduates of the class of '67 were told it was our responsibility to be "leaders" in our parishes in the spirit of Vatican II.  I was not alone to discover that lay women were not at all what was needed as participators not to mind leaders.  I was even phoned by a parishoner to be told that Father did not want single people on an education committee.  (Still can not figure out what he considered to be his own marital state.)  Years later, in another parish and married, I once more volunteered for an education committee only to discover our duty was to rubber stamp all of Father's decisions.  
  
  The parish closings are news.  The admonition to the laity is sooo... yesterday.