text: I am surprised both pleasantly and not, by the comments of you good RC on the topic of lay responsibility for congregational matters. From the experience of the mainline churches where lay boards/vestries/ councils have long existed, take heart. It can be done, often well, even when churches in our traditions often exist hand to mouth with far fewer members and church buildings in a state of arrested (or not) decay. If you doubt me, see Google Earth, pick a random medium size city, and the beautifully restored RC churches with new paving and pointed brickwork, and our churches with leaning steeples and down at the heels looks.
  
  My point is this. You have huge numbers of laity from which to draw unlike us. You have copious financial resources (even outside the K of C). If we can do it with all our limitations, no excuses for Roman Catholics.