Diocese to Have First Lay Chancellor

Over the last year, Arlington Bishop Paul S. Loverde has appointed many lay people to positions previously filled by clergy. Bill Kirst serves as chief financial officer, a job once held by Father Dan Maher. Soren Johnson is director of communications, a job that at one time would have been reserved for a priest. This fall, Mark Herrmann, who is working currently as the diocese’s general counsel, will become the diocese’s first lay chancellor. Father Robert Rippy, rector of the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington has served as chancellor since 1992.

“The bishop is very supportive of having lay people fill those positions that they can fill,” said Oblate Father Mark Mealey, vicar general for administration. “He has a great love and respect for the laity.”

While the sacramental mission of the diocese will always be reserved for clergy, Father Mealey said, there are many administrative positions that can be filled by faithful lay people.

According to Father Mealey, having a lay chancellor was something the bishop had talked about for several years.

The bishop first met Herrmann when searching for an executive director for the Virginia Catholic Conference, founded last fall. The bishop found Herrmann to have “great energy and enthusiasm,” according to Father Mealey. “He was impressed with his skills and also his deep love of the Church.”

“It’s going to be interesting to see the differences between a secular law environment and working for the diocese,” Herrmann said. “The goal always in any job is to make your work a work for Christ. Taking the work I do and putting it toward the Church is really the biggest attraction.”

The technical role of chancellor is to serve as archivist and to authenticate and oversee all major documents of the diocese. Many of these are letters and contracts that would need to be reviewed by a lawyer, so it makes sense for the diocese to have one person serving as both internal legal counsel and chancellor.

Some of the roles previously filled by the diocesan chancellor that must be performed by a priest — for instance, marriage dispensations — will be shifted to one of the three vicars general.

As legal counsel, Herrmann will serve as consulter to the bishop on legal matters from the perspective of a talented lawyer and a committed lay person, Father Mealey said.

He will serve as the “first clearing house” to legal questions. If an issue is complicated enough or will require many hours of work, it will be referred to an outside attorney.

“My sense is that from the diocese’s side, sometimes when you’re dealing with an outside lawyer, they may lose a sense of the uniqueness of the Church as a client,” Herrmann said. “What might be good advice for a corporate entity may not be a match for the Church.”

Herrmann, a Virginia native, grew up in Williamsburg. He graduated from William and Mary Law School in 1992 and has worked in several areas of law since then. Working mainly in litigation, he has worked for firms dealing with construction and commercial contracts, zoning and employment issues — all areas which will he will deal with working for the diocese.

Herrmann and his wife will reside in Arlington.

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