Philip Blumel: Does God support term limits? Hi, Philip Blumel, welcome to No Uncertain Terms, the official podcast of the Term Limits Movement for the week of June 21st, 2021.
Stacey Selleck: Your sanctuary from partisan politics.
Philip Blumel: We don’t claim to have any special insight on this question, but maybe Pope Francis does. Last week, the Vatican mandated term limits for over 100 lay organizations and movements across the globe. In this episode, Nick Tomboulides, Executive Director of US Term Limits, and the High Priest of Term Limits Gospel, weighs in on the news. Hey, Nick. Before we start talking about the subject, Nick, let’s watch a little video, this is direct from Rome Reports, and it tells the story pretty well. Roll it.
Speaker 3: Millions of Catholics all over the world, live out their faith with lay groups, like Neocatechumenal Way, Communion and Liberation, Regnum Christi, and the Focolare Movement. The Vatican recognizes a total of about 100. Many of these institutions were born in the middle of the 20th century, while others were founded more recently and are loosely structured. That’s why starting now, to avoid abuses of power, the Vatican is mandating that governing positions be limited to five-year terms, renewable only once.
[foreign language]
Speaker 3: The term limit does not apply to founders, at least until they have established a clearly defined charism. Another important change is that all full members of each movement are now required to participate directly or indirectly, in the election of new superiors. The norm will go into effect on September 11th, and the Vatican asks leaders who have already surpassed the five year mark, to call for new elections as soon as possible.
Philip Blumel: Okay, Nick. What do you think?
Nick Tomboulides: I think, every week, we yell about politics, and now we’re going to yell about religion too, because religion and politics are very under-discussed topics in this country, let me just get that out of the way. But this is a cool story. It’s a 10-year term limit for lay leaders, leaders of lay Catholic orders, of which there are around 100 around the globe, and it’s got the Vatican’s official stamp of approval, and this is a decree. We have seen term limits as constitutional amendments, we’ve seen them as statutes, we’ve seen them as parts of city and town charters and what have you, but I never thought I’d see term limits as a papal decree, coming from the Bishop of Rome. That’s pretty darn cool. So Pope Francis, officially behind term limits, his predecessor did in a way, also Pope Benedict term limited himself, he pulled a George Washington and stepped down. But this is the first we’re hearing out of Pope Francis, and it’s a step in the right direction. It’s great.
Philip Blumel: Oh, sure, it is. In that clip, in case your language skills aren’t that great, the Pope was speaking, and here’s what he said, “The movements and the new communities that you represent, are now in a stage of ecclesiastical maturity, which requires an attitude of vigilance and permanent conversion, in order to make evangelizing spirit more alive and fruitful.” Now, that’s interesting, because these are points that we keep making me. They’ve reached ecclesiastical maturity, they’ve been in office a long time, and therefore we need extra vigilance.
Nick Tomboulides: There was an explanatory notes attached to this, approved by Pope Francis, and in that note, they said that the term limits were necessary to discourage cults of personality from growing around the founders of these orders, also to reduce conflict among members, create better working relationships and encourage renewal within the communities. Those sound exactly like some of the reasons why we support term limits on elected officials. We see cults of personality arising in politics, we see stagnation, we see the need for renewal, and also, they kind of got into here, it seems like the Vatican is a little disappointed that the elections for leadership in many of these groups, are not very competitive, and they kind of intimated, the term limits will stimulate competition and they want more people voting in these elections, and they think term limits is a major piece of that. So it’s incredible what the parallels are, between political term limits and divine term limits.
Philip Blumel: Yeah, it is true. And you know, these organizations are basically non-profits, and we’re talking about… By the way, when we’re talking about these lay organizations, we’re talking about organizations like the Society of St. Vincent de Paul…
Nick Tomboulides: Knights of Columbus.
Philip Blumel: Yeah, the Focolare Movement, the International Catholic Society For Girls, that’s the type of organizations we’re talking about. So we’re talking about non-profits. And as we’ve talked about on podcasts in the past, there’s… Non-profit boards typically use term limits for all these same reasons, and that the Vatican is learning this lesson, just like anyone else it runs these organizations. There’s a new book that just came out, by a guy named James Mueller, he’s a consultant that works with non-profits, he’s been working with non-profits for 40 years, his book’s called Onboarding Champions : The Seven Recruiting Principles of Highly Effective Nonprofit Boards, and he makes the same case that the Pope was making. He said, “I can count on one hand, the number of times I’ve seen ineffective or difficult board members gracefully separate from a board.” He said, “Removing a board member is risky and embarrassing, and I’ve not encountered even one board chair who is comfortable with the task,” and he says, “Term limits are the way in which those situations can be addressed.”
Philip Blumel: That’s what the Pope’s learning. And I wanna tell you something about the Pope. In 1870, the first Vatican Council decided that he was infallible in issues of doctrine. Now, I don’t know whether or not the term limits fall inside or outside that definition of doctrine, but I’m just gonna give them the benefit of doubt on this one.
Nick Tomboulides: It’s a great endorsement to have, and you better believe that I’m gonna mention it next time I meet with some politicians in Washington. But you think about this, it’s funny. As you said, a majority of non-profit boards have term limits. A growing number of for-profit boards now have term limits. And the rest of them don’t really need it because the average tenure is pretty short. Now you see the biggest church in the world coming on board, and yet the US Congress remains the only institution in the world, the only large, powerful institution in the world with powerful senior entrenched members, that never sees the light on this issue. And it’s incredible. The world is changing around them, term limits are being adopted everywhere, and yet Congress is stuck in the Stone Age.
Philip Blumel: Yeah, they’re only gonna see the light when it’s a fire that we light under ’em.
Nick Tomboulides: Yep. They see the light once they feel the heat.
[music]
Kenn Quinn: Hi. This is Ken Quinn, Regional Director with US Term Limits. In this new segment we have titled “Article V in a Flash,” we will be introducing topics in regard to either the Article V convention or term limits for Congress to hopefully whet your appetite to wanna learn more. Each of these topics have been made into a flash card that we share with state legislators to educate them on the process and to answer any questions or concerns they may have. As you can imagine, there are people and groups out there that spread a lot of misinformation and fear in regard to these subjects, in order to protect the establishment and maintain the status quo down in Washington DC. Now we’re gonna have a little fun and do some myth-busting to break through all the nonsense and present the factual evidence. One of the more common myths we hear is that an Article V convention is actually a constitutional convention, or a ConCon, that has the power to rewrite the entire Constitution. Have you heard that one yet? Simply reading the text of Article V proves this is false. But did you know that the framers address the differences between a constitutional convention and an Article V convention for proposing an amendment in their writings? They sure did, and you can check it out for yourself by going to termlimits.com/debunkingmyths. There, you can read the flash card titled, “The Difference Between an Article V Convention and a Constitutional Convention.” Thank you.
Scott Tillman: Hi, this is Scott Tillman, the National Field Director with US Term Limits. There’s a man walking across the country, for term limits. Timothy Israel, who goes by Izzy, is walking across the country. Izzy started in South Florida and plans to end up in northwest Washington State. Izzy is walking today in North Carolina, where the resolution will be voted on by the state legislature. If you are able, please donate on his website, go to whereisizzy.com and you’ll be directed to Izzy’s donations page. That’s W-H-E-R-E-I-S-I-Z-Z-Y.com. There are many creative ways to get people excited about the momentum in the Term Limits Movement. Normally, we attend several conferences, fairs and other events each year, but in 2020, because of COVID, that was all shut down. This year we’re back and we’ll be at many conferences and we’re lining up some fairs. If you would like to help, we would like to connect. If you’re interested, please email me, Scott Tillman, at stillman@termlimits.com, that’s S-T-I-L-L-M-A-N@termlimits.com. Thank you.
Philip Blumel: Thanks for joining us for another episode of No Uncertain Terms. The Term Limits Convention bills are moving through the state legislatures. This could be a break through year for the Term Limits Movement. To check on the status of the term limits convention resolution in your state, go to termlimits.com/takeaction. There, you will see if it has been introduced and where it stands in the committee process on its way to the floor vote. If there’s action to take, you’ll see a “Take Action” button by your state, click it. This will give you the opportunity to send a message to the most relevant legislators, urging them to support the legislation. They have to know you’re watching. That’s termlimits.com/takeaction. If your state has already passed the Term Limits Convention Resolution, or the bill has not been introduced in your state, you can still help. Please consider making a contribution to US Term Limits. It is our aim to hit the reset button on the US Congress and you can help. Go to termlimits.com/donate, termlimits.com/donate. Thanks. We’ll be back next week.
Stacey Selleck: The revolution isn’t being televised. Fortunately, you have No Uncertain Terms podcast.
S7: USTL.