Members of the two archdiocesan councils and five boards are in the process of holding their first meeting to consider their roles and by-laws.

The first meetings have been held at the home of Archbishop Hallinan to discuss the functions of each of the boards or councils, and for members to become acquainted with each other.

John Ferguson, chairman of the Board of Social Services, had this to say after the board’s initial meeting last Friday: “Our duty is to understand the social problems that exist and utilize the Catholic organizations that can fix these problems.

“We should utilized nonsectarian organizations—not duplicate them—to provide social services to the Catholic community on problems with a religious connotation. However, we shouldn’t limit our services just to Catholics.”

Archbishop Hallinan said the boards and councils are a new type of archdiocesan government. “The concept is called the shared exercise of authority which maintains the authority of the Church and introduces a truly consultative process in which bishops do not act without knowledge of the groups.”

The Board of Social Services includes the Village of St. Joseph, Catholic Family Services, the Department of Resettlement, and the St. Vincent de Paul Society.

Father James F. Scherer, executive secretary of Catholic Social Services and priest-secretary to the board, said, “We will review the needs and services. As we grow we’ll need additional services, and will work with the existing public and private agencies.

The Archdiocesan Board of Education, at its Tuesday meeting, was told that it will have to make great decisions on Catholic education in the coming years.

“The education process is filled with financial and philosophic problems,” said Father Daniel J. O’Connor, secretary of the board.

‘It will be our job to work with policy while administration is the job of principals. The line can be touchy because there is no sure-fire plan of everybody staying on his side of the line,” the educator said.

He pointed out that Synod recommended that every school be accredited by 1972 and also mentioned the difficulty of obtaining nuns to teach.

Archbishop Hallinan said the general plan was to give top rate schooling without bankrupting Catholic families.

Sam McQuaid, board chairman, said the board “must keep its eye on education. It’s easy to get off on budgets, location of lunchroom, etc.” He called a meeting of the board for Saturday morning at St. Joseph’s High School to begin work on a constitution.