Boards > Lifestyle > NEWS: Organist Moonlights as Organist.
NEWS: Organist Moonlights as Organist.1SleeperCellI'm lostJune 2007JUN 11, 2007 02:41 PMCULTURE: Organist Moonlights as Organist. Everybodys got their sumpthin sumpthin on the side. So when Linette Servais decided to be a consultant for Pure Romance, she never dreamt it would conflict with her duties as organist, choir director, historian, and annual summer picnic planner at St. Joseph Catholic Parish in rural New Franken, Wisconsin - a church shes attended for 35 years.
Father Dean Dombroski, however, had something to say about what he perceived as a serious conflict of interest between her volunteer work at the church, and her work as a purveyor of romance enhancers. In fact, he penned a letter to his congregation stating:
Linette is a consultant for a firm which sells products of a sexual nature that are not consistent with Church teachings. Because parish leaders are expected to model the teaching of our faith, once this matter became public she and I met and she was given a choice. Either she could stay on as the choir director/organist or she could continue to be a consultant but she could not do both.
After several hours blasting The Clashs Should I Stay or Should I Go? on her boombox, and praying on the matter, Servais came to realize that Pure Romance was her personal ministry, giving her the ability to help women, particularly those with cancer-related sexual dysfunctions. Servais said she feels called as a Christian to help these women, and doesnt believe that her work is incompatible with her Catholicism. Says Servais:
Father Dean made it sound so sinful. It's about empowering women and helping them strengthen their relationships. My greatest reward is when women tell me that I helped strengthen their marriages.
Servais responded to Father Dombroski with her own 3 page letter which rocked the congregation even harder. Most of the choir even quit out of solidarity, and have since been gathering at her home on Thursdays both to try out her wares, and to sing the familiar hymns, and humms, and uhhhs, and ahhhhhs