The board of the Harvard-Radcliffe Catholic Student Center met yesterday with Humberto Cardinal Medeiros to protest what its members call its diminishing role in the decision-making process in the parish.

Robert O'Shea, president of the Catholic student center, said yesterday that "the fundamental question is what the role of any layman is in the Catholic church, and the cardinal and I have differing views."

The board has protested Medieros's appointment of Fr. John Boles to replace Fr. Edward Murray as pastor of St. Paul's Catholic Church and chaplain of Harvard.

The board charges that the Committee of Clergy, which recommended Boles's appointment to Medieros, was not representative of the parish and did not seek a broad spectrun of advice during its search process this summer.

Board members maintain that the committee's recommendation was contrary to the principles of Vatican II, which under, the late Pope John XXIIL opened the Catholic church to lay discussion and participation.

"We suggested to the Cardinal that he was ill-served by the Committee of Clergy, since the composition of the committee did not include any lay officials or women," William F. Kuntz II, a member of the board, said yesterday.

Kuntz said Medeiros appeared responsive to an increased role for the board in the future, and to the need for "an honest appraisal" of the decision-making structure.

He said Medeiros did not repudiate the recommendations of the committee or say that they were based on insufficient consultation.