A Wider View Of Anglican Use

In response to my request for more information on the St Mary Las Vegas Anglican Use parish, my regular correspondent very kindly sent me a link to this 1992 article from Crisis magazine. Significantly, the 1993 meeting between Cardinal Ratzinger and the Fort Worth Episcopalians must have been something Cardinal Law was actively trying to set up at the time, so that the piece's tone was already premature:

In his Apologia Pro Vita Sua, Newman wrote that Anglicans would never convert to Catholicism en masse. Rather, individuals would come home to Rome a few at a time as they grew unable to tolerate the abuses in their own communion. Ronald Knox probably provided the best explanation for such foot-dragging in his own spiritual autobiography, The Spiritual Aeneid. It was not enough, he discovered, simply to disbelieve in a Canterbury which manifested fundamental error by tolerating so many individual errors. Rather, one must affirmatively believe in the truth taught by Rome.

The personal influence of Newman and Knox undercuts their pessimism, for these brilliant, spiritual men led many Anglicans into the Church by their personal example. If the conversion of American Episcopalians to Catholicism is accelerating, then, it must be due to reasons other than the increase of abuses—foreseen by Newman and Knox—in the ever-tolerant Anglican community.

The piece lists the following Anglican Use parishes as of its 1992 writing. I'm not sure if it claims to be exhaustive:

1. Saint Gregory Plano, TX
2. Saint Mary the Virgin Arlington, TX
3. Saint Augustine of Canterbury Atlanta, GA
4. Our Lady of the Atonement San Antonio, TX
5. Saint Mary the Virgin Las Vegas, NV
6. Saint Margaret of Scotland Austin, TX
7. Our Lady of Walsingham Houston, TX
8. Good Shepherd Columbia, SC

It mentions groups-in-formation in Corpus Christi, TX and San Diego. Neither seems to be connected with the current OCSP groups in those areas. Significantly, no mention is made of the failed St Mary of the Angels Hollywood attempt to become Anglican Use. It does not mention the St Athanasius Anglican Use community in Chestnut Hill, MA, which with Our Lady of the Atonement is the only remaining Anglican Use parish.

On one hand, that only eight Anglican Use parishes had been established by 1992 should have been an indication that Episcopalians weren't rushing for the exits, and the apparent failure of groups-in-formation mentioned in the article, as well as its silence about St Mary of the Angels, should have been another indication that Anglican Use had not been a success. No wonder Cardinal Law wanted to take a second shot.

But in addition, of the eight parishes listed, only three have survived in any form, two of them going into the OCSP and Our Lady of the Atonement still remaining Anglican Use. This is simply not a record of success, and it confirms, rather than refutes, the pessimistic views of Newman and Knox.

I would greatly appreciate further information on the fates of those parishes on the list that have disappeared, as well as information on any Anglican Use parishes that may have been formed but aren't mentioned here. According to the article, by the way, Saint Mary Las Vegas was formed in 1983 and was still in existence at the time of its writing in 1992. An obituary for Fr Clark Tea, its pastor, appears here.

What Happened In Vegas?

Some of it stayed in Vegas. Yesterday I mentioned in passing a Pastoral Provision parish, St Mary's Anglican Use Catholic parish in Las Vegas, Nevada. The bare bones of the story, as I understand them, is that it was able to purchase a former Protestant building and fitted it out for traditional Anglo-Catholic worship. I'm told the group numbered from 120 to 200, which would be larger than almost all OCSP groups. However, the former Anglican pastor was obliged to retire for reasons that are unclear.

The diocese sent a supply priest to say masses at the community, but given the small numbers of the parish by diocesan standards, the bishop could no longer afford to supply the parish with a priest. I'm told that one Sunday a sign was posted on the parish doors, informing members that the parish was closed and to start attending their local novus ordo parishes. The parish plant was sold and is now a parking lot of a mini-mart.

One might argue that this is the reason Anglicanorum coetibus was established, to put now-Catholic former Anglican groups out of the reach of unfriendly diocesan bishops. But how would the story have been different if the Las Vegas group had been part of OCSP? An Anglican pastor, for any of several reasons, is unable to continue with the group. The closest potential replacement is many hundreds of miles away, perhaps already occupied with his own group, and perhaps unable to relocate in any case. How would things have been better in the OCSP?

A visitor has pointed out that even in the OCSP, if a diocesan bishop pulls support for an OCSP group, for instance by denying living arrangements in a diocesan rectory (as was done in Rochester, NY), or denying other diocesan chaplain or supply assignments, the OCSP group is just as dead as the one in Las Vegas. A personal prelature works only in theory if it isn't prosperous, and clearly none of the Ordinariates is self-sustaining enough to relocate clergy without diocesan support. The money isn't there, and with membership numbers somewhere in four figures at best, it will never be.

I would be interested to hear any additional information on the St Mary's Las Vegas experience, especially dates.

What Did Cardinal Law Have In Mind?

I'm increasingly convinced that Anglicanorum coetibus has been a disappointment -- indeed, something more like an embarrassment. It's worth pointing out that St Mary of the Angels has been at the center of the Anglican-Roman Catholic ecumenism story from the time of initial contacts between Fr Barker and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1977, and up to December of 2011 -- based on statements by Cardinal Law's surrogate Msgr William Stetson -- it had been intended that the parish would be the first to be received into the newly-erected Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter.

This didn't happen, and the details have been the story of this blog. The puzzle has been that Cardinal Law has been involved in the process at least from the time of the 1980 Chicago meetings involving Fr Barker, unsuccessfully proposing a personal prelature, through the 1993 meeting with Cardinal Ratzinger that eventually resulted in Anglicanorum coetibus, up to the diaconal ordination of Jeffrey Steenson in Rome in 2008.

From the mid-1980s to 2012, Anglican Use proved to be a damp squib, although there was what appears to have been a notable failure, a sort of anti-proof of concept, in Las Vegas. During the same period, "continuing Anglicanism" turned out to be a comic opera production, something between The Mouse That Roared and Springtime for Hitler, with nothing to recommend it as a starting point for serious ecumenism. The 1993 proposal for Anglicanorum coetibus was simply withdrawn when it became plain that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith would never approve it, probably with good reason.

It's hard to avoid the impression that careerism motivated the major players. Clarence Pope was clearly aiming to become a married Catholic bishop, and he disintegrated personally when this proved unattainable. "Continuing Anglican" clergy, frequently without seminary degrees or even four years in college, wanted something as close as they could get to the prestigious, well-paid, and undemanding slots that are sometimes still available in TEC.

Jeffrey Steenson, unlike Pope, settled for monsignor, but he saw the position of Ordinary almost exclusively as a way to look after his cronies and a few favored attractive young candidates, with no serious plan or intent to grow the OCSP. Given 30-plus years of experience, though, there's little that could have been expected other than what's taken place.

But Bernard Law made Cardinal. He made Archbishop of Boston. It can't have been careerism that drove him to promote this losing proposition. What on earth did he have in mind?

And my guess is that Bp Lopes, who must certainly have further ambitions, does not intend to ride the OCSP to the top -- more likely, he'll want to bring about a graceful shutdown.

Losing Momentum?

My regular correspondent comments regarding my last post,

It would be interesting to know Bp Lopes' frank opinion on the question you pose in your last sentence, coming as he does from a background where the Anglican Patrimony was unknown and Not Missed. He did make a very positive comment in the last Ordinariate Observer about a cupcake rosary made by the Sunday School at Incarnation, Orlando but I cannot regard that as reflecting any aspect of AP. I think he is just trying to make the best of an ill-conceived experiment, one which will neither draw in any significant number of converts nor serve as a template for further initiatives of this sort. And the idea that it cannot be allowed to fail is without foundation, I think. Naturally no one wants something which apparently had papal support to tank, but time passes and the boosters are replaced. The Legionaries of Christ were a favoured group not so long ago. Not that I am making any kind of specific comparison, just pointing put that it is possible even in the Vatican to admit that errors in judgement were made, and move on.

It's harder and harder for me to avoid the idea that Bp Lopes is a real Catholic and a real bishop. Does he have a mandate to fix it or shut it down?

The Woman At The Well And Anglicanorum Coetibus

Ven Fulton Sheen often talks about angels, and it was probably an angel who suggested I compare two Youtube homilies on the woman at the well (John 4:1-42). One is by Ven Sheen himself, here. The other is by Bp Barron, here. It seems to me that they both represent a perspective in the mainstream of traditional Catholic thought, although nobody can be sure what Pope Francis might say about the story on an Alitalia jet.

Both Ven Sheen and Bp Barron say that a big thing the well represents in this story is concupiscence, which in the traditional Catholic view works through the tendencies in the seven deadly sins, although Bp Barron adds the dimension of marriage to the image of the well. Toward the end of the story, the woman leaves the well and forgets her pitcher, which in the view of both implies that she is leaving concupiscence behind, in response to the demand Our Lord makes. It is a story in which the woman becomes Catholic -- in fact, I would say specifically Catholic, and both Ven Sheen and Bp Barron provide far more detail and insight into the story than I ever heard in a TEC homily.

Indeed, fairly late in my TEC time, I went to an adult forum where a TEC priest -- significantly, a Nashotah House alum who is very free to advertise this about himself -- explained that "the seven deadly sins are neither here nor there". I'm not sure if he ever quite got around to explaining what is in fact here or there. At the time, his view certainly matched my own impression of Anglicanism, a via media compromise that had a basic advantage of not being as demanding as Catholicism. A big point Bp Barron makes about the woman at the well is that divine mercy is, however, demanding.

This strikes me as the big difference between Catholicism and Protestantism. Both Calvin and Luther have variations on a view that human nature is entirely depraved, and we can't help ourselves. Thus Protestant divine mercy is something that saves us completely independently of our own efforts, which are unavailing in any case. The Catholic view, as I understand it at this point, is that reason can discipline the will with the help of the sacraments and lead us to greater holiness, and our efforts are availing.

This is at the root of the personal decision I had to make in becoming Catholic. I'm increasingly convinced that particular points of Anglican liturgy -- which Bp Lopes has said are the Anglican spiritual patrimony -- are neither here nor there, especially in the context of Our Lord's demands as expressed in traditional Catholic thought. Indeed, I get the feeling that a great deal that's taught at Nashotah House is at best a distraction, and the point is repeatedly made that it busily ordains women and openly same-sex attracted people.

Yet in the US-Canadian Ordinariate, Nashotah House has up to very recently been thought to be a prestigious place. How much of the idea behind Ordinariates -- which originated, after all, in large part from the seriously compromised Jeffrey Steenson's original draft of the Anglican personal prelature -- is a distraction from the real demands of divine mercy?

Bp Lopes's Future

My regular correspondent notes,

As we have discussed previously, Bp Lopes is 40 and I'm sure he doesn't plan to stick around too long in a diocese with fewer members than the average Catholic parish. So his career path depends on whipping the OCSP into some kind of credible shape, and in short order. Given the men he has inherited from the previous regime he cannot hope that anything is going to "take off;" he is lucky that he has seven congregations that are self-sustaining.

But he can introduce structures that produce a stable, if very limited, operation. This probably means building relationships with the dioceses in which the OCSP quasi-parishes and groups-in-formation are located, ie those groups which cannot support a full-time priest. With diocesan jobs and housing, the OCSP can attract younger clergy, including those who may have been ordained under the Pastoral Provision in the first instance, to replace the motley collection of retirees from a wide assortment of jurisdictions with which he now has to deal. Part of this process will require establishing guidelines for compensation and benefits.

He will also need to bring groups into more conspicuous conformity with regard to canon law, both liturgically and administratively. He seems to have got rid of the deadwood in the Chancery, so he is in a better position to identify further areas where head office needs to ride herd. As I have said a number of times, I do not think the part-time Ordinariate, part-time diocesan priest model has much potential to produce self-supporting parishes over time, but in the short term it should ensure survival.

Comments I hear elsewhere suggest that, on one hand, the original Steenson clique was Anglican but compromised by decades of happily advancing by coexisting with women clergy -- and in 2005, Steenson effectively supported Gene Robinson's consecration in his essay "The New Donatists" (apparently now scrubbed from the web). On the other hand, Bp Lopes now has no Anglican background at all. This suggests that the OCSP has lost any indefinite focus it may earlier have had, which leads other commentators to see a limited life expectancy as well.

Another visitor makes a worthwhile point in the context of yesterday's post on Methoidsts in the Ordinariate:

[T]here is nothing whatsoever that prevents an ordinariate from receiving a minister with a congregation from any Protestant body and ordaining the former minister as that congregation's pastor.

There is indeed a distinction between Methodists and other Protestants with respect to the ordinariates, but it has nothing to do with the possible reception and subsequent ordination of clergy who come from a Methodist body, either with or without congregations. Rather, the fact that Methodism is an offshoot of Anglican Christianity, and thus deemed to be part of the Anglican tradition, means that former Methodists who were received into the full communion of the Catholic Church within the jurisdiction of a diocese may subsequently enroll in the ordinariate in the same manner as former Anglicans, even though they do not receive the sacraments of initiation within the jurisdiction of the ordinariate.

This faculty extends to former Methodist ministers, who may seek ordination for the service of the ordinariate after enrolling therein or, if already ordained as Catholic deacons or presbyters, may seek excardination from their current dioceses and incardination into the ordinariate to become part of the ordinariate's clergy. By contrast, former Baptists or former Presbyterians received into full communion of the Catholic Church in a diocesan parish normally cannot enroll in an ordinariate unless they belong to ordinariate families.

So I'm not entirely sure what the big deal is. To be a "member" of an Ordinariate strikes me as something essentially meaningless, even more ambiguous than parish registration, a little like my late mother's unfulfilled lifelong aspiration to become a Daughter of the American Revolution, which as far as I can see would not have reduced her time in Purgatory even if she'd fulfilled it.

The more I look at the Ordinariates, the more questions I have about purpose and focus.

Methodists In The Ordinariate?

A visitor pointed me to this article at The American Conservative on the United Methodist Church electing a lesbian bishop. Apparently one of his correspondents raised a question:

Since Methodists now have the right to become members of the Ordinariate, I wonder if there would be any UMC congregations that would have an interest in joining it. My guess is that there would not likely be any, but joining it could be something that some of them may want to discern.

I think this is a purely theoretical question, for several reasons. I strongly suspect that Methodists were added to the list for clergy-centered reasons, to make favored outlier candidates like Fr Baaten or Fr Treco eligible for ordination without an associated group. If such candidates have the right connections, they'll make it in over mainstream Anglicans without them.

But the process of discernment for a group or parish is also frequently divisive. Methodists don't have a Methodo-Catholic tradition, and anti-Catholic feelings are probably more likely to exist among factions in a Methodist parish. I would imagine that a Methodist parish that was sufficiently upset about the national move would go looking for an alternative similar to breakaway conservative Lutheran or Presbyterian denominations.

According to the USCCB, something like 60,000 baptized Christians are received from other denominations in the US each year. A non-trivial number of these are probably Methodists, and probably far more than would ever come in via Anglicanorum coetibus. And let's face it, the decision to become Catholic is always an individual one.

But finally, defections from liberal denominations once they make supposedly "last straw" moves have always been overestimated -- recall Clarence Pope's 1993 estimate to Cardinal Ratzinger that 250,000 US Episcopalians would come into a personal prelature. Instead, such numbers have never been sufficient even to make the national denominations take other than legal notice.

I don't think Houston will ever hear a peep from any disgruntled Methodists -- and this should be cause for reassessment of what the Ordinariates were meant to do.

"The Trial Of An Archbishop"

Fr Kelley recently lent me a copy of a pamphlet with this title, published by the St Mary of the Angels Press in 1995. It contains the transcript of the abortive September 16, 1991 trial proceedings against then-ACC Archbishop Louis Falk. The back cover is shown at left; as you can see, it contains the image of a kangaroo. Kangaroo proceedings, of course, have not been unheard of in the ACC, the ACA, or the TAC.

The proceedings themselves ended the same day they started on an inconclusive basis, with one of the bishops on the panel that served as a jury having to leave due to a death in the family, which resulted in the loss of a quorum. According to Douglas Bess's account of the circumstances surrounding the trial in Divided We Stand, which I summarized here, the ACC bishops subsequently negotiated a settlement that allowed Falk to leave the ACC with his diocese, and the bishops that left the ACC with him formed the ACA.

The transcript is not clear on the charges that were actually brought against Falk. A Dr Robert Strippy provided a preface to the transcript in which he says the charges were that "he participated in the call for a conference on Continuing Anglican unity, and he received the Holy Communion at a synod of the American Episcopal Church". Since the trial was interrupted and never resumed, this is in fact all the record reflects. What the prosecutors intended to develop based on this is not clear.

Douglas Bess, who apparently had extensive input from ACC sources, said Falk's actual offenses were developing the TAC as a superdenominational body, thus undermining the ACC bishops, and ordaining priests of highly questionable morals, including one who was alleged to be a bigamist. Falk, of course, continues to be a highly controversial figure among the "continuing" movement, and I've had conversations with ACC sources (some of whom may also have talked to Bess) that indicate how much bitterness remains toward him.

My own views on Falk have moderated. In particular, I no longer believe he actually called or e-mailed Anthony Morello to convey a message to David Virtue that he had never offered episcopal guidance to the St Mary of the Angels parish during 2011-12 -- I now believe this was a falsehood concocted by Morello. However, although Falk provided assistance to the parish via phone discussions with police and depositions in the legal proceedings, these were behind the scenes, and my view is that Falk might have been of greater help in public remarks.

But the biggest question that emerges from the transcript is the involvement of ACC Bp James Mote as president of the court. Mote is probably the single most puzzling figure in the "continuing" movement. He was a prime mover in bringing about the 1977 Congress of St Louis and founding the ACC, but Louis Falk, who did not attend the Congress, contacted Mote the following year and, according to a source, offered him his services at that time. According to an ACC source, both Mote and Falk were alumni of Nashotah House, and Mote took this as a recommendation. (Nashotah House alums think well of themselves and each other.) Over the next few years, Falk steadily rose in Mote's estimation and fairly quickly eclipsed Mote in ACC leadership, especially after his 1981 consecration by Mote as ACC Bishop of the Missouri Valley.

Mote's presence a decade later as the president of the court is one of his few subsequent appearances in the record, and he disappears again after the trial was suspended. When I got in touch with Douglas Bess, the issue of what happened with Mote was one of the first questions I raised, and Bess said he had no additional information.

The only additional point of information I get is a prefatory memo from Falk in the trial pamphlet, which notes that the trial took place in a typical hotel meeting room, with typical hotel long tables, on which typical glasses and pitchers of ice water were provided for the participants -- except that Mote had a pitcher of iced tea. My surmise, and possibly the reason Falk noted this, is that it may not have been iced tea but rather "iced tea". Beyond that, who can say?

Another Note On Gathered Communities

My regular correspondent sends this further information:

Fr Harris, of the Fredericton community of Our Lady of the Sign, has been offering a Divine Worship mass at irregular intervals for several months in Halifax (about a four hour drive from Fredericton). There is no website, but contact information is given on the OCSP website, and there is also a notice on the local archdiocesan website.

I do not think that getting a core group of inquirers together is rocket science, nor does it require episcopal effort. If it has not been undertaken by other priests incardinated in the OCSP who are without groups it is because their diocesan, chaplaincy, or teaching responsibilities keep them fully occupied. As I have mentioned, even those who have a regular Divine Worship mass in addition to local parish duties seem to be maintaining the status quo, but not growing their Ordinariate community.

The membership of the [UK Ordinariate] has stagnated at around 1500 for the last two years. I feel this is because the model of having a priest whose primary responsibility is a diocesan parish, with an Ordinariate group on the side, is not conducive to developing an attractive destination for those thinking of entering the Catholic church. If this becomes the primary model in the OCSP (and financially it seems inevitable) I do not foresee a different outcome than that experienced by the OOLW.

My other visitor pointed out,

I presume that you did not see the recent article about Fr. Timothy Perkins, the new vicar general for the Archdiocese, that first appeared in North Texas Catholic and was republished on the Ordinariate Expats web site.

The article quotes Fr. Perkins as saying that he is now working with half a dozen congregations that are "discern[ing] their path into the church," one of which he had recently visited in Kentucky where there is no ordinariate presence right now.

On this, we'll have to see what develops -- but there's no easy way as yet that anyone in the vicinity of these discerning groups can get in touch with them and potentially swell their numbers. Why not?

More On Diocesan Referrals

On the comments by yesterday's visitor, my regular correspondent writes,

Abp Collins may well have contacted local pastors; since he was tasked with supervising the Ordinariate set-up in Canada he, unlike any normal diocesan bishop, had a vested interest in recruiting those who were already Catholic to consider moving to another jurisdiction. But the "core group" was actually assembled by a clergyman still active in the ACC and consisted of a group of friends of his wife who had all gone to the same Anglican parish before becoming Catholics, plus some "seekers" considering becoming Catholic, including a few "continuing" Anglicans.

During the formation period now-Fr Hodgins blogged regularly about the Ordinariate as "Peregrinus," as he continues to do. A priest already incardinated in an Ordinariate could of course undertake a much more open recruitment campaign. The administrator of the Vancouver group placed an announcement on the local diocesan website, where it can still be seen.

As one of the largest dioceses in the [Anglosphere]Toronto must be home to literally thousands of former Anglicans, now Catholics; however, ASA at the OCSP mission, St Thomas More, is about 25 or 30. Given dynamic leadership I am sure an Ordinariate parish can grow many times this size, as OLA, San Antonio has done, but I do not think that there is any inherent demand for what is on offer. As you say, what problem is it trying to solve?

My correspondent later pointed out,

To clarify, only two members of the exploratory group who were not Catholics actually went on to become members of St Thomas More, Toronto. The rest (about 10) had previously joined the Church. And Our Lady of Walsingham, Vancouver was not a gathered group in the first instance, but about a dozen members from three area parishes of the ACCC, although the priest did subsequently place the notice which I drew to your attention.

Catholics who've never had an Anglican connection have other options if they want a more reverent liturgy. For starters, not all parishes are flip-flops and halter-tops, guitars and tambourines, and Catholics have the option of going to the mass they prefer. Extraordinary Form masses are more prevalent than Ordinariate groups.

As a former Episcopalian, I see little to miss when I find a reverent Ordinary Form mass in which the clergy preaches the faith. Indeed, a parish that fills its pews and generates celibate vocations is something you almost never see in Anglicanism these days.

And What Good Are Ordinariate Groups?

A visitor writes,

I'm not surprised that there are relatively few gathered groups in the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. It's very difficult to gather such a group without somebody who knows enough people -- perhaps a dozen or so -- who can form a core for such a group and begin to pull in others. A diocesan bishop who supports the ordinariate project can muster the resources to identify and form such a core group, as Archbishop (now Cardinal) Thomas Collins of Toronto did, by pressing his pastors to identify parishioners who have come into the Catholic Church and current inquirers from the Anglican tradition, and it's unfortunate that relatively few diocesan bishops have taken this initiative. Unfortunately, few of the rest of us have the resources to do that because prospective members tend to be scattered across many parishes, and thus unknown to one another -- something that a diocesan bishop is in a unique position to instigate.

My visitor certainly implies that this depends on the bishop. But we see that the Bishops of Orange and San Diego are both supportive of Ordinariate groups, since both attended Fr Baaten's recent ordination with Bp Lopes. Yet neither the Irvine nor the Oceanside group appears to be distinguishing itself. For individuals seeking out a BDW liturgy to contact a bishop would under any circumstances be an infrequent event, it seems to me, and even the bishop might need to go to the OCSP web site to find a possible referral.

But as my naive co-worker used to ask in meetings, what problem are we trying to solve? Let's look at the elephant in the room as far as increasing numbers of mainstream Catholics are beginning to see it: global elites are promoting a materialistic "scientism", more recently augmented by an alliance with Mohammedanism (Ven Fulton Sheen called it "Mahometanism", which I like even better and will probably use from now on). The secular Kulturkampf is now increasingly enforced by violent religious attacks against Jews and Christians, which the elites minimize and disavow while nevertheless blithely setting up the conditions for continued attacks.

What does it accomplish for a bishop now and then to refer a few people interested in a clumsy made-up liturgy to a few other like-minded people? The groups we see are not just struggling, they're clergy-centered and inward-focused. The "granny flat for the Anglicans", which it seems to me is what the Ordinariates in truth are at this point, strikes me as an adventitious development that is draining resources from what it seems to me is the real struggle. Bishops must be strengthened and encouraged, not distracted.

I wonder what other use could be made of Bp Lopes's talents and energy.

Why So Few Gathered Groups?

My regular correspondent notes,

About a dozen or so active OCSP priests have no Ordinariate assignment. When Fr Sellers was in this situation, as chaplain at St John XXIII school in Katy, TX, he nonetheless continued to work at starting up a new community. I gather from the most recent issue of the Ordinariate Observer that St Margaret's, Katy has an ASA of 24, which is quite respectable by OCSP standards. Granted as school chaplain Fr Sellers was in a position to gather for Sunday worship those who might have seen and appreciated his preaching and liturgy at the school, but he had already begun the process several months before this appointment, when it was reported by the usual sources that he was contacting his former TEC parishioners and others in the Houston area and holding meetings for inquirers at OLW. Why is this not more common?

As far as I know, only St Margaret's, St Thomas More, Toronto; BlJHN, Irvine; St George, Republic; the two groups in MN; and perhaps the elusive St Gilbert's, Ingram are "gathered" groups rather than groups whose founding members previously worshipped together in another denomination. Since, as we have discussed on a number of occasions, the number of congregational groups currently preparing to depart from TEC, the ACC, or "continuing" bodies is probably very small indeed, why is more effort not being made to bring individuals together? It seems odd that this was undertaken in Greater Houston, which is well-served by the Ordinariate cathedral, while communities like Birmingham, AL and NYC have nothing despite the local presence of an OCSP-incardinated priest.

I can think of several explanations. One is that it is unethical for a cleric to "poach" members from a former parish to join his new one, although this did not stand in the way of Fr Bartus, at least (though I'm not sure how many of the people he took from Hollywood stayed over any long term).

Another is the observation I repeatedly see that Anglicanism is a congregational denomination, and Episcopalians, whatever the actions of the national body, continue to be satisfied with their local parishes. Add to that the fact that a non-trivial number of Episcopalians are former Catholics who left the Church due to differences with its teachings, especially those surrounding marriage and the family. They could well see obstacles in returning if they have remarried, or are satisfied with TEC's positions on same-sex attraction.

A third is that there is absolutely no evangelization taking place in any of the Ordinariates, especially nothing at all comparable to that from Bp Barron, Prof Kreeft, Prof Hahn, and many others. Anyone whom these people reach is going to check out a diocesan parish, if only because the number of Ordinariate parishes, especially those with convenient mass times, is statistically insignificant.

Beyond that, Ordinariates have no intellectual existence. Let's get real about this. The closest any of the Ordinariates have to a spokesman is Fr Hunwicke, and the most polite thing I can say is that he is not G.K.Chesterton. The Ordinariate blogs have disappeared. This is probably in part a result of Jeffrey Steenson's apparent wish to suppress strong figures who might cause him to share the limelight, but I see no visible move by Bp Lopes to redress this problem. (Hint: Fr Kelley taught Christian history at the distinguished Hillsdale College. Bp Lopes, you ought to find a way to make use of him.)

But if Anglicanism brought us John Donne, John Dryden, Jonathan Swift, G.K.Chesterton, Evelyn Waugh, Dorothy Sayers, T.S.Eliot, and C.S.Lewis, (and among them and those like them, notable Catholic converts), there is no evidence that anything like them has come into the Ordinariates. As a former Episcopalian who came into the Church via RCIA, I was immediately attracted by the intellectual rigor of the tradition that stems from Aquinas. You can see it in the programs available on Youtube by Bp Sheen, Fr Ripperger, and many others. Whatever intent of bringing Anglican spirituality into the Church may have lain behind Anglicanorum coetibus, it has, to date, like the barren fig tree borne no fruit. Why cumbereth it the ground?

Yet More On Staffing

My regular correspondent continues,

Reading in greater detail the letter from Fr Liias posted on Ordinariate Expats, and also the update on Fr Seraiah posted on the parish Facebook page, I sense that the OCSP is moving closer to the model of the OOLW, where the priest responsible for an Ordinariate group also has an assignment in a diocesan parish. This is what Fr Liias is proposing for his prospective replacement. This is currently the case for Fr Chori Seraiah, Fr Randy Sly, Fr Patrick Allen, Fr Jonathan Duncan, Fr David Wagner, Fr Jason Catania, Fr Vaughn Treco, and the newly ordained Fr Luke Reese. This was the original arrangement for Fr Matthew Venuti, but he has now relinquished the Ordinariate group. (Others are doing exclusively diocesan work, or chaplaincy, with no Ordinariate duties, but that is another topic).

From one point of view this looks like the obvious solution to providing housing and/or stipends which would be beyond the abilities of the Ordinariate group, while assisting the local diocese which is no doubt short-staffed. But to return to the OOLW, which has relied on this model almost exclusively owing to its lack of self-supporting Ordinariate parishes, this has not been a recipe for growth, indeed, barely one for stability. In the case of the OOLW priests have frequently been made responsible for groups with which they had no previous connection; in the OCSP this was not initially the case but we see that, as at St Gregory the Great, Stoneham, that will be the situation in the OCSP as well in the next phase, as self-supporting retired priests leave the groups they brought into the Church to retire again.

The Ordinariate group will be only one of the new pastor's responsibilities, another collection of new faces. I think that divided loyalties and time constraints will be detrimental to the project of building up self-sustaining communities. Our Lady of Hope is not an inspiring example; granted Fr Sly has only been there six weeks, but the Holy Week schedule is still posted on the Home Page of the website and the Facebook page has likewise not been updated since March. I do not feel that St Anselm's, Greenville is any ball of fire, either, nor did St Gilbert's Boerne take off under Fr Wagner.

This doesn't sound like much of a solution, for the short or medium term. I'm lucky to be able to observe a large and prosperous diocesan parish, but I can't avoid the sense that one ingredient of success is priests from the diocese who have had traditional Catholic formation within the diocese. (Wasn't this something like what St Charles Borromeo had in mind?)

Priests who fetch up in random places after inchoate career paths that began without Catholic formation -- I just dunno. Nor does my visitor mention Fr Bartus. Somehow I get the feeling that his pastoral style would not work in a diocesan parish, what with the yuppie cliques, the beer breakfasts, and the whiskey evenings, but I don't see how the situation in Irvine differs from the others my correspondent mentions.

Again, Where's The Money?

A question that's come up after the hearing Friday is where the money is coming from for the Bush group to pay two sets of attorneys -- or whether they're being paid at all. It does appear that the Bush group emptied all the bank accounts before they were evicted, but since they'd lost the rent from the commercial space months before that (and utilities were in arrears when the vestry moved back in), it's hard to imagine that this would be enough to keep things going.

My wife thinks Lancaster has been working for IOUs for some time. I've always suspected that the Lancaster & Anastasia LLP firm's address at the prestigious California Plaza, 350 S Grand Ave #2360, Los Angeles, CA 90071, is a mail drop. Dr Trimpi, Fr Kelley's senior warden, told me last Friday that he once went to the California Plaza and asked building security if Lancaster & Anastasia LLP was a tenant. Security told him they were not but suggested he go to the loading dock and ask there.

Dr Trimpi said that as a New Jersey boy, he would never go to a loading dock to ask about someone named Anastasia. The last other news of any sort for Lancaster & Anastasia LLP contimnues to be their loss of the appeal in the Becerra case in 2015.

A related question is what has happened to The "Rt Rev" Owen Rhys Williams, who was "Bishop in Residence" (but neither rector nor priest-in-charge) while the Bush group was in possession of the property. If he is still in the area, he does not seem to be making any appearance at the neighboring All Saints Fountain Valley parish, whose facebook page suggests that, with the position of rector vacant since early 2013, they have been holding morning prayer only on Sunday mornings, led by one of their subdeacons.

While Williams is still listed as "episcopal visitor" to the moribund ACA Diocese of the West, it is Stephen Strawn who makes occasional posts on the Fountain Valley facebook page. One would think that Williams, if he's still in the area, could presumably use the honorarium for saying mass in Fountain Valley -- is there any money left for Mrs Bush to pay him in Hollywood?

You'd think the Creels in Fountain Valley would want to help the guy out. His former ACA parish, in Rochester, NH recently hired a full-time replacement rector, but it doesn't seem as if they were sad to see Williams leave in any case. What's up with this guy?

Any info would be appreciated!

More Personnel Changes

My regular correspondent reports,

You have written before about the Nashotah House-Ft Worth clique. Bp Lopes seems to be putting the finishing touches on its shake-up. Fr Dean, from the [Pastoral Provision], is the new pastor at [St Mary the Virgin], Arlington. Fr Tom Kennedy has left his position as Parochial Vicar there, after less than a year, to join his newly-retired buddy Fr Hough III at St Timothy's Fort Worth, along with another retired priest, on an interim basis, pending the unveiling of a new "long-term strategic plan" for the parish which Bp Lopes will apparently implement in 2017. Fr Stainbrook, who led St Timothy's into the Catholic church, has been assigned to St John Vianney, Cleburne---where Fr Chuck Hough III was Administrator until he became the Vicar-General in 2014. Fr Perkins has of course replaced him in that role. I previously identified Fr Hough as 62 but he is in fact 61. For Fr Hough IV's sake I hope he has proved his worth at OLW independent of his connections, because they are not looking that valuable right now.

I was puzzled that this apparently sends three priests to St Timothy Fort Worth and asked my correspondent to confirm this, as well as to confirm that this parish does not have its own facility.

No, they have an afternoon mass at a diocesan church. Fr Hough [III] is still a Priest-in-Residence at OLW, whatever that entails.

Fr Cornelius is the priest from St Alban's, Rochester who retired abruptly for health reasons. A comment on Ordinariate Expats had him "summering" back in Rochester but that doesn't seem to be hinted at on the St Alban's website.

And Fr Kennedy relocated from Henrietta, TX to take on the position at SMV Arlington last year so I am not sure what is going on there. In any event, the implication is that the three of them are merely holding the fort until the new plan is implemented next year.

I know that Bp Lopes has high hopes for the prospects of St John Vianney so perhaps there is some thought that the congregations could merge and purchase property at some convenient midpoint. Given Bp Lopes's Catholic background, not to mention common sense, he might feel that one solution to the staffing issues is to create entities with the critical mass to support stipendiary clergy. If I were he I would certainly be trying to merge the PP congregation in Boston with the Ordinariate congregation in Stoneham, MA.

In any case, it appears that the key members of the Nashotah House-Fort Worth clique are in the process of leaving Houston, whatever their ultimate disposition.

Retirements And Ordinariate Staffing

My regular correspondent has been researching the question of how soon US-Canadian Ordinariate priests will reach retirement age:

With the ordination of Glenn Baaten, Fr Ortiz-Guzman has been able to retire as Administrator of St Augustine of Canterbury, Carlsbad---something he has been trying to do for about two years. Facebook pictures of Fr Baaten's first celebration at St Augustine's last Sunday show fewer than ten people in attendance, by my count, so it is not surprising that the group had to wait for a local candidate with a day job, although Fr Baaten's position at Santiago Retreat Center seems to be at least partly crowd-funded.

Fr Scheiblhofer at St Barnabas, Omaha is also planning to retire shortly, and the parish has been fortunate to be assigned Fr Jason Catania as his associate and eventual replacement. As Fr Catania is single, Fr Scheiblhofer and his wife can remain in parish housing while Fr Catania lives in the rectory of a diocesan parish where he is also assisting. So there are creative solutions to deal with the challenge of replacing retiring pastors who have been able to support themselves with retirement income from their previous ecclesiastical employers with a new generation of priests who require a livelihood. But as we see in Kitchener, ON and Rochester, NY, these solutions are not always available.

Now Fr Liias is retiring from St Gregory the Great, Stoneham MA. Fr Liias is a retired TEC clergyman who did not rely on the congregation for housing and primary support. How will a congregation of perhaps thirty replace him? This will be a problem for most OCSP groups in the near future, including many far smaller than St Gregory's. Of course chaplaincies and other diocesan employment can supplement the stipends these groups can offer, but when we look at existing groups where this is the case we see a certain fragility which perhaps reflects the difficulty of ministering to a group, working another pastoral job, and maintaining a family.

My correspondent has found the following OCSP parishes or groups with staffing issues:

• Groups currently "in hiatus": St Edmund's, Kitchener; St Anselm's, Rochester
• Groups currently ministered to by a local diocesan priest: St Bede's, Edmonton; St Timothy's, Catonsville; Christ the King, Tyendinaga; St Gregory the Great, Mobile (the latter two have a monthly celebration)
• Groups administered by a priest of secular retirement age: Christ the King, Towson; BlJHN, Victoria; Our Lady of Walsingham, Vancouver; Good Shepherd, Oshawa; St Thomas More, Toronto; Our Lady of the Sign/St Bede, Fredericton/Halifax; St Michael, Denison; Our Lady of Mt Carmel, Savannah; St Barnabas, Omaha; St Gregory, Stoneham; St James, St Augustine

Court Session July 8

I attended the session in Department 32, now under Judge Daniel S. Murphy, this morning. It appears that what I've called the "Other Lawsuit", the attempt by the Bush group and the estate of Anthony Morello to get Church Mutual Insurance to reimburse them for their legal costs, referred back to Superior Court this past February, has been given to Judge Murphy, and motions on this suit were taken up at the same time. The basic issues are the same, whether the Bush group was ever actually the rector, wardens, and vestry of the parish and thus whether they have standing even to sue.

From the St Mary of the Angels vestry perspective, the main objective was to get Judge Murphy to dismiss the "conversion" or civil theft suit against Fr Kelley, which was brought by the Bush group in 2012. Mr Lengyel-Leahu argued again that this was a matter separate from the Rector, Wardens, and Vestry case heard by Judge Strobel in September 2015, and thus the Bush group's appeal of Judge Strobel's ruling has no bearing on it -- the appeals court determined in its 2014 opinion that the Bush group was not the legal rector, wardens, and vestry, regardless of the outcome of the current appeal.

It came out in discussion that the appeals court is nowhere near ruling on this appeal, which tended to take away from Mr Lancaster's January argument that the appeals court would rule quickly, and he would accept its ruling as dispository in the other related cases. Judge Murphy appeared to take the view that, if the appeals court was going to take longer, he was more inclined to dismiss the conversion case against Fr Kelley just to get the matter off his calendar.

Mr Lancaster, in another stunning tactical miscalculation, then announced that if Judge Murphy dismissed the conversion case, he would appeal it. Mr Lengyel-Leahu then said that clearly Mr Lancaster was not interested in the outcome of the case under appeal, that he would just keep appealing things no matter what. Judge Murphy seemed to think Mr Lengyel-Leahu had a very good, even amusing, point. As a result, he asked counsel to return on August 19 to brief the question of whether he should dismiss the case. I think I've come to read Mr Lancaster's posture, and he didn't strike me as looking like he'd won.

It looks as if the "Other Lawsuit", in which the St Mary's parish doesn't have an issue, is at an earlier stage and will go to trial next year, if then. A status conference will take place January 8, 2017.

Continued Hearing On "Related Cases" July 8

On a hearing on the St Mary of the Angels "Related Cases" (the suits and countersuits surrounding the Rector, Wardens, and Vestry case), on January 8, Judge Murphy continued the matter for six months, until July 8. It appears that this is still scheduled, and if I can confirm this, I will attend this hearing. In January, Mr Lancaster argued that since Judge Strobel's decision was under appeal, the appeals court's decision would be "dispository". However, although Mr Lancaster was confident the appeals court would rule within six months, this hasn't happened.

The vestry's position continues to be, in part, that Judge Strobel extracted from Lancaster & Anastasia the concession before trial rolled forward, September 23-25, 2015, that the outcome of that trial would be dispositive of the "Three Related Cases." In addition, based on the 2014 appeals court decision, the Bush group is not the legal rector, wardens, and vestry and does not have standing to sue in the "Related Cases".

It appears that the vestry's counsel will move again for the judge to dismiss the "Related Cases" based on lack of standing by the Bush group and award punitive damages to the vestry. We'll see how this goes.

What's The Real Future Of Ordinariates?

Responding to issues raised in yesterday's post, my regular correspondent remarks,

This was a pet project of Pope Benedict's for which no one currently in power had any particular enthusiasm, as far as I can see. Naturally no one wants conspicuous collapse, but neither will heroic measures be undertaken. The definitive declaration that no dispensations from clerical celibacy will be given other than to those already ordained in another denomination, and the apparent ending of the fast-track study-at-home academic preparation for ordinands will put a major brake on ordinations going forward, I suspect.

We have already discussed the poor prospects for significant lay interest. I note that the membership of the OOLW has remained around 1500 for the last two years. I think this means it is already circling the drain, despite what appears to be far better management. If the OCSP did not have major donor funding it would also be in crisis, I think, given that its demands are greater and its management is only now getting on track.

What we know of the Vatican initiatives toward Anglicans bears this out, it seems to me. Both the Pastoral Provision and Anglicanorum coetibus were pet projects of Cardinal Law, who advocated what led to the Pastoral Provision directly with John Paul II. It's worth noting that John Paul, given the proposal of a personal prelature in the late 1970s, didn't take it up. When Cardinal Law revived it via the meeting among Clarence Pope, Jeffrey Steenson, and Cardinal Ratzinger in 1993, John Paul was again unenthusiastic. So far, I see no reason to believe he was fundamentally mistaken.

My correspondent commented later,

[The d]ecision that ordinations to the priesthood in the OCSP will take place on a fixed date--Feast of Ss Peter and Paul-- means that no more will take place for a year. For a variety of reasons, a surplus-to-requirements TEC clergyman may no longer feel that the OCSP is a quick entree into Catholic orders and thus greater employment opportunities. In any event, this can hardly have been Pope Benedict's goal.

This raises what for me has been a disturbing quality in at least the OCSP -- it's been clergy-centered, and from Fr Bartus's own words, primarily a vehicle for candidates who couldn't get posts in TEC to compete in a less challenging pool of applicants. It looks as if this may have been the case for a few dozen, though not many of these have prospered. Frankly, I didn't become Catholic to swell the career opportunities for ambitious mediocrities.

Still later, my correspondent remarked,

What other denominations could possibly be interested in an Ordinariate? And if the uptake by Anglicans, who have been taking their liturgical cues from Rome since the middle of the 19thC, has been so minimal, why would the Vatican risk ridicule and hostility by setting up a similar structure for Lutherans, Presbyterians, or Baptists? I find the idea that the Ordinariates are some kind of template a complete fantasy.

This raises two interesting and related questions. I grew up Presbyterian, to which I must refer in trying to envision a Reformed Ordinariate (the Ordinariate of the Bl Peter Kreeft?). What is the Vatican going to do to accommodate Presbyterian liturgical traditions, e.g., the little jiggers of grape juice and the little cubes of bakery loaf? This doesn't compute. (Do we deem the grape juice to be wine, for instance?)

But also, there's no such thing as a ready-made Catholic, even among Anglicans, which again has been the actual experience in the wake of Anglicanorum coetibus. I went through a phase of regretting that I didn't have a Catholic family or a Catholic education, but the more I see of Youtube evangelists like Bp Barron, Fr Schmitz, or Prof Kreeft, the process of becoming Catholic is lifelong. It is a consequential spiritual journey, although in some cases, formation in childhood and adolescence via family, school, and parish can be an advantage.

The idea that Anglicans or any other denomination can come into the Church as some kind of freeze-dried special case promotes a great deal of misunderstanding, it seems to me, especially if their communities are seen as something unique. Pope St John Paul probably saw this behind the idea of a personal prelature, which the appointment of Bp Lopes goes some way to correct.

Two Visitors On Personnel Changes In The OCSP

A week or so ago, a visitor sent me this:

It takes time to untangle a mess, but Bishop Lopes seems to be moving in the right way. A few years ago, when the executive council of the pilot's union at Delta Air Lines approached the company's new CEO with serious concerns [about several] senior executives who were, ah, let's say, "underperforming," the new CEO's reply was, "Please give me some time to deal with this in the proper way, but I think that you will to like what I am going to do." Within a few months, he had given graceful exits to those who needed to go and replaced them with the right people for the respective positions. In the same vein, let's give Bishop Lopes a year or two before passing judgement.

As I have mentioned previously, the Vatican regards the ordinariates as a model for reconciliation of many Protestant denominations -- not just for Anglicans. For this model to work, the other denominations want absolute assurance that the ordinariates will be permanent ecclesial structures that will preserve their ecclesial and liturgical traditions, their identity, and the integrity of their ecclesial communities within the Catholic Church, and not merely a transitional structure for more gradual assimilation into the mainstream of the Roman Rite. A failure that forces suppression of an ordinariate would be devastating in this regard, so the Vatican is not going to let that to happen. Whenever it becomes apparent that there are significant problems in any ordinariate, you can be absolutely certain that the Vatican is going to move pretty swiftly to address them, either by working with the ordinary or, if necessary, by replacing the ordinary. Nevertheless, replacement of an ordinary always will happen in a manner that provides a graceful exit (either retirement or appointment to some other position) for the outgoing ordinary.

More recently, he followed up, in part regarding last week's remarks about Fr Scott Hurd:

Fr. Scott Hurd remains a member of the clergy of the Archdiocese of Washington. At the original formation of the ordinariate, it was announced that he was "on loan" to the ordinariate, to serve as vicar general, for a period of three years. When that period lapsed on 31 December 2014, he returned to the ministry of the archdiocese to which he belongs, as planned. A couple months before that date, Msgr. Steenson announced the appointment of Fr. Charles Hough III as vicar general.

It certainly does appear to be the true that Bishop Lopes perceived a need for some shake-up in the administration of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. He is still new, and his plans for the ordinariate undoubtedly are still a work in process. The ordinariate's administration probably will be very different by the time that the legal issues surrounding St. Mary of the Angels become definitively resolved.

My regular correspondent added these remarks:

Even if Fr Hurd had been doing an outstanding job as Vicar General he would have been required to leave it under Bp Lopes because the VG is an ex-officio member of the Governing Council and only clergy incardinated in the OCSP are eligible to serve on the Governing Council. This is why Bp Lopes relieved Fr Benedict Soule of his position as Judicial Vicar to which Msgr Steenson had recently appointed him before his (Steenson's) departure last fall.

A great deal of Bp Lopes' administrative time has been taken up with these canonical and procedural lacunae on the part of the previous regime. The ParishSoft system of registration and accounting belatedly adopted by the Ordinariate has been a disaster and has not addressed the failure of most groups to contribute adequately to Ordinariate expenses via the Cathedraticum. (Perhaps it is best that those struggling to meet their target for the Bishop's Appeal are unaware that the Davises gave the OCSP $4 million in 2014).

I think it is fair to say that the OCSP has no idea what its actual membership is. Groups variously identify themselves as Sodalities, Fellowships, Public Associations of the Faithful, Missions, with no official definitions (until recently) and no consistent policy regarding charitable status and tax receipts. As I mentioned previously, Houston is now trying to get a handle on compensation levels and retirement benefits.

The OCSP was mistakenly identified to the USCCB as being noncompliant with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. It is just now clarifying its Holy Days of Obligation and the status of External Solemnities. The list goes on.

Msgr Steenson and his team were able to get a distance learning scheme in place that satisfied Catholic authorities and enabled them to get a significant number of men ordained so they could begin ministering to the groups they brought with them. That was no small achievement, but it has outlived its usefulness now, and no other lasting achievements of the Steenson regime can be pointed to, IMHO.

This gives an indication of the task confronting Bp Lopes.

Further Note On St Mary The Virgin Arlington

My correspondent adds,

A new pastor for SMV was required because Fr Timothy Perkins is moving to Houston to take over as Vicar General. As you may recall, for the first three years this post was filled by Fr Scott Hurd, who remained in Washington, DC the entire time. Bp Lopes clearly does not regard that arrangement as having worked well for the Ordinariate. The removal of his successor, Fr Chuck Hough III, from the position (at the age of 62) suggests that he wasn't getting the job done either, despite being on the spot.

We don't know why Fr Hurd left his position as vicar general -- I believe it was always meant to be temporary -- although it is thought that he was a member of the Nashotah House clique, and his thumbprints are all over the St Mary of the Angels bungling. His departure was certainly no loss to the Ordinariate.

I also wonder if Fr Perkins's views were sought on the potential merits of his colleagues in the OCSP to fill the position he was leaving.

More Priests Than People, But. . .

My regular correspondent has pointed me to the bulletin from the St Mary the Virgin Ordinariate parish in Arlington, TX, which introduces its new pastor (emphasis mine):

Father Prentice Dean and his wife Teresa entered into full communion with the Catholic Church in 2006. He was ordained to the Sacred Order of Priests, through the Pastoral Provision, on the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, February 22, 2010. Fr. Dean has served as Administrator/Pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes parish and St. Michael parish since June 2011. The churches are located in Robertson County, north of Nashville, Tennessee. Prior to those assignments Fr. Dean served as transitional deacon and as Assisting Priest at The Church of the Assumption in Nashville between August 2009 and June 2011. He also served as ViceChancellor of the Diocese of Nashville between 2006 and 2011. Prior to entering the church, he was Rector of St. Bede Episcopal Church in Manchester, Tennessee.

Having grown up in the northeast, and graduated from The George Washington University in Washington DC, with a Bachelor’s degree in history, he married and raised his family in Maryland. Fr. Dean has worked in historical research with the government and for a remodeling contractor and operated his own furniture-making business while being a stay-at-home father. He has finished all course work for Masters in management, and earned a Master’s degree in Divinity from the School of Theology, the University of the South, Sewanee Tennessee, in 2004.

My correspondent's comment is, "Presumably Bp Lopes did not have anyone he deemed suitable for this, one of his few stipendiary positions." Naturally, we don't know what was in Bp Lopes's mind, and issues like the ability to relocate to Arlington may have figured into any Ordinariate priest's availability.

Nevertheless, looking at the resume information, I note that neither Yale nor Nashotah House makes an appearance, which I frankly think is a positive sign. GW is a good school that serves a lot of commuter students, but not an elitist institution. Fr Dean looks to have a strong pastoral record in both Anglican and Catholic parishes, unlike a number of Steenson's more prestigious hires, who frankly strike me as having underperformed.