Thursday, May 16, 2013

So, Again, What About The Ordinariate?

I'm still pondering what St Mary of the Angels parishioners might do in trying to get the ball rolling for receiving the parish into the Ordinariate. The situation, as I see it, is that some dozens of parishioners, having repeatedly petitioned the Ordinary for formation of a parish, have been left in a kind of no-man's-land -- the ACA has either specifically excommunicated them or less formally excluded them from membership by denying them admission to the property in order to receive communion, and by refusing them admission to the 2013 parish annual meeting. On the other hand, while the Ordinariate had begun the process of admitting the parish, it seems to have placed it on an unofficial indefinite hold, with no clear explanation of what might be done to continue or resume the process.

Anglicanorum coetibus and the complementary norms don't have a great deal to say. The apostolic constitution itself says,

VIII. § 1. The Ordinary, according to the norm of law, after having heard the opinion of the Diocesan Bishop of the place, may erect, with the consent of the Holy See, personal parishes for the faithful who belong to the Ordinariate.
The complementary norms say,
XIV. §3. For the pastoral care of the faithful who live within the boundaries of a Diocese in which no personal parish has been erected, the Ordinary, having heard the opinion of the local Diocesan Bishop, can make provisions for quasi-parishes (cf. CIC, can. 516, §1).
The fact that the complementary norms raise the issue of a quasi-parish is noteworthy:
While the quasi-parish seems to be of limited and even unlikely utility in most of the North American context, it is worth noting that the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus may provide a new (if limited) catalyst for the erection of quasi-parishes. Article 14 §3 of the Complementary Norms that accompany AC reads: “For the pastoral care of the faithful who live within the boundaries of a Diocese in which no personal parish has been erected, the Ordinary, having heard the opinion of the local Diocesan Bishop, can make provisions for quasi-parishes (cf. CIC, can. 516, §1).”[4] If and how this provision will be employed as these new Ordinariates unfold, and to what effect, will be one of the many canonically-interesting aspects of these new structures that I will be keeping a close eye on in the coming years.
Based on this initial research, it appears to me that someone needs to approach both Los Angeles Archbishop Gomez and the Ordinariate's newly-designated governing council to see what might be done to clarify the status and eligibility for admission of the wandering parishioners at St Mary of the Angels who, in good faith, had intended to become Catholic, but who, through no fault of their own, seem to have fallen through the cracks.

Again, any suggestions from knowledgeable parties would be helpful, but I'm beginning to get the impression that this is a hot potato that nobody who depends on the Ordinary's good will wants to touch.