Since 1983 Monsignor Stetson has also served as consultant and later secretary to the Ecclesiastical Delegate of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for the Pastoral Provision for former Episcopal priests, by means of which over a hundred men have been ordained for priestly service in the Roman Catholic Church. He maintained the Pastoral Provision Office at Our Lady of Walsingham parish, an Anglican Use congregation in the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston from 2007-2010.In other words, before there was an Ordinariate, he was the go-to guy for the Anglican Use Pastoral Provision, stationed, not coincidentally it seems to me, at Our Lady of Walsingham Houston, where Msgr Steenson now sits. A statement from Msgr Stetson that he does not check passports at the communion rail could easily, under these circumstances, be misinterpreted, perhaps along the lines of the misinterpretation Captain Renault had that there was no gambling going on at Rick's. Just sayin'.
But my other reason for asking about this goes to the question that's on the floor right now about reconciliation. Certainly there are those connected with St Mary's who can now say, "But that wasn't my understanding -- I thought that my fourth wife and I could continue to receive communion at the parish. Now that we can't, we're definitely in favor of staying with the ACA." So that's a problem with any eventual burying of the hatchet. But frankly, just as I'm not aware of any definitive statement from Msgr Steenson on this matter over the past 18 months, I have a feeling we're never going to get one -- just as I suspect Msgr Stetson will never quite get around to clarifying his own statement regarding passports and the communion rail. If I'm mistaken, I will offer my sincere apologies at the time that either issues his clarification.
This, in fact, goes to what amounts to an ecclesiastical urban myth that several of my correspondents have mentioned over the past few weeks: the idea that Anglicanorum coetibus carried with it an unspoken but more liberal subtext -- or if the subtext wasn't unspoken, that some sort of clarification would be issued at some later time bringing in Anglicans, lay and clergy, who might have thought they had obstacles to becoming Catholic. I want to look into this more deeply, partly because it's an interesting glimpse into human nature on one hand, but also because it sheds light on what went wrong at St Mary's and what would need to be fixed should reconciliation ever become a real option there. So stay tuned.
