The problem, though, became twofold. First, it wasn't going to be as easy as anyone may have thought actually go get into an Ordinariate, and I've discussed here the ways in which Msgr William Stetson may have misled parishioners about this himself -- and Stetson, effectively the vicar general for Anglican Use on behalf of Cardinal Law, was no stranger to these exact issues. By making the reported remark that he didn't check passports at the communion rail, he clearly gave the impression that parishioners who may have had obstacles to becoming Catholic, or who simply did not wish to do so, would have these matters finessed.
This wasn't going to happen, and it was certainly one factor (though by no means the only one) that led to problems in the parish over entry to the Ordinariate. Clearly there were similar problems elsewhere, such as the reversal at St Aidan's Des Moines when parishioners learned that Anglican annulments wouldn't be recognized by the Catholic Church, and the Vatican really meant what it said about Freemasonry.
On the other hand, as things began to fall out, the Ordinariate itself wasn't inclined to exert itself overmuch over parishioners who had no obstacles and who did sincerely want to become Catholic, and in our case, the Chancellor simply misled my wife and me, advising us to stick with the process via St Mary's, as it would take much longer to back out of the St Mary's process and go through RCIA.
I never trusted that advice; we wanted to become Catholic, we didn't have the time in our lives to dilly-dally, and RCIA was clearly the only possible route once things fell apart at St Mary's. Frankly, the implicit message I take away from this is that the Chancellor, and by implication the Ordinary, simply didn't care. I'll come back to this later.
But once we finally did become Catholic via RCIA, no thanks to anyone connected with the Ordinariate, my almost immediate reaction was, "But there's so much more to eat here!" I don't know how else to put this. Bl John Henry Newman is one thing -- St Thomas Aquinas is another thing entirely.
