I Came Here For The Waters -- III

Where, exactly, does the US Ordinariate stand? As of today, there are now 27 groups or parishes listed on the Ordinariate's communities page, up from 25 at my last visit. However, the exact status of the groups, and whether some are "ordinariate" groups not listed, is as hard to determine as ever. It's worth pointing out that the Ordinariate office never replied to my e-mail asking which of the 36 communities they've claimed in press releases are not listed on the communities page.

As far as I can tell, the following parishes listed on the communities page actually have their own buildings:

Church of the Holy Nativity: Payson, AZ

Parish of the Incarnation: Orlando, FL

St. James: St. Augustine, FL

Mount Calvary Church: Baltimore, MD

Saint Luke's Church: Bladensburg, MD

Christ the King Church: Towson, MD

St. Thomas More Catholic Community: Scranton, PA

Our Lady of Walsingham Church, The Principal Church of the Ordinariate: Houston, TX

Saint Timothy's Church: Fort Worth, TX

As of today, St Mary the Virgin in Arlington, TX, while it says it's an Ordinariate parish on its own web site, is not listed on the Ordinariate's communities page. (This may have to do with the complexities of transferring its jurisdiction from Anglican Use.) By my count, this is nine eight seven parishes with their own buildings, leaving St Mary the Virgin out. The rest are groups or sodalities meeting between Roman masses at Roman parishes or other facilities.

Because there is no authoritative source for this information, and because no other "Anglo-Catholic" blogger seems to care, I will welcome updates and corrections here. (My wife and I discussed it the other week, and we consider ourselves mainstream Vatican II Catholics, not Anglo-Catholics.) I'll add to or remove items from this list here as I receive them, so please help!

On June 15, 2011, Cardinal Wuerl estimated an initial total of 2,000 parishioners and 100 priests for the Ordinariate. The actual number of priests appears to have fallen well short of 100 -- as of late 2012, the number in press releases was put at 29. The number of parishioners in the same press releases is given at 1,600 among 36 parishes.

Since the Ordinariate has not, for whatever reason, identified all 36 of the parishes it claims, I am going to estimate the actual total of parishioners in proportion to the number of communities listed on the Ordinariate web site: 27 is 75% of 36. 75% of 1,600 is 1,200. My own completely intuitive guesstimate of the Ordinariate's actual size is 1,000, but for now, I'll say 1,200.

Eighteen months after the erection of the Ordinariate, its totals are well short of the estimate from Cardinal Wuerl. I assume, by the way, that since Msgr Steenson was so closely associated with the initial planning, these numbers would have come from him, and if he'd had any sense, he'd have made an estimate that would allow him to look good by over-delivering. Didn't happen.

Let's not even talk about the 250,000 that Bishop Clarence Pope gave Cardinal Ratzinger in 1993.