It occurred to me not long ago that these remarks might apply as well to the Ordinariates. As of last fall, for instance, the Ordinariate Expats blog had concluded that all the former TAC parishes that were going to go into the US Ordinariate had done so, and it seems to me that as of now, any further parishes or groups that come in from anywhere will be like the last few pops in a batch of popcorn: barring some major change, the Ordinariates are about as big as they're going to get.
So let's take a look. For the purposes of this post only, I'll grant the US Ordinariate's claim of 1,600 members. The UK Ordinariate entry on Wikipedia gives 1,500 members. The Australian Ordinariate doesn’t currently give statistics – let’s give them 500, based on the numbers I saw from the ACCA. So we’re talking, at best, 3,600 worldwide.
According to the National Catholic Reporter, the average size of a US Catholic parish of the non-Ordinariate persuasion is about 3,000 members. So we're talking, worldwide, not just in the US, of a group not much larger than a single US Catholic parish. A Wikipedia entry on the shortage of Catholic priests says
With the Catholic population formerly increasing steadily (according to some estimates) and the number of priests declining, the number of laypeople per priest has climbed from 875:1 in 1981 to 1,113:1 in 1991 and 1,429:1 in 2001 (a 63 percent increase).This confirms my anecdotal observation as a new Catholic that an average-size parish with 3,000 members is lucky to have two priests.
But let's look at the Ordinariates: does the worldwide total justify 3 ordinaries, 3 vicars general, 3 chancellors, 3 principal churches, 3 chanceries, 3 governing councils, etc etc etc, when that average 3,000 member US parish is lucky to have 2 priests?
We can argue that many of the prebendaries, as well as the various support staff like secretaries, press reps, and so forth, are unpaid and working part-time. On the other hand, nothing is free: in the US, Msgr Steenson and Fr Hurd appear to travel with some frequency, appearing at conferences as well as making parish visits. I assume someone is picking up their expenses. The Ordinariate's press rep, from all I can gather, is a paid employee, but one searches in vain for updates to the Ordinariate's News page on its website.
Even functionaries who are unpaid, like the Ordinariate's Chancellor, must be looked at on the principle that nothing is free: she's a canon lawyer and licensed attorney; my wife, herself a retired attorney, has never been impressed with what she's seen of the Chancellor's work. Either the Ordinariate is getting what it's paying for, or the pro bono work isn't getting the attention it needs.
And the other day, we saw that there's been a donation of US$5 million toward an Ordinariate chancery. This is $5 million that might have found a better use in the Church at large -- the Ordinariate is clearly competing with other, probably more worthy, causes in the Catholic arena.
This is neither charity nor efficacious cure of souls.
