US-Canadian Ordinariate Personnel Changes, Or Not

My own view, shared at least by a few other observers, is that whatever the US-Canadian Ordinariate has going in its favor is largely canceled out by incompetent or nonfeasant personnel. I'm still reeling from attempts to deal with Ms Chalmers when she was Chancellor in 2012, but the May 2015 Ordinariate Observer has, buried in an announcement of Fr Ken Wolfe's ordination, noted that by the way, he is also the new Chancellor. (Fr Wolfe, in Tucson, is yet another exception to the Ordinariates' stated policy of ordaining priests only in connection with the admission of groups.)

So the the US-Canadian Ordinariate continues to churn its officials. The recently ordained Fr Wolfe has also been appointed Director of Child and Youth Protection, with much greater fanfare than his appointment as Chancellor. On balance, this is good -- I have a great deal of respect for the VIRTUS program. My wife and I have both attended classes, and we've found that the material is serious, well-organized, and well-presented. As I've discovered with the Robert W Bowman case, even moribund and graying parishes without a whole lot of kids around can fall victim to priests and volunteers with child pornography arrests on their records.

However, given the record of the US-Canadian Ordinariate over more than three years, there's no guarantee that Fr Wolfe will actually do anything in his new position. One of the first things I'd want to look at if I were he would be the circumstances under which alcohol is served at the Bl John Henry Newman group in California, and other functions in which Andy Bartus is featured. No e-mail contact is given for Fr Wolfe -- wouldn't it be a basic requirement that anyone with any concerns over the safety of children and youth in the US-Canadian Ordinariate have a way to contact Fr Wolfe directly? I eventually found one via a google search, but not via the Ordinariate web site. [A visitor has noted that there's a link at the very top right corner of the home page, but not with the rest of the links.] (Looks like someone's going to audit this function in the Ordinariate. Hey, I used to know something about audits. Maybe I need to get in touch with the auditors.)

We learn from a comment at Ordinariate News that Fr Sellers, the incompetent or nonfeasant "Director of Communications", has been replaced as of July 1. Whoever has replaced him has made no apparent move to update the Ordinariate web site or post any further announcements -- in particular, shouldn't Fr Wolfe have a new page on the site announcing his agenda and asking for everyone's concern and cooperation? At first glance, it looks like the same club members, established or new, are simply trading posts.

Finally, we're into mid-July. The scuttlebutt was that Fr Jack Barker would be assuming some type of function in the Ordinariate as of July 1, possibly as a Vicar Forane. However, although he arrived at the Bl Newman group in Irvine on July 7, there has been no announcement from Houston on what his function will be.

But hey, everything's just fine! If Anglican Patrimony is for us, who can be against us?