What Is To Be Done?

Yesterday I posed the question of what might be done to salvage the outcome of Anglicanorum coetibus. Although there are attempts elsewhere to paste a happy-face on the situation, it's very hard to avoid the conclusion that the US-Canadian Ordinariate has peaked in size and is in the process of shrinking.

• All the self-sustaining parishes, about half a dozen, existed under other jurisdictions prior to the erection of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter. The OCSP does not appear to have had its own success story.
• A trend toward merger of nearby groups is developing, with two Washington DC-area groups already merged, two in the Philadelphia area in the process of merging, and the Boston-area group beginning to share activities with the Anglican Use group in the area. However, the size of such groups, even merged, does not augur for long-term viability.
• The status of smaller groups-in-formation at the fringe is not always clear, and it is not certain whether all such groups are still active.

In part, this is because Houston has not kept its own website parish list up to date, and official news updates of any kind appear to be sporadic and incomplete. This in turn may be either a reflection of demoralization among the Houston in-group, or complacency among the in-group may be the the cause. Flip a coin.

However, I think it's reasonable to conclude that Anglicanorum coetibus has been a test of whether any real demand exists among Anglicans for corporate reunion with Rome. Pope St John Paul II promoted the new evangelization. If Anglicanorum coetibus was an effort in that direction, I'm simply not convinced that further resources toward fostering it are well spent.

Consider that Houston has taken years to gestate an unresponsive, inward-focused administrative structure that ministers to about 2500 people in the US and Canada. This is the size of a single smallish urban diocesan parish, which itself might be subject to merger or closure. We have no sign that it is likely to grow, and some sign that it is already shrinking. I have serious questions about whether stewardship of an organization like that is a responsible use of resources; even more would I be giving this matter the most prayerful reflection if I were a member of the Houston in-group.

My biggest disappointment about becoming Catholic is seeing how little cradle Catholics value their own faith. It's deeply frustrating to go to mass and see no atmosphere of reverence; silly music; idle chatter from adults; out-of-control children babbling, banging, or screaming steadily throughout the mass without being taken out by the their parents; and so forth.

I would like to find a way to work with fellow Catholics to focus efforts at renewing faith and its manifestation at the diocesan level. No need for Latin mass, no need for Ordinariates if we can just start to establish ordinary decorum on Sunday mornings. I think that's where the real need exists. Frankly, I think that for 99.99% of Catholics, the Ordinariates are something overspecialized, irrelevant, and a waste of stewardship.