you wrote:We do agree on the OCSP. Regarding the UK Ordinariate, its perceived preferences (a Viennese professor was involved) appear to have been the basis for selecting the 1905 English Missal for all three Ordinariates -- but this liturgy has in fact been disastrous for even the UK, since the dwindling faction of Anglican Papalists that used it before Vatican II abandoned it wholesale in favor of the Ordinary Form mass, where they can now find it whenever and wherever they choose. Indeed, the English Missal mass was never more than tolerated by UK laity."Why not a reverent adaptation of 1979 Rite Two that doesn't take two hours?
A service with a sense of beauty and reverence that uses something like the 1940 PECUSA Hymnal and loses the guitar and tambourine, but without all the extra agony, ought to be a selling point."
I take your point with regard to the OCSP, or at least its United States section, but of what possible relevance or appeal would such a thing be to the Australians of the OSC, the English/British of the OLW, or even to Canadians? And since few Episcopalians are, as you yourself wrote, are likely to join the Ordinariate under any circumstances (and those Episcopalians fully at home with the 1979 BCP would seem to have no reasons not to join an Ordinary Form Catholic parish, when they can find one without liturgical abuses or without an "aesthetic" which they may find repugnant), it doesn't seem mistaken to me to pitch its appeal to those whose preferences are "traditionalist" or simply "old-fashioned."
But there's another assumption here: my visitor notes, "few Episcopalians are, as you yourself wrote, [likely] to join the Ordinariate under any circumstances". It's not much more of a step to say, just as accurately as far as I know, that the great majority of the potential Anglican market for Ordinariates has already made its move. Neither "continuers" nor ACNA members are any more likely than Episcopalians to come over now.
But this leaves another untapped market, and possibly not the only one, if some of Bishop-Elect Lopes's remarks are to be taken seriously. Pope Francis (presumably with input from the CDF, and this means potentially from Lopes) extended eligibility for full Ordinariate membership to cradle Catholics who haven't completed the sacraments of initiation. A priest at our diocesan parish remarked just the other week that only a third of registered members there had in fact completed the sacraments of initiation.
If Bp Barron is an indicator of mainstream Catholic opinion, Vatican II continues to be seen as a Very Good Thing. A major outcome of the Council was mass in a dignified but contemporary vernacular; revisions continue, and if Fr Z's opinion is any indicator, so do stylistic improvements. Vatican II was clearly also the inspiration for 1979 Rite Two. In that context, the English Missal version of the Ordinariate mass, with precious contrived archaisms, is beside the point and adventitious.
I think Catholics are beginning to understand that if you tell people the Catechism and the Sacraments aren't important, they'll believe you. A good part of the New Evangelization, as far as I can see, is to say that when we said those things weren't important, we didn't mean they actually weren't important -- the New Evangelization is talking to Catholics primarily, as far as I can see. In our diocesan parish, the suggestion is being made that perhaps people should reconsider coming to mass in flip flops and tank tops that show off tattoos. Who knows where that may lead?
A service with a sense of beauty and reverence could be a part of a larger movement aimed at Catholics. Bishop-Elect Lopes, by all indications, is not a stupid man and probably sees this and other potential.
