It takes time to untangle a mess, but Bishop Lopes seems to be moving in the right way. A few years ago, when the executive council of the pilot's union at Delta Air Lines approached the company's new CEO with serious concerns [about several] senior executives who were, ah, let's say, "underperforming," the new CEO's reply was, "Please give me some time to deal with this in the proper way, but I think that you will to like what I am going to do." Within a few months, he had given graceful exits to those who needed to go and replaced them with the right people for the respective positions. In the same vein, let's give Bishop Lopes a year or two before passing judgement.More recently, he followed up, in part regarding last week's remarks about Fr Scott Hurd:As I have mentioned previously, the Vatican regards the ordinariates as a model for reconciliation of many Protestant denominations -- not just for Anglicans. For this model to work, the other denominations want absolute assurance that the ordinariates will be permanent ecclesial structures that will preserve their ecclesial and liturgical traditions, their identity, and the integrity of their ecclesial communities within the Catholic Church, and not merely a transitional structure for more gradual assimilation into the mainstream of the Roman Rite. A failure that forces suppression of an ordinariate would be devastating in this regard, so the Vatican is not going to let that to happen. Whenever it becomes apparent that there are significant problems in any ordinariate, you can be absolutely certain that the Vatican is going to move pretty swiftly to address them, either by working with the ordinary or, if necessary, by replacing the ordinary. Nevertheless, replacement of an ordinary always will happen in a manner that provides a graceful exit (either retirement or appointment to some other position) for the outgoing ordinary.
Fr. Scott Hurd remains a member of the clergy of the Archdiocese of Washington. At the original formation of the ordinariate, it was announced that he was "on loan" to the ordinariate, to serve as vicar general, for a period of three years. When that period lapsed on 31 December 2014, he returned to the ministry of the archdiocese to which he belongs, as planned. A couple months before that date, Msgr. Steenson announced the appointment of Fr. Charles Hough III as vicar general.My regular correspondent added these remarks:It certainly does appear to be the true that Bishop Lopes perceived a need for some shake-up in the administration of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. He is still new, and his plans for the ordinariate undoubtedly are still a work in process. The ordinariate's administration probably will be very different by the time that the legal issues surrounding St. Mary of the Angels become definitively resolved.
Even if Fr Hurd had been doing an outstanding job as Vicar General he would have been required to leave it under Bp Lopes because the VG is an ex-officio member of the Governing Council and only clergy incardinated in the OCSP are eligible to serve on the Governing Council. This is why Bp Lopes relieved Fr Benedict Soule of his position as Judicial Vicar to which Msgr Steenson had recently appointed him before his (Steenson's) departure last fall.This gives an indication of the task confronting Bp Lopes.A great deal of Bp Lopes' administrative time has been taken up with these canonical and procedural lacunae on the part of the previous regime. The ParishSoft system of registration and accounting belatedly adopted by the Ordinariate has been a disaster and has not addressed the failure of most groups to contribute adequately to Ordinariate expenses via the Cathedraticum. (Perhaps it is best that those struggling to meet their target for the Bishop's Appeal are unaware that the Davises gave the OCSP $4 million in 2014).
I think it is fair to say that the OCSP has no idea what its actual membership is. Groups variously identify themselves as Sodalities, Fellowships, Public Associations of the Faithful, Missions, with no official definitions (until recently) and no consistent policy regarding charitable status and tax receipts. As I mentioned previously, Houston is now trying to get a handle on compensation levels and retirement benefits.
The OCSP was mistakenly identified to the USCCB as being noncompliant with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. It is just now clarifying its Holy Days of Obligation and the status of External Solemnities. The list goes on.
Msgr Steenson and his team were able to get a distance learning scheme in place that satisfied Catholic authorities and enabled them to get a significant number of men ordained so they could begin ministering to the groups they brought with them. That was no small achievement, but it has outlived its usefulness now, and no other lasting achievements of the Steenson regime can be pointed to, IMHO.
