What Did Cardinal Law Have In Mind?

I'm increasingly convinced that Anglicanorum coetibus has been a disappointment -- indeed, something more like an embarrassment. It's worth pointing out that St Mary of the Angels has been at the center of the Anglican-Roman Catholic ecumenism story from the time of initial contacts between Fr Barker and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1977, and up to December of 2011 -- based on statements by Cardinal Law's surrogate Msgr William Stetson -- it had been intended that the parish would be the first to be received into the newly-erected Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter.

This didn't happen, and the details have been the story of this blog. The puzzle has been that Cardinal Law has been involved in the process at least from the time of the 1980 Chicago meetings involving Fr Barker, unsuccessfully proposing a personal prelature, through the 1993 meeting with Cardinal Ratzinger that eventually resulted in Anglicanorum coetibus, up to the diaconal ordination of Jeffrey Steenson in Rome in 2008.

From the mid-1980s to 2012, Anglican Use proved to be a damp squib, although there was what appears to have been a notable failure, a sort of anti-proof of concept, in Las Vegas. During the same period, "continuing Anglicanism" turned out to be a comic opera production, something between The Mouse That Roared and Springtime for Hitler, with nothing to recommend it as a starting point for serious ecumenism. The 1993 proposal for Anglicanorum coetibus was simply withdrawn when it became plain that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith would never approve it, probably with good reason.

It's hard to avoid the impression that careerism motivated the major players. Clarence Pope was clearly aiming to become a married Catholic bishop, and he disintegrated personally when this proved unattainable. "Continuing Anglican" clergy, frequently without seminary degrees or even four years in college, wanted something as close as they could get to the prestigious, well-paid, and undemanding slots that are sometimes still available in TEC.

Jeffrey Steenson, unlike Pope, settled for monsignor, but he saw the position of Ordinary almost exclusively as a way to look after his cronies and a few favored attractive young candidates, with no serious plan or intent to grow the OCSP. Given 30-plus years of experience, though, there's little that could have been expected other than what's taken place.

But Bernard Law made Cardinal. He made Archbishop of Boston. It can't have been careerism that drove him to promote this losing proposition. What on earth did he have in mind?

And my guess is that Bp Lopes, who must certainly have further ambitions, does not intend to ride the OCSP to the top -- more likely, he'll want to bring about a graceful shutdown.