This was a pet project of Pope Benedict's for which no one currently in power had any particular enthusiasm, as far as I can see. Naturally no one wants conspicuous collapse, but neither will heroic measures be undertaken. The definitive declaration that no dispensations from clerical celibacy will be given other than to those already ordained in another denomination, and the apparent ending of the fast-track study-at-home academic preparation for ordinands will put a major brake on ordinations going forward, I suspect.What we know of the Vatican initiatives toward Anglicans bears this out, it seems to me. Both the Pastoral Provision and Anglicanorum coetibus were pet projects of Cardinal Law, who advocated what led to the Pastoral Provision directly with John Paul II. It's worth noting that John Paul, given the proposal of a personal prelature in the late 1970s, didn't take it up. When Cardinal Law revived it via the meeting among Clarence Pope, Jeffrey Steenson, and Cardinal Ratzinger in 1993, John Paul was again unenthusiastic. So far, I see no reason to believe he was fundamentally mistaken.We have already discussed the poor prospects for significant lay interest. I note that the membership of the OOLW has remained around 1500 for the last two years. I think this means it is already circling the drain, despite what appears to be far better management. If the OCSP did not have major donor funding it would also be in crisis, I think, given that its demands are greater and its management is only now getting on track.
My correspondent commented later,
[The d]ecision that ordinations to the priesthood in the OCSP will take place on a fixed date--Feast of Ss Peter and Paul-- means that no more will take place for a year. For a variety of reasons, a surplus-to-requirements TEC clergyman may no longer feel that the OCSP is a quick entree into Catholic orders and thus greater employment opportunities. In any event, this can hardly have been Pope Benedict's goal.This raises what for me has been a disturbing quality in at least the OCSP -- it's been clergy-centered, and from Fr Bartus's own words, primarily a vehicle for candidates who couldn't get posts in TEC to compete in a less challenging pool of applicants. It looks as if this may have been the case for a few dozen, though not many of these have prospered. Frankly, I didn't become Catholic to swell the career opportunities for ambitious mediocrities.
Still later, my correspondent remarked,
What other denominations could possibly be interested in an Ordinariate? And if the uptake by Anglicans, who have been taking their liturgical cues from Rome since the middle of the 19thC, has been so minimal, why would the Vatican risk ridicule and hostility by setting up a similar structure for Lutherans, Presbyterians, or Baptists? I find the idea that the Ordinariates are some kind of template a complete fantasy.This raises two interesting and related questions. I grew up Presbyterian, to which I must refer in trying to envision a Reformed Ordinariate (the Ordinariate of the Bl Peter Kreeft?). What is the Vatican going to do to accommodate Presbyterian liturgical traditions, e.g., the little jiggers of grape juice and the little cubes of bakery loaf? This doesn't compute. (Do we deem the grape juice to be wine, for instance?)
But also, there's no such thing as a ready-made Catholic, even among Anglicans, which again has been the actual experience in the wake of Anglicanorum coetibus. I went through a phase of regretting that I didn't have a Catholic family or a Catholic education, but the more I see of Youtube evangelists like Bp Barron, Fr Schmitz, or Prof Kreeft, the process of becoming Catholic is lifelong. It is a consequential spiritual journey, although in some cases, formation in childhood and adolescence via family, school, and parish can be an advantage.
The idea that Anglicans or any other denomination can come into the Church as some kind of freeze-dried special case promotes a great deal of misunderstanding, it seems to me, especially if their communities are seen as something unique. Pope St John Paul probably saw this behind the idea of a personal prelature, which the appointment of Bp Lopes goes some way to correct.
