The decision to erect these particular churches as "ordinariates" rather than as "prelatures" is more nuanced. A "prelature" typically is self-sufficient, whereas an "ordinariate" typically depends to some extent on the resources and support functions of the diocese where its congregations are located. The former Anglican clergy who were to form the initial clergy of the ordinariates clearly did not have pontifical degrees in the various disciplines that are necessary to fulfill the full range of curial functions. The most obvious example is the lack of clergy with doctorates, or at least licentiates, in canon law (JCD or LCD) that are required to serve as judges, advocates, defenders of the bond, and promoters of justice on marriage tribunals, but this reality extends to other realities as well. Thus, it was obvious that the various congregations of the new jurisdictions would have to turn to their local dioceses for such matters. A married presbyter also could serve as the prelate of a personal prelature, so the fact that all three of the founding ordinaries were married had no bearing on this designation.It's worth pointing out that there is now discussion of a personal prelature for SSPX, but in this light, it may not be the same thing as an Anglican ordinariate. My visitor notes,
The experience of the past has indicated that congregations that come intact into the Catholic Church from another denomination typically lose a significant number of parishioners somewhere en route in one way or another. This may happen soon after the congregation votes to make the move, or it may happen when the proverbial rubber meets the road right before the move actually occurs, or at some critical juncture of the process of preparation in between, or it may occur as a dribble along this path. The magisterium of the Catholic Church is well aware of this experience, and undoubtedly now plans under the assumption that about half of a congregation probably will fall away.However, the numbers we've seen in most OCSP groups or parishes -- the largest have simply shifted from Catholic Anglican Use to Catholic OCSP, so this formula wouldn't apply -- have meant that dividing by two will render the group unsustainable. It remains to be seen whether even medium-size groups like those in Philadelphia and Scranton can sustain themselves financially in their plants -- but the loss of a pastor can simply put a smaller group out of business.
In effect, such communities -- parishes or a whole ordinariate -- must operate at a loss for some period in my visitor's view but will eventually justify themselves. It's worth pointing out that ordinariate groups also impose a cost on host dioceses, via host parish facilities, living quarters in rectories, the use of marriage tribunals, and so forth. They also impose a risk, in that an ordinariate priest is not effectively supervised, but if he causes a scandal, it will reflect on the diocese. A diocesan bishop, as we've seen, may resist paying this cost or taking this risk, and we need to reserve this decision to the bishop. My visitor concludes,
Rome was not built in a day, and neither are the Vatican's undertakings. Rather, the Roman Curia operates on a timeline of decades or even centuries. The ordinariates are very much in their infancy.
But in any case, bishops routinely ask themselves if any diocesan program is justifiable, and they routinely close and merge parishes. The Church simply can't support ordinariates on the basis that things may turn around 30 or 300 years from now! Or let's say a future young cardinal decides to emulate Cardinal Law and propose ordinariates for some other separated group: Seventh Day Adventists, for instance.
Prudence should require a careful review of how compatible the group would be coming into the Church as a group, rather than via individual decisions and RCIA. And in effect, someone would need to ask what problem we're trying to solve. This is no different from asking what problem we're trying to solve in keeping St Ipsydipsy open.
A personal prelature for SSPX sounds like a potentially better bet than, say, a personal prelature for Catholic-leaning Baptists. The question for me is whether the decision to issue Anglicnorum coetibus was prudently made.
