One clergyman, who asked not to be named as he had applied for reception, told Anglican Ink he had been discouraged the “Pastoral Provision was so un-pastoral”. A “Fort Worth mafia” was dominating the U.S. Ordinariate – Msg. Steenson is a former Fort Worth rector, while the vicar for clergy, the Rev. Charles Hough III is the former canon to the ordinary of the Diocese of Fort Worth.In addition to Fr Hough III, of course, other Fort Worth figures, such as Fr Sellers, were apparently brought in with sinecures in Houston, while Fr Hough IV continues as pastor of the cathedral church. Fr Perkins, Fr Hough III's replacement, is another member of the original Fort Worth group.
It's also worth noting that, although Msgr Steenson had been both canon to the ordinary and bishop in New Mexico from 2000 to 2007, he seems not to have brought anyone from that diocese with him into the Ordinariate. No Ordinariate-bound groups or parishes ever emerged in New Mexico. For that matter, the Episcopal Diocese of the Rio Grande does not seem to have grieved his departure for any great length of time.
Each time I revisit the 2012 allegations, I'm also drawn to these observations:
A second aspirant said he had been pressed to explain why he had not come to Rome when he left the Episcopal Church some twenty five years ago. If he accepted papal supremacy and the dogmas of the Catholic Church, why had he delayed a quarter century in making his submission, he was asked, the clergyman told AI.The problem is that all the Fort Worth group delayed their submissions. Iker and the six who went to Rome with him in 2006 made no submissions, even though the Pastoral Provision was available to them. In 2008, the Fort Worth Four made elaborate statements to Bp Vann accepting papal authority but again made no actual move to become Catholic -- two did not resign their diocesan positions until April 2011, and then only when their acceptance into the Ordinariate had presumably been assured via back channels. These doubts would apply as justly to former Fort Worth figures, like Frs Perkins and Hough IV, who are still in favor.The question is not an unfair one, however, as the Catholic Church’s self-understanding of its role in the economy of salvation is found in the statements of the Second Vatican Council.
Lumen Gentium14 states: “Whosoever, therefore, knowing that the Catholic Church was made necessary by Christ, would refuse to enter or to remain in it, could not be saved”, which on its face, would appear to render suspect in Roman eyes those who have held long standing doubts as to the veracity of Anglican truth claims and delayed going over to Rome.
Jeffrey Steenson himself was deeply compromised in both Episcopal and Catholic opinion, as he had a very good career in TEC without offering serious objection to the ordination of women, the revised prayer book, women bishops, or Jack Spong. In 2005, he went so far as to call opponents of Gene Robinson's consecration Donatists. Yet in 1993, he'd met with Cardinal Ratzinger to propose a personal prelature for Anglicans, but he delayed becoming Catholic for a decade and a half.
Looking at the peculiar game of musical chairs that took place among the Fort Worth Four between 2008 and 2012, in which Frs Crary and Tobola were somehow voted off the island while others like Frs Perkins and Hough IV somehow made it in, it's hard not to think a certain amount of backstabbing took place even among the core group and the wannabes. Any objections from this group that less-favored candidates were somehow insincere strike me as pharisaical.
But the overwhelming impression I get is that all these people were thinking entirely in terms of the Episcopal Diocese of Fort Worth, and Anglicanorum coetibus was to be nothing but Fort Worth writ large. I hate to say it, but the Church, and the Church Universal, have much higher priorities than finding well-paid, prestigious, and undemanding TEC style jobs for these cronies -- yet that's what they seem to have wanted for themselves exclusively.
I'm increasingly of the view that Bp Lopes needs to shut this thing down and start over.
