I was wondering what you are thinking about the fact that Andy is starting or becoming a sponsor for so many different groups, yet as of yet he can't seem to get enough money to purchase or even rent a decent place for a church building.Good question; I just don't have an answer. Regarding the various expansion plans at the Santiago Retreat Center, I got interested in this when I started looking into where Fr Baaten was calling from. The photos of the facilities here suggest that, rather than "rustic", a better description might be "hardscrabble", and the market appears to be lower-income and at least partly Hispanic -- the staff includes a Director of Hispanic Programming & Events.
Yet they're aiming at putting a rood screen in the chapel, with a BDW daily mass. With all the other plans, do they intend to raise the income level of the clientele -- bring in all the Anglo-Catholic yuppies, maybe make the Hispanic Catholics uncomfortable so they'll leave? Who knows? Is anyone asking these questions?
The other question that comes up is how many of the people being recruited for the new groups are in the Anglicanorum coetibus target market -- disaffected former Anglicans or Catholics who haven't completed the sacraments of initiation. A name that's been pointed out to me on the various Facebook pages is Charles Coulombe, who is prominent in Traditionalist circles and a Latin Mass enthusiast. Msgr Steenson's original intent appears to have been to separate the OCSP from Traditionalist tendencies, which even conservative mainstream Catholics like Fr Ripperger characterize as "angry" and "perfectionist".
The best we can tell from the Facebook pages is that many potential members appear to be current Catholics, yuppies to be sure, but not in the target group originally envisioned for the OCSP. Comments at Ordinariate Expats suggest that we're seeing mission creep:
But actually, the most significant item here is the congregation’s programs to reach out to young adults — a demographic that far too many Roman Catholic parishes and even dioceses have long neglected, with the tragic consequence that young adults in need of pastoral services find their way to other denominations that willingly provide them. Outreach to this group is crucial to secure the future of every ordinariate community!Observers on the ground in Irvine suggest that "young adults" actually means something more like "a clique of heavy-drinking yuppies". But I'm puzzled -- there's no shortage, from what I can see, of Catholic resources dedicated to young adults, including regular Youtube presentations by Fr Mike Schmitz, Los Angeles Bishop Barron, whose Youtube presentations often cover popular culture topics appealing to young adults, and many others. Our own parish often focuses on youth activities, it's had numerous vocations, and it has a girls' high school.
I'd want to be careful that the Bartus groups aren't either providing a haven for angry and perfectionist factions that may see less opportunity elsewhere, or are simply poaching people (especially by offering activities that feature alcohol) who might be better off in diocesan parishes. (Or the impression of activity we see may be something stirred up for effect.)
