I note that Bp Lopes will be visiting [Blessed John Henry Newman], Irvine on January 22, which will give him a chance to assess first-hand the group's eligibility for parish status. The flurry of new activity which we noted on the revamped website last year seems to have died down; no updates on the school or the Inland Empire Ordinariate Group, for example. The Pasadena group is advertising its third Evensong on February 5.The last I saw, by the way, was that Fr Barker, who had briefly been with the Irvine group, left it to perform other duties in the Diocese of San Bernardino last summer. He was supposed to return to Irvine in December, based on what I read last summer. Has this happened? UPDATE: I'm told Fr Barker is listed as the officiant for the January Ordinariate Evensong in Pasadena, also the one upcoming February 5.I wonder if Fr Bartus includes St Augustine, Del Mar in his stats? The St Augustine's page remains part of the BJHN site, although the information on it is now out of date since the group celebrated its first mass in its new location last Sunday. The St Augustine's Facebook page, which is otherwise equally outdated, has added 28 pictures of the first mass in the new location. The congregation seems to number the usual dozen, however, so it cannot be adding a great deal to the statistical picture.
I have expressed before my sense that the daily mass times posted on the BJHN website, offered at the Queen of Life Chapel in the OF by priests unconnected with the OCSP, plus the Santiago Retreat Center link, create the impression that BJHN is a bigger operation than it in fact is. The 2017 schedules for Theology on Tap, Theology on Perk, and the King's Cross Society are meanwhile unavailable. No "League of Ordinary Gentlemen" whiskey and cigar get-togethers either. Only events are the Marrieds Group potluck and of course, the Charles, King and Martyr wing-ding.
A bigger question is this: in contrast to the thriving intellectual life we find on the web among traditional mainstream Catholics, there is nothing -- not even a Fr Hunwicke -- in the OCSP. Is Fr Bartus the best it has to offer?
