A Slight Our Lady of the Atonement Update

A visitor sent me a link to a story at Texas Public Radio that carries slightly more recent information:

But the Archbishop wouldn’t say more about what’s next for the pastor who worked to develop those traditions within the Catholic Church.

“You know, I don’t want to make any other comments because we are in the process,” Garcia-Siller said. “But I want to assure the people that we are here to serve them and to love them. And the pastoral provision will continue.”

Fr. Phillips’ ‘mandated reflection period’ ended in early February. He’s appealing the Archbishop’s decision to remove him from the parish, according to some canon lawyers who’ve taken the case. Philip Gray claims he’s representing the priest.

“Canon law affords the faithful an opportunity to remain faithful and still challenge Church leadership,” Gray told a crowd of about 200 Atonement parishioners gathered in a hotel ballroom by his group the St. Joseph Foundation, which bills itself as something of an ACLU for Catholic rights.

Gray said he’s not allowed to share much information about the evidence against Fr. Phillips or what the St. Joseph Foundation’s defense of the priest might entail. But the Foundation is also preparing parishioners to defend their rights to worship according to their Anglican traditions, with or without Phillips.

We may recall that Fr Hunwicke accused Abp Garcia-Siller of not being Anglo-Saxon enough to reveal the charges against Fr Phillips, but Mr Gray, whose name seems perfectly Anglo-Saxon, turns out to be just as reticent. (Again, I assume Fr Hunwicke is out of control by the OLW hierarchy, since is is maligning a Catholic prelate on racial grounds and speaking out of turn about a Church matter. Anglicanorum coetibus in all its glory.)