SMV Arlington didn't build its church as a catholic parish. They built it as an Episcopal parish, and the congregation and building withdrew from TEC under what appeared to be an extraordinary arrangement by Episcopal Bishop of Ft. Worth, Clarence Pope, who was sympathetic to the cause, to let them and the building go, and the Catholic bishop of Ft. Worth, to receive them under the Pastoral Provision. That was in 1991. They then worshipped as an independent congregation, under the care of the Catholic bishop, until Rome approved Fr. Hawkins' ordination in 1994.Recall that Bp Pope traveled to Rome in 1993 to meet with Cardinal Ratzinger to present the proposal that led to Anglicanorum coetibus. Pope rather clearly had a personal agenda, although married, to become a full Catholic bishop. The release of St Mary the Virgin seems to have been connected with that plan.
"On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of the conditions. . . . It is madness to wear ladies' straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews." -- Annie Dillard
Tuesday, June 27, 2017
Correction On St Mary The Virgin
A visitor reports,