More Information On The Our Lady Of The Atonement Membership Drive

An observer provides additional information on the OLA membership drive and the potential reason for it:

The duplicate oral announcement about the Ordinariate Membership Drive given by both Fr. Lewis and Fr. Phillips was repeated last Sunday. While I don't believe it was mentioned in the bulletin or "parish e-mail", it is listed on the parish website under "Upcoming Events". [However, there is no other comment, unlike the oral discussion in the mass annoucements.] What has been mentioned in the oral announcements as a reason to register for the Ordinariate if you consider OLA as your parish is that the Sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation and Marriage might not be available through the parish if you are not an Ordinariate member.

I would guess that a good number of the families with students at the Atonement Academy do not consider themselves regular parishioners, and aren't so interested in being part of the Personal Ordinariate. Whether or not the oral announcements at the end of Mass followed by the membership drive even reaches them seems questionable, since they're likely attending Mass elsewhere. My guess is there's an additional announcement through the school to indicate students whose families have not registered in the Ordinariate may not be able to receive First Communion and Confirmation (as 2nd or 3rd graders) with their classmates but would have to go through their Archdiocesan parish.

It seems when Fr. Phillips was away recently, Fr. Lewis did the 6pm Mass in English rather than the usual Latin. When Fr. Moore has done that Mass, he also has to do it in English. Should Fr. Phillips not be available, the availability of the Mass in Latin seems questionable. That might make those that come to OLA for the Latin Mass less than entirely enthusiastic about the Ordinariate.

I could be wrong, but as far as I know, an OF Latin mass in English is just an OF English mass. Big whoop. But Canon 249 says,

The program of priestly formation is to provide that students not only are carefully taught their native language but also understand Latin well and have a suitable understanding of those foreign languages which seem necessary or useful for their formation or for the exercise of pastoral ministry.

Now, people can say that the average diocesan priest is a pretty ignorant guy whose knuckles drag on the floor, much less knows Latin, but aren't the likes of Ms Gyapong going to insist that the OCSP accepts only the crème de la crème? I had four years of high school Latin and a college semester of Catullus. I don't find the Latin our diocesan parish sometimes uses in the gloria, sanctus, memorial acclamation, agnus dei, and litanies especially challenging. (Almost all diocesan priests I know are fully capable of delivering a homily in Spanish or English, and hearing confessions in either. Latin as far as I can tell is no problem for them.)

I might have problems with Church pronunciation, but if it were me, I'd go to a sympathetic diocesan priest and get a little coaching, and then I'd go ahead and do the Latin. (YouTube might be good, even if no coach could be found.) If I needed some additional license, I'd do what I needed to. Not Frs Lewis or Moore, it would seem. I refer to my previous remarks on the disappointing quality of OCSP clergy. I see a sense of entitlement here, but no initiative. These guys have their preferment -- what else could anyone want? The visitor continues,

The nave of the OLA church building has a capacity of not much more than 500, though there could be another 100 in the cry rooms and choir loft. The 9 and 11am Mass would seem to have the best attendance, though Latin Mass might be close. If a pew is full, it's usually due to 2 or 3 children with parents. A number of pews have only 2 or 3, so my guess is about 2/3 full or 350 or so at Mass. The 4 Sunday Masses therefore likely have 1,200 or so attending on a somewhat normal Sunday, which is likely between 350 to 400 families.

So if 300 families is the number that's currently registered, it looks like there's not going to be more than maybe 350 or 400 at the end of a membership drive, and quite possibly some cradle Catholics are going to get fed up with the politics at OLA and drift away. Mr Wilson seems like a pretty heavy-handed guy. Another visitor comments, "I wish we had a real meeting. Everything is scripted."

I'm pretty sure this is not what the CDF had in mind when it gave the parish to the OCSP.