So Is It A Bug Or A Feature?

I spent some time earlier this week discussing Bp Lopes's use of the formulation "dual hermeneutic of reform" in his September 27 interview with the liberal liturgical blog Pray Tell. Any use of the term "hermeneutic" these days, considering the radical change in its use and connotations since the advent of postmodernism, ought to give anyone the heebie-jeebies. Let's recognize as well that this interview was conducted via e-mail, and Bp Lopes had plenty of time to review his replies and edit them as needed. This was not a Bergoglio making offhand remarks on the pontifical jet.

So did Bp Lopes maybe not quite know what he was saying, in which case this was a bug, or is he telegraphing something much more serious -- a deliberate intent to talk like a modern TEC bishop. with all that implies -- in which case it's a feature? My regular correspondent votes for bug:

Bp Lopes as a CDF bureaucrat was given the AC file and had to acquire expertise on a liturgy he had no doubt never previously encountered. Once one has become a leading expert in something it is hard to accept that it is, after all, a footnote to a footnote in the larger scheme of things and hardly anyone knows or cares about it. At least as far as the Catholic church is concerned, Protestant worship in general is such a subject, and the particulars of the evolution of the BCP impossibly obscure and irrelevant. No doubt it is tempting to drop expressions like "dual hermeneutic of reform" in an attempt to suggest that a deeper reading of DW will enable you to better understand the Counter-Reformation or something else important. Only in the sense that one can see a world in a grain of sand, IMHO.

The preferred narrative of a Lost Cause is that it paved the way for a later triumph. The Pastoral Provision provided a template for the Ordinariates. As the Ordinariates stall their liturgical importance will be more emphasised, I predict.

Well, maybe. But let's look at this in the context of today's Vortes from Michael Voris. He mentions, referring to the upcoming 500th anniversary of Protestantism, a "parade of Catholic bishops and clergy beating a path to the kiss-up line". Bp Lopes is, I'm sure, eager to show he's with the program, whether he's completely aware of what his words imply or not. In a later e-mail, my correspondent takes possible implications a little farther:

The latest copy of Ordinariate Observer lists 41 communities, including one which meets once a month and one which posts "phone for mass time" which suggests there is no regular Sunday mass So despite the reception of OLA this year the OCSP footprint has shrunk rather than grown in 2017. In passing, I note that Our Lady of Grace, Pasadena is not on the list, for reasons unknown. But I presume that Our Lady of Mt Carmel, Savannah and St Anselm of Canterbury, Corpus Christi have been dropped because, like St Edmund, Kitchener and St Gilbert, Boerne they have ceased to exist. Manpower is a continuing challenge. Many other small communities are one pensioner away from disappearance, and even the more robust, like SJE, Calgary, seem to require heroic measures when their administrator wishes to retire or move. So Bp Lopes is not riding the crest of any wave here. . . . [W]hether he is committed to the project or just trying to demonstrate his capacity to turn a sow's ear into a reasonable facsimile of a silk purse is unclear.

Let's recognize that there's increasing suspicion in places like Fr Z's blog of what the Bergoglian agenda really is. Bp Lopes, if he wants to show success with the Anglicanorum coetibus project, may wish to find aspects of it that do fit some interpretations of this agenda, e.g., bringing the unqualified into the sacraments. My understanding as well is that an upcoming Vatican synod will begin to address how to incorporate greater numbers of married clergy.

I would say that Bp Lopes will be in a position to show how he's succeeding with a pilot project at introducing not just married clergy, but less qualified Protestants with minimal formation, into the ranks of the Catholic priesthood. Ecumenism in the front row, after all. You mediocre Lutherans who can't find placements in your own denomination, hey, the door's now open! I would suggest that this is a way, and quite possibly the only way, for Bp Lopes to declare victory with this assignment and move on to greater things.

And keep in mind that one aspect of the current political devolution is that something we used to joke about -- gay marriage, for instance -- can become an actuality much more quickly than we think. It's entirely possible that Bp Lopes is sincere but obtuse, although at this point, I think that's the most charitable reading of what's going on. I would certainly advise serious people in OCSP communities to get themselves to a sound diocesan parish.