Four OCSP groups are defunct: St Edmund's, Kitchener; St Gilbert, Boerne; Our Lady of Mt Carmel, Savannah; and St Anselm, Corpus Christi. St John Fisher, Arlington VA was supposedly merged with St Luke, Washington; St Gregory, Stoneham is in a live-in relationship with St Athanasius, Chestnut Hill, as we have discussed, and St Bede, Collegeville relocated to Minneapolis under new leadership. It is unclear in these three cases how many members actually made the transition. In two of these cases their priest was reassigned, in the others he became unable or unwilling to continue ministering to them.I have several reactions. The first is how tiny and unstable the majority of OCSP communities are. If my correspondent's take is correct, and it probably is, one or two key people make all the difference. But this brings up another issue: in my TEC life, I once attended a parish function that included a lady who had a career as director of several well-endowed art museums. The function took place at a country club or luxury hotel, I can't remember exactly which.But other groups in these situations have survived: Lay leadership kept St Alban, Rochester together as a community through two periods when their ptiest had departed or been reassigned, and St Gregory, Mobile has found a local diocesan priest to offer weekly mass. And of course some groups: St Benedict, Edmonton; Christ the King, Tyendinaga; St Timothy, Catonsville have never had an OCSP priest, but have relied on diocesan clergy and/or OCSP supply priests from the beginning. St George, Republic, formerly in Springfield, MO, existed for almost four years before a priest was assigned to them in 2016.
Lay leadership is the key here; apparently one cannot rely on Houston to take an active role in a group's survival. When Fr Stainbrook was reassigned to St John Vianney, Clebourne from St Timothy's, Ft Worth in July 2016, the latter was assigned three supply priests and promised a new administrator by January 2017. Instead one of the former supply priests was finally appointed "interim administrator" late last year. And this was a group whose leader left at Houston's request. Squeaky wheels like Rochester and Springfield can eventually get a priest assigned to them; other groups can prevail on a diocesan priest to help out.
In three of the full parishes a retiring or relocating priest has been replaced by another, as would happen in a regular diocese, although in the case of SJE, Calgary this has required considerable creativity. But for the smaller groups the situation is more precarious. Fr Ortiz-Guzman had been looking for a replacement for years when Fr Baaten came on the scene in Carlsbad, CA, for example. Fr Bartus seems to have seen this as an ordination opportunity for his protégé.
It appears that unless someone on the ground makes an effort, the group will simply be allowed to fold if their priest retires or leaves. Meanwhile prospective ordinands try to drum up a few attendees in some new location. Odd.
In the lobby was a painting, the sort of thing that was meant to be glimpsed but not really studied. But the museum director went up and gave it a careful look, and she discussed it with those of us who were nearby. "Look at all the detail the artist painted in here," she said. "But the whole painting is meant to be just exactly where it is, it's basically elevator music. Why did the artist go to all this trouble with something that wasn't meant to take all this work?" She shook her head.
I've got the same question about all these tiny OCSP groups. Why are people going to all this effort -- that is, at those few that are struggling to survive at all? If they were trying to establish a diocese or parishes on Mars, well, that would be one thing. But here, we've long since had our Bishop Amats, our Bishop Lamys. These people are trying to maintain highly marginal enterprises that take a lot of founding effort a few blocks, at worst a few miles, from existing Catholic parishes -- or indeed, just upstairs.
The other day I listed some of the resources available in those parishes a few blocks away that almost certainly will never be available in these OCSP communities -- that is, if they survive at all after their priests retire or their key lay people move on. I'm increasingly convinced the laity sees the whole Anglicanorum coetibus enterprise as an opportunity to build a parallel Catholic Church with the prestige of the Vatican but made in the image of Anglo Catholicism. Look no farther than the Anglicanorum Coetibus Society, made up most visibly of poorly catechized lay people who seem to see their calling as building an alternate magisterium.
I have a sense that some diocesan bishops are beginning to see what's going on here. I support them. But I think the house of cards that makes up the OCSP will collapse in fairly short order no matter what.
