While the exact issue isn't clearly spelled out in the letter, it appears that Bp Lopes and the OLA parish had intended to administer First Communion and Confirmation to Academy students at the age of reason, about seven. Not stated at all in the letter is that, although these students had presumably been baptized in Catholic parishes and raised in more or less observant Catholic families, to administer the final sacraments of initiation would make them (and for that matter their families) members of the OCSP.
Interestingly, according to the letter, this seems to have been a contingency Abp Garcia-Siller had anticipated in a meeting with Fr Lewis last October. It seems to me that Abp Garcia-Siller perceived the potential problem here quite well. The school parents involved, for reasons neither Fr Lewis nor Bp Lopes should second-guess, send their children to Atonement Academy but prefer to attend mass and receive the sacraments at their home diocesan parish.
As a member of a diocesan parish, I see that in our case, both First Communion and Confirmation, at whatever age, are celebrated as family and community events. At minimum, to have these sacraments take place in the context of the school, rather than the parish and the family, usurps their usual purpose, and I can't avoid a sense that Abp Garcia-Siller is shepherding his faithful well in this case.
He points to his diocesan policy of withholding confirmation until teenage years. I've got to agree with this, too. Prof Feser in one of his Five Proofs points to the existence of absolutes, such as the laws of physics, geometry, and harmony; the behavior of numbers; and the existence of logic and reason, as proofs for natural religion. Children begin to be exposed to these in middle school, which I think is a much better time to catechize them.
At root of Abp Garcia-Siller's objection, though, is (in my opinion) a sense that Bp Lopes is poaching active cradle Catholics still in formation, using the excuse of giving the final sacraments of initiation, which (sneaky move!) just happens to make them and their families members of the OCSP -- although it seems to me that Pope Francis's extension of eligibility in this area was intended to reach cradle Catholics who'd fallen away from the Church for some significant period, not seven-year-olds who don't know what's going on (nor, of course, their families).
For the children and their families, of course, that, with a couple of bucks, will get them a bus ride. They stay registered at their home parishes. But for Bp Lopes, he can claim some dozens of new OCSP members, witting or not, each year, claiming growth that otherwise doesn't exist. I don't like this, and I don't blame Abp Garcia-Siller for being concerned about the "perception".
A visitor noted that the letter from Fr Lewis went out on Februaery 13, but by February 15, Church Militant had picked up the story: SAN ANTONIO PRELATE PUNISHING PARISH SCHOOLCHILDREN! Garcia-Siller denying students Confirmation at Anglican Use parish! Neither statement is correct: the schoolchildren in this case are specifically not members of the OLA parish, and the parish is no longer Anglican Use. The Anglican Use part suggests Fr Phillips is probably connected with the leak to Church Militant. The rest of the story is predictable.
Part of me wants to e-mail Mr Voris, with whom I'm often sympathetic, outlining the specifics of Dcn Orr's history with the parish, including the reports by parents to Fr Phillips of Orr's violations of guidelines, including kissing adolescent boys on the mouth, which Fr Phillips discounted and apparently never discouraged, culminating in the archdiocese's report of a credible allegation of abuse and the eventual banning of Dcn Orr from the OLA property -- but only after Fr Phillips's removal as pastor. I would hope Mr Voris could allow such circumstances to override his wish to prove a general point.
But as a visitor put it to me, it's hard to think anyone at OLA carrying the tale to Church Militant will help Bp Lopes's relationship with the Archdiocese of San Antonio, and considering how much time he spends at OLA, he must feel this is one of his few bright spots. It seems to me that Bp Lopes does have additional disciplinary options with Fr Phillips, retired or not, which he would be well-advised to pursue. But the appearance of poaching active diocesan Catholics still in formation is also a very bad look for him, which can't help his reputation with other colleagues in the USCCB.
