As I was reading your blog today, it brought to mind the parable of the wheat or grain that was sown in turn on rocky land, shallow soil, amongst the weeds and in fertile, deep soil. The seed (the Word of God, and by extension, the Truth of the Catholic Church) is the same in all cases; the difference is where it lands (meaning in what kind of person or heart). It seems to me (in a sweeping generalization that in no way encompasses each individual situation) that people drawn to the Ordinariate as a stopping point rather than a way station on the path to the Original Church seem to be content with replanting every time a difficulty arises that chokes/stymies their growth rather than doing the more difficult work of conditioning the soil to make it more hospitable to receive the seed. As long as it can get away with replanting rather than actually having to bring in a harvest, the Ordinariate can stave off judgement day… until it can’t. With that kind of mentality, anybody want to make any bets about which lasts longer, the Ordinariates or the EU? It might be interesting to see what would be the Vegas Odds on that!The idea of Anglicanorum coetibus as a way station rather than a final destination is intriguing. I'm not sure if Rome was ever completely clear about this -- notice the ambiguity about how long married priests will be allowed, as well as the deep suspicion in some quarters that at some point, it will be cut off altogether.
Fr Longenecker, a former Church of England priest ordained a married diocesan Catholic priest in the US without going through either the Pastoral Provision or the OCSP, had remarks in a similar vein recently:
People sometimes ask my what gifts I bring to the Catholic Church as a convert.I have a similar sense -- I was raised Presbyterian, fell away in college, and became Episcopalian at about 30. Like Fr Longenecker, I'm not sure if I was ever really at home there. I'm more in agreement with those I've talked with from time to time who saw Anglicanorum coetibus as "an easy way to become Catholic", but I think the implication here is that those of us who thought this way weren't intending to stay Anglican, or Anglican-like, or however else one might put it.I’m not really quite sure how to answer since I feel I have received far more than I have given, and perhaps they are thinking that my answer will be that I have brought with me the Anglican choral tradition or Evensong or a love of fine liturgy or some such, but as I get older I realize more and more that while I love Anglican tradition and treasure my fifteen years in that church, I was never more than passing through.
They gave me a warm welcome, but I didn’t really fit in. I always felt like the son of the gardener in a grand house who happened to have befriended the son and heir of Lord Faunci.
And of those who saw the OCSP as simply a way to become Catholic, it didn't work out for us! (I think in hindsight that was a feature, not a bug.) We had to turn around and take a more conventional route, while the ordinariate types pursued their boutique groups, flirting with the idea of not just unique, but separate.
The problem I see with how the story of the St Bede group and Fr Treco has been turning out is that overall, these people seem to want to be separate. The first link to the story I found provides a worthwhile context:
In addition to my wife and I being parishioners at the FSSP apostolate here in Minneapolis, we also from time to time attend St. Bede the Venerable, which is a mission parish of The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. While neither my wife nor myself were ever associated with Anglicans or Episcopalians, the Ordinariate Form of the Roman Rite is much more palpable than Novus Ordo masses.While my friends and I were looking for an easy way to become Catholic (and not finding it with the OCSP, probably because there's actually no "easy way" to do it), these folks seem to have been drawn to the St Bede group because it shared their wish somehow to be more Catholic than the pope. It's a whole different approach.
This reminds me, actually, of the remarks Fr Ripperger, himself highly traditionalist, sometimes makes at conferences: he doesn't like traditionalists very much. He goes as far as to say they often make a great show of looking traditionalist while persisting in private sin. Something says to me that the most enthusiastic ordinariate people see themselves, and traditionalists see them, as at least close cousins.
Last Sunday I was enjoying the reverent mass at our diocesan parish. There are altar girls as well as altar boys. Somehow it reminded me of what I actually sort of liked about high-church Episcopalians: there were ladies in cassocks and surplices. It occurred to me that if Rome approves woman deacons, it'll be anything but a last straw for me; I never thought woman priests in TEC were a terrible scandal -- perhaps a doctrinal blunder, but not something to treat as a distraction.
There are more important things to focus on. If Rome ever ordains women priests, I'll be pushing up daisies by then anyhow.
