"It Just Baffles Me. . ."

says a visitor, "With all of the other 'issues' that the Ordinariate and their congregations have, they are thinking of schools." He says, "My mother was a Catholic school teacher in the suburbs and the inner city, I worked in parishes with schools, I know from experience what it takes to run a school. I cannot for the life of me understand what their end game is." He told me about his current work as an educational administrator in a state prison system:

I’m familiar with what goes into running a small school system. We have 14 schools in adult prisons with an average daily student count that numbers somewhere just over 2000 students. We have around 125 teachers, 3 regional managers, 14 site managers/coordinators (principals), 13 administrative assistants, and 3 yes 3 central office staff including myself (2 lowly functionaries and a Director). We administer almost $3,000,000.00 per year of state and federal grant money (we just submitted a $750,000.00 grant application which we have to do every year) and an education provider contract that totals over 7 figures for 2 years of provided services. . . . We take very seriously our responsibility.

He puts this in the context of a diocesan education staff.

I cannot fathom why the Ordinariate would want to embark on a piecemeal education endeavor, spread potentially over 50 states and Canada. 51 different sets of rules and regulations. [My regular correspondent says that education in Canada is a provincial/territorial responsibility, so it's potentially 63 sets of rules and regulations.] Most dioceses at a minimum have a superintendent and an assistant superintendent and a programming coordinator. Perhaps they also have a secretary. If you look at this link, you can see what the Diocese of Gary, IN schools do. It’s no small task and that’s just to keep things consistant, above board, education that is of sufficient duration and quality, and LEGAL! If you look at a larger archdiocese like Chicago, they have a large Catholic Schools Office with a superintendent, several assistant superintendents, coordinators and directors with various divisions that they head, not to mention assistants. Not to mention a funding source which Francis Cardinal George initiated in life and bequeathed money to upon his death.

As you know, I think the Ordinariate likes to see themselves as separate but equal. That somehow they are going to offer people something that is better than the local diocese because of their, “Anglican tradition”. I think there is a bit of a delusion within the Ordinariate that they are somehow something more than a version of the Byzantine Eparchies (which they should have been more closely structured as from the outset). I don’t know what the Ordinariate’s Education Office staff numbers, but I cannot imagine that they have the ability to offer any meaningful programming or assistance to Ordinariate congregations. I can assure you though they do not have the capability to fully support current or future schools. I think encouraging the founding of schools within Ordinariate congregations is reckless and irresponsible without some really meaningful discernment from the Chancery. Recklessly running an education program can entangle you in protracted legal battles and funding issues. Not to mention that the Ordinariate in their role as a “diocese” would likely be caught in the middle of such issues.

I think we’re seeing the Ordinariate and it’s congregations devolve into what they were before they joined the Church of Rome, a bunch of rather loosely affiliated Anglicans. When it comes to hierarchy and structure for most non-Catholics, including Episcopalians and Anglicans, the mentality toward bishops and diocese is, “don’t come to us, we’ll come to you”, I think this is the approach that the Ordinariate is taking if not encouraging. But for most Catholics, we know that the bishop and the diocese are an ever present reality in living out our corporate faith, that’s an ingrained part of Catholic ecclesiology.

What I find disturbing is, for example, the web page of the St Barnabas Classical Academy in Omaha, which is apparently representing itself as Catholic, since it appears over Bp Lopes's name, although intriguingly, it isn't calling itself a "Catholic school". (Would this cause problems with the Archdiocese of Omaha?) But nobody at ordinariate headquarters is supervising anything. Fr Phillips apparently visits the ordinariate schools, although much of his advice from what I hear consists of things like tips on how to spoof the building inspector. Putting Bp Lopes's name on the web page is close to misrepresentation if prospective parents think they'll get something equivalent to a diocesan school.

My regular correspondent reports,

Formerly when one clicked "Find a Parish" on the OCSP website a drop down menu appeared offering a choice of "Parishes" or "Schools." The only school which ever made it on to the website was "St Vincent's Academy"---a preschool run out of Incarnation, Orlando. But someone early on had the idea that the Ordinariate would get involved in education. After Fr Sellers became chaplain at John XXIII prep in Katy, TX he was appointed Director of Schools for the OCSP (in 2016?) a job with few demands, needless to say, but perhaps a consolation prize for the loss of the Director of Communication job he was clearly not up to. This title no longer exists, and there is apparently no one on the Chancery staff co-ordinating educational initiatives. . . . In any event, Ordinariate education is not a co-ordinated effort although as you point out there is plenty of opportunity for negative outcomes in which the OCSP would inevitably be institutionally implicated. Meanwhile, no consistent standards or clear accountability.

I'm more and more convinced that someone at the CDF thought it was a good idea to make Steven Lopes a bishop, but he's clueless on what a bishop and a diocese actually do.