Our beloved Anglican Ordinariate parish is not having services for today and tomorrow because our priest got sent off to serve our country as a military chaplain. (We miss you Fr. Aaron R. Bayles!!!) So, despite all my prior resolves to avoid the scandal of banality which is the local N.O. parish - the last nightmare was a bizarre Lenten Mission which I'm still trying to block out - I decided to get over myself and go there for Holy Thursday Mass tonight. I love the Triduum, and missing it is a source of pain. I walked in, and as I passed through the vestibule, I noticed what looked like a mountain of caramels stacked up on a tray. I moved closer and realized it was plates full of leavened bread which was all cut up and ready to be crumbled all over the church by the legion of well-meaning but liturgically unschooled not at all "Extraordinary" ministers. So, I asked the usher who I know, "Larry, what is this?" He said, "Oh yeah, they did that last year too." And I said, "But they can't. It's illicit to use chunks of leavened bread at Mass." And he shrugged, "Do you want to talk to Father? It's kind of late now...." I stood there shaking my head. I had braced myself for the inane, ugly music. I had prepared myself for a dumb homily. I was ready for the irreverence and the socializing of peace. I was even ready to see the priests putting their hands all over the bare calves and feet of a bunch of women at the washing of feet. But I wasn't ready for chunks of the Blessed Sacrament to get passed into people's dirty hands, with crumbs flying everywhere. I walked out. So, now, I will spend one hour with Jesus by ourselves, sitting in my living room. No Eucharist. No sharing in the second most beautiful liturgy of the year. I'm so sick of the Church in Los Angeles.This is peculiar for what it says, and what it doesn't. I don't know where Ms Nicolosi lives, but I assume she travels some non-trivial distance to get to Covina. But unable to attend Holy Thursday there, she defaults to her local diocesan parish, which she calls a "scandal of banality".
Whew. Isn't she setting herself up for something here? This is 2019. All she needs to do is say "Catholic Church" into Google on her phone, and it'll bring up several within a few minutes' drive, with a map and directions. If she has an extra 10 or 15 minutes, she can do a little more browsing and come up with other candidates by looking over their websites. I've simply never been to a Catholic parish, in Chicago or California, that used Presbyterian style bread -- but beyond that, parishes all vary in their atmosphere. Why can't she find one nearby that's more to her liking?
Instead, she simply says, "I'm so sick of the Church in Los Angeles." This, however, goes to an issue I'm working through. I certainly read the usual news about Catholic priests busted for public indecency, hanging gay pride banners in the sanctuary, or whatever, and Los Angeles does have its share of this sort of thing, which Randy Engle excoriates in The Rite of Sodomy. On the other hand, if our own and surrounding parishes are any sample (which I think they must be), they're serious places run by devout and hard-working priests who in fact set inspiring personal examples.
Indeed, the archdiocesan vocation director is in residence at our parish, and he takes masses and confessions there. He is a serious and inspiring guy, not the sort you'd imagine if all you read was opinion pieces to the effect that they're all in the lavender mafia. And he's choosing his associate directors, who appear to be serious people as well. That gives me the impression that day to day, there must be other serious people running things in the chancery.
So my next question, after why Ms Nicolosi didn't just google other nearby parishes, is why didn't she report the illicit sacrament to the serious people in the chancery? Now, if I ran into a situation like that, I wouldn't know exactly how to report it, but I could do a web search and find out what other people might have done, or I could ask another priest about it, or I could maybe just call the chancery and ask how to report it. It could well become a good learning experience.
Instead, she's just playing Ain't It Awful. Beyond that, to say, as she pretty much does, that the whole Archdiocese of Los Angeles is like that is the sin of rash judgment, if not calumny. And I'll bet the two dozen folks who show up for DW mass in Covina reinforce her in that, too. I wouldn't go near that place, I'd sooner try to do something about the illicit sacrament in the diocesan parish.
But here's another issue. She mentions that Fr Bayles, who became a Catholic Air Force chaplain when he was ordained in the OCSP, left when he was deployed. But that was last year, when the group was still in Pasadena. Since then, my regular correspondent has found that masses for the Our Lady of Grace group are covered by Fr Barker, who is retired from the Diocese of San Bernardino and who has helped out at California ordinariate parishes since then.
So the issue is more complicated than Ms Nicolosi makes out. For the time Fr Bayles was involved with the group in Pasadena, he was commuting from the San Luis Obispo area. For saying mass, he would have been entitled to mileage reimbursement and a stipend. San Luis Obispo is 192 miles from Pasadena or 384 miles round trip. At 54.5 cents per mile, he would have been entitled to $209.28 for mileage alone, without considering the stipend. Two dozen people attending DW mass would have to put over $20 each in the basket just to pay Fr Bayles, not counting any other costs for the group. My experience as a "continuing" parish treasurer is that an average pledge of $20 is up there.
My guess is Fr Bayles, once he was called to active duty, is being paid as an Air Force Major, with full benefits. It must have been a relief to get away from the Pasadena group. Without him, the group has to rely on the good nature and continuing good health of Fr Barker -- but for some reason, the California OCSP groups were down one priest for Holy Week. (What happened to Fr Barbour, who'd been taking masses in Irvine? It looks like Fr Barker had to cover for him there.)
The bottom line is that there ain't no free lunch. The total number of OCSP members in four California counties can't be more than a couple hundred, yet up to very recently, they were served by Frs Baaten, Barbour, Barker, Bartus, and Bayles. The only one of these who is getting anything like full pay is Fr Bartus. Inevitably, others are going to be out of the mix, to the point that they won't realistically be able to cover high-demand periods like Holy Week. If nothing else, Fr Barker is a septuagenarian, and his health can't hold indefinitely. Fr Barbour, who is a major figure in his order, seems to have been called elsewhere.
And the California groups are holding a garden party in hopes of preserving the status quo. Good luck. Ms Nicolosi seems to have confused the Catholic Church with a Disney attraction.
