Baltimore Area Ordinariate Moves

A visitor sent me a link to this letter from Fr John Worgul, who, although he is an ordinariate priest and leads the small St Timothy Catonsville group, has been named pastor of the St Joseph Catholic Community in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. That community is in Sykesville, in Carroll County. As usual, as far as I can find it, there's no announcement of this in any ordinariate venue.

Based on his letter, Fr Worgul's day job for the past six years had actually been as associate priest at that community -- again, this had never been made clear as far as I can tell. He will continue to lead the St Timothy group, although it will now be moving to a facility owned by the St Joseph community in Sykesville. which is about 20 miles from Catonsville.

Fr Worgull's letter to the St Joseph parish does reflect a certain awkwardness in his dual role:

Saint Joseph’s liturgy will always remain the Novus Ordo – that is, our liturgy will remain the same. This is clearly stated in the agreement between the Archdiocese of Baltimore and the Ordinariate. And just as the Marianist tradition values lay participation, so does the Anglican tradition with its “priesthood of the believer” tradition.

Part of SJCC’s relationship with the Ordinariate is that SJCC will be hosting an Ordinariate congregation of about 30-40 people in our old Sykesville Church. The church, called St. Timothy’s, consists of the remains of a once significant Episcopalian congregation in Catonsville that began in the 1840s. Its original building is on Ingleside Avenue. The church lost this building in 2012 when the congregation voted to enter the Ordinariate. Since then, it has been meeting in the old stone chapel of St. Marks. I have been its Parochial Administrator since 2014. The old Sykesville Church will remain in the possession of SJCC and will be used for weddings, baptisms, prayer, and other activities as usual.

We will be assigned an Assistant Priest named Armando Alejandro who will be ordained this June. He is an accomplished liturgist and musician and is extremely personable and people oriented. He will live in the rectory. Also, another Ordinariate priest, Robert Kirk, who is Parochial Vicar of our immediate area, will be available and will be very helpful to our church.

So this answers another question -- Fr-designate Alejandro will also serve the Sykesville diocesan parish as a new associate there.

Although Fr Worgul makes it clear that the St Joseph community will continue as a diocesan Novus Ordo parish, he feels the need to go on at some length on the mission of the ordinariate and the beauty of the Divine Worhsip liturgy. But my regular correspondent reminds me that

videos of the Sunday mass have often been posted on Facebook even before the current lockdown; the celebration is versus populum and there are female servers. Music is provided by Mr Stagmer on guitar and one or two others on keyboard, etc. Thus not as much differentiates St Timothy’s from what goes on at St Joseph as is perhaps the case at other OCSP communities which share space or clergy with a diocesan parish, so from that perspective perhaps the communities may grow closer in time.

This announcement from the Archdiocese of Baltimore stresses the expectation that Fr Worgul will minister in the tradition of the Marianists, and it sounds as if he'll be keeping the ordinariate part of things separate.

UPDATE: My regular correspondent referred me to this story in the Archdiocese of Baltimore newsletter indicating that the Marianist order would withdraw from ministry at the Sykesville community effective June 30, due to "a declining and aging population of priests and brothers within its congregation". This is a pattern taking place around the country among religious orders operating diocesan parishes, so the ordinariate is filling a role here.