They've Dropped The Riots, And It's Back To The Virus

This seems to be a general consensus among observers, the "blue" media, politicians, and mayors are quietly packing up the autonomous zones and justifiable arson. and they're back to worrying about how the plebs isn't social distancing. Echoing Florida and Texas, California Gov Newsom has "paused" COVID reopening, and everyone is making vague threats of reimposing a lockdown.

I don't think it's entirely coincidental that Fr Sam, who's in residence at our parish and the smartest man I've met, gave a homily yesterday on Pope St John Paul II. And Fr William Nicholas, another very smart priest I sometimes follow on YouTube, also gave a homily on St John Paul yesterday, which is well worth watching:

At 2:48, he says,

Where Jesus tells us to welcome one another, we are told to keep one another at a distance. Where we are told to recognize one another as followers of Christ and brothers and sisters in Christ, we are told to cover our faces.

He isn't speaking as an expert on epidemiology or public policy, but his theme certainly parallels other opinion in the secular public square that suggests an increase in COVID "cases" is simply a result of positive tests from increased testing, and most are asymptomatic. In at least some instances, increases in hospitalizations are counted in the same way deaths were counted at the start of the manufactured crisis: people who died from a wide range of causes were counted as COVID deaths if someone thought they might also have contracted the virus.

Now, people who are hospitalized for a wide variety of reasons are routinely tested for COVID, and if they test positive -- as some percentage of the population now will, though most are asymptomatic and thus immune -- they are counted as COVID hospitalizations, and the numbers will automatically increase. But COVID deaths have been declining nevertheless, and the idea of a new "spike" is another manufactured crisis.

Both Fr Sam and Fr Nicholas referred to St John Paul in their homilies because he was a powerful and effective advocate of natural rights. They both quoted his exhortation "Be not afraid".

And although the riots seem to be tapering off, it's worth noting that Abp Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco performed a public exorcism after the statue of St Junipero Serra was pulled down in Golden Gate Park. The Archbishop of St Louis is forced to respond to demands that the statue of St Louis be removed from a park there, and even that the name of the city be changed.

It probably isn't entirely coincidental that after the July 4 holiday, our parish will be doubling its mass schedule to accommodate as many people as possible given the current restrictions, while maintaining the mandated "social distancing" measures. It strikes me as the sort of thing St John Paul would endorse.

It isn't over. Hey, where's Bp Lopes? Where's the ordinariate in all this?

UPDATE: My regular cvorrespondent says, "I think a number of OCSP communities are offering extra masses. St Thomas Becket, Ft Worth (which uses a small chapel), St James, Jacksonville (ditto) and SJE, Calgary are three I know of."

Not Much Happening In California

With Fr Bartus on an unspecified "sabbatical" until fall, that, combined with "social distancing" measures, has severely dampened ordinariate activities in California. California guidelines limit occupancy to 25% capacity or a maximum of 100 on top of roped-off pews, so that for most of the venues (all provisional, most quite small), indoor attendance can't amount to much more than a dozen.

My regular correspondent reports that the Newman group in Irvine will not hold any mass until Fr Simington arrives in July, but the capacity restrictions even then will likely be a major problem. The St Augustine group in San Diego, very iffy in any case, will not reopen until fall when the school where it meets reopens. Our Lady of Grace, Covina has resumed its pre-COVID-19 schedule (one Sunday mass) with Fr Baaten, although roped off pews and limitations on singing and procession would be in force.

An interesting case is the Holy Martyrs Murrieta parish, which in the absence of Fr Bartus is not holding daily mass but does have one Sunday mass celebrated by Fr Bayles in the parking lot. Since he lives in San Luis Obispo County, he makes a near 400 mile round trip to do this, leading me to question whether the socially-distanced attendance can reimburse him for mileage and pay his stipend.

My correspondent sent links to photos of the Pentecost mass from the parish site. Here are a few that I found most worthy of comment. There are many others at the site:

Since the mass is held outdoors, it isn't completely clear what "social distancing" measures are in place, nor whether those specified by the local Diocese of San Bernardino are being followed, which is ordinariate policy. There are more in the altar party than would normally be allowed in an indoor mass, and there's a choir, a definite no-no. Riverside County has not been strictly enforcing masks,

All these measures are arbitrary and probably ineffective, but the question is whether any sort of order is being observed by the Church as a whole in response to the issues at hand. If the Church as a whole, either via individual dioceses or the USCCB, takes exception, this needs to be addressed via "consultations", as bishops have successfully done, not by individual groups freelancing outdoors.

Individual laity attended in lawn chairs or sitting on auto bumpers, as seen here. Attendance looked like it was several dozen. Chapel veils were in evidence.

Another Ordinariate Personnel Move

I'm now told that Josue Vásquez-Weber, who is currently listed on the ordinariate staff page as Executive Assistant to the Bishop, will take the position of Chancellor in the ordinariate. According to the Diocese of Camden, NJ,

The primary role of the chancellor is to gather, arrange, and safeguard the Acts and the archives of the diocesan curia. That is, he or she is responsible for the orderly arrangement and accessibility of the records and files that keep the diocese running and are its recorded history. This is especially true in regard to the sacramental registers, which detail the sacramental history of each parish in the diocese. The chancellor is also the official notary on all of the documents issued by the diocesan bishop.

. . . The office of the chancellor also helps disseminate information to clergy, parishes, and the Catholic faithful that may be beneficial to the people of the Diocese of Camden as they make their journey of Faith toward God’s eternal kingdom.

My regular correspondent earlier had gotten wind that Mr Vasquez-Weber, who styles himself "J Henry" in his breezy communications with clergy, would be leaving his position as executive assistant, although it was inferred that this might be to return to the seminary. However, this new information suggests J Henry will receive a promotion in place, and it will probably be just a new title for tasks he's already performing.

Although the Diocese of Camden says,

In many dioceses, including the Diocese of Camden, the chancellor is assisted by vice-chancellors overseeing specific aspects of the many areas of concern, i.e., the microfilming of parish sacramental registers and compliance in maintaining the minute books of parish pastoral and finance councils.

in the North American ordinariate, the job of maintaining baptism, confirmation, and marriage records doesn't seem demanding enough for J Henry to need assistance, and I see no reason to assume the level of activity in the chancery will suddenly increase. The ordinariate seems to have managed without a chancellor since Mrs Chalmers left the job after performing a key role in bungling the admission of the St Mary of the Angels parish in 2012. In fact,

UPDATE: My regular correspondent tells me that various people have filled the Chancellor role, with or without that title. When Laurie Miller was the executive assistant, she was also Chancellor. Fr Ken Wolfe was briefly chancellor under Msgr Steenson as well. I would think Houston has done better overall without a chancellor than with one.

The individual who reported J Henry's promotion gave this background:

From being the Facilities Manager at St. Theresa's in Sugar Land, Texas, to becoming the personal assistant and now CHANCELLOR for Lopes, Josue's rise in the Ordinariate is truly astronomical in nature! Especially for someone that clearly doesn't know anything! Not only that, but he's also Bishop Lopes' "housemate".

My regular correspondent and I have noted the not entirely decorous tone with reference to the bishop in J Henry's letters to clergy that implies an absence of supervisor-subordinate boundaries, and the visitor's assertion here may reflect this as well.

Just last evening I was reflecting on how Our Lady of the atonement has had a great deal of turmoil, but in contrast, Our Lady of Walsingham seems to have been quiet. The visitor here suggests this may not necessarily be the case.

Our Lady Of The Atonement And Catholic Parish Property

A visitor hundreds of miles from San Antonio took the trouble to look up the Bexar County, TX tax records connected with the Our Lady of the Atonement parish and came up with a patchwork of half a dozen parcels, all owned by "Our Lady of the Atonement Church" or "Our Lady of the Atonement Catholic Church", which brought up the intriguing question of who actually owns them now and the subsidiary question of how they were acquired. As an amateur and newcomer to this sort of thing, all I could surmise was that this isn't how Catholic parishes are normally set up.

As it happens, the ordinariate web site itself has a section that deal with this problem:

Canons 1254-1310 in canon law regulate the purchase, ownership, administration, and sale of temporal goods. The definition of “temporal goods” is all property both movable and immovable that is owned by juridic persons in the Church. Much like the civil law allows groups to form civil corporations, canon law allows groups to become public juridic persons. A public juridic person is similar to a canonical corporation. Dioceses are independent juridic persons, as are parishes, missions, Catholic schools, Catholic hospitals, etc.

The Ordinariate will have parishes that will be independently incorporated in civil law. Though some dioceses in the United States are set up as civil “corporations sole”, this civil legal construct is not appropriate for the Ordinariate, nor does it accurately reflect the Church’s understanding that each individual parish is its own separate public juridic person. However, the Ordinariate will require that each public juridic person’s civil articles of incorporation reflect the canonical reality that parishes are required to administer their property (temporal goods) as governed by the requirements of canon law.

So basically, if the Atonement parish owns property in its name, that's something the ordinariate encompasses, though it's not necessarily how Catholic dioceses operate. There's a question, though, how the Atonement parish was able to do this when it was in the Pastoral Provision under the Archdiocese of San Antonio. Apparently Fr Phillips was able to shove this through at the time there as well.

I ran this by a knowledgeable visitor, whose reply reminded me that Fr Phillips seems like a very minor-league version of Milton's Satan or Ida Tarbell's John D Rockefeller:

I can't speak to this other then to say that I do know that the property now known as OLOTA was purchased from the Archdiocese back in the early eighties. The San Antonio Archdiocese, like most dioceses, purchase properties in outlying areas. This is done ostensibly for future growth of the diocese. Sometimes these properties sit vacant for many years until the area starts to populate enough to support a new parish church or school. This is what happened In the case of OLOTA property.

I do recall Fr. Phillips saying to me that the diocese didn't think this particular property was located very well for a new parish or school and that the diocese wanted to get it sold. If I recall correctly, Fr. Phillips said that he was able to purchase the property for a reduced price and had negotiated a good deal with the Archdiocese for repayment. As I understand it, this is a normal arrangement. The Archdiocese buys properties for future use, an area grows, and then the Archdiocese sells the property to create a new parish. A mortgage is secured for the new parish usually from commercial banks with the Archdiocese securing the mortgage.

A couple of thoughts come to mind here: If you will recall I mentioned to you a while back an incident where Fr. Phillips thought he was in trouble with the Archdiocese because of some trouble he was having with a teaching order of Franciscan Nuns that he had at OLOTA. This incident occurred in the late eighties or early nineties. Fr. Phillips won the battle by getting rid of the nuns, but his relationship with Archbishop Flores was soured to the point where the Archbishop never returned to OLOTA. Fr. Phillips was concerned enough about this falling out with the Archbishop that he decided to purchase a house of his own for his family just in case the Archbishop would remove him from the parish. He was, at the time, living in a small house on OLOTA property owned by the Archdiocese.

A second incident comes to mind regarding the OLOTA property. If you will recall I also mentioned to you that when Mother Angelica sent a group of nuns (six) to San Antonio to start a new foundation, Archbishop Gomez, the next Archbishop to take over the San Antonio diocese, housed the nuns in the small house previously lived in by Fr. Phillips and his family. How could Archbishop Gomez do this if the Archdiocese didn't own the property? As a last thought, one would have to ask why would the Archdiocese back or sign for the many loans in the many millions of dollars for a property that they didn't own? How is this even legal?

Why would Bishop Lopes have to negotiate with the Archdiocese for the turnover of the property to OCSP if the Archdiocese didn't own the property? We also know that that the Archdiocese Of San Antonio holds the paper on the loans in the millions of dollars for the next thirty years at OLOTA. I will leave you with this last thought. If it were remotely true that OLOTA is self owned, not Archdiocese/OCSP owned, Fr. Phillips would be a very rich man. If it were true that he purchased the property from the Archdiocese, paid the note off, built this enterprise and the property belonged to him, why would he leave and why would he allow his legacy to be torn apart? The last I heard is that the property and buildings were valued somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty to thirty million dollars. Fr. Phillips would indeed be a very rich man.

One problem I see with the Anglicanorum coetibus project is that it clearly encompasses cascading exceptions in the name of bringing unspecified whatever into the Catholic Church, exemplified in detail by Fr Moore's wearing an Anglican collar in the video I linked yesterday. The Atonement parish somehow got away with Fr Phillips purchasing what amounted to a personal rectory that was de facto on site, owned entirely by himself, as insurance against some bishop down the road deciding to reassign him.

We can see how that worked out, huh?

Visitors On The New Order At Atonement

A visitor sent me a link to a Facebook video from last November that, at about 30 minutes in, features Fr Moore, no longer at Atonement, and somewhat fawning discussion of Fr Phillips, the interior of the Atonement parish, and the now-retired triptych. No opinion is offered on whether the figure of Christ is actually a young Fr Phillips in a tiara. But will Fr Moore wear his Anglican style collar in Indianapolis?

It's probably correct to infer from the recent changes at Atonement that Fr Lewis doesn't intend to play to the same sorts of people who watched this podcast. Regarding the image on the triptych, another visitor says, "I always thought that Image of God in the triptych looked like Henry VIII in a tiara."

A San Antonio visitor commented,

It appears that Bishop Lopes, Fr. Lewis and the whole new regime at OLOTA have a new vision. I do agree that the present folks running the show at OLOTA are hell-bent on removing the last remnants of "anything" Fr. Phillips. Whether this new paradigm will be successful or not, time will tell.

There is no doubt that OLOTA is losing parishioners. As I understand it donations to the parish are down. I have not heard anything lately concerning the school enrollment. There is the uncompleted construction on the new school building and, of course, the never ending long term debt of the parish. The parish gave up the Latin Mass and chased most of the folks that attended this Mass away.

Now with the renovations going on in the church, it's anybody's guess how many more parishioners will leave. But, I have to admit the new regime is brave. We will see where all this ends up. As a last thought, my wife and I have installed a stained glass window and a statue in OLOTA. I know of many people who over the years have made very expensive and beautiful donations to the parish. I wonder how they feel about the changes.

It was mentioned that the High Altar Triptych and other items will be stored for future display and that a new archives area will be built somewhere in the parish. This may or may not happen, but I don't think it will come to pass in our lifetimes. I am not sure how these items will look or display in a Medieval restaurant.

Another visitor commented,

First, there is no Canon Law against standing on the Mensa when renovating, doing maintenance or dismantling. Clearly the Blessed Sacrament was not present and the altar was stripped of cloths, candlesticks, etc. They were also taking it down for restoration and removal. Anyone who thinks this is a Canonical crime would be wrong. I posit, if the Mensa is sanded during restoration using a power tool, should the altar have to be re-consecrated? I would question if the Lady Chapel altar was re-consecrated after it was moved to OLOTA.

Working in churches for a good part of my life, sometimes the only way to access lightbulbs in altar towers, turrets and behind or above statues is to strip the cloths off of the altar and climb up there. I've helped move marble statues, needless to say 3/4 men standing on the Mensa moving a life size Saint Monica is quite the sight. But there was no other way. 4-5 foot tall bronze candle sticks cannot be moved using just a ladder, you've just got to take your shoes off and climb up.

. . . Those who viewed this and were unaware were in tears and assumed vandalism (removing an altar is quite the bit of vandalism gone un-noticed). That says more about some peoples deductive reasoning than I care to say. Those folks could have said, "Hey Joe, what's going on here?", but they chose to weep or assume vandalism. But parishes are odd places. Sometimes they are great except for the parishioners themselves! Again, that closet lefty Fr. Lewis going and changing things.

Parishioners have their own emotional attachment to things. I personally think that they are doing something interesting by swapping the altars. Unfortunately, clouded with emotion people react poorly. This will surely be felt at the parish level where some will end up leaving a parish that seems to need more parishioners, not fewer. That being said, neither altar is particularly noteworthy. The Gothic altar reminds me of dozens, if not hundreds of old altars I've seen across the United States, I mean you could order these things out of catalogues at one time.

And the chapel looks rather. . . dreary. The triptych is. . . Well. . . There is a bit much going on and while it may be lovely in person, does not seem to photograph well. If I were celebrating mass regularly there as pastor, I wouldn't want to look up at it every day either. Sometimes more is less.

The subtext I'm beginning to read with all these comments is that it might even be a good idea to take the weepy grandiosity, the faux-medieval nostalgia, and the swooning pedantry out of the ordinariate, but then, exactly what do you have left? And of what might be left, can't you find it maybe more easily with a mildly conscientious investigation of local diocesan parishes?

Photos Of The Remodeling At Atonement San Antonio

A visitor has kindly forwarded photos, apparently from Facebook, of the rearrangement of the altars in the Our Lady of the Atonement parish in San Antonio. To reiterate, this blog takes no official position on this project. The two photos below show the former triptych in its original state, and the space where it had been removed after the Sunday morning masses on June 21, with the altar from the Mary chapel being moved into place.

The visitor commented,

So the altar "remodeling" has begun. And it should come as no surprise. There's Atonement drama, per my friends that are still parishioners.

Sunday after the 9:00 and 11:00 but before the 6:00 PM Mass the redecorating began. Not sure why they couldn't wait one more day.

The worst by far, and I'm still reeling from it, was three men (volunteers I'm assuming) standing on the altar, with their shoes. Nothing covering the altar at all. One guy in flip flops, ya know like beach wear. On the holy altar. A consecrated altar.. I'm told Father Lewis was present while this was going on.

The Mary Chapel was completely dismantled by 6:00pm mass. People who were unaware of Lewis's grand plan where horrified. , , some in tears, some thought it had been vandalized.

Lewis did only give a few days notice as it was.

Below are photos of the Mary chapel altar, before and after:

The visitor concludes,

There has to be some serious canon Law being broken standing on the Holy Altar. I would hope at minimum it will be reconsecrated, but I wouldn't hold my breath.. Especially under Bishop Lopes from what I hear.

Some are thinking of sending the photo to Church Militant.

Well, Church Militant has its own agenda and its own conventional wisdom to maintain -- there are good guys and bad guys, and so far, Bp Lopes is a good guy. You can send them photos, but they just ignore anything that doesn't fit.

My regular correspondent comments,

: I can understand that some people at the parish may prefer the previous arrangement, or at least feel that the consultation process was inadequate. I know that change can be painful, and having no say in the process can add to the pain. Why people living in Ottawa or Orlando care is another matter. It seems evident to me that they are bewailing the perceived dismantling of Fr Phillips’ legacy. As a non-admirer, for the most part, I watch the dismantling dry-eyed.

What strikes me is that after 40 years of the Pastoral Provision, and more than ten years after Anglicanorum coetibus, a single altar, of somewhat controversial esthetics, should so easily become a symbol of the whole Anglican project. Whether the people who are focusing on it are paying attention to anything else happening in the world is also an interesting question.

COVID Status Of Catholic Mass

My regular correspondent sent me a report on the reopening of in-person mass at the Archdiocese of Toronto, which seems to be more or less consistent with conditions in most parts of North America:

I will describe Vigil Mass at my local parish. Every third pew left untaped, numbers posted at seating locations next to the aisles, which one was invited to occupy. Said Mass, a lector but no server. At Communion time, celebrant distributed hosts at one’s pew. One was instructed to take the host in one’s hand, leaving mask on until priest had passed by, then remove it and consume the host. As there were about twenty-five people present (in a church that holds at least four hundred) this was a speedy process. Churches are restricted to 30% of capacity. Masks are not mandatory. Registration is not required. This parish is first come, first served, although other models are used elsewhere.

A friend in Utah, which has never been an epicenter of the outbreak but has now paused its reopening, has reported generally similar conditions. Exactly how many pews are roped off, exactly how the maximum attendance is calculated, whether and how reservations are taken, whether masks are required, all will vary slightly by parish and diocese, but restrictions of some sort along these lines seem almost universal, while some parishes and dioceses haven't reopened yet.

The question is how long this state of affairs will last, or indeed if media-induced panic over a "second wave" could result in reimposed closures and lockdowns. Certainly our pastor uses the word "temporary" frequently to describe conditions at the moment, but it's hard to know when authorities will actually relinquish control over attendance and social distance. The goalposts in fact continue to be moved:

Even if there is a “second wave,” it doesn’t mean anything in and of itself.

For one thing the Centers for Disease Control has long predicted that coronavirus cases would increase as the country reopened, for the simple reason that the lockdowns were never intended to stop the spread of the disease, only to slow it down. Remember? Flatten the curve?

The point of the lockdown was to give the country the time to ramp up testing, look for treatments, and increase medical supplies. By curbing the spread, health officials could more readily identify hotspots and conduct contact tracing, and the health care system could cope with any increase in demand. Which, as Kudlow points out, is exactly what’s happening now.

What’s more, the increase in coronavirus cases matters only if they are going up faster than expected, and whether this is resulting in a second wave of deaths.

Neither of those appears to be true.

As Mike Rowe has put it's hard enough to keep track of the cards as they're dealt, but a bigger worry is we don't even necessarily know what game is being played.

More On The Atonement Altars

A visitor from San Antonio who is familiar with the Our Lady of the Atonement parish reports,

If I remember correctly, the Altar that is in the Lady chapel that is going to be moved to the high Altar at OLOTA came out of a convent in San Antonio and was going to be destroyed. Fr. Phillips learned of this and was able to save it and have it renovated to be used in the Lady chapel. If you will recall in a past e-mail to you, I recounted how I put a picture of one of the nuns, Sister Elizabeth Marie of Our Lady of the Atonement under the statue. She was a parishioner at OLOTA who became one of Mother Angelica's nuns in Alabama. She was also instrumental in getting a new foundation of Franciscans nuns started in the San Antonio area. As we know this didn't work out too well for the nuns. All part of Fr. Phillips' shenanigans.

Over the years I have heard it many times at OLOTA that the Christ image in the Triptych on the high altar was an image of a young Fr. Phillips. Whether this is true or not, or whether this was intentional or not, I do not know. Only Fr. Phillips can answer this question.

It appears that Fr. Lewis is cleaning house. He is getting rid of all remnants of Fr. Phillips. It must be an agony to him that he lives right next door to Fr. Phillips in Dn. Orr's house. Just about everyone connected to Fr. Phillips has been replaced including all of the parish staff in the parish. With Fr. Moore and his family leaving this week the only person left is Dn D' Agostino, a long time deacon, who I suspect will not be around much longer.

One has to wonder where all of this will end. As I understand it the parish is losing parishioners, donations are down and one had to wonder about school enrollment, not to mention the unfinished construction on the new school. The long term debt (thirty years) must weight heavily on the minds of all concerned. The possibility still exists that there may be at some point in the future be a Medieval restaurant on site. Or as I have previously mentioned the diocese of San Antonio will get the whole place back for pennies on the dollar. Time will tell.

Fr Phillips had a remarkable ability to get favorable coverage in Anglo-Papalist social media by playing the angle that every bishop, Catholic or Episcopalian, was a cowardly sellout, and he was the only brave guy out there. At the same time, he seems to have been able to run the parish finances with smoke and mirrors, and he kept order there via an efficient political police operation. The question is whether it can survive using a different formula.

But of course, the problem goes beyond the Atonement parish, because the Phillips model was sold as an indication of how successful both the Pastoral Provision and Anglicanorum coetibus would be. The observer's account above at least credits Fr Lewis with a pretty complete understanding of what needed to be done.

New Controversy At Our Lady Of The Atonement!

As I've said here more than once, Our Lady of the Atonement San Antonio reminds me more of a Medieval Times franchise than a church (and should the property need to be sold, that's what it ought to become), so I have no position on this question. However, a visitor gave me a heads-up that Fr. Lewis has a plan to rearrange the altars there, and as one might expect, there is murmuring.

My regular correspondent has found posts on Facebook groups, as well as a copy of Fr Lewis's June 18 letter to the parish (click on the image for a larger copy):

While I take no position on this, it does sound reasonable, except to the point that it refers to projected developments at the new building, which strikes me as possibly too optimistic.

My regular correspondent sent me a link to a description of the now-to-be-sidelined triptych. This goes on for thousands of words. My regular correspondent says,

Anyway, word on the street is that Fr Lewis was never a fan, and you can see that it would not be easy to ignore. Does the figure of Christ in a papal tiara bear a passing resemblance to the young Fr Phillips?

De gustibus, of course, but personally I think the Lady Altar is the far handsomer and more impressive piece of furniture. It is also in a more traditional style than the triptych. Fr Lewis says that the work will be done by volunteers and expense will be inconsiderable. Of course there is always resistance to change, even change for the better, but apart from that this seems to be just an aesthetic decision with no liturgical politics behind it and no major cost to the parish.

As Long As We're Celebrating The 40th Anniversary Of The Pastoral Provision

We keep celebrating all these nothing anniversaries, huh? Last year it was the tenth anniversary of Anglicanorum coetibus. Can I send for a mug? A T-shirt? Anyhow, my regular correspondent had some thoughts about this earlier in the week:

Given Fr Phillips’ high profile in the run-up to the erection of the American Ordinariate I think that the model, or perhaps myth is the more accurate word, of Our Lady of the Atonement (OLA) was regarded as some kind of template for the future North American ordinariate (OCSP): starting with eighteen members, adults and children, within four years membership has swelled and a church is under construction, quickly followed by a school.

In fact, after ten years, there are eleven full parishes, ten of which own a building, and one school. Only four full parishes bought churches after entering the OCSP: St Thomas More , Scranton; St John the Baptist, Bridgeport; St John the Evangelist, Calgary; Mt Calvary, Baltimore. Three (Incarnation, Orlando; Christ the King, Towson; and St Barnabas, Omaha) owned their church when they joined. The three Texas former-Pastoral Provision parishes were allowed to take their churches with them.

The five parishes which had to fundraise or dip into an endowment to purchase a building were all up to parish strength or close in terms of membership when they joined the OCSP. So OLA remains a unique example of a community which started with a handful of adult members and grew into a “full-service” Catholic parish.

The small communities, whether composed of former Anglican fellow-parishioners or newly-gathered by a candidate for ordination, have remained small. Nine have ceased to exist. Several others are likely to do so in the next few years. Rather than evangelising, communities seem to be tapping into the Trad Catholic market. I note that Fr Bolin, the new administrator of St Thomas Becket, Ft Worth, who seems to be increasing attendance in a community which had dwindled significantly since Fr Stainbrook’s departure, was celebrating a Latin mass in a park recently. All fine, but not how AC was supposed to justify itself.

Fr Barker's position as a grand old man of the movement is puzzling indeed. The story of his attempt to bring the St Mary of the Angels Hollywood parish into the Catholic Church is lugubrious, and given the overall context -- with several other squirrely Episcopalian clergy, he recklessly took then out of The Episcopal Church, prompting years of wasteful litigation that proved disastrous for the Hollywood parish even when it eventually won its case.

But beyond that, the attempted St Mary's do-over in 2012 was an even bigger disaster.

I just don't see what's worth celebrating, but more to the point, I don't see how any of this is a model for evangelization.

Reincardination And Retired Clergy

Yesterday I reported some level of skepticism regarding a comment at Fr Z's blog that asserted that Fr Jack Barker, who was ordained a Catholic priest in the Diocese of San Bernardino, CA, could not be reincardinated into the North American ordinariate because his bishop was somehow refusing the request. This puzzled me for several reasons, as I've heard that under normal circumstances, requests for reincardination are fairly routine and granted under most conditions

However, the fact that Fr Barker is retired from the Diocese of San Bernardino adds an additional factor. A visitor who often helps me with background on clergy formation and personnel issues kindly sent me the following:

Parishes in most dioceses are required to cover appointed clergy salaries through parish income (the diocese cuts the check, but the parish covers that salary). This is usually not the case when the bishop sends a priest to stay at a parish "in-residence", where the priest has a full time chancery position or works for a hospital. Those salaries are covered directly by the diocese or the place where the priest is doing his full time work. In-residence priests may say a mass or two on the weekend (they receive a stipend for those masses from the parish and the parish cuts the check), but they really have no responsibility to the parish.

Medical, insurance and retirement are covered by the diocese and the quality of plans vary by diocese. Generally the common wisdom is that since the diocese may cover auto insurance and give you a clothing allowance and in rare instances subsidize the purchase of a vehicle up to a certain dollar amount, you should be banking that money away or investing it on a regular basis to prepare for retirement. That is of course if you want to be comfortable. There really is no reason a priest ordained from the mid 1960's on would be retiring only on his clergy pension.

Because priests are ordained for a local church (diocese) and they promise themselves to that local church and obedience to it's bishops they are expected to remain in that local church for the rest of their lives. If they choose to excardinate to another diocese or join a religious order their pension and their post retirement medical insurance are not portable. If a priest leaves for a religious order, incardinates into another diocese or joins the ordinariate they may withdraw what they put into their retirement account and place it into their new dioceses retirement plan, but they are effectively starting off fresh, they will not have the accumulated matching funds that the previous diocese paid into for them.

Now, I know of priests who decided they wanted to try religious life in a religious community. The archdiocese allowed them to join the order and keep their pension plans with the archdiocese until they formally joined the order by making their solemn profession. In most of those cases the priest came back to the archdiocese within 2-3 years and still had their pension and years of service salary intact.

This strongly suggests that the comment "amicus" left at the post on Fr Z;s blog is at best not giving anywhere near the full story. Even if Fr Barker were able to withdraw the principal amount of his retirement fund from San Bernardino and transfer it in some way, or continue to collect a monetary stipend if he were reincardinated, it's highly doubtful he would be able to continue his medical benefit -- and he's close to 80 years old. So either Fr Barker at some point told something to "amicus" that the guy wanted to hear, or "amicus" misinterpreted what he heard and passed it on as a comment.

Whatever the source of the misinformation, it does seem to me that it feeds a "traditionalist" narrative that diocesan bishops are arbitrary and vindictive, and they persecute good and faithful priests. In this particular case, it seems to me that looking at circumstances more closely, the narrative isn't borne out.

I see this narrative applied pretty frequently to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Camarillo seminary. My experience with specific cases there, parishes and clergy, as well as Bp Barron, suggests that closer experience simply does not bear out the implications of that sort of narrative. Never just trust media of any sort!

Fr Z Is Being Sold The Anglican Narrative

I have a lot of respect for Fr Z, although I think that, like all men, he has his limitations. A visitor sent me a link to a post at his blog yesterday that commemorates the "40th Anniversary of the Anglican “Pastoral Provision”: a landmark of authentic ecumenism". He mainly cites his personal connection with his old pastor, the late Msgr. Schuler, who by his account facilitated trips to Rome by Fr Jack Barker and others in the late 1970s.

One of the reasons why I post this, is because my old pastor at St. Agnes in St. Paul, the late Msgr. Schuler, accompanied to Rome some of the early priests looking for this provision for a meeting with Card. Seper, who was Card. Ratzinger’s predecessor at the CDF. Fr. Barker, one of those priests and now a member of the Ordinariate, was a guest at St. Agnes. I remember him.

Well and good. Nine years ago, I would have taken all this as seriously as Fr Z does, but the whole journey of this blog has been to try to find out what really happened when Fr Barker took St Mary of the Angels out of The Episcopal Church. This has turned out to be a long journey with an even longer story connected with it. Fr Z moderates comments, and whatever others he may have reviewed, he seems to have approved only one as of this morning. "amicus' posted:

Fr Barker is not a member of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. He remains incardinated in his diocese because his bishop refuses to release him to the Ordinariate, even though he is already retired.

Although the commenter is correct that Fr Barker is not in the ordinariate, the other business was completely new to me. I ran this by my regular correspondent, who said:

That’s one interpretation. Would Fr Barker retain his retirement benefits if he were excardinated to the OCSP? These “pension plans” are generally not portable. That is why St Mary the Virgin, Arlington did not enter the Ordinariate until Fr Hawkins retired, and why Fr Bradford at St Athanasius remains a priest of the Archdiocese of Boston.

Even if Fr Barker were to retain a retirement stipend from the Diocese of San Bernardino, I question whether his medical benefits there could be transferred to the ordinariate. I'll appreciate any input from more knowledgeable parties. In any case, Fr Barker has done only supply work for California ordinariate parishes, while Fr Bartus has basically hitchhiked on his prestige.

What does concern me is that Fr Z is basically being sold the narrative of the "brave Episcopalian priest who bucks the system", or some variation of that. Msgr Steenson characterized Fr Christopher Phillips in these terms until he got a closer view of the guy, apparently.

This reminds me of the conundrum of the lawyers for California and Illinois parishes who recently took their cases through the appeals process to the US Supreme Court, in the course of which they forced the governors to relax or eliminate restrictions on church services during the COVID lockdown. The effect of the governors' actions was to render the appeals effectively moot, which kept the court from issuing a landmark decision, but it got the churches what they wanted.

In brief, the lawyers acted in their clients' interest, and whether there was a landmark court decision or not was beside the point. It's a first cousin of the contradiction posed by Clarence Darrow, who had a record of losing cases for his clients but looking good as a social justice crusader. He may have been that, but by and large, he didn't get his clients what they needed, so he wasn't a good lawyer.

Consider Fr Barker's record as a "brave Episcopal priest". (I leave aside his record in the Catholic Church, which appears to have been far better.) His first responsibility as rector of the St Mary of the Angels parish was to act in the interest of the parish and minister to his flock. But after 1976, his parish seems to have been less and less important as he put so much effort traveling to Rome and palavering with Bernard Law's representatives over pro-dioceses and such, while at the same time, he and the parish were preoccupied with litigation, all of which can only have been major distractions from the prayers and sacraments.

At the same time, almost no attention has been paid in the conventional, and largely self-serving, histories of these events about the bitter divisions within the parish itself. A considerable faction, to which we must attribute only good faith, chose to remain under Bp Rusack and formed a parish-in-exile under his aegis. Another large faction became Orthodox. The public record of angry conflict eventually led both Cardinals Manning and Mahony to question how a rump St Mary's parish could fare under Catholic authority if it had such inherent resistance to authority of any other sort.

By 2015, Fr Barker's successor as rector, and the successor Anglican bishop over the parish, were convinced that the building itself badly needed an exorcism. Fr Barker played no little role in this outcome. A fourth round of litigation, in the near-constant series that Fr Barker initiated by his action as rector in 1977, is under way.

I'll have more to say about the authentic ecumenism part tomorrow.

St John Vianny Cleburne, TX

My regular correspondent reports,

As of July 1, this community will be getting its fourth parish administrator since its creation in 2012. The founding members were former congregants of Fr Charles Hough III who followed him into the Church. Fr Hough III was appointed Vicar for Clergy of the OCSP in 2012 and then promoted to Vicar General. while remaining Vicar for Clergy. At that point he relinquished leadership of St John Vianney to Fr Jonathan Duncan.

In January 2016 Fr Duncan left Texas to take over Fr Chalmers’ congregation in Greenville, SC. Subsequently that community folded and Fr Duncan is now incardinated in the local diocese. Meanwhile, Fr Christopher Stainbrook, who had led St Timothy, Ft Worth into the Ordinariate, was asked to take over St Jphn Vianney. At the time I assumed this was because SJV was considered to have the more robust prospects for growth.

In May 2016 Fr Perkins was appointed Vicar-General of the OCSP and Fr Hough III seemed to disappear from the picture—-no longer Priest in Residence at OLW, no longer supplying at St Timothy, Ft Worth despite the fact that they had been left without a parish administrator since Fr Stainbrook’s departure. I assumed that there was some health issue, so I was surprised to discover his name popping up at several recent events at St Bartholomew, Katy, (a diocesan parish) as here, where he is described as “one of our favorite visiting priests.” Presumably his abrupt departure from his position as vicar general shortly after Bp Lopes took over was not on friendly terms.

Now Fr Stainbrook, whose departure left St Timothy, Ft Worth (now St Thomas Becket) without an administrator for over two years, is becoming Pastor of St Mary the Virgin, Arlington as of July 1. It appears from this letter that the new SJV administrator, Mr Scott Wooten, ordained to the diaconate last month, is on the fast track to ordination as a priest.

The congregation currently worships in an elementary school cafetorium and numbers about fifty, I would estimate. One hopes that Mr Wooten stays with them longer than their previous leaders.

It doesn't appear that there are that many Plumsteads Episcopi in the North American ordinariate, and St John Vianney perhaps would be one if it could, but it isn't. Since the startup of the ordinariate, it looks like it's reserved for B-list priests, several of whom may have shown promise but eventually didn't quite turn out to be A-listers.

Getting an ordinariate parish over the hurdle of several dozen members to parish status seems to be much harder than anyone would have predicted in 2011-12. On the other hand, from the group's history, it seems plain that the point of the ordinariate isn't so much to grow parishes as to provide careers for favored clergy.

What puzzles me is that at least in our archdiocese, priests are promoted for overall pastoral and administrative skills. In the North American ordinariate, either this isn't the case, or there are too few in the pool of priests, or the good ones aren't effectively used.

What About St Augustine San Diego?

As I posted over the last few days, Fr Baaten, who had been the administrator for the St Augustine San Diego group, has moved to cover the group in Covina, which is in suburban Los Angeles County, more than 100 miles from San Diego, so it would not be practical for him to continue with both communities, at least under current conditions -- and the school where the St Augustine group meets remains closed until fall in any case.

But there;s another question: now-Dcn Keyes had followed \his path to ordination as a member of the St Augustine community, actually lives with his family in Murrieta, which of course is much more convenient to the Holy Martyrs community there. My regular correspondent comments,

Still musing on why the Keyes, living in Murrieta, joined an Ordinariate community an hour away in Del Mar Heights. This group, a former ACA parish based in Carlsbad, entered the Church in 2012 with 38 people. Fr Ortiz-Guzman’s retirement provided an ordination opportunity for Glenn Baaten , but from my observation of pictures on the Facebook page, attendance gradually dwindled to about a dozen (See picture from Easter 2017 below):

The Easter Vigil was cancelled in 2019 so that Fr Baaten could celebrate in Irvine.

More recently, however, there have been a number of special services—-Advent Lessons and Carols with the choir of Holy Martyrs, Murrieta, for example, and a regular monthly choral Evensong—-with more people visible, including Mr Keyes, serving or acting as subdeacon. I assume these have been his initiatives.

There is a new Permanent Deacon at St Augustine’s but he was an original member of the community, so not the one bringing fresh energy into the group. I suppose it is possible that Mr Keyes will be taking over when Fr Bartus returns to HM, although the FB page is very vague about plans for the fall. Indeed, nothing indicates that Fr Baaten has left.

I still don't understand the appeal of meeting in such small numbers -- if a group of three dozen shrinks to a dozen but grows to four dozen, it's still not viable no matter what. And Catholic missal publishers continue to print hard cover missals with hundreds of traditional hymns featuring Joachim Neander, Charles Wesley, Isaac Watts, and Ralph Vaughn Williams, among many others, clearly intended for large congregations with choir and organ at a reverent mass.

Come to think of it, we're registered at just such a parish, which in fact is recognized as an important part of its overall community. Surely such parishes exist in locations far more convenient than these widely scattered ordinariate groups, which, let's face it, have shown no real promise over nearly a decade -- not just in California, but anywhere.

It would be nice to imagine that Bp Lopes is using personnel reassignments in California to rethink how the ordinariate is going about things, but I kinda doubt it. Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic didn't become an overused metaphor for nothing.

A Few More California Ordinariate Details

After yesterday's post, I was still puzzled about exactly who was taking masses at Holy Martyrs Murrieta, with Fr Bartus on his strange sabbatical until fall. It's hard to know whether this might be some sort of indisposition, since travel seems highly unlikely under current conditions. In any case, my regular correspondent tells me Fr Aaron Bayles, who lives in San Luis Opispo county, CA, midway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, is celebrating the Sunday masses there.

This has always had me scratching my head. Fr Bayles in his time as an ordinariate priest has been celebrating in Southern California, which has always been at least a couple hundred miles away. The distance from his home to Murrieta is about 244 miles, about four hours, which means every mass he celebrates involves a 488 mile round trip. The 2020 US IRS mileage reimbursement rate is 57.5 cents per mile, which means that in addition to his stipend for celebrating mass, the parish should be reimbursing him nearly $300 for the found trip. They really owe him a nice lunch, too.

This would be nearly as much for the masses he previously celebrated for the small groups in Pasadena and Covina, and I doubt if those groups could have reimbursed him for that amount from offerings. Of Fr Bayles's current assignment, my regular correspondent says,

Apart from agreeing to celebrate a mass on Sunday, one which apparently cannot accommodate all the HM, Murrieta parishioners who wish to attend, Fr Bayles seems to have distanced himself from the Bartus franchise. As we recall, Fr Bartus celebrated mass in a poky general purpose classroom chapel at a school in Pasadena for months to gather a congregation that could be Fr Bayles’s ticket to ordination.

He was received into the Church only a few weeks before his ordination to the diaconate in November 2017, presumably in order to keep his job as an Anglican chaplain with the Air National Guard. After his ordination to the priesthood in May 2018 the congregation moved to a more attractive cafetorium in another school in Pasadena and then to the Sacred Heart Chapel in Covina.

Shortly thereafter, Fr Bayles was deployed to Aviano AFB for several months and from that point has not been involved with the “SoCal Ordinariate.” When not undertaking chaplaincy responsibilities he seems to have become associated with a [Ventura County, CA] TLM community [over 100 miles from his home].

Samuel Keyes, the new deacon and PA at HM, Murrieta, seems to be a cut above Frs Baaten and Bayles, both of whom had unimpressive academic credentials and very brief experience as “continuing” Anglican clergy.

Well, Dcn Keyes, let's face it, appears to be a full adult, a cut above not only Frs Baaten and Bayles, but Fr Bartus and a good many other current ordinariate clergy as well. I would guess, in fact, that having Dcn Keyes now so closely involved in his home community, and having Fr Simington in near proximity, could well create problems for Fr Bartus at such time as he returns from sabbatical. I think those who know him -- I did for two years in 2011-12 -- would agree he's simply not in the same league as either Dcn Keyes or Fr Simington.

My read of the situation, for instance, is that Fr Simington seems comfortable living and working day to day with celibate diocesan priests, who are serious men. I would guess that given Dcn Keyes's resume, although married with a family, he'd fit in easily with priests of that caliber. This is not Fr Bartus, who tends more toward socializing and playing politics with laity.

In my experience, this will require managerial and personnel skills from Bp Lopes, which I'm just not sure he has -- but let's get real, Fr Perkins is the one who'll be directly involved in keeping this situation on an even keel. A modern Trollope could make this seem funny, but it's really not funny at all.

California Ordinariate Updates

My regular correspondent reports,

Although Fr Baaten does not officially become parish administrator of Our Lady of Grace, Covina until July 1, he has already added it to his bio and is celebrating there this weekend. St Augustine, San Diego has announced that the school chapel in which they worshipped before the lockdown will remain unavailable until at least the fall (school website says school is being sanitized).

I assume Fr Baaten will not resume celebrating there, given the distance from Covina. Samuel Keyes, identified as a St Augustine’s parishioner, was ordained to the transitional diaconate last month. He is currently the acting parish administrator of Holy Martyrs, Murrieta during Fr Bartus’s sabbatical. I suppose he could be ordained to the priesthood later this summer and take over the group. But he lives in Murrieta. TBD.

Holy Hartyrs, Murrieta has had mass in the parking lot of the mall where it is located the last two Sundays but today will be conducting mass inside, with live-streaming/Communion in the parking lot. There is only one mass today, so this is probably to accommodate numbers greater than the socially-distanced capacity of the chapel.

St John Henry Newman, Irvine will be celebrating its first mass since the lockdown on July 12, when Fr Simington arrives.

The model of the SoCal Ordinariate as a franchised brand, with Frs Baaten, Bayles, Barker, and assorted Norbertines as anonymous franchisees answering to Fr Bartus appears to be ending. The St John Henry Newman Facebook page announced in October that it would be becoming a full parish upon the canonisation of Cardinal Newman but as we predicted that did not happen, and indeed seems highly unlikely in its current location.

Fr Bartus worked hard to get Frs Baaten and Bayles ordained but his larger scheme of local domination never quite came to fruition. His formal association with the Norbertines has ended and perhaps he will just focus on Holy Martyrs, Murrieta and its local demands.

Fr Baaten, the last I'm aware, lives in coastal Orange County, CA, which is about 40 miles from Covina but about 90 miles from San Diego. It's about 25 miles from his day job as facilities manager in Silverado. Based on the link above, he appears to have business interests in Orange, so I doubt if he'd move, and he'd travel to Our Lady of Grace only about twice a week.

Fr Bartus, as far as anyone is aware, is on some type of sabbatical until fall. The St Michael's Prep school run by the Norbertines in Silverado is closing as of this fall with the construction of their new abbey facility. Fr Bartus is now listed on the faculty of the Memoria Press Online Academy, which appears to be a distance learning extension of the Highlands Latin School in Louisville, KY.

The question continues whether any of the California groups can sustain a priest without the priest having an outside job -- and whether they can ever grow to the point where this might be possible.

Last year, St John Henry Newman held a choral evensong and English garden party with Bp Lopes on hand in hopes of attracting a wealthy angel to fund expansion efforts, but this seems to have had no result.

One wonders whether the lack of success in major fundraising had an impact on the lack of progress in erecting the group as a full parish, and indeed, the assignment of Fr Simington as a new priest outside the Bartus sphere. And in any case, Houston has been dropping the Anglicanorum from the coetibus, which suggests that its emphasis going forward will simply be on extreme liturgy without the cachet of Anglophilia.

UPDATE>My regular correspondent has discovered that Fr Simington will be assisting at St Timothy Laguna Niguel, a parish in the Diocese of Orange, in addition to his work at St John Henry Newman.

Should Space Aliens Be Baptized?

I mentioned a short while ago that the smartest man I've ever met (as opposed to one I've read or heard but haven't met) is a priest in residence at our parish. In a homily he gave in a livestream mass, he mentioned the topic of a web discussion he conducted with seminarians on the subject, "Should space aliens be baptized?" He posited that, given the number of exoplanets identified by recent satellite technology, it could be possible that in fact intelligent aliens could land on earth and say, "Take us to your leader." The question for Fr Sam was whether we should offer them baptism.

I raise this because one of the YouTubers and bloggers I follow is Dr Sabine Hossenfelder. a German physicist whom I would characterize as a moderate skeptic of standard-model physics. Her current blog post, which is duplicated in a YouTube video, is How to search for alien life. As I say, she's only a moderate skeptic of standard-model physics, and her views on alien life are actually pretty conventional:

So, we now know that other earth-like planets are out there. The next thing that scientists would like to know is whether the conditions on any of these planets are similar to the conditions on Earth. This is a very human-centered way of thinking about life, of course, but at least so far life on this planet is the only one we are sure exists, so it makes sense, to ask if other places are similar. Ideally, scientists would like to know whether the atmosphere of the earth-like exoplanets contains oxygen and methane, or maybe traces of chlorophyll.

. . . Ok, you may say, but this will in the best case give us an indication for microbial life and really you’d rather know if there is intelligent life out there. For this you need an entirely different type of search. Such searches for extraterrestrial intelligence have been conducted for about century. They have largely relied on analyzing electromagnetic radiation in the radio or micro-wave range that reaches us from outer space. For one that’s because this part of the electromagnetic spectrum is fairly easy to measure without going into the upper atmosphere. But it’s also because our own civilization emits in this part of the spectrum. This electromagnetic radiation is then analyzed for any kind of pattern that is unlikely to be of natural, astrophysical origin.

As you already know, no one found any sign of intelligent life on other planets, except for some false alarms.

She goes so far as to suggest we don't know enough about space-time to have a realistic discussion. Let's say the amateurs at SETI actually receive a pattern of transmissions that provably come from an intelligent civilization. The trouble is that, if they travel at the speed of light, they're probably already millions of years old, and this is about as useful as finding a yellowed message in a bottle dated 1657 washed up on a beach.

Where is St Thomas Aquinas when we need him? I would go talk to Fr Sam. Let's think this through. The universe follows a single set of rules, which come from a single Creator. If life emerged on some unimaginably distant planet, it emerged under the same set of rules the Creator set out for life on earth -- Dr Hossenfelder is clearly acknowledging this when she asks "whether the conditions [for life to emerge] on any of these planets are similar to the conditions on Earth."

She also basically agrees that if there are alien jellyfish-like creatures on the planet ZDF7846, this is only of mild interest; the question is whether there are intelligent beings. And at that point, we've got to deal with the question of what an "intelligent" creature is. Can an "intelligent" creature be without either an intellect or a will? That would be a chat I'd love to have with Fr Sam. but I tend to think that if you probed Dr Hossenfelder on this question, she would pretty much have to acknowledge that an "intelligent" life form would, by definition, have to be something human, with intellect and will.

So at that point, having emerged -- we don't really need to use "created" -- as beings with intellect and will, it's hard to avoid moving toward the question of whether they've somehow emerged in God's image. How do we get around the idea that they're creatures of God and subject to the same conditions of creation that we are?

So, once the flying saucer lands and the aliens step out, a basic task would be to determine the intellectual conditions under which they see their existence, since we acknowledge they're creatures with intellects, by definition. Do they have a concept of a Fall and a need for redemption?

I think Fr Sam's question, sidestepping the question of whether they exist but going straight to the issue of whether they should be baptized, may well be better than the question of whether we're looking for them in the right way.

What Is Fr Kenyon's Status?

The problem of pensions for the few Canadian ordinariate priests who would be eligible for them brought my regular correspondent to the additional question of Fr Lee Kenyon. His Linkedin profile gives skeletal details of his career. One of the first wave of former Anglican priests in the North American ordinariate, he came in with the St John the Evangelist Anglican parish in Calgary, AB in 2012.

He had grown up in the Manchester, UK area and initially served as a curate in the Church of England prior to emigrating to Western Canada, for reasons that aren't clear. In 2017, under circumstances that have never been clear but must be confidential, he was returned "on loan" to the Diocese of Shrewsbury in the UK, for a period of five years, based on what was announced at the time.

However, his initial assignment there, to the parish of Our Lady and St John in Stockport, ended when he was removed after less than a month, amid controversy. His subsequent assignments in the diocese appear to have been minimal. He returned to Canada in 2019, after only two years of his five-year loan.

He was assigned by Bp Lopes as parish administrator to the St John Henry Newman group in Victoria, BC. My regular correspondent has expressed concern that although each Canadian parish is expected to contribute $5000 to its pastor's retirement account, small ones like the one in Victoria will never be able to pay this much. My correspondent continues,

Just wondering how Fr Kenyon can survive financially with six young children, one less than a year old, a wife presumably not in the paid workforce, at least at the moment, and no permanent local diocesan assignment that I can find. The St John Henry Newman community is small and shows no sign of growth. It can certainly not supply housing or anything close to a full stipend.

The Diocese of Victoria has a serious priest shortage, so I am sure there are supply opportunities, but I do not know whether these offer benefits or pension plan membership.

By the way, I see that the Diocese of Victoria has four other married priests.

The story at the link is especially interesting, because it covers Fr Dean Henderson, now a pastor of a diocesan parish on Vancouver Island, who had been a married priest in the Anglican Church of Canada but pursued ordination as a married Catholic priest via a separate bureaucratic path that was available outside the Pastoral Provision or Anglicanorum coetibus. (Fr Dwight Longenecker also was ordained a married Catholic priest outside those routes.)

So we must at minimum assume that a potentially wider role would be available to Fr Kenyon in the Diocese of Victoria, since he's already been ordained, and Bp Lopes has seen no obstacles to ordinariate priests serving as diocesan pastors and administrators where this is a good fit. Indeed, with a shortage of priests in Victoria, one would expect the bishop there to be anxious for Fr Kenyon's help.

As far as my regular correspondent can tell, though, Fr Kenyon's role has so far been limited to supply priest, filling in on Sundays for parishes where this is needed. Under the current COVID hysteria, parishes in Victoria had been offering only on line masses and are now only gradually reopening to in-person services, which continues to limit the possibility of work for supply priests.

So I can only conclude that the circumstances for Fr Kenyon and his family are difficult.

UPDATE: My regular correspondent comments,

I have been going through the Diocese of Victoria parish by parish just to confirm that he is not regularly assisting somewhere. This review has strengthened the impression I have gained that the diocese is seriously under-supplied with priests (for example, a number of churches offer Sunday Worship led by laypeople/nuns, followed by Holy Communion) so his lack of a diocesan appointment is more puzzling, especially given that the SJHN mass time is 2 pm, except on third Sundays, when it is 3 pm.

Apropos of your interest in church closings, I can report that some in the diocese have not reopened, and about half a dozen announced on their websites that mass registration for this Sunday was closed as all spots were filled. All nine mass times at the cathedral this Sat/Sun are (already) full, for example.

More On Retirement For Canadian Ordinariate Clergy

I was curious about the exact circumstances of how the few Canadian ordinariate priests who aren't already receiving retirement benefits can arrange for their eventual retirement. In a series of e-mails, my regular correspondent clarified the situation:

Canadian ordinariate communities supposedly must contribute $5000 or 10% of revenue, whichever is greater, to the clergy retirement fund. I can’t believe this is actually enforced, since a lot of communities barely take in $5000 total, but let’s leave that aside for the moment. In the US there is a formally established fund. But Canadians employed in Canada cannot participate. I think this is for reasons outside of the Ordinariate’s jurisdiction, but I will explore further. The possibility of setting up a Canadian fund was explored, but with only four clergy under age seventy-five it wasn’t deemed possible. I think the relevant parishes contribute to a Registered Retirement Savings Plan for their clergy, or assist him in doing so (it’s tax-deductible).

I think Canadian communities with active clergy (ie St John the Evangelist; St John Henry Newman, Victoria; and Annunciation, Ottawa) have to contribute at least $5000 to their priest(s)’ individual RRSP, not a central fund. I believe this is the type of retirement savings plan known as an IRA in the US. Presumably this comes out of general parish/community revenue for which contributing members have already been given receipts. Last year no material on the Ordinariate Retirement Fund second collection was sent to Canadian communities. However, this took several years to get sorted out, and in the meantime (some) money was donated to the Houston fund. Needless to say Fr Shane was pretty bummed when he found out that he will be living on government assistance in retirement, given the relatively few years he has to contribute to an RRSP.

My guess is that most of the Canadian communities other than St John the Evangelist Calgary will fold when their priests die or otherwise depart, and if they continue, it will be with the assistance of a diocesan priest or priests (as is already the case in Edmonton, and in Toronto to a great extent) or possibly with a Canadian such as Luke McDonald, should he eventually get ordained in six years, doing diocesan work in conjunction with his Ordinariate assignment. So pensions will not be much of an issue here.

In other words, the Canadian deanery basically doesn't function as an ongoing enterprise, and due to its small size and the lack of ongoing interest, it basically can't provide retirement benefits even equivalent to those available to ordinariate priests in the US.

"Novus Ordo Good, Ordinariate Bad!"

I received an e-mail from a visitor in response to yesterday's post that contained only this. I may be misinterpreting it, but it has a certain passive-aggressive implication, at least to my eye, that suggests anyone who has anything good to say about novus ordo is a bumpkin, and to suggest there's anything wrong with the ordinariate (although this is probably a synecdoche for any of a class of extreme liturgical movements) simply compounds the gaucherie.

Oddly, I got two other e-mails commenting on yesterday's post. One was from my regular correspondent:

Forgot to mention that it took some years for Houston to grasp that the retirement fund for priests could not be set up in such a way that Canadian clergy could benefit, despite the fact that Msgr Wilkinson was the poster boy for one of the early campaigns. Of course most Canadian [ordinariate] clergy are already receiving pension income from other sources but the younger men have been told that they will have to make their own arrangements.

So unless I misunderstand this, Canadian ordinariate priests aren't eligible for an ordinariate pension, although US ordinariate priests with exactly the same qualifications and time in service are. For that matter, Catholic priests in Canadian dioceses are eligible for whatever retirement benefits are available to them, but Canadian ordinariate Catholic priests are not eligible for equivalent benefits. Do I have this wrong?

The first question I have, if this is correct (and it's simply hard to believe, but I'll defer to knowledgeable visitors) was there some way someone could have worked a little harder to fix this? Retirement benefits, the basic eligibility being satisfied, are part of many modern workers' wages. If you're eligible for them, you have a good job. Conversely, not to provide them, especially when workers in exactly the same category and level of seniority receive them, is to defraud a worker of his just wages. This is one of the sins that cry out to heaven.

But let's leave that aside and simply look at the market economics involved here. You get what you pay for. Although the main line Protestant job market has been shrinking, those clergy who have positions can in fact expect pensions, given time in service and age at retirement. For the ordinariate to attract comparable candidates -- indeed, to hire capable clergy away from Protestant denominations -- it has to offer a pay package that's equivalent, at least to those who aren't already receiving pensions.

So, who has the Canadian deanery been able to hire among Protestant clergy young enough still to expect pension benefits? Just asking. The impression I have is that every one of that small number was someone his previous jurisdiction was not sad to lose. Just sayin'.

The other e-mail I got yesterday was from a visitor who said,

Your website has indirectly covered the Archdiocese of San Antonio over the years, especially with regards to the relationship and problems with Our Lady of the Atonement. Part of the backstory is of a diocese that has always been liberal, and because of that, many Catholics found a home at Our Lady of the Atonement.

The only thing I'd ask is, "How'd that work out?" The mindset that regards Novus Ordo Good, Ordinariate Bad as wrongthink has a built-in problem, in that it's vulnerable to clerical charlatans who flatter them for their liturgical good taste and tell them what they want to hear. The best evidence we have, from visitors who are former parishioners there and lived through much of the parish history is that Dcn Orr wasn't just an unfortunate oversight. He was baked into the recipe.

A number of people either put their best efforts into that parish and became disillusioned, or they understood the tradeoffs at some level, made the best of a bad situation, and moved on when their kids graduated from the school and the atmosphere elsewhere in the archdiocese improved. But they all seem to have recognized there was nothing inherently better about one or another form of extreme liturgy over and above novus ordo, and when other factors balanced out, they moved on.

The other side of the coin is if people think extreme liturgy and other forms of ostentatious piety will compensate for other shortcomings in their own lives. That way lies pharisaism. But the whole education I've gotten for myself in the course of this blog's journey ought to be a counsel to steer well clear of the North American ordinariate.

Houston Illustrates The Problem of Incompetence

Yesterday I posted on the clergy, staff, and volunteers at our novus ordo parish who, whatever you may think of the "social distancing" measures they were required to implement in order to start reopening, did a remarkably competent job in putting the program together. Consider that the priests and deacons had to create a detailed plan that covered all the requirements of the archdiocese and the health department and get it approved by the bishop. This appears to have been done pretty much on the first pass.

Then the staff and volunteers had to learn, understand, and be ready to perform what must have been dozens of completely new tasks to set up for mass, in the process unlearning old ones. They had to regulate attendees as they lined up to enter, reminding them courteously of social distance, direct them to social-distanced seating, explain new procedures for bathroom trips, receiving the sacrament, depositing the offerings, and on and on. I would imagine that they recognized minor glitches and shortcomings among themselves, but to my critical eye, they did an outstanding job.

These were, in short, competent people. Competent teams don't just happen. And it's worth reflecting that this sort of competence also reflects love of neighbor, making a potentially trying experience as pleasant as can be expected.

I think it was sometime in my mid to late twenties that I began to recognize that there was a thing called incompetence. That thing began to pop up for me yesterday, when my regular correspondent sent me a screen shot from the Fort Worth ordinariate Facebook page (click on the image for a larger copy):

If this were just a one-time blooper, it might be something simply to be overlooked -- maybe the Houston staff is rattled from the lockdown, they've just come back to work, whatever. But one thing I began to realize about incompetence is that it's something other than random inadvertencies. It becomes entrenched in organizations, repeated and habitual. My regular correspondent reminded me of this problem's history in the North American ordinariate:

It took several cycles of Bishop’s and Seminarian Fund Appeals for Houston to grasp that Canadian donations had to be handled differently in order for Canadian donors to get tax receipts, a couple more to create donor cards with correct info for Canadian donors. And yet, not rocket science, really.

In fact, this became a major project fo Msgr Reid when he was dean of the Canadian deanery. Canadian donations aren't tax deductible in Canada unless they go to a Canadian charity. Houston for a number of years was simply advising Canadian members to send their donations to Houston, which made them not deductible for Canadian taxes.

So of course, Houston "fixes" the problem by sending US donors instructions to send their donations to Canada. This says to me that there's an institutional problem. It goes so far as to create an expectation that people will routinely get it wrong, and in fact, that's OK.

Once, my wife and I boarded an Amtrak train, first thing in the morning, and even just to load a couple dozen people, it was a disorganized mess. Then I realized that for the crew, this was one of the main things they did all day. And they did it every day. It was their job. They'd been doing it for years, and they'd never gotten it right. This is true incompetence, fostered, not just tolerated, at the institutional level.

I asked my regular correspondent for some estimate of who in Houston was the screwup.

So do we know who is responsible for these glitches? Both Ms Miller an Sr Amata Veritas have “development” in their titles.

The reply:

I think the financial nuts and bolts of the OCSP, as opposed to “development” is/was the department of the Stockstills, pere et fils, parishioners of OLW. I don’t think they had any idea that Canada had different tax laws. Msgr Reid finally got things sorted with them, but it was a slow process. Sr Amata just doing office duty. I’m sure none of them could find Canada on a map.

Based on my adult life studying incompetence as something of a hobby, I would say that things are the way they are because Bp Lopes likes them that way, and in any case, Fr Perkins can't be bothered to fix them, so they'll just keep on keepin' on, just like they do at Amtrak.

But as I say, if nothing else, competence does reflect a concern for one's neighbor.

Back To In-Person Mass In LA

On May 26, the Archdiocese of Los Angeles announced that parishes could begin holding in-person masses beginning June 3, subject to the approval of the local bishop. Yesterday, we attended our first Sunday mass at our parish since March 15. On one hand, it was good to get back.

On the other, the "social distancing" constraints are absurd. We can grant that they're more or less consistent with constraints imposed on secular businesses and activities, but it also needs to be recognized that they amount to a massive face-saving exercise by civil authorities whose incompetence and gross miscalculations have caused great damage.

The precise conditions will vary among dioceses and civil jurisdictions, but on the whole they amount to

• Face masks required for all but the immediate consumption of the host, on the hand, no wine
• No singing except by cantor
• Responses optional and not encouraged
• Maximum attendance 100 regardless of capacity, enforced by on line reservation, tickets checked at the door
• Temperature taken and health questions asked at the door
• Six feet"social distancing" enforced by ushers, who regulated seating
• Alternate pews roped off
• Missals and other mass materials removed from pews
• Six-foot intervals marked off on sidewalks and church entry area with day-glo orange paint
• A reminder was made immediately before the peace that social distance was to be observed
• No baskets passed for offertory; envelopes deposited in basket on exit.

Our celebrant, an associate, wore a clear plastic mask that covered his face and resembled the riot masks police wear. He apologized.

I certainly don't mean to disparage either our parish or the archdiocese. These conditions have been imposed by civil authorities, and both the parish and the archdiocese are going to extraordinary lengths to demonstrate good faith in implementing them in a most conscientious way. In fact, leaving all else aside, this speaks to the overall competence and willingness to undertake hard work and sacrifice that the parish has displayed since we started there.

On the other hand, our pastor stressed the word "temporary" twice in his concluding announcements at the end of the mass. As I've observed in the course of re-emerging from lockdown to conduct ordinary business over the past week, "social distancing" measures amount to a bizarre ritual that gets in the way of ordinary tasks like walking down the sidewalk or paying for a haircut or service at the car dealer.

Consider that Karl Manke, the famous Owosso, MI barber, reopened his barber shop without permission on May 4. With only a few days off since then, he must have given hundreds of haircuts. (Photos indicate that he wears a mask, but his customers do not. In LA, he'd need to wear gloves as well, and customers must wear both masks and gloves.) Yet if any of his hundreds of customers had so much as tested positive for COVID, much less been hospitalized, the media would have been all over it. So far, not a peep.

By the same token, there have been numerous cases over the past month where masses of people, on Virginia beaches, Missouri swimming pools, innumerable block parties, and anywhere else, have flouted "social distancing" rules. No mass graves have resulted, nor indeed any sort of media we-told-you hysteria, from any of these episodes. And over the past week, "social distancing" was more or less officially suspended due to riot exemption for hundreds of thousands.

Nobody seems to believe there will be any serious spike in cases as a result of that. For now, citizens are continuing to display good faith in resuming "social distancing" decorum on the understanding, articulated by our own pastor, that these measures are temporary, though they amount to nothing more than a pusillanimous face-saving exercise. Drs Birx and Fauci have vanished from the public eye. They ought to; they should be ashamed.

We'll have to see in coming weeks how "tempoarary" these measures turn out to be.

And More Personnel Moves In Houston

Via my regular correspondent, I'm told of new anticipated vacancies in Houston, advertised on the Employment-Chancery Openings page. The most important is that Mr Josue Vásquez-Weber, who styles himself "J Henry" in his communications with ordinariate clergy, appears to be leaving his position, since they are recruiting for the Administrative Assistant position.

As usual, no notice has been given of this potential move other than the help wanted ad, although this is a key position in the chancery. I quote from a visitor's explanation of that role that I published in a post here back in March:

The Bishop’s Secretary is really a gatekeeper/handler of sorts. They handle the diary, meetings, functions, event planning and all of the “things” which the bishop is involved in around the diocese. They handle sensitive matters, draft sensitive letters and responses. The discretion most people in this position practice is phenomenal. If you want to get something done or want something to end up at the top of the correspondence pile, you want to be on good terms with the bishops secretary. In many diocese this position is staffed by a lay person. In some cases it is staffed by a religious and in other cases (fairly few) it is staffed by a priest.

In brief, this is not something you want handled by a temp. So why is J Henry leaving that position after a fairly short time -- about a year, I would guess, if not shorter? My regular correspondent suggests,

Ms Miller, the assistant to the VG, has just retired, so she needs to be replaced. But is J Henry also on his way out? I mentioned that he can be seen posing in a cassock in a group shot in front of the Benedict XVI House of Formation sign; this picture is now part of the material being furnished to Ordinariate communities ahead of the special collection for the Seminarians’ Fund taking place next weekend. In any event, he has not been an impressive Administrative Assistant.

If he's returning to the seminary, well, Godspeed to him. But for much of his tenure, he'd been covering for a bishop under a serious indisposition, so his individual performance would be difficult to tease out as a separate matter from that of his bishop. I think one could advance an interpretation that would be at least equally credible, that the job of secretary to this bishop was not shaping up to be what he might have been led to expect, and returning to the seminary might have seemed a better use of his abilities.

So either the job expected too much of the man, or the man expected too much of the job. I kinda lean toward the second view. The bottom line either way is that in a real world diocese, the bishop's secretary job is too important to have to recruit for it every year or so, as if a temp could hold it down.

Regarding the other open position, to be filled after Ms Miller's retirement, my response was,

Fr Perkins needs an assistant????????

Stein's Law: "If something cannot go on forever, it will stop."

Madison, WI Backs Down

Many thanks to a visitor for this link:

The Public Health Department for the City of Madison and Dane County, Wisconsin put out a new “Forward Dane” order today, removing a 50-person cap on in-person religious services that did not apply to any similar secular activities. The new order came after the Roman Catholic Diocese of Madison stood up for its right to free exercise of religion. Global law firms Sidley Austin and Troutman Sanders, along with the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty sent a letter to Dane County Executive Joe Parisi, Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, and Public Health Director Janel Heinrich on Wednesday, June 3. The letter explained that Madison/Dane County’s arbitrary 50-person cap on houses of worship violated the First Amendment as well as the Wisconsin Constitution. Because the Diocese stood up for its rights, Catholic churches in Madison/Dane County will now conduct in-person Masses at the same 25 percent capacity level as secular activities such as malls and theaters, but with even more rigorous social distancing and hygiene protocols.

As we've begun to see, secular authorities do back down, if only after stubborn resistance, when steady pressure is applied. In a related development, the Michigan Supreme Court has vacated the order of a lower court telling Karl Manke, the barber who reopened his shop in violation of "social distancing" orders, to close.

The Michigan Supreme canceled Friday a lower court's order that demanded Karl Manke immediately close his Owosso barbershop and sent Manke's case back to the state Court of Appeals for further consideration.

The [unanimous] decision by the state's high court came with only a concurring opinion written by Justice David Viviano in which he questioned initial handling of the case by a three-judge appeals court panel.

. . . Manke's attorney, David Kallman, appealed to the Michigan Supreme Court. And Manke has continued cutting hair.

On Friday, the Supreme Court vacated or revoked the orders from last week and sent the case back to the Michigan Court of Appeals for fuller consideration.

While the appeals court now has to rehear the case, I assume this process will take weeks or months, during which time the matter will become moot, absurd, or both.

I go along with Edward Feser here, in that we're talking about related natural-law issues in both these cases, the right to freedom of worship and the right to earn a living. We seem to be passing through a national (if not a Western world) hiccup of hysteria in which elites have tried to stampede a social consensus that will tolerate a suspension of those rights.

With others, I'm slowly re-emerging from house arrest. I got a haircut last Monday and discovered that Dr Barbara Ferrer, the social-justice health director for LA County, has ordered that not only must barbers wear masks and gloves, but the customers must wear masks and gloves as well. Walking down the sidewalk to the barber shop, I saw that everyone I passed ostentatiously went out of their way to retain six feet of "social distance", which was an ongoing strange dance.

I assume we'll slowly begin to realize how much of this has been a silly charade.