Further Concerns About Our Lady Of Good Counsel Jacksonville, NC

I'd intended to proceed with discussing the list of possibly marginal Ordinariate groups my correspondent sent me, but more information became available on the Our Lady of Good Counsel group in Jacksonville, NC that's brought me up short. I've already discussed the group's odd location in a shack-like building under a billboard, next to an Arby's.

Let me start out by saying everything here may turn out to be completely canonical, up-and-up, legal, and ethical, and Fr Waun may be doing great works for God's Kingdom. Nevertheless, some aspects of this group simply set off alarm bells, if for no other reason than to make me wonder how much actual supervision this and other groups have received under the former Houston regime. Appearances matter. And as my correspondent puts it, "when 'Local Catholic priest/church' makes the 6 o'clock news people don't inquire into his/its incardination."

The parish itself has a web site that seems conventional enough if you're just looking for a Catholic church, although its characterization as "New Contemporary Mass, Roman Catholic" suggests it might be more friendly to the flip-flop and halter-top crowd. However, another web site connected with Fr Waun, the Foster Enterprise Foundation, gives a different picture.

In fact, you have to drill down into the Pastoral Counseling and Psychotherapy page to discover that the same Fr Waun who celebrates a contemporary Catholic mass and hears confessions on Sundays is also equipped to "help guide you through any deep wounds that life may have inflicted", though as far as I can tell, not necessarily in the context of the prayers and sacraments.

The connection between Our Lady of Good Counsel and the Foster Enterprise Foundation is simply not clear. For instance, who owns the building on Lejeune Bl, Jacksonville? Is it the Ordinariate via the parish? Then presumably any business conducted out of the building would need the approval of the Ordinary, as far as I can see. Is the building owned by the Foster Enterprise Foundation, with the parish paying rent to Fr Waun? This raises other concerns over self-dealing.

The appearance that Fr Waun can serve as both a confessor and a therapist raises a great deal of concern. He approvingly quotes a Dr Pamela Cooper-White, who says

. . . Pastoral Psychotherapy is a “particular and distinct healing intervention” defined as “a mode of healing intervention (therapy) that is specifically grounded both in psychoanalytic theory and methods (psycho-) – that is, with a primary focus on unconscious mental and emotional processes – and held in a constructive, creation-affirming theology (pastoral).”

While I'm not a psychologist, I would say that psychoanalytic theory is based on what Tom Wolfe has called the "steam boiler" model of the psyche: urges and compulsions build up which, if not released, will cause an explosion; while the psychology behind the Catechism seems to me based on Tom Wolfe's "electrical circuit" model: habitual pathways develop with use. Avoid the near occasions of sin, or as Mel Brooks's psychiatrist put it in High Anxiety, "Don't do that!"

Which type of counseling does Fr Waun do? But isn't there a conflict of interest here, no matter which? As my correspondent puts it, "I can imagine a priest, concerned by something very serious in the confessional, urging a penitent to seek professional help, but the idea that he would push his card across the ledge and say 'Call my office,' seems to me a grave conflict of interest."

For that matter, the Foster Enterprise Foundation offers many other paths to salvation: you can retire in 5 to 10 years (e-mail Kevin. Who's Kevin?) You can enroll in the School of Rock, which identifies itself as an organ of both the Foster Enterprise Foundation and the Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church. (Really, is the idea of getting marginal youth interested in rock 'n roll careers such a good idea?)

It seems to me that both Bp Lopes and Fr Perkins have a great deal on their plates. However, someone needs to take a closer look at what's happening in Jacksonville, NC.

Apparently Marginal Ordinariate Groups -- II

My regular correspondent on these matters reports,

St James, St Augustine FL under the leadership of Fr Nicholas Marziani apparently continues to meet at 4:30 pm on Saturdays at St Benedict the Moor Catholic Church in St Augustine. Until October 2014 Fr Marziani maintained a fairly active webpage http://www.saintjameschurchsaintaugustine.org/ but it seems currently untended except for the monthly calendar which perhaps posts automatically. In his "Midweek Musing" of September 18, 2014 Fr Marziani reported proudly that there was a record number of worshippers that Saturday at St James'--21--but whether this was, as he hoped, the beginning of a "roll' or whether it was a high-water mark it is not possible to know. Fr Marziani's Facebook page seems to be lying fallow, and the St James community apparently never had one. There is nothing about St James in the bulletins of the host parish. Difficult to imagine that growth is taking place under these circumstances.

In unrelated news, a visitor reports that as of this morning, the Ordinariate's web site now lists Fr. Timothy Perkins as the vicar general. His name has also replaced that of Fr. Charles Hough III in the membership of the Ordinariate's governing council.

This sort of timely update is an encouraging sign.

Welcome, Fr Perkins, New Vicar General

An announcement on the St Mary the Virgin web site:

Dear Children of St. Mary,

With very mixed emotions, I announced at each Mass this Sunday [May 1] that I have received a new appointment. Effective May 1, 2016, I have been named Vicar General of our Ordinariate. Though I will continue to serve St. Mary the Virgin parish for the next few months, this responsibility will require relocation to Houston. We will be doing everything possible to make a smooth transition with the arrival of your new pastor, who will be named this summer.

We have accomplished wonderful things during our service together the past three years. I am confident in your faithfulness and loving support for your leadership in the days ahead. Change can be very difficult, but under the Lord’s guidance and in the strength of the Holy Spirit, it always brings exciting new opportunities. You are very dear to me, and I count the man who will succeed me as truly blessed.

In the meantime, please pray for me as I take on this challenging new position. Pray for all of us in the time of transition; and begin now to pray for your next pastor. “Great are the works of the Lord,” and I know that God will yet accomplish great things in and through the Catholic Church of St. Mary the Virgin.

Ever yours in Christ through Mary,
Fr. Timothy Perkins

It appears that Fr Hough III's retirement is immediate, although as of today, he's still listed as Vicar General on the OCSP staff page. Thanks to a visitor for the heads-up.

Clarification Over Fr Waun

A visitor who read yesterday's post e-mailed, "I get the implications, so please allow me to put some things into perspective from first-hand knowledge." I'll excerpt his further comments:

Fr. Bill Waun was a classmate of mine at Oral Roberts University. Most politically-correct liberals deny the bone fides of our alma mater, but ORU was a good school and it was affordable to those of us of lesser means. Furthermore, the ethos on campus was incredibly upbeat, something that so many of us needed at that vulnerable time in our young lives.

. . . . He was the somewhat rebellious son of a devout evangelical Christian father, who apparently knew the Bible as well as most pastors. In the ‘70s, when there were still many people who had memorized lengthy portions of the Holy Scriptures, that was certainly saying something.

After ORU, Bill went on to graduate studies at Princeton’s seminary and other respected schools that I can’t remember, and the list of his post-graduate academic qualifications is as long as my arm. Check with him on that. After a long hiatus, Bill and I met again in January 2000 at Yokosuka Naval Base on Tokyo Bay in Japan, where he was stationed, and was director of chaplain services.

. . . . The occasion for our meeting at Yokosuka was the invitation of my CEC bishop Richard Lipka to the disaffected remnant of the Nippon Seikokai (Anglican/Episcopal Church in Japan) to join forces with the CEC and to maintain the apostolic succession without the taint of sacerdotal meddling. The NSKK had just been screwed over —pardon my French — by the modernizing, secularizing cohorts who had won the “right” to ordain women to the presbytery, so anxious were they to keep up with the conventional Anglicanism of North America and Britain!

. . . . Bill was, by his own admission, “on the journey”, which meant that he was on his way up from evangelical Protestantism to Roman Catholicism. He had shared the stage with John Paul II for some ecumenical gathering in Rome, and was anxious to recover the ancient Faith for himself, from the midst of the ruins of Protestantism, which his erudition and his conscience had thoroughly repudiated.

From that point onward, I think that Bill went on to be promoted to Navy captain — the same rank as colonel in the other services — and I can only assume that he served with distinction until his retirement. Only Bill himself and God know how to fill in the blanks in my story here.

It appears that this humble mission that you display in the photograph is hard by Camp Lejeune, the Marine Corps Base in North Carolina. Temper fi, and more power to Fr. Bill and his parish in their efforts to attract young marines and their families to the Catholic Faith.

I think the difficulty that my visitor had in the e-mail I shared yesterday was the basic problem that can be inferred from Bp Lopes's own remarks -- the Anglican spiritual patrimony manifests itself, at least as far as the Ordinariates are concerned, in the liturgy. It's hard to imagine how an Ordinariate group carries an identity as such if it isn't celebrating mass regularly using the BDW form.

In addition, I've got to take seriously recent posts by Fr Z that the Church will renew itself only with (among other things) reverent celebration of the Ordinary Form mass. If an Ordinariate group isn't celebrating the BDW mass and is doing the Ordinary Form mass in the conventional way with guitars and, potentially, other liturgical abuses, I'm just not sure what purpose is being served.

However, the information we have on Fr Waun and Our Lady of Good Counsel is at best second-hand and based on things like Google street view. If anyone can provide first-hand explanations of what's happening in Jacksonville, I'd be most interested to hear it.

Apparently Marginal Ordinariate Groups -- I

A visitor reports,

Bp Lopes is beginning his planned project to visit every OCSP community by travelling to some of the larger, better established groups, which is understandable. I'm sure he will gain insights which will be valuable to other groups looking to grow. However, at some point he will have to take a first-hand look at communities which have apparently failed to thrive.

Among those my visitor has found is Our Lady of Good Counsel, Jacksonville, NC. "Fr Waun was a CEC Navy chaplain who started a parish after his retirement, which was identified as Our Lady of Good Counsel Anglican Church at the time of their reception into the Catholic church. He also pursued further credentials as a psychotherapist. After his ordination as a Catholic priest he leads the congregation of Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church in a storefront church. I have sent you a picture. Information about mass times etc is contradictory, but the most up-to-date information (via threeguitarz) is that the service is OF, possibly with free guitar lessons taking place afterwards."

Here is the picture:

The church is the brown building in the center.

Steenson Eased Out Of Houston?

On the heels of recent speculation that Msgr Steenson has lost his endowed visiting professorship at St Thomas University Houston, a visitor now reports that his visit to give the Archbishop Ireland Memorial Lecture at the St Paul Seminary was also an opportunity for Msgr Steenson to firm up arrangements for his forthcoming appointment as Priest Scholar in Residence there for the 2016-17 academic year.

Parish Festival Saturday, May 21

I've received the following from the vestry:

The vestry adds, "We are hoping to see as many people as possible! Of special note is the mini concert at 1:00 pm, but there will also be historical tours and lots more. I would also welcome contributions to our Jumble Sale (aka rummage sale, but classier)."

This may be a good chance for those in the area who may be curious to stick their heads in and have a look.

Fr Kelley notes as well,

May 26 will mark Fifty Years since the passing of the beloved Father Isaac Neal Dodd, our Father Founder, "Hollywood's Padre" and "A Candle Among the Stars." He went home to the Lord in 1966. (Appropriately, that is Corpus Christi DAY, this year, though our 'big' celebration of it will be the Sunday after.)