It was announced that a new pastor will be selected sometime in 2018. This provision was in the decree from Pope Francis. There will be an external audit of the parish. (This is what would happen in a corporation.) According to Fr Phillips's Facebook post, Fr Perkins, the Vicar General, has been appointed parish administrator. All of this was presented as positives; however, I would say that canonically not much has changed. Fr Phillips has been removed but can now at least putter about the place. But there's an administrator, just not Msgr Kurzaj -- and the administrator is the vicar general himself. Not a trivial matter.
I'm told that the question came up in the meeting as to why there had to be a new pastor. The reply from Bp Lopes was that it was in the decree. (We may assume Bp Lopes was involved with drafting said decree.) No mention was made of Dcn Emeritus Orr's status; the other deacon has the option of joining the OCSP or remaining with the archdiocese.
My regular correspondent gave this opinion: "Fr Phillips is returning to OLA as a winner, having outsmarted Steenson and outsmarted Garcia-Siller and his predecessors."
I don't see it this way. I would compare it to a deposed third-world dictator, having humanely been spared execution but sentenced to prison, being released to live out his remaining years under house arrest. Phillips is toothless and on a short leash, with the vicar general looking into everything and watching Phillips's every move.
The best outcome for him, as interpreted by some observers, would have been for him to be fully restored as Pastor (he's still three years short of canonical retirement), and after a decent interval Dcn Orr returning to active ministry. This plan clearly failed, and failed big time. But the minimal face-saving moves probably thwart the strategy Phillips previously employed against his superiors, agitating the parish with petitions and demonstrations and stirring up his allies in the blogosphere and media.
My regular correspondent observed, "[W]hatever hanky-panky Fr Phillips was up to, the diocese was prepared to put up with it for decades, until it foresaw no longer being in a position to benefit from it. Then, a last-ditch and failed attempt to exercise some discipline. A sorry spectacle, IMHO." But it doesn't look like Bp Lopes will make equivalent mistakes. My regular correspondent notes,
I agree that things are not as they were for Fr Phillips. But neither is he rusticating at a fringe parish, which was the best that was predicted for him if Abp G-S had his way. The idea of a Pastor Emeritus is not found in either the Anglican or Catholic traditions. [Nor is Pope Emeritus!] Former clergy are usually expected to give the place a wide berth. This is a special deal just for him.Another factor could well have been Cardinal Law's advancing age and his replacement as delegate for the Pastoral Provision -- and the decline of the Anglo-Catholic blogosphere. Between them, this probably made the moves Bp Lopes made possible.
