Oh, you mean they haven't? You want to see these joint letters? Well, Maybe they're too sensitive to release. Or maybe there's a dog here that isn't barking, or a cat that is. I keep trying to put the puzzle pieces together, but I never quite come up with a picture, or at least, not the picture that's on the cover of the box.
Let's start with this: a gathered group-in-formation, like the one we receently saw in Georgia, begins with a former Anglican priest assembling a small group of Anglicans with the intent of all becoming Catholic together. The priest goes through some abbreviated formation, while the laity goes through catechesis. At the end of the process, the laity are received in a confirmation rite. One big dog -- I'd want to say an Old English Sheepdog, except it ain't one of those -- that isn't barking here is that the Murrieta group has been celebrating mass in its new facility from the start. No catechesis, no reception. They're already Catholic.
Well, of course, you dummy, they went in with the Irvine group, and as the bishops explained, they're just several families who didn't want to make the drive to Irvine, so they're setting up a little mission. You sure are dense, Mr Bruce.
I know, but there are things I still don't get, so bear with me here. Fr Bartus set up the Holy Martyrs Events Facebook page (a closed group, currently 365 members) in October 2016, according to a visitor who is a member -- you can't see the membership list unless you're a member. The visitor provided me with a screen shot of just the first page of the list; it would take more than 30 screen shots to get the whole list, but what we see is at least enough to ask how many of these folks are former Anglicans, or fourth cousins twice removed of Anglicans, or whatever:
Now here we're getting into very uncomfortable questions of ethnic "purity" or something close to that, and it's not something I would ordinarily do, except that Anglicanorum coetibus and the Complementary Norms are basically forcing this question for us. A "member", the term used in the norms and one I don't like at all, is basically someone with an Anglican connection, or a Catholic who hasn't completed the sacraments of initiation. But look at the names of the members in the Facebook group here: Nunez, Barroso, Witz, Sola, Tessier, DelGiudice.
My guess is that a lot of these folks are diocesan Catholics who've attended mass at a Diocese of San Bernardino parish in the Temecula-Murrieta area. For very many of the 365 to make the Sunday trek to Irvine, you'd have to charter several buses. Something isn't fitting here, the puzzle they've sold me in the box isn't the one whose picture is on the cover.
In addition, there must have been well over 100 people at the Pentecost mass, all -- I get the impression -- eligible to receive the sacrament. I can't imagine that very many at all came into the Church via the Irvine group, since the chapel there holds only 65 on a good day. Nobody's said anything, as far as the member of the Facebook group who's informing me of these things knows, about when Evangelium classes will start for 100 or so that might be coming in here.
So this is big -- planning has been going on since October 2016 at least. My guess is that it had come to Bp Barnes's attention well before the abortive kickoff announcement was made last December, and Bp Barnes saw things to be concerned about. A group of 350-plus disgruntled folks planning to bolt one or more parishes would probably concern me too, if I were a bishop. The secretiveness behind this -- closed Facebook group, almost nothing said publicly otherwise -- should disturb anyone.
Not only that, but this is both big, far bigger than the usual OCSP group-in-formation, and it's attracted major money in some form, possibly from Mr Busch, possibly elsewhere. And here's Bp Barnes in a diocese whose population has been growing explosively, who could certainly use equivalent money to serve Catholics in his territory better, but it's going to a whole new thing that calls itself Catholic but looks like it will take people away from his own parishes, and it isn't under his supervision.
In fact, it's being "supervised" by some ex Protestant in Houston. The bishop there doesn't quite want to admit what it is and doesn't seem to want to show his face in Murrieta.
And I'll bet this is just the tip of the iceberg. Bp Barnes, I would lay odds, has been hearing a lot more. This isn't over.
