As I read your blog post today, I was struck by a question I wasn’t sure how to answer, “Why does the continuing indulgence by the CDF for Anglicanorum Coetibus get Mr. Bruce so riled up?” Don’t get me wrong, I am glad it does because it has produced so many thought provoking ideas and discussions, which ultimately, can and should lead to better understanding and practice of our shared Catholic faith. After reading the linked article at the Federalist and considering your blog, I was again struck by the thought. . . . “Like a grain of wheat that falls on fertile soil, it yields five, ten, a hundred fold.” Looking at the caliber of Catholics who have come into the fold because of AC, yes, some are on rocky soil, in the brambles or simply in sand with no water, but. . . . [i]f each can reach and foster only one seed that yields a hundred fold, maybe your blog and the AC are not such strange bedfellows after all.As longer-term visitors know, early this year, I gave a lot of thought to either cutting back my effort on this blog or dropping it completely. After prayer and reflection, there seems to have emerged good reason to continue it at existing levels. Why?
An associate at our parish left last month to become a parish administrator elsewhere in the archdiocese. He had previously been a military chaplain with combat deployments; in one, his predecessor had half his head blown off with an IED. When he returned to the archdiocese, he took over a parish as pastor.
However, it appears that he'd carried PTSD and the seeds of clinical depression back with him, and the story he told in homilies was that he essentially lost it when the bride at a wedding became over-concerned that the train on her gown hadn't been properly measured, and it would catch on the pews as she came down the aisle for the ceremony.
I would guess that there was more behind the episode than this, because the upshot seems to have been that he had to take a leave from the priesthood. His service at our parish as an associate was his return from leave. He spoke often in his homilies about what led to his crisis and how he recovered within the Church.
One factor in his depression seems to have been a sense that nobody around him seemed to be trying very hard, and that led him to ask, "Why bother?" One thing that brought him back, by his account, was finding a "we can always do better than this" attitude at our parish. My wife and I found this there ourselves, to the extent that I have to be careful about letting myself try to do too much.
We often mention this priest to each other, and his high expectations inspire us. In contrast, I see all too often a sense in the OCSP that the Church is going to accept minimal effort and recklessly minimal formation from careerist ex-Protestants, and I have a sense that some are saying, "What's wrong with that? At least people are getting the sacraments."
That way lies a great many things, perhaps only the least of which are depression and despair.
