I've been following your blog about the antics of Fr Kenyon. A couple of months ago my parish priest told me that Kenyon had suffered a nervous breakdown whilst in Wythenshawe. I don't know anything further about him.While "nervous breakdown" is not a medical diagnosis, the term is generally used to indicate a crisis based on underlying stress, anxiety, or depression that renders someone unable to function in everyday life. This would suggest that Fr Kenyon at some point became unable to function as a priest in the Diocese of Shrewsbury due to such a crisis.It is indeed strange that Kenyon's name has been removed from the Wythenshawe newsletter. He quite simply seems to have vanished.
As an altar server I have stood alongside many clergy and got to know a number of them quite well, but I have never, ever come across anyone like Kenyon before.
In such circumstances, based on what research I've been able to conduct, a bishop may find it prudent to withdraw a priest's faculties, especially if instability might make it unwise for him to hear confessions. Added to that is the circumstance that Fr Kenyon is an extern priest in the Diocese of Shrewsbury, who may have to have his faculties renewed on an annual basis.
It's worth noting that he started in Shrewsbury in September 2017, but he disappears from the clergy list as of the end of August 2019. It's certainly possible that the bishop withdrew his faculties effective with the end of his second year, but Fr Kenyon may not have been functioning as a priest as a practical matter for some time before that.
This in turn is an issue that would normally be confidential, and I'm very sympathetic to the distress that this must cause him and his family. On the other hand, this is public problem insofar as two ordinariate-related sources on the web announced that Fr Kenyon would be returning to Canada and taking over for Msgr Reid in Victoria as of this October. I think one might reasonably ask if Fr Kenyon has actually been in a condition to do this.
We previously learned that Fr Kenyon was removed as pastor of a Stockport, UK parish in the Diocese of Shrewsbury less than a month after his arrival. This goes to what appears to be a longer-standing question of his suitability for the priesthood, and this in turn goes to continuing concerns expressed here that the formation process for former Anglican priests in Houston is clearly inadequate.
However, we simply don't know Fr Kenyon's current condition, nor the current location of him and his family. Whether he's in any position to return to work is also a serious question. My regular correspondent notes,
Presumably the OCSP is responsible for him. They can’t just leave him to go on social assistance in the UK.
