I'm going to post the e-mail here without additional comment, because the points it raises go to conclusions I've been coming to myself concerning what Ross Douthat calls "restorationism", the movement in the Church to withdraw from Vatican II and return to some supposed golden age before it -- or in the case of Anglicanism, find some previously undiscovered orthodoxy in a schismatic movement and inject it into the Church, which is pretty clearly Fr Hunwicke's view of Anglicanorum coetibus.
This is dangerous.
The visitor writes,
The ongoing saga of Our Lady of the Atonement, its financial woes, and the apparent personality cult surrounding Fr Phillips and the late Dcn Orr bears many striking similarities to the slowly-devolving catastrophe at my own parish, St William the Confessor in Greenville, Texas.I think the cases of St William the Confessor and Our Lady of the Atonement are similar because they come from similar causes. which clearly date back before Benedict, Summorum Pontificum, and Anglicanorum coetibus. Unless more urgent news supersedes, I'll talk more about this tomorrow.I’ve been one of Fr Paul Weinberger’s parishioners for very nearly two decades now – first at Blessed Sacrament in Oak Cliff, and since 2004 at St William’s. In that time, I felt that I got to know him very well, and held him in great esteem for his fiery, orthodox preaching and reverent, traditional liturgy (including a Latin Novus Ordo Mass celebrated ad orientem).
The latter is what kept me coming back Sunday after Sunday; St William’s really was one of the only bastions of good liturgy in the Diocese of Dallas. It’s essential to keep this in mind, especially when considering it alongside the situation at Our Lady of the Atonement in San Antonio. Perceived beauty and reverence covers a multitude of sins, and I’m sure I’m not the only person to have chosen it.
Fr Paul came to Greenville in January 2004 after having been removed as pastor of Blessed Sacrament. It caused a bit of an uproar at the time, and Rod Dreher and several other luminaries attended his last Mass in Oak Cliff. They subsequently wrote about how the evil Bishop Grahmann (perhaps not untrue) removed the innocent Fr Paul for being too traditional. Latin, that’s what got him booted out to the furthest reaches of the Diocese. (“Financial mishandling” is what you’ll hear in inner diocesan circles.)
From an outsider’s perspective, the next decade-and-a-half would likely seem wonderful. We had eight Masses a weekend, ten-plus hours of confession a week, nightly rosary processions, a Latin Mass (Novus Ordo, the bulletin was careful to point out), and for the last three years all Masses were celebrated ad orientem. For someone who knows just enough about liturgy to be dangerous, this was nearly as good as it could get in Dallas.
But many things didn’t add up – not that many of us did the math until recently. Your correspondent from Our Lady of the Atonement says regarding Fr Phillips and Dcn Orr, “Both could do no wrong, and if you wanted to stay at the parish, you’d better not insinuate anything to the contrary”. This describes Fr Paul exactly.
I hardly noticed parishioners and friends falling away from St William’s over the years, but disappear they did, and in significant numbers. (It’s amazing how many old, familiar faces I’ve seen at Mass in the last couple weeks now that we have a new, interim pastor.) Fr Paul’s word was law, and you could not argue with him. I could write at length about the problems that I see through the recent gift of hindsight, but what likely will interest you most is what’s happened in the last year.
Nearly a year ago, Fr Paul had a falling out with one of the bigger families at the parish, who I’ll call the Smiths, due to problems with how Fr Paul had organized the annual confirmation Mass (at which our auxiliary bishop presided). In short, many kids were getting confirmed who were neither parishioners nor prepared – but more confirmations make a parish look good.
Things spiraled downwards over the next few months, and came to a head when Bishop Burns (our current bishop) opened an investigation on Fr Paul, allegedly for financial mishandling (again) and spiritual abuse. While I I can't discuss the details I know, I’ve personally spoken to Bishop Burns, to Fr Paul, and to several others involved, and it’s very clear to me that Fr Paul had been acting outside his bounds as a priest and pastor for many years. (He’s not solely at fault here; the two previous bishops, including now-Cardinal Farrell, washed their hands of him and let him do his own thing rather than acting in a pastoral manner more becoming of their rank.)
In May, Fr Paul privately contacted me and asked to discuss an important matter in secret. Knowing how bad things were, and earnestly wishing to help in any way possible, I agreed to meet him. I was treated to an hour-and-a-half-long, manipulative rant that attempted to play on my emotions by bringing up old memories of good times at St William’s, insinuations that some men weren’t wearing the pants in the family, and even that my wife was suffering because of all this…and I wouldn’t want my wife to suffer!
I realized I couldn’t do anything productive to help at this point, so our meeting ended. That evening Fr Paul emailed me saying he’d come up with a solution, and not to worry about it. The very next Sunday, his infamous (in our parish) “Smiths and Joneses” letter appeared on the back page of the bulletin. In it he gave his own crazy take on the events that transpired a year ago and that led to his being investigated. That was the last straw for many other parishioners, including some friends that have been at St William’s for the better part of thirty years. More letters were written to the bishop, and finally, at long last, Fr Paul was removed as pastor. He was, however, allowed to frame it as a “voluntary resignation”, which it absolutely was not, and included another letter to this effect in the bulletin.
Needless to say, Fr Paul was once again a martyr. A local traditionalist blog wrote a paean to Fr Paul, and it was discovered by some deeply hurt parishioners who unwisely gave the traddies ammo by commenting things like, “That’s the face of a man who makes you hate the Catholic Church”, and many more in like vein.St William’s is polluted by evil parishioners who hate their good, orthodox, holy priest – never mind all the evidence otherwise, like the many people told to their faces to never come back by Fr Paul.
It’s been a miserable year in Greenville, and a hard one – I’ve loved and respected Fr Paul for many years, and still do, but I will not blind myself to the serious problems he’s created and the damage he’s done. I don’t think he’s pure evil, as some parishioners would tell you, but he’s not an spotless victim, as others would claim. As your visitor wrote to Fr Phillips, over the years I’ve seen many good parishioners, benefactors and priests chased away from our parish by Fr Paul.
The lightbulb’s been lit, and it’s now very obvious to me what’s been going on. Fr Paul’s true calling was not being a priest or deacon, sad to say, and in another world he would have made it big. Instead, he’s been reduced to an associated pastor (of St Monica’s in Dallas) with extremely minimal duties. His fan club will migrate there, hopefully leaving St William’s a saner place – but what good he did is already being undone.
The very first act our new pastor did was to turn around the altar and celebrate Mass versus populum. St William’s reputation as the most reverent parish in the diocese will likely soon be done, but in a few months so will I. I won’t be going to the FSSP parish, of course. I can put up with a lot for good liturgy, but the atmosphere there is far too poisonous. This is why some cradle Catholics flee to the Ordinariate – only to find that the grass isn’t greener on the other side.
I could write so much more, and in far greater detail, but at some point I’d no longer be able to tell the difference between the plain truth and a mean-spirited rant. I’m hurt and angry, and so is most of our parish. But by choosing a parish with good liturgy to avoid suffering, we merely traded it for another form of pain. C’est la vie.
