And Even More On The History Of The Atonement Parish

I've heard over the past two years from about half a dozen long-term parishioners at the Our Lady of the Atonement parish in San Antonio, most of them now former parishioners. Especially in recent weeks, several have provided informed analysis of the parish's history and its current problems. Here's another perspective. It's worth noting that this visitor disagrees with other visitors, which is only to be expected given the time span and different viewpoints involved.

First, I have known Nathan Phillips for many years. Whenever I have spoken to him he has always been very polite. As far as I know he is a good husband and father. He and his wife have two adopted children. He seems to have put together a small business doing renovation work to support his family. I was previously unaware of this. There have been some unkind words used here to describe him which I think is unfair.

I think it is safe to say he would not have found employment in Mr Dolan's company without his father's (Fr Phillips) influence. I do not believe that he would have been able to engineer some kind of a maintenance agreement with OLOTA without Fr. Phillips's direct input. As to the large salary that Nathan was reportedly receiving, I find that questionable, but as we have seen there has been no oversight on monies spent by Fr Phillips, so who knows.

Secondly, when Archbishop Gomez arrived in San Antonio, he inherited a poorly run diocese. This malfeasance and mismanagement goes back at least to the two previous Archbishops of the diocese. Knowing this, one of the first things he did shortly after being made Archbishop was to summon all the priests of the diocese to the chancery. Fr Phillips told me that this was a mandatory meeting, no excuses. According to Fr Phillips, this was not a warm feel good introduction kind of meeting. In fact, the priests were dressed down.

Fr Phillips told me that Gomez said that he was not going to let any priest in this diocese take him to hell. This does not sound like, at least to me, that Gomez was going to try and get along with any priest or parish, including OLOTA; things were going to change. I do agree with a comment made by one of the visitors to your blog, that Gomez did come out to OLOTA to confer confirmation, but only on one occasion. After that it was auxiliary bishops.

To my knowledge, Gomez never returned. Another incident comes to mind regarding Fr Phillips and Archbishop Gomez. It appears that Fr Phillips took it upon himself to do something; I don't recall what that was, but it was a violation of some kind. Archbishop Gomez summoned Fr Phillips to the chancery and, as Fr Phillips related to me, the Archbishop "went up one side of him and down the other." Gomez was really angry and used some pretty harsh language. He also said that he would not tolerate this kind of disobedience again. I say this to show that Gomez was not out to get along with everybody, including OLOTA, but to bring about change.

Thirdly, giving some thoughts to Monday's post, what is to become of OLOTA? Well, to start out, as I have mentioned, there is a very good chance that the archdiocese will get the parish back for pennies on the dollar. What Archbishop Garcia-Siller had in mind for the parish and school is anybody's guess. I do know that there are a lot of failing parishes in the diocese with old buildings which are greatly in need of repair and renovation. The archbishop has proposed doing away with these old and poorly attended parishes and building three mega churches.

As you may guess this has been met with some resistance, but the big problem here is money to bring this about. San Antonio is a very large diocese, the seventh largest city in the country, but a poor diocese. Some years back I went to Mass at a parish in San Antonio, because of a particular priest, and found that they could not raise one thousand dollars in that parish to repair the sound system which had been in need of repair for a very long time. I thought at the time that that would be chump change for the collection taken up at OLOTA.

My guess is that your realtor visitor is right on target with his thoughts for the parish to become an office complex or residential units. I also agree that Bishop Lopes and Fr Lewis are woefully unprepared to correct the situation created by Fr Phillips and Dcn Orr. I wonder what would be on the menu in a medieval restaurant? [see below]

Finally, to the visitor who said that he called the chancery to find out if the nuns were being evicted from the diocese, he may be correct in what the chancery told him, but what they told him is not true. I personally spoke to the three nuns the night before they left OLOTA and they told me that the archbishop went behind their backs and called the motherhouse in Hanceville, AL to have them removed from the diocese. They were in tears. I believe the nuns.

Medieval Times offers a four-course utensil-free meal. According to its website,

We currently have nine Castles: Kissimmee, FL, Buena Park, CA, Schaumburg, IL., Hanover, MD., Lyndhurst, NJ, Myrtle Beach, SC, Dallas, TX, Lawrenceville, GA., and Toronto, ON. . . . We are currently building the kingdom’s 10th castle in Scottsdale, AZ which is planned to open in Summer of 2019!

I would think San Antonio, a tourist destination with many young families, would be a very good place to consider a further location.