I'm not a Mahony groupie, but I do think he's gotten a bad rap because of the tiff with M. Angelica. Many, many years ago when Mahony issued "Gather Faithfully Together" to bring the liturgical practices in the archdiocese into unity, many people were upset. (Of course, as bishop of the diocese, he is the head liturgist & has the right & responsibility to create liturgical uniformity throughout his diocese.) M. Angelica used one of her Mother Angelica Live broadcasts to encourage people to disobey him. I wasn't happy with most of the "changes" but felt that M. Angelica crossed the line when she encouraged dissent. (I'm not sure Mahony tried to 'shut her down', but he wasn't the only bishop unhappy with her comments.)Just to reiterate, this blog takes no position on Opus Dei, although insofar as it's tangentially involved in issues like Anglicanorum coetibus or the Pastoral Provision, I cover it. (Should some new issue surface regarding Opus Dei that's of general interest, I'll cover that, too.) But I'm drawn to Bp Barron's recent summary of Newman's thought, where he says that we don't make day-to-day decisions based on Thomistic logic, but by a range of impressions. Just about my only real exposure to Opus Dei was watching the late Msgr William Stetson, a pioneering Opus Dei figure, actively bungle the admission of the St Mary of the Angels parish into the North American ordinariate.I'm sure you think I'm a little bit crazy, but I think the connection between Gomez & EWTN could be investigated & might show OD fingerprints all around it. While Gomez was in San Antonio, Maciel Marcel of the Legionaries of Christ was told to live a life of prayer & penance by Benedict. The Legion was very involved with EWTN & National Catholic Register & I think that OD made a deal with the Legion to take control. (The Legion was probably in dire need of money as many dropped donating to the Legion in the wake of the Maciel scandal.) It's interesting that the nuns who had no connection to the [Pastoral Provision or] Ordinariate were invited to that parish. Why not another parish? Or why not get a teaching order to come & help with the school?
Another reason the Garcia-Siller might have given the nuns their eviction papers is that some strange things started happening in Hanceville. If you read Arroyo's last book about M. Angelica, he alludes to some trouble in the monastery that required Rome's intervention. (By the way, Arroyo is involved with OD as a supernumerary. So all his broadcasts lambasting Francis must have the approval of some higher-ups in OD or his OD spiritual director is turning a blind eye to Arroyo's many uncharitable innuendos on Papal Posse. Robert Royal is also OD-involved but I'm not sure to what degree.)
These are just a few observations brought on by your posting today. It's all so very interesting. Keep us posted!
By the same token, all I can say about Cardinal Mahony is that one of the most successful parishes in his archdiocese kept its communion rail, established a 24-hour adoration chapel, and installed a new organ during his tenure. It's had a succession of very capable, and I would guess very holy, pastors. It has a reverent OF mass with no dancing around the altar. You don't get figs from thistles, whatever position Mother Angelica may take.
Regarding the Phillips story, my regular correspondent commented,
What a depressing saga. Church leaders battling over power and money, with some sexual misconduct on the side. No good guy here. What edifying point can you make?I think a major theme that comes out in the Phillips story is that there are con artists in the Church (a problem that goes back to Simon Magus, who saw great opportunities) who operate by duping marks into believing there's a formula for being extra-holy, whether it's liturgy, a separate prelature, or just going into a special group of people-like-us. It seems pretty clear that Fr Phillips was out to enrich himself and his family with one version of that formula. But the controversies of Jesus of Nazareth with the Pharisees provide plenty of evidence that that's not a productive path.
What we see elsewhere in the North American ordinariate suggests that so far, the only mild successes among any parishes involve some version of the Phillips formula, setting up a way for a splinter group that doesn't like its bishop to become extra-holy with chapel veils and home school co-ops, no knowledge of Latin required. Yet if you take Fr Phillips out of his own domain, the place totters on the brink of financial disaster. The same applies to most of the parishes that haven't used the Philips formula.
