Fr Phillips And The Arc Of Expectation

Last week, my regular correspondent noticed that Fr Phillips, who had been the sole marquee speaker at the somewhat forlorn November conference in Toronto to be held by the Anglicanorum Coetibus Society to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Pope Benedict's apostolic constitution, has been quietly dropped from the program. (it looks like it will mainly feature music now.)

This is important, since Fr Phillips, apparently still robust, was a key figure in the runup to the erection of the North American ordinariate. He was the main speaker at a number of meetings in both San Antonio and Hollywood, CA intended to spark interest and provide information on the forthcoming ordinariate for interested parties, and these meetings were covered in the Anglo-Catholic blogosphere at the time with intense interest. However, nearly all those Anglo-Catholic blogs have since been abandoned.

The meetings are close to home for me, since one of them took place only blocks from our home in Hollywood, at the St Mary of the Angels parish there. I didn't attend it, but we did begin coming to mass at St Mary's a few months after it took place, with the intent of actively exploring becoming Catholic with the parish. This blog has simply been the result of the experience that started then.

A visitor from Our Lady of the Atonement in San Antonio recently contacted me to give his impression of an equivalent meeting that Fr Phillips held there. I think his observations are instructive:

I am a cradle Catholic, so this meeting was very foreign to me. I was interested, but only because of my attachment to OLOTA. I had no idea what would take place. The meetings were well attended by clerics, their families and friends. Fr. Phillips would give the opening address and then other clerics would get up, give a talk, take questions and give answers.

First, the great majority of attendees were not Catholic. These were Episcopal priests and their families who were considering crossing the Tiber. I think they were sincere, but many of the questions were amusing to me. To my surprise, women asked many of the questions. I will relay here some questions that come to mind.

Some women were concerned if they came into the Catholic Church whether they would be allowed to have intimate relations with their husbands. A youngish priest at the podium answered that his wife was currently pregnant and that he planned to have many more children.

The men in attendance were more concerned about what would happen to their pensions if they came into the Catholic Church. There were many questions, such as what happens to us and our families, where would we live if we could no longer live in the homes provided by our parishes, what do we do about our children who may be in school, what about wives who have jobs and careers, what if, as clergy, we are asked to move to a different location, and what about our family members, parishioners,and friends we will lose if we come into the Catholic Church.

These are just some of the questions that were asked. There were many more topics. Before I leave this, one other topic does comes to mind and that was brought up by the wives in attendance. It appears that in many Episcopal churches, wives of clergy have a role to play. Maybe it is Bible study, luncheon get togethers, or assorted other duties. I am not sure what their roles are. So there was some concern about wives becoming invisible, being in the background, and what might happen to them.

To me what was most strange was that I never heard, not once, "I am crossing the Tiber because I believe that the Holy Roman Catholic Church is the true church of Christ," or "it was revealed to me in some way that this is what I must do." I came away with the feeling that they were all saying, "I will join your club, but first, what can you do for me? Lets talk about the ground rules." I am not naive, and I know that these earthly things matter to the common man or woman. But a priest is not a common man!

I had a similar uneasy feeling about these Protestant priests and their careers from the start. My reaction was based on pure situational awareness, that there's a great surplus of seminary graduates looking for prestigious and undemanding jobs as priests in The Episcopal Church, with the job search made even harder by the addition of women and openly gay (sometimes even transgendered) candidates into the pool. If the effect of Anglicanorum coetibus was going to be to clone The Episcopal Church as an annex to the existing job market, but with women and LGBTQIA candidates excluded, how could anyone resist it?

This brought to mind a contrasting story that came up in last night's Bible study at our parish, the two priests who ran into the burning building of St Philip Neri parish in Bronx, NY to save the Host and chalice.

In the early morning of December 4, 1912, a fire broke out in the library and meeting room located in the basement. After a passer-by rang the bell of the adjoining rectory, two priests hurriedly dressed and rushed into the church, saving the Host and Chalice at the altar, and vestments from the vestry. Firemen succeeded in saving a costly stained glass window in the rear of the church, and also managed to remove several pieces of statuary, but the altar was entirely destroyed.

It seems to me, after six years as a Catholic, that this attitude toward the Church is formed over many years, with the help and supervision of both priests and laity who come to know the candidates well. Yes, if you have a wife and family, there are issues you consider when you make a career move, but the Catholic priesthood isn't just a secular career. The problem is that from this account, Fr Phillips was addressing an audience that was toying with making a career move.

And after all, that's pretty much what Fr Phillips did himself.