Fr Phillips And The Nuns

The Our Lady of the Atonement insider continues his account with new information on the order of nuns that at one time lived at the parish. While this is only tangential to the main focus of this blog, Anglicanorum coetibus, it's more pertinent to the Pastoral Provision, and I think it's important to counteract the rosy picture of the Pastoral Provision that's been put out in the now largely defunct Anglo-Catholic blogosphere.

Remember the small house that I spoke about in the first installment? There is a further story connected with this house. There was a young lady at OLOTA who became a nun in Mother Angelica's Franciscan order in Leeds/Hanceville Alabama. Mother Angelica started the worldwide EWTN television network. You may know that your Cardinal Mahony of LA tried to get her shut down, but Pope John Paul ll would have none of it and Mahony was rebuffed.

Well, this young nun was instrumental in getting a contingent of Mother Angelica's nuns sent to San Antonio to start a new foundation. Archbishop Gomez, presently Archbishop of Los Angles, who was Archbishop of San Antonio at the time, welcomed the nuns (about six) and installed them in the house belonging to OLOTA as their convent. Hanceville paid for all of the renovations to the house, including building a chapel for the nuns which is now named St. Joseph house.

The nuns struggled for a time, but were able to make inroads on Catholic radio in San Antonio and finally a large parcel of land in the hill country was donated to them for a monastery. When all of this present Ordinariate trouble started at OLOTA, Archbishop Garcia-Siller was so angry he called the Mother superior of the order in Hanceville, Alabama and ordered the nuns out of the diocese. They were given two days to move out. Garcia-Siller didn't even have the decency to summon the nuns and tell them. He went behind their backs. Our Archbishop is a mean vindictive person. It was terrible; the nuns were in tears.

The name of the nun who previously was a parishioner at OLOTA is Sister Elizabeth Marie of Our Lady of the Atonement (Her official name). When she took her final vows, I placed a picture of her under the statue OLOTA in our church. That was many years ago, I think it is still there. These nuns are now back at the mother house in Hanceville, AL.

I do not know what became of the property that was donated to them. What is interesting here is that the nuns had nothing to do with the Ordinariate. They were Roman Catholic Franciscan Nuns. Only one of the nuns was previously a parishioner at OLOTA and that was the reason Archbishop Gomez let them use S. Joseph House. This house is now occupied by the Parochial Vicar of OLOTA, Fr Moore and his family.

I'v got to say that although I'm in a small minority, I think Cardinal Mahony has had a bad rap. I say this simply because I've become more familiar with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles as I've become more Catholic, and in particular, I've gotten to know middle-aged priests who came from the St John's Seminary in Camarillo and rose in their careers under Mahony. If the system then was as corrupt as his critics want to make out, these men would not have been ordained and certainly would not have had productive careers. You don't get figs from thistles.

All I can think is there must be more to the story about Mahony and Mother Angelica. I suspect that if I were to gain the trust of some of the priests in residence at our parish, they might provide a broader perspective, but I would also guess that there are many issues that simply don't reach the laity under any circumstances.

The visitor continues,

OLOTA would not exist today, as we know it, without the unbelievable generosity of the Dolan family. This family owned a very large construction company. In fact Mr Dolan's company built most of OLOTA. The family donated large amounts of money to the parish. In fact, Mrs Dolan was the only person to ever have her own office in the office complex at OLOTA. This office later became Dcn Orr's office.

As a matter of fact not long after the nuns arrived in San Antonio, Mr Dolan took them on his corporate jet to his home back east to meet possible donors for their foundation. When the recent new expansion of the school and grounds was taking place, I noticed that Mr Dolan's company was not given the job.

I asked Fr Phillips about this and he told me that one day Mr Dolan came to his office, opened the door, threw his keys on Fr Phillips's desk, said that he had enough of Fr. Phillips and this place, turned around and left. Fr Phillips said that he did not know what precipitated this outburst. Fr Phillips told me that was the reason for the change in construction companies. I know there must be a lot more to this story, but as of now that's all I know.

UPDATE: Another OLA parishioner says,

The new construction was given to Fr. Phillips’s son to oversee. He was not the general contractor, but had some other role.