I predict that Bp Lopes will not be able to deliver a very optimistic State of the Union, if that is what is on offer. He hasn’t been left a lot of time to come up with anything more substantive. Previous to the Presentation, Montgomery start-up—-not really a triumph of evangelism—the latest OCSP communities to be formed were Holy Martyrs, Murrieta in 2017 —- another poach job —- and St Aelred, Athens, GA, a small gathered community supporting the ordination of Gregory Tipton the same year.It's possible to get a sense that Houston has been trying a new business model, with gathered groups proving unproductive. Instead, they seem to be looking for angels who'll fund bigger startup packages for groups of cradle Catholics who for whatever reason (though they probably include not wanting Latin, Filipino, Vietnamese, or Other clergy and fellow parishioners) prefer not to be in a local diocese. The secret is to find someone with deep pockets who doesn't get along with the bishop, it would seem -- not necessarily a recipe that can be widely duplicated.In 2016 two other small communities, also apparently gathered to justify the ordinations of local men, were created, one in Orlando and one in Louisville. Meanwhile, in that same time seven communities have closed, in Boerne,TX; Pinecrest, FL; St Louis Pk, MN; Indianapolis, IN; Savannah, GA; Corpus Christi, TX, and Greenville, SC. It appears that the “quarterly” Ordinariate Observer will be a semi-annual publication again this year. Nothing to see here, folks—-literally.
But since Bp Lopes is unlikely to go on record being honest about this sort of thing, he'll just deliver bromides. The audience, I suspect, will be chiefly Mrs Gyapong and a contingent of Bp Lopes's yes-clergy. My regular correspondent raises another question:
Fr Phillips remains a hero to a certain contingent in the Ordinariate blogosphere, despite the fairly conclusive evidence that he entered the OCSP just ahead of a diocesan posse and even then was only accepted on condition that he relinquish leadership of the parish. Efforts to clean up his messes are ongoing and may be too little too late—-in any event, a major drain on the Ordinariate’s limited resources.That the Plan B hero should be Fr Barker is, if anything, more difficult to understand. He began the Episcopalian pseudo-migration to the Catholic Church by unilaterally taking his TEC parish, St Mary of the Angels Hollywood, out of TEC with absolutely no plan for how it would ever become Catholic -- and in any event, that hotheaded move resulted in seven years of wasteful and extravagant litigation. The parish in the wake of the departure was bitterly divided into multiple factions.Yet some still regard him as a shining star, including Mrs G, a woman who has never accepted the fact that John Hepworth sold TAC a bill of goods and has not himself reconciled with the Church despite the fact that he apparently has no congregation, let alone a see that needs him in a clerical role.
Apparently some people need stars and heroes. I think that for the most part such people (the stars) have deep flaws, which their adoring fans make it difficult for them to confront honestly. I am sure that Fr Phillips was told in no uncertain terms not to leave the doghouse, and had to reluctantly withdraw his acceptance of the AC Society’s invitation. But they should never have offered it.
But predictably, his track record and that of the parish were completely unacceptable to two successive Archbishops of Los Angeles, and the parish never went in, while Barker himself could apparently be ordained only by leaving the area, and probably only through the repeated good offices of Cardinal Law.
The St Mary of the Angels parish he left behind has continued (and continues to the present) to be little more than a full-employment program for litigation attorneys. The trail of destruction Fr Barker began in Hollywood alone has had legal costs totaling in the high eight figures over a more than 40-year period -- the St Mary's dissidents' attorneys issue subpoenas across the US as I write this now.
Although Fr Barker continues to promise a book or books, I can't imagine that he'll have anything to say in Toronto beyond the very sketchy account he's already published of his role in the St Mary of the Angels saga. I suspect there will be little insight and no remorse for the rash judgment and recklessness that characterized that decades-long phase of his career.
But he's a hero. Except that heroes have fruits. Do men. gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? No heroes produced the very iffy parish now on Finley Avenue in Hollywood, or for that matter the very iffy movement of which he's become the only available grand old man.
UPDATE: My regular correspondent comments,
At least Fr Phillips would have been a draw, however misguided one may consider his fans to be. I don’t think anyone actually perceives Fr Barker as a hero. I think he was a very distant second choice, and with next to no one having registered for the conference (liturgies are obviously free and open to all) Bp Lopes was persuaded at the last minute to add his own name to the marquee.
