What Problem Is The Toronto Conference Trying To Solve?

I'm hearing that attendance at the Toronto conference coming up in two weeks is so far proving a disappointment. My regular correspondent comments,

Mrs Gyapong has posted that there will be attendees from California (Fr Barker), Pennsylvania (Fr Bergman, an Anglicanorum Coetibus Society board member), and New York (possibly Peter Jesserer Smith and others from St Alban, Rochester). No doubt there will be a contingent from Ottawa, and from Toronto, of course. But most of Bp Lopes’ clergy have just spent several days with him at this month’s conference in Mundelein. An expensive flight/stay in Hogtown in mid-November would be an act of supererogation, I think.

Another visitor commented,

The idea of having a conference of this type in Toronto was misguided. No wonder it isn't a bigger draw. There are people on the Ordinariate message boards and Facebook groups, who might like to go and I have seen some comments reflecting this. But Americans just don't cross the boarder often.

The event should have been in DC, Baltimore, or maybe Houston. Putting it up there is like the tail wagging the dog, or perhaps given everything we have seen: the inmates are running the asylum.

Baltimore is an important city for Anglicans and Catholics. It has the St. Seton stuff and all sorts of things, including Mt. Calvary Church. Baltimore and the Chesapeake Bay are lovely in Fall, but Toronto will already be cold and rainy.

My regular correspondent added,

Christopher Mahon, who is organising the musical offerings, probably pushed for Toronto. The choir will feature many members of his extended family—-not a possibility if the conference had been held in, say, Omaha.

It's hard to avoid the impression that attracting the largest possible audience wasn't a priority. Instead, it looks like the point was to enhance the self-esteem of a small group of people, who see the ordinariate primarily as a boutique enterprise that caters to their individual insecurities.

I'm not sure if I disagree, to tell the truth. I'm not here to say the ordinariate shouldn't be that, I'm just saying some of these people need to get a life, and that would include the prayer, sacramental, and fellowship life of the Catholic Church.