I heard that there was an announcement by Fr. Lewis in mid January welcoming a new policy by the Archbishop of San Antonio for those seeking the Sacrament of Holy Communion or Confirmation. The new policy allows a member of the archdiocese to receive the sacrament from Bishop Lopes. All that is required is that a letter be sent to the recipient's pastor, which it said is standard procedure under Canon Law.At a much farther remove, I tend to see this somewhat differently. We simply don't know exactly what the timeline was that caused Abp Gustavo to remove Fr Phillips when he did, nor what led Fr Phillips to reverse course on the ordinariate, when he'd previously chosen to stay out. Keep in mind that there was a history of complaints about Dcn Orr that Fr Phillips did not pass on to the archdiocese as he was required to do. I don't think there was an automatic post hoc propter hoc here; things could have been the other way around.If you will recall, the Archbishop disallowed members of the archdiocese from receiving sacraments of initiation at Our Lady of the Atonement. Word was he was angry over losing the parish and/or angry that Fr. Phillips was not removed. This will of course make it easier for parents with children in the school, and I have to say that children should not be made to suffer for petty squabbles in one holy Catholic Church.
Some have suggested that this change in relations is directly related to the restriction of Fr. Phillips which was announced in December. The announcement of his restriction was made a week before he turned 70, the normal retirement age for priests in the Ordinariate. This speaks to the symbolic nature of the move. Disallowing Fr. Phillips from the premises would have been perceived by the parishioners as extreme on the heels of bringing the parish into the Ordinariate.
But after almost three years of slowly easing him out, slowly bleeding off the hard core, finally removing him came not with a bang but with a whimper. Did Bp. Lopes fail the parishioners in this regard? Yes, but as a non casual observer of these events, one has to say that the Archdiocese was also complicit in keeping parishioners in the dark about matters that should have concerned them.
Removing a pastor only when it appears that the parish would leave the Bishop's jurisdiction showed this observer that so many of the problems in the Catholic Church emanate from the preservation of power. Sad to say, what the hierarchy chooses to say, and when they choose to say it, appears to be ruled not by the best interest of the laity.
The visitor continues,
There is something more. As you have reported, upon discontinuing the popular Latin Mass at Our Lady of the Atonement, parishioners were left with the choice of attending the TLM at St. Pius on the north side of San Antonio. Looking at their bulletin's message from Fr. Pat, the Archbishop has ceased the Latin Mass in at St. Pius in this announcement. The reasoning given is dubious, talking about Fr. Juan Carlos not having to drive so far anymore to say the Mass.It seems to me that Our Lady of the Atonement grew over the decades within the context of the archdiocese as a provider of boutique services, a particular kind of school, the Anglican style mass, and the OF Latin mass. As far as I can see, Abp Gustavo was happy enough with this.It begs the question as to why the Pastor, Fr. Pat, could not attempt the Latin Mass, but that is not revealed. As usual, the laity are expected to be content with explanations that are devoid of basic logic. His notes did say that Archbishop Gustavo has moved the Latin Mass to St. TImothy's. I looked up their website from the archdiocese directory and went there to see what was said about it and learn about the place. Unfortunately, the established parish doesn't even have a website. A google-Map drive by reveals a run down parish in the west side of downtown San Antonio, where, judging from the gating around the church, crime is obviously an issue. Obviously the Archbishop is not concerned with the north-side parishioners having to drive far.
And so there it is. This question of tradition, and desire of the laity for reverence in worship needs to be examined if one is to properly understand the reason for the rise in popularity of Our Lady of the Atonement, the makeup of the parishioners, and how over the course of the tenure of the last three Archbishops of San Antonio (save only Gomez's brief time), the Archdiocese consistently has not promoted any sort of orthodoxy, or given it fertile ground to grow roots and establish.
However, it's emerged that the problems with Dcn Orr were not being reported to the archdiocese, which would have been perfectly proper grounds for removing Fr Phillips, and it's hard to avoid thinking this was the actual reason, although the archdiocese was not going to publish this until it was forced to, a couple of years later.
As of the time he removed Fr Phillips, Abp Gustavo seems to have had every intention to continue the parish as a boutique operation within the archdiocese, although he did see the need to place a trusted confidant, Msgr Kurzaj, in charge, which given the problems that have emerged in subsequent years was understandable.
But if the parish was providing a Latin mass for the archdiocese, but the collections from the mass or pledges from members who attended primarily for the Latin mass were no longer going to the archdiocese, I think Abp Gustavo was fully justified in asking that the parish and Bp Lopes recognize the change in its role. I think Abp Gustavo would also be entitled, simply as a bishop, to expect that another bishop deal with Fr Phillips as would be expected of any other bishop given the same circumstance. Fr Phillips, after all, covered up for an abuser, pure and simple.
One issue that Fr Z keeps pointing out to people who want more Latin masses is money. If groups want a Latin mass, they need to pay for it. I don't know if we have enough information on the situation at the St Pius parish to gauge exactly why the Latin mass has been moved elsewhere. I will say, though, that in the case of our parish, which is prosperous and successful, we lost a very good associate when the archdiocese was faced with a sudden unplanned vacancy at another parish.
The shortage of priests meant we had to get through advent and Christmas down one priest, which led to curtailment of some mass and confession times. But given the importance of the parish, the archdiocese went above and beyond to bring in a temporary replacement from the Diocese of Gallup, NM.
Money talks. I betcha Abp Gustavo speaks that language, too.
