This mission of STM, Scranton has been celebrating a biweekly Mass at Sacred Heart, Bath since 2014. It appears to have been an anchor group for Fr Richard Rojas, a former Army chaplain who was ordained for the OCSP and lived with his family on the STM property for about a year before being incardinated in the local diocese, as you reported on August 11, 2018. Fr Bergman has been celebrating Mass for them since Fr Rojas’ departure. Sacred Heart has a new pastor and SJHN, Bath has become homeless. Mass will be held at members’ homes for the foreseeable future, as we read here. Another instance where dependance on the kindness of (diocesan) strangers continues to be necessary for the OCSP.The Sacred Heart parish that had hosted the group is in the Diocese of Allentown. My understanding is that in general, the authorization to use a parish facility by an outside group is the pastor's call, although I've got to assume that in a matter that would affect another bishop, the Bishop of Allentown would be aware of it. It appears that either Bp Lopes felt this wasn't a hill worth dying on, or he appealed it and wasn't successful.
This reinforces the problem that more than half of ordinariate communities neither own nor control their venues, and this is a major factor, though not the only one, in their instability. We see them losing diocesan venues at a rate recently of about one a year. The previous one was the Newman group in Victoria, BC, which had its time slot replaced with a Portuguese mass.
Clearly a pastor who sees a better use for a Sunday afternoon or evening time slot would be one clear factor in a group losing its venue, and naturally, if a pastor sees only a dozen showing up for an ordinariate mass, he's going to view alternatives very favorably. I get the impression there are other factors as well, with Bp Barnes of San Bernardino apparently uncomfortable with the idea of using diocesan facilities for ordinariate groups.
The same, I've got to conclude, must be the case in the Archdiocese of Boston, because however one may quibble with exactly when Bp Uglietto first redirected the Stoneham group's request to use a diocesan facility, its renewed request from Christmas 2019 hasn't been answered, and the prior de facto disapproval remains. Again, either attempted interventions by Houston have been unsuccessful, or Houston has thought them not worthwhile.
Reasons for possible diocesan discomfort with hosting ordinariate activities might also include a bishop's unwillingness to accommodate married priests and their families in rectories, or simple opposition to married priests. One example appears to be the Diocese of Rochester, which was willing to accommodate a celibate ordinariate priest formed in a Catholic seminary but somehow couldn't find an appropriate opportunity for any other flavor.
But if you give it some thought, the slipshod evaluation process for candidates in Houston would mean that as a practical matter, any conscientious bishop would have to spend major time and effort redoing a job he couldn't be confident Houston had done, tasking his own vocation director and vicar for clergy with work Houston never did.
The records of ordinariate clergy haven't been exemplary, and situations like Fr Kenyon, whose time in the Diocese of Shrewsbury, UK created more work than it relieved, probably haven't gone unnoticed.
Another issue, it seems to be, is that ordinariate laity appear to be squirrely, disgruntled, and narcissistic. Peter Smith, a highly visible ordinariate layman, seems to rate a sense that he's "empowered" in the ordinariate more than in a diocesan parish as important. A visitor suggested:
I have to think that the reason one might feel empowered is because the groups are so small. Suppose for instance, the Sarum Use is your hotbutton topic, and you think that will solve all the problems in reuniting the Church of England to the Catholic Church. When the Bishop comes to visit, there is a 1 in 20 chance that you might actually have a word with him that lasts longer than a handshake when leaving Mass.Other factors, like the posts at the Anglicanorum Coetibus Society blog, could give a bishop or pastor the impression that ordinariate laity are poorly formed, focused on being "Anglican", and unwilling to mix with a diocesan parish.
It would be interesting to pose a question about this to Bp Lopes in a hypothetical town hall. Would he simply respond with his usual happy talk about how this isn't a problem, and he has a Sunday attendance of 20,000?
It might help the case of Bp Lopes worked to gt his flock to drop the narcissistic disgruntlement, accept that they're Catholic, and explain that the assurance we have is that many, many people are in the procession of the saints. Heaven isn't an exclusive club.
