And therein lies the rub. You will also get a pretty varied response if you call the Chancery of most mainline dioceses. The response to that question will vary between an unending shuffling/on hold/ someone will call you back and no one ever does, to that sort of thing doesn’t exist/isn’t tracked or all our Masses are reverent, what do you mean?I wasn't completely serious in referencing a non-existent directory of reverent OF masses yesterday, simply because parish resources (and legitimate interests) differ widely. We're actually fairly familiar with another parish in northern California as well as our own, and this serves a highly diverse community ranging from wealthy Hollywood types to gentleman vintners to farm workers. The atmosphere is completely different there, but the mass is reverent, although in a different way. So I don't know if it would even be possible to list a single "directory" of reverent masses, and I don't actually blame a chancery that finds creative ways not to answer such questions.Knowing what I know about Bp. Barron (which is only what I have gleaned from news reports, some of his own written essays and from taped presentations/online, Youtube type videos he has produced) I would guess he would say the truth will win out. He seems to be the type who will put out his message and respond if engaged but he is not out actively searching for folks to judge or pick a fight with, just to share Christ’s message.
The Michael Vorises of the world seem to have a different, more confrontational mission. Scaring or shaming folks into the Church can be an imperfect solution until they can grow into a more perfect understanding of the Church. Each has a path to round up lost sheep but I think Bp. Barron prompts people to make up their own minds to follow the Lord or they are not really exercising free will.
The people who are fixated on single file, cookie-cutter paths to Heaven and prayer are not getting the benefit of the wonderful, sometimes beautiful, sometimes obscured, mostly unfathomable complexity with which God works in the world and draws all men to Himself.
Besides, I would also guess Bp. Barron and Abp Gómez have too many fires to put out and much larger fish to fry just trying to get the USCCB on the same page, much less random bloggers, media-ites and otherwise Faithful, practicing Catholics with different opinions and a microphone.
But this does suggest to me that there ought to be reason for people to go exploring if they don't feel the mass at a nearby parish is satisfactory. The thing not to do would be suppose there's an abstract thing called an "ordinariate" that does things right, and until they can find or start an "ordinariate" evensong group or some such thing, they aren't going to look for a better parish in the diocese.
My regular correspondent adds,
The existence of a few OCSP communities with music more towards the “praise band” end of things, one of them the large (by Ordinariate standards) full parish of Christ the King, Towson, suggests that a directory of “capable music programs” in a diocese would be not as straightforward as a directory of EF liturgies. Of course Christ the King’s “Anglican” credentials were never robust to begin with, but that’s another issue. The point is that if one were searching for a Mass with liturgy and music of high quality and traditional style, one could not assume that it could be found at a local Ordinariate community, not just because it might be worshipping in a cafetorium or other space with no organ, or because it might not have enough competent singers to form a choir, or anyone to lead them, or some other logistical reason. They might just prefer something else. The composer of “Shine, Jesus, Shine” is CofE, after all.UPDATE: A visitor points out that the Anglo-Catholic English Church Union published Travellers' Directories and Church Guides for Tourists, listing good masses with acceptable music and so forth, for many years, for example here.
UPDATE; My regular correspondent reports,
The Church Travellers’ Directory and its antecedents directed Catholic-minded Anglicans to parishes with Daily/Sunday Mass, scheduled Confessions, etc. It made no claims for the quality of the liturgy or the music. Indeed, it pointed out that “[a] change in the manner of the presentation of the Holy Mysteries may be no bad thing for any of us, when away from our accustomed altars...” “The information is intended to be factual, and must not be taken to imply any particular churchmanship. . .”So this would be very similar to what we have in masstimes.org.
