As A Good Aristotelian, I Look For Causes

My regular correspondent reminded me that 90,000 people a year in the US go to the ER with injuries sustained in falling from a ladder. I won't disagree, but I assume an equivalent statistic is zero Roman Catholic bishops in the US go to the ER with injuries sustained in falling from a ladder. Except for 2020, when the number will be at least one.

Now, I have no good single explanation, although the consensus among the few visitors who've weighed in seems to be that Bp Lopes was under some sort of pressure that affected his concentration at the very least. My sense of such calamities is that they don't just happen, they come in some sort of context.

My regular correspondent found an odd piece to add to the puzzle:

I note that Bp Lopes was supposed to officiate at a Confirmation at a diocesan church on February 22. Maybe it was too much to face.

Bp Lopes's fall took place, I believe, on February 21, the Friday before the confirmations were to happen.

I simply don't know enough about etiquette among bishops here. I assume that confirmations are a second-level priority that are normally handled by auxiliary bishops, or indeed other clergy to whom bishops delegate the function. In The Episcopal Church, retired bishops also perform confirmations.

I would guess that it would be extremely uncommon, and perhaps a gaffe, for a diocesan bishop in one geographical territory to ask a diocesan bishop in another to perform routine school confirmations -- an exception might be a situation where a foreign bishop's relative was involved, or perhaps that bishop actually went to the school.

However, it's hard to avoid wondering if the request was made to Bp Lopes because the auxiliaries in the Archdiocese of Houston were too busy, and Bp Lopes, with time on his hands, was being asked to pitch in.

It may or may not be relevant that Bp Lopes and his staff are increasingly referring to the ordinariate as a "diocese". Perhaps this was a reminder that Bp Lopes is a pretty junior guy, and if an archbishop requests a favor, he'd better comply.

I also wonder if that bizarrely campy letter from "J Henry" that usurps the function of the vicar general and reiterates that all issues for the bishop are to go through him is just a vignette of life in the ordinariate chancery. Perhaps other vignettes of life around Bp Lopes have come to his brother bishops' attention, and pressure is being applied from that direction.

If anyone has insights into how things operate with bishops not terribly busy being asked to do school confirmations, I'll be very interested to hear them.