Let's Take A Closer Look At Fr Mark Lewis

In a prior post, before one of his parishioners caught COVID-19, likely from conditions at the Our Lady of the Atonement parish, during mass there when Fr Lewis continued to hold it against ordinariate guidance, diocesan policy, and civil guidelines, I recommended that Fr Lewis have someone take down his letter to the parish of March 12 from the OLA Facebook page. After all, its contents were embarrassing, and it had been overtaken by events. Well, it's still up on Facebook, but at least he doesn't have his letter to the parish from March 19 up, in which he informs them that the parishioner caught the virus, but that one got to the media anyhow.

So for the record, here's the full letter from March 12 (click on the images for a larger copy):

Several parishioners over the past week have noted the remarks in the bullet points halfway down the page:

Should you feel the need:

• Hand sanitizers will be placed in the narthex. Please feel free to use them.
• Our facilities are thoroughly cleaned/sanitized on a daily basis. If you have concerns about a clean/sanitized facility, I invite you to come on Saturdays at 10:30 am to sanitize the church and restrooms. Please purchase Clorox wipes and bring them with you. . . .
• The most commonly heard concern is about contracting the virus via the reception of Holy Communion. There will be no changes in the way the Body and Blood of Our Lord is distributed.

I can't help but think of the title an editor put on an episode of a recent true crime show -- maybe he'd been reading too many pulp detective stories -- "My Way or the Dead Way". That's kind of the message Fr Lewis is sending us in this letter. With a sneer that he doesn't even bother to conceal, he accuses those who've urged more prudent counsel -- and it's clear from his remarks that some have done this -- of false delicacy.

I would suggest that the people who felt uncomfortable enough with Fr Lewis's course to bring it up with him can't have been given a clearer message that OLA is not their parish. Fr Lewis strikes me as a distinctly unpleasant man -- why would I want anything to do with him?

But this goes to the overall problem Anglicanorum coetibus has given the Church: Fr Lewis is the best it's been able to recruit from the ranks of Protestant clergy, although I know a number of Protestant pastors who are far more tactful, and indeed just pastoral, than Fr Lewis is here. Given he was sent to one of the most prestigious parishes in the ordinariate to replace Fr Phillips, he must be close to the best of the bunch.

My regular correspondent has looked at his background to the extent information can be found on line. The most prominent detail is that he attended seminary -- Nashotah House -- only at age 40, which makes him a delayed vocation. I recall observations made of Episcopal clergy from decades ago that so many discerned vocations later in life, after they'd tried other fields that didn't work out for them. The problem was, in these observations, that the Episcopalian priesthood carried no guarantee that that field would work out any better than the others.

It looks as though, for not a few ordinariate priests, that Episcopal careers didn't work out, either, and the ordinariate was a last step before going into fast food work.

My regular correspondent outlines his bio:

My research has not yet turned up what he did between graduating from Mt St Mary’s University, presumably at the usual age, and attending Nashotah House at 40. He was ordained for the former TEC diocese of Quincy, a rather troubled spot, and then served as the curate of a small church in Whitehall, PA for about five years before becoming rector of the small parish of St Luke, Bladensburg in 2006. As we have discussed, whatever his pastoral gifts, his stewardship of the parish left something to be desired, as we read here.

Msgr Steenson apparently thought highly enough of him to make him vicar forane of the non-existent Eastern Deanery of the OCSP, but St Luke’s seems to have had a challenging time even after its move to Immaculate Conception, DC; as you can see here on page 3. The arrangement whereby the parish would be combined with a diocesan parish under the leadership of the Ordinariate pastor was already being considered. Certainly taking over OLA was a major step up from anything Fr Lewis had previously been responsible for, at least as a clergyman. The talent pool in the OCSP is very shallow.

And that's the dilemma. Fr Lewis is among the best Bp Lopes has to choose from, and although a pastor or rector who'd embarrassed the parish and the bishop so badly might be fired by the vestry or removed by the bishop in a well-functioning TEC or Catholic diocese, his replacement in the ordinariate would simply be even more disastrous.

Ordinariate members need to back off, reassess, and recalibrate. As observers are beginning to note about our current crisis, many things are likely not to be the same.