My Inner Detective Keeps Tugging At My Sleeve

As it inevitably would, a copy has reached me of the only announcement of any sort that we've had from Houston on Bp Lopes's broken leg and the status of his recovery. I believe it was issued a week ago Monday, February 24, and so far, there's been no followup. (click on the image for a larger copy):

My inner detective keeps wanting me to come down to the station and clear up a few things, so to speak:

• How does a Roman Catholic bishop fall off an attic ladder, especially when he has people to carry things up to the attic for him?
• What became of the promise in the February 24 note from his secretary that he will in "his own words" "send you a note later this week"?
• Why has there been no more official or more general notice to the members of the ordinariate and other interested people? There are hundreds of members who don't attend ordinariate masses and would not hear of the accident during announcements.
• What does the secretary mean when he tells the bishop, "You will recover once, and you will recover well"? Does the bishop intend to go snowboarding over spring break, or what? Most people in their 40s with a broken leg do in fact recover once. Why the apparently supererogatory admonition?
• Bp Lopes has a staff, including a vicar general, who are at least theoretically capable of drafting a communication from the bishop to his flock for his signature, regardless of the bishop's medical condition. Why hasn't some upbeat message been drafted on the status of his recovery, thanking everyone for their cards and prayers?

Instead, it seems as though nobody's in charge and the bishop is being held incommunicado in an undisclosed location. On one hand, I'm not a doctor, and we know very little about his condition, except that it's a fracture of both the tibia and fibula that will require additional surgery, apparently next week. This would place it in the serious category, and this could in fact require four to six weeks recovery, but beyond the semi-official basics, themselves apparently not for general release, we've been told nothing.

I can think of several possible hypotheses that could answer the puzzling questions my inner detective keeps pestering me about.

One might involve an additional condition, not disclosed, that would require special care, especially if the patient had to be admonished to recover just once.

Another might be other deliberations taking place on the overall status of the ordinariate or its leadership, possibly precipitated by the bishop's fall or any underlying issue that may have led to the bishop's fall.

The somewhat campy, entre-nous tone of the secretary's letter, with no other, more official communication from Houston on the bishop's status, simply reinforces a sense that things are going on that are known only to a small inner clique. Or maybe it's just my inner detective going overboard.

UPDATE: As far as I've been told, some ordinariate priests have announced the bishop's accident at mass, though apparently not all have. If the bishop had been scheduled to visit in upcoming weeks, quiet announcements are made of cancellation in parish bulletins or Facebook pages, such as this one at St Luke's suburban Maryland:

• Keep Bishop Lopes in your prayers.

  He fell and broke his leg rather badly. So he will be unable to make his visitation this Sunday. Confirmations will be re-scheduled after April. Please watch the bulletins and emails for further details.

Why is this being kept so seemingly quiet?