UPDATE: A visitor sent me this link to a more complete story at the Episcopal News Service.
Although a best-case outcome would be a mirror of the 1990s Righter trial, where the panel found itself unable to find a specific violation of something or other, whether Love is saved by a hung jury, convicted, or acquitted is beside the point, and the knee-jerk conservative reaction, "tsk tsk, what are things coming to?" isn't really relevant.
The immediate beneficiary of the controversy will almost certainly be the ACNA, which has been by far the most successful Anglican realignment movement at attracting the disaffected. This in turn goes to the perennial question that comes up over Anglicanorum coetibus: what problem is it trying to solve? Clearly the start of the Anglican outreach project came in the wake of the Episcopalian general convention of 1976. Nobody can really escape the fact that the Pastoral Provision and the subsequent apostolic constitution were intended to reach out to conservative Episcopalians, who in fact have shown themselves willing to jump ship -- just not to the Catholic Church.
But why have we seen no appeals, either from Bp Lopes or the retired ordinary, Msgr Steenson, in the context of the current William Love controversy? Well, of course, it looks as though Bp Lopes will be laid up at least until May recovering from whatever he's recovering from, though one might expect Msgr Steenson to write something, speaking as an individual but someone who'd weathered the Episcopalian battles and found his personal solution to them,. perhaps in the Register, perhaps in First Things, perhaps somewhere else. Wouldn't platforms like these be happy to publish his considered views?
I think one explanation, even if Msgr Steenson had something new and illuminating to say, would be that the strategy outlined in Anglicanorum coetibus, for disgruntled parishes and even dioceses to come over in a body, was a pipe dream. The leaders like TEC Bp Iker who could bring this off with the ACNA never took the Vatican option seriously, even though the evidence we have is that it was presented to them in some concrete form. At this point, I think the CDF needs to rethink the project, which is past its sell-by date.
From an ecumenical point of view, I'm not sure how politic any such gesture would be in this context anyhow. The Episcopal Church is in the process of destroying itself and needs no assistance; any attempt to reach out to the dwindling ranks of the disgruntled would probably serve more to rally the bitter-clinger virtue signaling elites who remain there.
What would Bp Barron, the USCCB's point man for evangelization, do? I'd love to get half an hour of his time to ask him. I think the idea that an attempt at outreach at this point would be counterproductive would be among those he'd throw out. Others might be that the target market is too small, compared to the numbers of those who become dissatisfied with the solutions offered by atheism or New Age religion; or the potential of addressing Evangelicals from an intellectual perspective -- many of these are in fact intelligent, thoughtful people with serious insight into scripture.
But the dogs that aren't barking continue to be Bp Lopes and Msgr Steenson. Maybe they'd agree with the hypothetical points I might hear from Bp Barron. But in that case, both these men were nevertheless tasked with the specific mission of bringing Episcopalians into the Church, indeed even more specifically with bringing them in as full parishes and even dioceses -- after all, the ACNA succeeded at this task where so far they've failed. Where did they fail in this mission where the schismatics succeeded?
I think if Bp Barron were to produce a YouTube on Bp Love and the latest Episcopalian crisis (which I don't think he'd do, and which I don't think he should) he'd almost certainly have to insert brief prefatory remarks on how earlier Catholic attempts to attract Episcopalians didn't work, because. And there would be the rub. After all, Bp Barron isn't expecting to draw atheist parishes and dioceses, nor is he expecting the Rinzai Zen Buddhists to defect in a body.
The decision to become Catholic, I think he would go on to say, is always personal. A direct, largely rational and intellectual appeal is the one that's always worked, on a personal basis.
