I recently received good news from the Anglican Use Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, along with confirmation from the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, that a priest from the Ordinariate, Fr. Jeffery Moore, is being sent to Indiana to work with and grow the Anglican Use community our state. Additionally, and along with the assignment of Fr. Moore, the Ordinariate expressed the intention to canonically erect a community here in Indiana. (While the Ordinariate has assigned clergy to work here at Holy Rosary, officially the Anglican Use community here has always been a ministry of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis and of Holy Rosary Parish, and has never had formal canonical recognition within the Ordinariate.)What's clear is that the Archdiocese of Indianapolis is keeping something more than an arm's length distance -- maybe more like six feet of social separation -- from this project, which is probably prudent, given its experience with Fr Luke Reese, the ordinariate priest who left his assignment at Holy Rosary following his arrest for battery and kidnapping in 2018. Fool me once, shame on you, huh?Fr. Moore is currently the parochial vicar at Our Lady of the Atonement Catholic Church, a parish of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter in San Antonio, Texas. He also serves as the chaplain of the Mother of the Americas Institute, a think tank for the new evangelization. A husband and father of several children, he had been an Episcopal clergyman until converting to Catholicism in 2006. He has been a Catholic priest for 10 years. I have met with Fr. Moore and informed him of the history of the Anglican Use community here at Holy Rosary. I will continue to work with him as he seeks to establish an independent Anglican Use community as part of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. The details of his assignment and of that canonical transition are still being worked out.
While Fr. Moore is being assigned to work with the Anglican Use community in Indiana, the Archdiocese of Indianapolis has made it clear that he is not being assigned to Holy Rosary and will not be part of the staff or exercising his priestly ministry as part of Holy Rosary Parish. It seems likely that he will be working full time as a hospital chaplain or some other related ministry while celebrating the Anglican Use liturgies. Not even the official date of arrival has been set for Fr. Moore and his family. It is likely that he and they will arrive in Indianapolis sometime toward the end of June or beginning of July. We will pro- vide updates as we learn more. When the Moores do eventually arrive and you see Father or his family around Holy Rosary, please be sure to extend a warm Hoosier welcome to them.
— Fr McCarthy
Fr McCarthy's somewhat uncertain use of the term "Anglican Use" also reflects what seems to be an uncertainty in the archdiocese about what's going on more generally. My regular correspondent notes,
“[F]ormal canonical recognition” or no, St Joseph of Arimathea, Indianapolis was on the “Parish Finder” page of the OCSP website for years until Luke Reese’s departure. I note that Fr McCarthy avoids using the name St Joseph of Arimathea (forcing him to use the officially frowned-on term “Anglican Use” four times in his brief message), refers to “clergy” being assigned by the Ordinariate to work at Holy Rosary, when there was of course only Luke Reese, and ends on a strange “nobody tells me anything” note despite the fact that the official notification of new assignments by Bp Lopes specifically mentioned that Fr Moore would be doing hospital chaplaincy work and gave the date of his assignment as July 1.My correspondent discovered this account of the St Joseph of Arimathea group's reception into the Church as a community of the North American ordinriate in 2012. In fact, the archdiocese listed it as the fourth group to join the ordinriate at the time. A 2016 bulletin from Holy Rosary says, “Our parish is host to the Ordinariate’s presence in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis”.Luke Reese was employed by Holy Rosary for four years as Director of Music while attending seminary before coming on to the Holy Rosary staff full-time as a priest. Perhaps once bitten, twice shy and Fr McCarthy wishes to establish a wide(r) berth between his parish and the “Anglican Use” group.
So at this point, we don't know if the ordinariate community in Indianapolis will continue to meet at Holy Rosary, nor whether it will be reestablished under that name or under some other. It certainly isn't clear whether Fr Moore or his family will attend mass at Holy Rosary or show up there at all. But I'm sure if they do, the parish will welcome them warmly. The archdiocese, maybe with more reserve.
