Houston, Indianapolis, And The Problem Of Incompetence

Houston has had a flurry of clergy reassignments that correspond at least chronologically with the reassignments dioceses make in the real world in reaction to the summer's ordinations. (However, Houston didn't announce these; I did.) For some weeks I began to think this might reflect Bp Lopes's recovery from indisposition and a renewed interest in actually leading his little ordinariate on to greater things. Now I'm less sure.

It seems to me that what we've been seeing for some months now in the world at large stemming first from a "pandemic" that somehow didn't lead to mass graves or people falling dead in the streets, but has now been superseded by riots and looting. All of this represents a serious crisis of leadership elites that's been raging unabated -- the urgent remedies to the crises proposed by said elites include liturgical reforms, such as strictly limiting singing in church, and now in the UK an official ban on fornication:

Under amendments introduced to English rules on Monday, no person may participate in a gathering which takes place in a public or private place indoors and consists of two or more persons. Britain's tabloid media cast it as a "bonking ban".

"What this is about is making sure we don't have people staying away from home at night," British junior housing minister Simon Clarke told LBC radio when questioned about the ban.

In the US. social distancing rules apply unless you're rioting and looting, in which case there's actually something of a religious exemption:

But this is a long way of saying that pervasive crises reflect themselves across all of society. Just because the North American ordinariate is small doesn't exempt it from the crisis of competence that affects mayors and governors across the US. And this brings me to the question, "What problem is Bp Lopes trying to solve by sending Fr Moore to Indianapolis?"

This is a problem that, judging from the subtext of Fr McCarthy's announcement in Sunday's bulletin at Holy Rosary that I quoted yesterday, has him stumped as well. My regular correspondent asked something similar:

I doubt that the St Joseph of Arimathea group has grown much since Luke Reese’s departure—-possibly it has shrunk, given that there is no community leadership or activity outside of the Sunday 8 am DW mass at Holy Rosary. So they will need to hold mass in rented or borrowed facilities, presumably those owned by the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.

It may or may not even be a continuation of the DW mass at Holy Rosary, since Fr Moore will have no connection with that parish and will be in hospital chaplain work. So let me try to get this straight:

• Fr Moore has been taken out of parish work at Our Lady of the Atonement
• He will not be in parish work with the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, he will be a hospital chaplain
• His only parish ministry will be to a dozen or so ordinariate members there
• But although it is generally recognized that the ordinariate charism is liturgical, they will have no more than the most provisional resources for liturgy.

And the record of such startup, or restart, groups has been abysmal -- and there's no indication that Fr Moore has any particular talent in that direction, any more than the other married Protestants who've been forced to leave their old job markets for ordinariate careers.

So what problem is Bp Lopes trying to solve by moving Fr Moore to Indianapolis, where he won't have any supervision?

Last week I linked to Fr Simington's farewell letter to the St Alban's parish in Rochester, NY, where he seems to be deeply puzzled at a similar question: what problem is Bp Lopes trying to solve by moving him to Irvine?

It's hard to avoid thinking the purposes of the Almighty are bringing about a crisis of competence in many areas of contemporary life, and His Church is not exempt.