If I remember correctly, the Altar that is in the Lady chapel that is going to be moved to the high Altar at OLOTA came out of a convent in San Antonio and was going to be destroyed. Fr. Phillips learned of this and was able to save it and have it renovated to be used in the Lady chapel. If you will recall in a past e-mail to you, I recounted how I put a picture of one of the nuns, Sister Elizabeth Marie of Our Lady of the Atonement under the statue. She was a parishioner at OLOTA who became one of Mother Angelica's nuns in Alabama. She was also instrumental in getting a new foundation of Franciscans nuns started in the San Antonio area. As we know this didn't work out too well for the nuns. All part of Fr. Phillips' shenanigans.Fr Phillips had a remarkable ability to get favorable coverage in Anglo-Papalist social media by playing the angle that every bishop, Catholic or Episcopalian, was a cowardly sellout, and he was the only brave guy out there. At the same time, he seems to have been able to run the parish finances with smoke and mirrors, and he kept order there via an efficient political police operation. The question is whether it can survive using a different formula.Over the years I have heard it many times at OLOTA that the Christ image in the Triptych on the high altar was an image of a young Fr. Phillips. Whether this is true or not, or whether this was intentional or not, I do not know. Only Fr. Phillips can answer this question.
It appears that Fr. Lewis is cleaning house. He is getting rid of all remnants of Fr. Phillips. It must be an agony to him that he lives right next door to Fr. Phillips in Dn. Orr's house. Just about everyone connected to Fr. Phillips has been replaced including all of the parish staff in the parish. With Fr. Moore and his family leaving this week the only person left is Dn D' Agostino, a long time deacon, who I suspect will not be around much longer.
One has to wonder where all of this will end. As I understand it the parish is losing parishioners, donations are down and one had to wonder about school enrollment, not to mention the unfinished construction on the new school. The long term debt (thirty years) must weight heavily on the minds of all concerned. The possibility still exists that there may be at some point in the future be a Medieval restaurant on site. Or as I have previously mentioned the diocese of San Antonio will get the whole place back for pennies on the dollar. Time will tell.
But of course, the problem goes beyond the Atonement parish, because the Phillips model was sold as an indication of how successful both the Pastoral Provision and Anglicanorum coetibus would be. The observer's account above at least credits Fr Lewis with a pretty complete understanding of what needed to be done.
