As you know, there have been two previous attempts to create an Ordinariate community in Minnesota. The first, based in Collegeville, MN and led by lay brother John-Bede Pauley OSB was celebrating bi-weekly masses and Evensongs from at least 2013 on. In 2015 Vaughn Treco was ordained and became the PA of the group, by then worshipping at a parish church in St Louis Park, MN.Among the elements of insanity here is the idea that you can once again put a newly ordained man into a distant role with no effective supervision and not enough to keep him busy and expect a different result.This article describes the ASA as “about ten.” In 2016 a chapter of Benedictine Oblates was formed, headquartered at the abbey in Collegeville. During this time Stephen Hilgendorf was received into the Church Another link here.
Early in 2019 Fr Treco was removed from leadership of the group and subsequently resigned his orders. Msgr Steenson took over leadership of the group but after several months recommended that the community be closed, and in May 2019 they celebrated their last Sunday mass. You reported on this in detail.
Now they are being resuscitated, with a diocesan priest celebrating mass once a month starting July 17 assisted by now-Deacon Hilgendorf. Presumably the plan is to put him in charge of a newly-named community once he is ordained priest. In the meantime he is Director of Faith Formation at a local diocesan parish.
Not sure what will be different this time. Facebook page pledges loyalty to Bp Lopes so presumably the Treco-era quasi-sedevacantists have been purged. Who else is out there? Website displays picture of Msgr Steenson celebrating somewhere in some Christmas season for perhaps twenty-five or thirty people, which is more than ten, admittedly. But this seems to have been shown to be stony ground.
But yesterday's homily at mass made something else clearer for me. The celebrant spoke of Christ's grief over the death of John the Baptist in the gospel reading, and he spoke more generally about grief. He recognized that restrictions on mass attendance have probably, as a practical matter, ended many friendships in the parish, and he recognized that this leads to grief as well.
But this brought me to understand more about the full role of a parish, which is in fact to build networks among wide groups of people. But how can you do this with little groups of a few dozen who in fact regard themselves as separate even from the diocesan facility where they meet?
Well, if civil authorities limit attendance to 25 or 50, at least your whole ordinariate group can gather without restriction. But as a practical matter, this isn't a parish, and the members aren't getting that benefit of being Catholic.
Nor, based on how few such groups grow or even last all that long, will they ever, at least not in the ordinriate.
What problem is Houston trying to solve?
