It's like time has stood still as far as growth goes. Understandable, yes. But I fear that the virus has given our not strong leaders an excuse. Blame it on the virus for the low attendance and low growth. The truth is thought that they don't have to be as defiant as the Protestant pastor in that video. I don't mean he is doing wrong. But there are things that can be done well within the local ordinances in this environment. If you are told to limit the attendance to 50% capacity, what is to stop you from thinking outside the box, and having more services or Masses? Heck, restaurants have adapted with walk ups, drive throughs, call ups --- why can't the church adapt better? When things go back to normal, we may find we have even fewer attendees.There are two basic issues in this comment, what the ordinariate can do within its constraints and within a Catholic context, and what it's doing vis-a-vis the strong Protestant leaders like Pastors McCoy and MacArthur. I'll deal with the first one here, but the second will be in a separate post on Dr King and the Letter From Birmingham Jail, maybe later today if nothing intervenes.
On the issue of what the ordinasriate can do in the present environment of lockdowns, the answer is partly that the specific constraints vary arbitrarily by state and county in the US. I assume the situation in Canada is roughly equivalent.
However, whatever the exact limits imposed in the areas where ordinariate communities operate -- 25%, 50%, 75% capacity, 25, 50, 100 maximum or whatever else, only a few ordinariate communities will exceed any of these limits. If they're allowed inside the building at all, they're so small, even the health department isn't going to raise a fuss. Of course, a few aren't even allowed inside the building, but that seems to be an administrative issue for the host parish, not the civil authorities.
The visitor has suggested increasing the mass schedule to compensate to me in the past, but if a novus ordo parish has a capacity of 2000 and fills it (ours does) even once a Sunday, and the local authorities allow 100 maximum, you aren't going to fix that with just a few more masses. But California now allows only outdoor services on top of that. Our parish, when indoor masses with a maximum of 100 were briefly allowed, increased the mass schedule, but outdoor masses in the midday summer sun aren't practical, so the schedule had to be reduced again.
So for most of the ordinariate, increasing the mass schedule is a moot point, and it isn't a good solution in any case. All efforts by any pastor under these conditions -- that is, short of unpredictable legal action or civil disobedience -- can only be at the margin. But the visitor is right in suggesting the virus has probably just made some ordinariate priests more comfortable in their complacency.
But not all of them. My regular correspondent comments,
Fr Kenneth Bolin was an army chaplain, I believe latterly ACA but I cannot confirm that. who prepared for his ordination for the OCSP while stationed in Afghanistan. Now retired from the army, he has been placed in charge of St Thomas Becket, formerly St Timothy, Ft Worth. A former TEC congregation led in by Fr Stainbrook and served by him with the assistance of Fr Hough III and Fr Cornelius, this group dwindled away when Fr Stainbrook was redeployed to St John Vianney, Cleburne and not replaced with a permanent PA, a situation they endured for over two years, while moving from a local Catholic parish church to the small chapel of the Catholic Diocesan Center.My estimate is that there are roughly a dozen conscientious and capable priests in the ordinariate -- maybe 20% of the total, in other words. Fr Bolin would be among these. Others would include the ones who serve diocesan parishes as well as ordinariate groups. But there's a much larger group that I suspect a diocesan vicar for clergy will not touch, no matter the shortage of priests he has to work with.Fr Bolin and I do not see eye to eye on a number of issues, but I have to admire the fact that he has thrown himself into the task of rebuilding the St Timothy, now St Thomas Becket, congregation. He posts something on FB every day, often about the saint of the day, but not from a “feed” like one sees on many other parish FB pages—-something he has personally sought out. Other times he has observations about Catholic issues, or parish updates. He sends out a weekly e-letter.
Because of the space limitations of the chapel in a time of social distancing, he has added two extra Sunday masses. He celebrates mass in a local park sometimes, not sure why. But in any event, he’s there. If I were a STB congregant, even if not attending at the moment, I would feel connected to the community. If I had a pastoral emergency, I’d be on the phone to Fr Bolin. I feel sorry for anyone who has to deal with any of the too-numerous MIA Ordinariate clergy.
As I say, I'll take up the civil disobedience option in another post, recognizing it's not currently open to Catholics.
