St Augustine, San Diego—-formerly St Augustine, Carlsbad—-will soon become St Augustine, Escondido, as it will be celebrating Sunday mass in the “chapel tent” at John Paul the Great Catholic University there starting next Sunday. Samuel Keyes, ordained to the diaconate in May, is a professor at JPCatholic. He was named Glenn Baaten’s successor as administator of the St Augustine community, presumably his ordination ticket, so one can see that he has a vested interest in trying to revive it. Mass has not been celebrated at its former location since March. As we have frequently noted, attendance was down to about a dozen, so it will be interesting to see who turns up in Escondido, and who will be celebrating.
My correspondent has commented from time to time on Keyes and his relationship to the dwindling St Augustine community. From last June:
Still musing on why the Keyes, living in Murrieta, joined an Ordinariate community an hour away in Del Mar Heights. . . . The Easter Vigil was cancelled in 2019 so that Fr Baaten could celebrate at BJHN. More recently, however, there have been a number of special services—-Advent Lessons and Carols with the choir of HM, Murrieta, for example, and a regular monthly choral Evensong—-with more people visible, including Mr Keyes, serving or acting as subdeacon. I assume these have been his initiatives; there is a new Permanent Deacon at St Augustine’s but he was an original member of the community, so not the one bringing fresh energy into the group. I suppose it is possible that Mr Keyes will be taking over when Fr Bartus returns to Holy Martyra, although the Facebook page is very vague about plans for the fall. Indeed, nothing indicates that Fr Baaten has left.Murrieta is 38 miles from Escondido, a 76 mile round trip. The 2020 IRS mileage rate is 57.5 cents per mile, so the group should be paying him $43.70 for expenses to celebrate mass (assuming he's ordained), in addition to a regular stipend. It sounds as though the group left its previoius venue at least in part because, with a dozen or so members, it couldn't pay rent.
Why is Keyes doing this, and why is Bp Lopes allowing it? Continuing the St Augustine group seems nothing more than an empty charade, and for Keyes to be ordained to say mass for a dozen there, when real Catholic parishes are plentiful in the area, suggests that he's little more than dressing up for a weekend of role-playing games. I can't imagine that his novus ordo parish colleagues privately take him seriously at all.
Would it not be more productive for him and others like him to dress up in Civil War attire to impersonate Stonewall Jackson at weekend reenactments? At least there's a greater sense that this is a fantasy exercise, and nobody is in much danger of believing it's 1863 depite the cannons and muskets.
I think Keyes, and others like him among ordinariate clergy, should be ashamed of themselves. This business we now see about soul-searching over continence with their wives is an indication of the overcompensation that stems from their own ambivalence and insecurity over why they're doing this. Deep down inside, these men know they're phonies. I would estimate they're embarrassed to encounter real Catholic priests in the rare occasions when this happens.
This is also a reflection on the completely inadequate supervision and psychological evaluation in Houston's vocation process. The vicar general and vocation director are complicit. All the phony guys would be well advised to resign their orders and undertake a serious effort to live sincere lives as Catholic laymen.
