Retirements And Ordinariate Staffing

My regular correspondent has been researching the question of how soon US-Canadian Ordinariate priests will reach retirement age:

With the ordination of Glenn Baaten, Fr Ortiz-Guzman has been able to retire as Administrator of St Augustine of Canterbury, Carlsbad---something he has been trying to do for about two years. Facebook pictures of Fr Baaten's first celebration at St Augustine's last Sunday show fewer than ten people in attendance, by my count, so it is not surprising that the group had to wait for a local candidate with a day job, although Fr Baaten's position at Santiago Retreat Center seems to be at least partly crowd-funded.

Fr Scheiblhofer at St Barnabas, Omaha is also planning to retire shortly, and the parish has been fortunate to be assigned Fr Jason Catania as his associate and eventual replacement. As Fr Catania is single, Fr Scheiblhofer and his wife can remain in parish housing while Fr Catania lives in the rectory of a diocesan parish where he is also assisting. So there are creative solutions to deal with the challenge of replacing retiring pastors who have been able to support themselves with retirement income from their previous ecclesiastical employers with a new generation of priests who require a livelihood. But as we see in Kitchener, ON and Rochester, NY, these solutions are not always available.

Now Fr Liias is retiring from St Gregory the Great, Stoneham MA. Fr Liias is a retired TEC clergyman who did not rely on the congregation for housing and primary support. How will a congregation of perhaps thirty replace him? This will be a problem for most OCSP groups in the near future, including many far smaller than St Gregory's. Of course chaplaincies and other diocesan employment can supplement the stipends these groups can offer, but when we look at existing groups where this is the case we see a certain fragility which perhaps reflects the difficulty of ministering to a group, working another pastoral job, and maintaining a family.

My correspondent has found the following OCSP parishes or groups with staffing issues:

• Groups currently "in hiatus": St Edmund's, Kitchener; St Anselm's, Rochester
• Groups currently ministered to by a local diocesan priest: St Bede's, Edmonton; St Timothy's, Catonsville; Christ the King, Tyendinaga; St Gregory the Great, Mobile (the latter two have a monthly celebration)
• Groups administered by a priest of secular retirement age: Christ the King, Towson; BlJHN, Victoria; Our Lady of Walsingham, Vancouver; Good Shepherd, Oshawa; St Thomas More, Toronto; Our Lady of the Sign/St Bede, Fredericton/Halifax; St Michael, Denison; Our Lady of Mt Carmel, Savannah; St Barnabas, Omaha; St Gregory, Stoneham; St James, St Augustine

Court Session July 8

I attended the session in Department 32, now under Judge Daniel S. Murphy, this morning. It appears that what I've called the "Other Lawsuit", the attempt by the Bush group and the estate of Anthony Morello to get Church Mutual Insurance to reimburse them for their legal costs, referred back to Superior Court this past February, has been given to Judge Murphy, and motions on this suit were taken up at the same time. The basic issues are the same, whether the Bush group was ever actually the rector, wardens, and vestry of the parish and thus whether they have standing even to sue.

From the St Mary of the Angels vestry perspective, the main objective was to get Judge Murphy to dismiss the "conversion" or civil theft suit against Fr Kelley, which was brought by the Bush group in 2012. Mr Lengyel-Leahu argued again that this was a matter separate from the Rector, Wardens, and Vestry case heard by Judge Strobel in September 2015, and thus the Bush group's appeal of Judge Strobel's ruling has no bearing on it -- the appeals court determined in its 2014 opinion that the Bush group was not the legal rector, wardens, and vestry, regardless of the outcome of the current appeal.

It came out in discussion that the appeals court is nowhere near ruling on this appeal, which tended to take away from Mr Lancaster's January argument that the appeals court would rule quickly, and he would accept its ruling as dispository in the other related cases. Judge Murphy appeared to take the view that, if the appeals court was going to take longer, he was more inclined to dismiss the conversion case against Fr Kelley just to get the matter off his calendar.

Mr Lancaster, in another stunning tactical miscalculation, then announced that if Judge Murphy dismissed the conversion case, he would appeal it. Mr Lengyel-Leahu then said that clearly Mr Lancaster was not interested in the outcome of the case under appeal, that he would just keep appealing things no matter what. Judge Murphy seemed to think Mr Lengyel-Leahu had a very good, even amusing, point. As a result, he asked counsel to return on August 19 to brief the question of whether he should dismiss the case. I think I've come to read Mr Lancaster's posture, and he didn't strike me as looking like he'd won.

It looks as if the "Other Lawsuit", in which the St Mary's parish doesn't have an issue, is at an earlier stage and will go to trial next year, if then. A status conference will take place January 8, 2017.

Continued Hearing On "Related Cases" July 8

On a hearing on the St Mary of the Angels "Related Cases" (the suits and countersuits surrounding the Rector, Wardens, and Vestry case), on January 8, Judge Murphy continued the matter for six months, until July 8. It appears that this is still scheduled, and if I can confirm this, I will attend this hearing. In January, Mr Lancaster argued that since Judge Strobel's decision was under appeal, the appeals court's decision would be "dispository". However, although Mr Lancaster was confident the appeals court would rule within six months, this hasn't happened.

The vestry's position continues to be, in part, that Judge Strobel extracted from Lancaster & Anastasia the concession before trial rolled forward, September 23-25, 2015, that the outcome of that trial would be dispositive of the "Three Related Cases." In addition, based on the 2014 appeals court decision, the Bush group is not the legal rector, wardens, and vestry and does not have standing to sue in the "Related Cases".

It appears that the vestry's counsel will move again for the judge to dismiss the "Related Cases" based on lack of standing by the Bush group and award punitive damages to the vestry. We'll see how this goes.

What's The Real Future Of Ordinariates?

Responding to issues raised in yesterday's post, my regular correspondent remarks,

This was a pet project of Pope Benedict's for which no one currently in power had any particular enthusiasm, as far as I can see. Naturally no one wants conspicuous collapse, but neither will heroic measures be undertaken. The definitive declaration that no dispensations from clerical celibacy will be given other than to those already ordained in another denomination, and the apparent ending of the fast-track study-at-home academic preparation for ordinands will put a major brake on ordinations going forward, I suspect.

We have already discussed the poor prospects for significant lay interest. I note that the membership of the OOLW has remained around 1500 for the last two years. I think this means it is already circling the drain, despite what appears to be far better management. If the OCSP did not have major donor funding it would also be in crisis, I think, given that its demands are greater and its management is only now getting on track.

What we know of the Vatican initiatives toward Anglicans bears this out, it seems to me. Both the Pastoral Provision and Anglicanorum coetibus were pet projects of Cardinal Law, who advocated what led to the Pastoral Provision directly with John Paul II. It's worth noting that John Paul, given the proposal of a personal prelature in the late 1970s, didn't take it up. When Cardinal Law revived it via the meeting among Clarence Pope, Jeffrey Steenson, and Cardinal Ratzinger in 1993, John Paul was again unenthusiastic. So far, I see no reason to believe he was fundamentally mistaken.

My correspondent commented later,

[The d]ecision that ordinations to the priesthood in the OCSP will take place on a fixed date--Feast of Ss Peter and Paul-- means that no more will take place for a year. For a variety of reasons, a surplus-to-requirements TEC clergyman may no longer feel that the OCSP is a quick entree into Catholic orders and thus greater employment opportunities. In any event, this can hardly have been Pope Benedict's goal.

This raises what for me has been a disturbing quality in at least the OCSP -- it's been clergy-centered, and from Fr Bartus's own words, primarily a vehicle for candidates who couldn't get posts in TEC to compete in a less challenging pool of applicants. It looks as if this may have been the case for a few dozen, though not many of these have prospered. Frankly, I didn't become Catholic to swell the career opportunities for ambitious mediocrities.

Still later, my correspondent remarked,

What other denominations could possibly be interested in an Ordinariate? And if the uptake by Anglicans, who have been taking their liturgical cues from Rome since the middle of the 19thC, has been so minimal, why would the Vatican risk ridicule and hostility by setting up a similar structure for Lutherans, Presbyterians, or Baptists? I find the idea that the Ordinariates are some kind of template a complete fantasy.

This raises two interesting and related questions. I grew up Presbyterian, to which I must refer in trying to envision a Reformed Ordinariate (the Ordinariate of the Bl Peter Kreeft?). What is the Vatican going to do to accommodate Presbyterian liturgical traditions, e.g., the little jiggers of grape juice and the little cubes of bakery loaf? This doesn't compute. (Do we deem the grape juice to be wine, for instance?)

But also, there's no such thing as a ready-made Catholic, even among Anglicans, which again has been the actual experience in the wake of Anglicanorum coetibus. I went through a phase of regretting that I didn't have a Catholic family or a Catholic education, but the more I see of Youtube evangelists like Bp Barron, Fr Schmitz, or Prof Kreeft, the process of becoming Catholic is lifelong. It is a consequential spiritual journey, although in some cases, formation in childhood and adolescence via family, school, and parish can be an advantage.

The idea that Anglicans or any other denomination can come into the Church as some kind of freeze-dried special case promotes a great deal of misunderstanding, it seems to me, especially if their communities are seen as something unique. Pope St John Paul probably saw this behind the idea of a personal prelature, which the appointment of Bp Lopes goes some way to correct.

Two Visitors On Personnel Changes In The OCSP

A week or so ago, a visitor sent me this:

It takes time to untangle a mess, but Bishop Lopes seems to be moving in the right way. A few years ago, when the executive council of the pilot's union at Delta Air Lines approached the company's new CEO with serious concerns [about several] senior executives who were, ah, let's say, "underperforming," the new CEO's reply was, "Please give me some time to deal with this in the proper way, but I think that you will to like what I am going to do." Within a few months, he had given graceful exits to those who needed to go and replaced them with the right people for the respective positions. In the same vein, let's give Bishop Lopes a year or two before passing judgement.

As I have mentioned previously, the Vatican regards the ordinariates as a model for reconciliation of many Protestant denominations -- not just for Anglicans. For this model to work, the other denominations want absolute assurance that the ordinariates will be permanent ecclesial structures that will preserve their ecclesial and liturgical traditions, their identity, and the integrity of their ecclesial communities within the Catholic Church, and not merely a transitional structure for more gradual assimilation into the mainstream of the Roman Rite. A failure that forces suppression of an ordinariate would be devastating in this regard, so the Vatican is not going to let that to happen. Whenever it becomes apparent that there are significant problems in any ordinariate, you can be absolutely certain that the Vatican is going to move pretty swiftly to address them, either by working with the ordinary or, if necessary, by replacing the ordinary. Nevertheless, replacement of an ordinary always will happen in a manner that provides a graceful exit (either retirement or appointment to some other position) for the outgoing ordinary.

More recently, he followed up, in part regarding last week's remarks about Fr Scott Hurd:

Fr. Scott Hurd remains a member of the clergy of the Archdiocese of Washington. At the original formation of the ordinariate, it was announced that he was "on loan" to the ordinariate, to serve as vicar general, for a period of three years. When that period lapsed on 31 December 2014, he returned to the ministry of the archdiocese to which he belongs, as planned. A couple months before that date, Msgr. Steenson announced the appointment of Fr. Charles Hough III as vicar general.

It certainly does appear to be the true that Bishop Lopes perceived a need for some shake-up in the administration of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. He is still new, and his plans for the ordinariate undoubtedly are still a work in process. The ordinariate's administration probably will be very different by the time that the legal issues surrounding St. Mary of the Angels become definitively resolved.

My regular correspondent added these remarks:

Even if Fr Hurd had been doing an outstanding job as Vicar General he would have been required to leave it under Bp Lopes because the VG is an ex-officio member of the Governing Council and only clergy incardinated in the OCSP are eligible to serve on the Governing Council. This is why Bp Lopes relieved Fr Benedict Soule of his position as Judicial Vicar to which Msgr Steenson had recently appointed him before his (Steenson's) departure last fall.

A great deal of Bp Lopes' administrative time has been taken up with these canonical and procedural lacunae on the part of the previous regime. The ParishSoft system of registration and accounting belatedly adopted by the Ordinariate has been a disaster and has not addressed the failure of most groups to contribute adequately to Ordinariate expenses via the Cathedraticum. (Perhaps it is best that those struggling to meet their target for the Bishop's Appeal are unaware that the Davises gave the OCSP $4 million in 2014).

I think it is fair to say that the OCSP has no idea what its actual membership is. Groups variously identify themselves as Sodalities, Fellowships, Public Associations of the Faithful, Missions, with no official definitions (until recently) and no consistent policy regarding charitable status and tax receipts. As I mentioned previously, Houston is now trying to get a handle on compensation levels and retirement benefits.

The OCSP was mistakenly identified to the USCCB as being noncompliant with the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. It is just now clarifying its Holy Days of Obligation and the status of External Solemnities. The list goes on.

Msgr Steenson and his team were able to get a distance learning scheme in place that satisfied Catholic authorities and enabled them to get a significant number of men ordained so they could begin ministering to the groups they brought with them. That was no small achievement, but it has outlived its usefulness now, and no other lasting achievements of the Steenson regime can be pointed to, IMHO.

This gives an indication of the task confronting Bp Lopes.

Further Note On St Mary The Virgin Arlington

My correspondent adds,

A new pastor for SMV was required because Fr Timothy Perkins is moving to Houston to take over as Vicar General. As you may recall, for the first three years this post was filled by Fr Scott Hurd, who remained in Washington, DC the entire time. Bp Lopes clearly does not regard that arrangement as having worked well for the Ordinariate. The removal of his successor, Fr Chuck Hough III, from the position (at the age of 62) suggests that he wasn't getting the job done either, despite being on the spot.

We don't know why Fr Hurd left his position as vicar general -- I believe it was always meant to be temporary -- although it is thought that he was a member of the Nashotah House clique, and his thumbprints are all over the St Mary of the Angels bungling. His departure was certainly no loss to the Ordinariate.

I also wonder if Fr Perkins's views were sought on the potential merits of his colleagues in the OCSP to fill the position he was leaving.

More Priests Than People, But. . .

My regular correspondent has pointed me to the bulletin from the St Mary the Virgin Ordinariate parish in Arlington, TX, which introduces its new pastor (emphasis mine):

Father Prentice Dean and his wife Teresa entered into full communion with the Catholic Church in 2006. He was ordained to the Sacred Order of Priests, through the Pastoral Provision, on the Feast of the Chair of St. Peter, February 22, 2010. Fr. Dean has served as Administrator/Pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes parish and St. Michael parish since June 2011. The churches are located in Robertson County, north of Nashville, Tennessee. Prior to those assignments Fr. Dean served as transitional deacon and as Assisting Priest at The Church of the Assumption in Nashville between August 2009 and June 2011. He also served as ViceChancellor of the Diocese of Nashville between 2006 and 2011. Prior to entering the church, he was Rector of St. Bede Episcopal Church in Manchester, Tennessee.

Having grown up in the northeast, and graduated from The George Washington University in Washington DC, with a Bachelor’s degree in history, he married and raised his family in Maryland. Fr. Dean has worked in historical research with the government and for a remodeling contractor and operated his own furniture-making business while being a stay-at-home father. He has finished all course work for Masters in management, and earned a Master’s degree in Divinity from the School of Theology, the University of the South, Sewanee Tennessee, in 2004.

My correspondent's comment is, "Presumably Bp Lopes did not have anyone he deemed suitable for this, one of his few stipendiary positions." Naturally, we don't know what was in Bp Lopes's mind, and issues like the ability to relocate to Arlington may have figured into any Ordinariate priest's availability.

Nevertheless, looking at the resume information, I note that neither Yale nor Nashotah House makes an appearance, which I frankly think is a positive sign. GW is a good school that serves a lot of commuter students, but not an elitist institution. Fr Dean looks to have a strong pastoral record in both Anglican and Catholic parishes, unlike a number of Steenson's more prestigious hires, who frankly strike me as having underperformed.