How's it going down?

It's been a while since I posted on the Anglo-Catholic; the reason was simple. In the early days, I wanted to do what I could to encourage those of you still on the Canterbury side of the Tiber and reassure those of you on the Roman one. Once things had reached a certain momentum, then my task seemed, well, redundant. Things were well under way.

But now that we are some months into the Ordinariate scheme in the United Kingdom, I wondered whether it might be useful to those of you in other lands if I reported on how the Ordinariate has gone down with the Catholic Church on the ground.

The answer is simple: there is almost nothing to report. And that is excellent news. When the first waves of Tibernauts arrived after the 1992 vote on women priests in Synod, there was a great deal of speculation and some ignorant hostility to the newcomers. Within a few years, all these attitudes were laid to rest, and those who are now priests (many with wives) have taken their place among the diocesan presbyteria and have simply become welcome members of the family. I think that this initial wave has smoothed the way for the Ordinariate; I have yet to encounter a hostile comment from anyone who matters.

There is a certain amount of curiosity, yes, but as far as my brethren are concerned, the new Ordinariate clergy are simply Catholic priests with their own structure. End of story. We are accustomed to religious orders running parishes; this would appear to be similar, and though among ourselves we have concerns about the thoroughness of the theological education of some, this is something that will, no doubt, be a decreasing problem as seminarians are put through a more rigorous preparation than they would have received in an Anglican theological college. And they will certainly not be fobbed off with a correspondence course.

If you would like evidence of this rapid integration, you might consider the fact that the Reverend Deacon James Bradley of the Ordinariate was asked to sing the Gospel in Madrid in the presence of His Holiness, during the youth gatherings there only a day or two ago. There is no fuss; he is simply a Catholic.

And that, in my experience, has been the tenor of things. Some laity have expressed anxieties, but a little information has been enough to reassure them.

Credit must be given to Mgr Newton, the Ordinary and his fellow leaders. By a careful avoidance of a sort of Anglican triumphalism, by keeping things low-key, the Anglican life-raft has tied up against the barque of Peter almost without a bump.

But what of these people's Anglicanism? Is it still intact? This is an important question, and one that ought to be left to them. I am not qualified to put words into their mouths, but I would be interested to learn (perhaps from some contributor to this blog) what positive steps they are taking in order to secure their Anglican Patrimony now. Until the new liturgy is ready, they are, of course, using the Roman Rite (Ordinary Form, I suppose). Maybe things will become clearer once they have their own rite. I do hope that it is more than hymns and very long intercessions…

Related posts:

What liturgies will be allowed in the Ordinariates?Three New MonsignoriAnglo-Catholic Liturgical Anarchy Born in 1961, Fr. Seán Finnegan studied at the University of St. Andrews and St. John’s Seminary, Wonersh, England. He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton on September 24, 1989 where he has spent the majority of his priesthood, apart from a few years in the Oratories of Oxford and London. He is presently the Parish Priest of the Parish of Our Lady, Queen of Peace, Adur Valley, which is on the South Coast of England, not far from Brighton. Fr. Finnegan is the author of the exceptional blog Valle Adurni (the ancient Roman name for Shoreham, the main town of Fr. Finnegan’s parish, is supposed to have been Portus Adurni). He also teaches Early Church History at St. John’s Seminary.

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When is it going to end?

Last Thursday I began to read the John Jay report over lunch. It had been released by the US Bishops the previous afternoon. The soundbite that got the most coverage, of course, was often summed up as “the ‘60s made them do it.” The report itself is far more interesting and informative than either the summary at the press conference or its dismissal by the media would suggest. But new cases continue to emerge even as the report was being issued

The day after the bishops held their press conference, Fr. Shawn Ratigan, of the Kansas City diocese, was arrested on several counts of possessing child pornography The first story is here from the Kansas City Star.

Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, in 1964, famously said of pornography, “I know it when I see it.” One would think that a bishop whose first pastoral letter was on the evils of pornography would likewise be able to recognize it, but apparently that wasn’t the case for Bishop Robert Finn.

Five months before Ratigan was arrested, Finn convinced himself that the images on the priest’s computer were “troubling but not pornographic.” Here is Finn’s statement on Ratigan’s arrest (and his regret that he didn’t take action sooner).

To help himself make the decision, he consulted the diocesan lawyer and described one of the photos to a ranking police officer who served on a diocesan board. By the letter of the law, it wasn’t “abuse” and there hadn’t been an “allegation” so there was no need to involve the lay review board. As bishops have been doing for decade upon decade, he would handle it himself.

This was not an old incident. Ratigan, 45, was ordained in 2004. He was in the seminary after the bishops has supposedly made improvements in “human formation.” And he was a “late vocation,” so presumably he’d had some exposure to the real world.

A commenter on one of our previous blog posts chided the blogger, saying that giving the names and ages of her children suggested that abuse was random when it was predominantly male predators and male victims. Ratigan’s photos were nearly all of girls between the ages of 3 and 12. Except for the 12-year-old, perhaps, well within the John Jay study’s definition of pedophilia.

The John Jay study pointed out that in a large number of the reported cases of abuse, the abusers were welcomed into the homes of their victims. It discussed the grooming behavior common to sexual predators. It also reminded the bishops that by and large the abusers were extremely manipulative and should not be allowed to justify their own actions.

This is where the Kansas City case is the perhaps the most damning. In the five months that Bishop Finn tried to avoid reporting the case to the police, how many of the families knew the whole story? Even though the bishop had forbidden Ratigan to have contact with children, he was still meeting families and one even invited him to their child’s birthday party. (News just breaking suggests that parents and teachers at one of the schools were concerned enough that the principal contacted the diocese–six months before the laptop photos surfaced, a full year before his arrest.) Bishop Finn was denying parents the knowledge they needed to protect their children.

When is it going to end? How can abusive priests still think they can get away with their actions? How can the bishops claim to be compliant when they’re still refusing to turn clear evidence over to the police and the courts? A number of people have pointed out that if Finn had asked any parent about the photos, he wouldn’t have gotten a careful, legal response.

What does it mean that these stories barely make the news anymore? Among the Catholic press, only the National Catholic Reporter carried the Kansas City story. It emerged in comments on the John Jay articles in America and Commonweal but not as a news item itself. Have any bishops have spoken publicly against (or even for!) Finn’s actions? Crickets.

Most of the prominent Catholic bloggers either didn’t hear about it or ignored it. One who did mention it was affected personally, and he reported that his young daughter was devastated by the news of a priest she had known and trusted. Todd continues to respond to the news at Catholic Sensibility.

Hundreds of families in at least two parishes in Kansas City are now wondering how their trust had been so badly betrayed. How many parishioners elsewhere will be wondering the same thing?

Diane M. Houdek is Digital Editor for St. Anthony Messenger Press. She is the editor of AmericanCatholic.org and Bringing Home the Word. She has edited Weekday Homily Helps since 1994. She is an avid knitter and spinner and shares her home with three large and rambunctious dogs. Born and raised in Wisconsin, she has tried her hand at urban farming and a host of other pursuits and hobbies. blog comments powered by

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