I'm Going To Start A Series Of Posts On The Failure Of Anglicanorum Coetibus

A visitor to my old blog sent me a cri de coeur on the situation at the cathedral of the North American Catholic ordinariate for former Anglicans, which I've published with comments at the old blog. It's been very good for me to become more detached from the ordinariate, of which I was never a member in any case, as I've steadily become more assimilated into the post-Vatican II Roman Catholic Church via a well-run parish in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Two things strike me. One is that my own experience of being Catholic has educated me in the meaning of this passage from the Vatican II constitution Lumen Gentium

Often the Church has also been called the building of God. The Lord Himself compared Himself to the stone which the builders rejected, but which was made into the cornerstone. On this foundation the Church is built by the apostles, and from it the Church receives durability and consolidation. This edifice has many names to describe it: the house of God in which dwells His family; the household of God in the Spirit; the dwelling place of God among men; and, especially, the holy temple. This Temple, symbolized in places of worship built out of stone, is praised by the Holy Fathers and, not without reason, is compared in the liturgy to the Holy City, the New Jerusalem. As living stones we here on earth are built into it.

It goes without saying that Protestant denominations do not recognize this in any but a figurative sense. It's also been hard for me to see members of the North American ordinariate projecting any real sense of this, nor any indication that Bp Lopes sees any responsibility to educate his flock about this.

And beyond that, his flock, having entered this new spiritual environment, seem still to be unhappy and disgruntled people -- the complaint in the link is just the most recent of the long succession of those I've received.

And perhaps related to this condition is the remarkable number of clergy scandals and removals the ordinariate has had, among well under a hundred priests, and in less than ten years.

This convinces me that even if there may still be detectable brain waves, the heart is dead. I've been thinking about this for a while, and I'll make a series of posts on it.