Wednesday, February 3, 2021

Fake It Til You Make It

When I put my old Cold Case blog on inactive status, I said I'd provide updates there on news from the North American Roman Caholic ordinariate if the news was important enough. Yesterday I learned that the pastor of St Barnabas Omaha, one of the most important parishes in a very small diocese, has been removed for spending the entire parish endowment.

Details are at the link.

It's important to note that considerable leadership in maintaining religious observance in the US during the COVID crisis has come from the Roman Catholic Church. The Diocese of Brooklyn has brought an important case to the US Supreme Court, while Abp Cordileone has been vocal in insisting on relaxation of COVID restrictions in California.

I suspect that Abp Gómez was also instrumental behind the scenes in persuading the Los Angeles County health department to allow indoor worship, when no other county under California "purple" restrictions has done this.

The North American ordinariate hasn't even been a blip in this picture. Instead, it's spent a great deal of unproductive effort, and even profligate expense, in trying to inflate its own importance, mostly just among its members.