Transcript for:
Bishop Steven Lopes on Ordinariate's Future

[Music] we are going to begin now with our first speaker who kindly made the trip all the way from Houston to be with us our Bishop Bishop Steven Lopes and he doesn't need much more introduction there are some BIOS in the program and other information about the conference in the program but the bishop only has until 10 o'clock at which point we have to cross the street for Matins and so with without any further ado I will pass it off to His grace blows good morning usually I have to talk after lunch so I've get you before you're even caffeinated this morning it's great I would like to begin our time of reflection today just kind of putting into context you know something of the ordinary its identity and mission particularly as we celebrate the 10th anniversary of Anglican arms ad booze there's a sense to which you know an anniversary like this allows us to look back with gratitude and and we certainly began that last night with that solemn today but looking back and gratitude has a purpose it's in order to be able to look forward with a little bit more clarity and a little bit more hope and so that's that's kind of that wonderful dynamic in it one of the WAGs one of the ordinary priests put it to me this way it's we it's what we have done and what we have failed to do you know or what we have done in what we have yet to do so that's that's kind of that sense of the of this kind of anniversary trajectory that we're on which is why by the way the anniversary celebration is meant to not just be a day but it's meant to be this whole year and certainly the Holy Fathers gift of the plenary indulgence that goes throughout the rest of the year until September 27th which will be the liturgical celebration of Our Lady of Walsingham is an indication of that that that it's meant that we spend some time in in this in order to be able to better discern what God is doing and then give ourselves over to his will all the more the my content my my thoughts my reflections this morning are kind of contextualized by three things three important things that have happened very recently the first was the appointment and installation of a new ordinary in Australia the Holy Father tapping one of our own here from Canada father Carl read to go and to to lead that expression of ordinary at life another was a very successful conference held by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome earlier in October in which you know at at the high level if you will the Vatican level you know certain aspects of our life of our pastoral life our canonical life our liturgical life were kind of examined and discussed and then we had just gone the heels of that our annual clergy assembly this year was held in Chicago at Mundelein seminary and a number of the fathers were talking about it being perhaps the best one we've had and just a sense a renewed sense of identity and commitment to mission among the priests you know that there's a there's a there's emerging a clarity about where we need to be going in the Ordinariate of the chair of st. Peter because we are in a very real sense coming to maturity I mean that you you you see that in the appointment of Monsignor Reed you know in a certain sense we don't have our own stuff together yet quite you know and yet and yet the church is asking us despite not having everything in order every I dotted every T crossed every community provided for we're being asked to share leadership and share resources with the other ordinary ins well that's that's a challenge certainly his departure creates a vacuum but in another way it's an affirmation that the Holy See understands that what's been going on in the ordinary in North is good and not only is it good it has produced a vision that can be then brought somewhere else brought to bear even even as far as Australia the the focus if you will that you're going to hear me this is going to be the mantra identity and mission identity admission this is what you know this is what our priests are talking about and it's slightly different language perhaps than we've used over the last 10 years when we've talked about almost exclusively what is our patrimony what are these wonderful traditions that we bring into the Catholic Church you know and that was a way of asking the identity question but the identity question leads us directly into an understanding of what our mission is now as Catholics who we are identity feeds contextualizes gives directions to what we do mission and and it's a reciprocal relationship it's a reciprocal relationship because it's a focus no longer just on survival which is which was so much of ordinary at life right at the beginning right surviving and yet now it's about growing it's about developing it's about putting down a foundation stabilizing evangelizing drawing others in from that perspective well that mission it flows directly out of out of who we are you know what we do it comes second but here's the thing about patrimony this is this accent on identity and mission is broader I would say and therefore I would say more more more fruitful than just saying well what is our patrimony because here's the thing about patrimony you and I don't define it that's not our job I mean we have some ideas about it certainly but ultimately for patrimony to be lasting for a patrimony to be truly kind of taken up and celebrated it is the church who defines it and this is true about our liturgy it's true about our law it's true about our governance structures and some of our pastoral structures like the Governing Council and things like this these are things where the church has said now part of this is simply part of the history you know in those years leading up to Anglican arms shady booze when we put the three Anglican bishops and the three Catholic Bishops in the room and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith watched the tennis match you know for several years you know III remember those discussions well what is your patrimony you know and and and father then father now arts bishop gusty annoy as in new yorkers pounding the table tell me what it is and there was there was it wasn't that there was a reluctance there was an inability because part and parcel of the thing of anglicanism is provincialism that what might be lived and as an experience here is not shared their kind of a thing and so it was when we're listening and listening and you have to listen deeply to these conversations then the church herself begins to articulate what it is in the liturgical provision in the law in Anglican or Olivos itself that that speaks of more sonoda styles of government and things like this it's already beginning to give shape and contour to patrimony you see how that works that it's not a self-identification we're going to come in and we're going to tell you what it is no we live we live as Catholics we live in the church and the church recognizes then what's distinctive and names what's new what's different what's unique what adds to the vitality so there's a relationship the more that we engage our mission as Catholics and live deeply into the wider mission of the Catholic Church the more that the church has an opportunity to identify and articulate precisely what our patrimony is so at that clergy assembly we spent a day and a half talking about Catholic education bringing in one of the premier Catholic educators and the in in in North America sister John Dominic of the Dominican Sisters of Mary Mother of the Eucharist now you might say well that's all fine and good if you in Houston or San Antonio or you know Orlando places with schools but what about the rest of us well but no see the mission of the church is to educate to teach as Jesus did and the mission of the church in education is essential to her identity so if we're going to be authentically Catholic we have to be engaging that mission but how do we as Ordinariate Catholics engage Catholic education why would we do a school as opposed to the diocese and if we did a school what would that school what would that curriculum what would that life look like because we're ordinary Catholics in other words would it just be a carbon copy of the diocesan thing I don't think so what accents would it have what shape would it have what role would sacred music have our classical curriculum or you know this whole idea the shape and style of Education you know we bring something different to the table but until you understand and fully engage the broader mission if you will of the church to teach to hand on the faith and form intentional disciples out of the new generation out of our kids well then you're not even at the point of being able to engage the conversation about what our patrimony is but if you do that then it allows it it opens up a whole new Vista and we can talk about many more aspects many more elements of our patrimony that aren't that go beyond the liturgical but are fundamentally fed by nourished by what we celebrate in the liturgy so that's that's kind of the context that we're going to look at identity admission and why we're looking at identity and mission and so this conversation this morning is the first thing I would just want you know to you to know it's it's part of a much broader conversation throughout the Ordinariate certainly an intentional conversation among the priests and deacons of the ordinary as we as we kind of plot what the next 10 years look like well let's talk about some things in terms of identity and mission when you look at the identity of the ordinary when you look at what the ordinary it looks like in Canada in the United States I'm gonna leave England and Australia largely aside because it's not for me to talk about them one of the things that you you identify immediately experientially is fragility there's some fragility to this thing yet I mean we've we've we've done a great job in these 10 years but you know that fragility is still experienced communities remain small finances remain tight resources are scarce personnel is hard to come by you know there's a lot of head-scratching how do we grow you know it's and and some of the I'm gonna pick on father Tilly if I may for a minute you know when I went up to the first time I visited Good Shepherd in Oshawa I think there were about nine parishioners and I'm thinking to myself oh good lord you know I'm driving up there I mean even our Lord started with 12 I mean one of them one of them was a dud but you know hey the rest of the 11 worked out and yeah and yet what a wonderful experience it was because we had a very beautiful mass you walk into the church in ah sure as anybody if you're who's from Toronto have you if you're from Toronto and not gone to Good Shepherd in Oshawa go by all means go see it it's an a' marvelous experience so you walk into a church now I've been in a lot of churches right what do I notice you could eat off the floor the place was so clean the sacristy was very very well-appointed and stopped you know care had been taken those nine people they owned their building they rent out the undercroft to the church to a ministry to at-risk youth they manage to pay their organ they manage organist they manage to pay something to the priest probably not much but you know something to the priest and now as I'm you know now these a couple of years later when we're talking about when I'm going to make my next visit this year you know he's he's got about 26 27 on a Sunday well that's tripling the size of his congregation what church in Canada has done that no 26 27 you know objectively comparatively does it does it seem small yes but who cares if those souls are being fed and are coming to understand God and themselves better and therefore contributing to the life of the church there they are growing they are growing statistically at a very high rate so it's not just a warning fragility is not just a warning that oh you know we have to be careful otherwise we'll lose this it is that let's be honest but it's more there is a deep spiritual side to that experience of fragility one that Israel had to learn again and again and again in the desert there is a sense to which the Ordinariate needs to embrace the existential experience of fragility as exodus spirituality because all through that journey in the desert it was one day you had to go out and gather your manna every day God gave it to you but he only gave you enough for one day and so that that sense of walking with the Lord learning to rely on him they didn't know where they were actually going which is you know part of the problem why it lasts for to you to rely on him and not take may not take him for granted because they're relying on their own thing I mean we all know the cautionary tale at the other end when you think of the Episcopal Church particularly in the United States a wealthier Church you will not find they are endowed until Christ comes again but they don't have any people so they have all of the stability in the world you know they have the greatest pension fund in North America float Philon stop larger than several governments I would point out and yet and yet where's the vitality where's the discipleship where's the reliance on the Lord you know we talk about the bleed we talk about the sclerosis we talk about all of these things but what we're talking about is a spiritual problem we have the benefit of not having those resources for now so learn what we need to learn in this experience of it because it's true fear and the fear of the desert I'm just gonna stay with the Israel image you know can be the howling winds in the dark of night and the strange sounds and everything like this and fear can be an overwhelming thing and there are several of our communities that are having that tendency towards fear at the same time that unease that discomfort that insufficiency that we experience in our parishes can push us into action can make us take very seriously that there's no sliding in the ordinary there's no floating along there's no being one of six thousands people in this parish and so it's enough that I give two dollars in the collection plate you can't do that you have to take an ordinary at Catholic as someone who has to take responsibility for their parish life and take responsibility for the other parishioners they have and with the other parishioners that are there because let's face it the priests can't do it all that's always been true but it's it's perhaps discovered in a very particular way so part of this fragility and this experience of it actually favours an accent on lay leadership and lay participation and initiative in the life of the parish and that's how it should be that is how it should be that through the parish council through people taking real responsibility and real roles of leadership that's the only way to make this kind of thing work because if you're gonna wait for father to do it all ain't much gonna get done I mean the essential stuff is gonna get done confessions are gonna be heard mass is going to be celebrated but you can't let him you know you please believe me you can't let him lay on the the refreshments for fellowship after that would be horrible nobody wants that but you know to to to engage that sense that recovery of a sense of a real lay apostolate see what it's supposed to what the life of the church is supposed to be is your priests are there for you your priests are intensely giving themselves to the formation to the sacramental nourishment and to the up building of this group of parishioners then this group of parishioners are the ones that are supposed to go out and evangelize and bring in other people and bring in their friends sometimes physically bringing them to church sometimes spiritually evangelizing just by the witness of their own life and faith in their workplace in their schools among their pagan family and friends you know I mean if you have a well formed Catholic layperson they can they can amplify if you will the preaching of the gospel that is experienced in one way on Sunday they can bring that not even necessarily by words but by example into all of these other realms and to all of these other situations where the priest who's preaching the gospel on Sunday cannot even imagine going and so there's a lot in that fragility that is to be embraced so that's one thing another thing is kind of the way that our own I've called it akley's profile has grown and developed how are we seen how are we viewed in the church by the church in other words by other Catholics you know because at the beginning you know the executive all experienced it you belong to why and you know or my great line that I love the Ordinariate of the chair of st. Peter no person involved in marketing had anything to do with what were named you know I mean because no but you take one abstract concept Ordinariate and you slap it on to another abstract concept the chair of st. Peter and try to fit it on a business card so you know there's a lot of natural misunderstanding and I'll tell you what it annoys me when our priests whine about that I went a different way didn't I why because misunderstanding opens up the possibility of a conversation where do you go I go to st. Patrick's parish the conversation ends because I may not have been to st. Patrick's parish but I know what st. Patrick's parish is right oh I belong to the ordinary that chair st. Peter you well let me tell you about that the conversation continues you know that there is an opportunity for real evangelization for real catechesis for real sharing even with brothers and sisters in the Catholic Church that there is something more in the Catholic Church than maybe what they experience day to day that there is a breath a with a depth and a vitality that they have yet to experience father Raymond de Souza who is at Mass last night is having his wild and wonderful weekend as he described it because he was with us last night and he's with the serum alankara can today you know I mean but this is the thing the Catholic Church exists in in in wonderful and in varied ways and we're one of those wonderful and varied ways let's use the question mark that's out there and use it as an opportunity to launch the idea at least that there's something about the way that the faith is lived and prayed and expressed and spoken in English that is unique that's broad that's that that was was an insight of the church that our tradition expressing something of a patrimony of English Christianity that is itself unique and worth sharing and worth introducing people to that's a that's an incredible thing but most people you know out there aren't gonna stop and ask the question unless they come up with you well I don't understand what this funny word is that you're using what is an ordinate which they always call us right I'd like at this point just to to because I I've just mentioned it this is a this was an insight of Monsignor Harry Entwistle the former or denarian in England and he's kind of swung the other ordinarius to this point of view Australia Australia is using the idea of speaking of our patrimony as the patrimony of English Christianity because it's older than Anglicanism it's older than Anglicanism because already the church in the evenin the evangelization of st. Agustin you know of Canterbury writing back to st. Gregory and saying well alright I've got all these angles what do I do with them in terms of liturgy but because you know what we did in Rome you know I was I looked around in Gaul and they do it differently there and Gregory writes back and says you take whatever is good and true and holy and do that and put it in some orderly fashion and do that so already there was this thing develops then in in time as saaremaa you know that there was a particular expression to the way that the faith was celebrated in latin but in england that was different than rome expressed something differently than wrong and when let's face it the 1549 the first Book of Common Prayer was being written by Archbishop Cranmer what was he using as his source saaremaa so already this thing predates it annoys me when people call it the extraordinary form in English cuz our liturgical our liturgical sources are about 75 years older than the Missal of pius v the so called written teen missile so actually we've been around first so in other words you know you're doing our bit in Latin so they're you know that there's there's a there's a there's a sense to which our patrimony is rich and only really kind of beginning to be explored but to that to facilitate that exploration if it's true and it is that the church designates patrimony that the church you know expresses it and tells the rest of it what it is you know that way well then use the language that the church uses this was a particularly with the priests even a couple of weeks ago the Missal divine worship the missile the big red book on the altar that is the expression of our patrimony use those words I cannot tell you the disorienting array of things and words used to describe our mass that I read not on the internet but on leaflets produced by our own parishes you know I mean the fact of the matter is high mass low mass is not language that has been used in the Catholic Church since the 1950s we use it all the time and to the prep the priests I say stop it what is the missile say what is the words that our own liturgical texts used to describe Mass you can talk about some mass said mass you can talk about solemn mass you can talk about a Pontifical Mass you can talk about mass all sorts of different ways use the words that the church uses because one of the jarring experiences for cradle Catholics coming to the Ordinariate you know without that background is we're using a whole different vocabulary it doesn't sound Catholic to them because very few of them would have been adults I mean you can be kids but adults when the church was using the you know language like sometimes what we use so to use the clarity of language is it is an important way of advancing that mission all right and that identity because it doesn't first of all scare them away in a heartbeat there's been a tremendous change in the last ten years and the way that bishops approach us in that you know we kind of went from the redheaded stepchild frankly to you know rel that read in a relatively quick time you know full integration into the American Conference of Bishops than the Canadian Conference of Bishops we went from okay you stand over there and do your thing - now I'm fielding more requests than we can handle from bishops asking them to come and take parishes take over diocesan parishes and run the ordinary community out of a diocesan parish where our priests would be pastor of both you know we have just started that in Kansas City and in Washington DC this year and we have two lined up for next year you know so to understand where our place is in the church it's at the center it's at the center of things contributing and evangelizing and in that context growing that's what we're meant to be you know so anything that sounds fringe should be avoided because that's not who we're meant to be whatever our identity looks like it is infringed a liturgical patrimony is is is obviously a big part of who we are we pray a certain way and certainly we're having the opportunity during these days of celebrating that and experiencing that richness musically and in liturgical E it's true the liturgical patrimony is not the entirety of it but it is perhaps the most tangible the most experienced Abal of our patrimony and I would say beyond that not only is it the easiest thing to look at and say aha that's distinctive but the liturgical patrimony opens up the space for exploring some of the less tangible elements of our patrimony so if if the robust praying of the office and the parochial prayer of the office is part of who we are identity then when we build a school well yes it's going to be part of the daily experience of the students what we do see identity Foster's mission that we're going to have morning prayer and we're going to have a daily celebration of math this is simply going to be part of the rhythm of the life of an ordinary student why because it's who we are and that arises out of the liturgical patrimony and then allows that patrimony to express itself in the way that we do formation and education and children that they're being raised with these biblical Cadence's and with this way of speaking and with this way of imagining because that richness of the language you know does open up the imagination on a juridical or an ecclesiastical that level the church establishes patrimony and yet at the same time gives a great freedom and breath to developing it to exploring it to teasing it out it's in terms of its implications you know you would have heard last April that the ordinary received new complimentary norms you know and well what does that mean well it means that we wrote the first ones before an actual ordinary it existed and so sometimes it didn't quite fit so that was the Holy See's response to a redirect request from the Ordinaries and from the three governing councils you know we're the ones who actually sent the proposals and said it would be much better if we set it this way because you know but and so yet they did that and yet in that there's actually a great there's a great yet to be discovered experience because you know there's more in there there's more in the litter in the legal framework for the ordinary than we've lived into yet we're just starting for example the house of formation in Houston for our our seminarians it only has room for three but you know all of these sections in our legislation that talk about a proper program of priestly formation and what formated forming our priests alongside other candidates for the priesthood but you know making sure they're firmly grounded and rooted in our rich traditions and patrimony what does that look like how does that you know they should all of that's yet to be you know discovered and you sometimes you just have to discover it in the doing of it the pastoral level were four years now since the promulgation of the missile that's significant I mean it's a blip in the life of the church but it's significant because we have already gone through what I have described as a process of normalization when the father Lee is laughing because I had to have him as a tutor when the missile first came out I would go to our different parishes and I felt like very often know what to do because that the individual custom had been so vastly different at some of our communities I don't have that thought or feeling anymore you know that there's a sense to which you know the having a text having an authorized text has brought everyone kind of now to a shared basis where not only as a celebrant but as a lay person you can go from ordinary at parish to ordinary parish yeah sure there might be some small observable differences but you're gonna know the prayers you're gonna know when you need to be kneeling and when to be standing you know what's happening you know what's happening and that's and that's actually that's a that's a real accomplishment in four years that's not to be that's not to be to be dismissed that process of normalization of understanding the rubrics because let's face it rubrics and anglicanism are all optional or suggestive but you know to get our priests to understand know when it says is its it is and when it says may now you have an opinion father you know and it's and it's not as simple as say the black do the red because a lot of our a lot of our red says may because there's a real attempt to to to accommodate local custom because it's so vastly different not just then the macro-level Canada versus the United States but even even within even within some of those jurisdictions those are noticeable things but then also having finally the ability to evaluate local custom when every parish was an island local custom became took on almost a dogmatic thing we do it this way here well why because it was what was setting the identity over and against usually the diocese over and against the the surrounding thing you know now there's a much more freedom as I go here nobody's trying to kill us so you know maybe we can relax a little bit and realize that okay there's a better way to do that or we don't have to quite do every option all the time and that's the other thing that's brand-new as a Catholic liturgical principle that was lost somehow in anglicanism the idea of seasonality that there's enough option given in the missile to allow for a seasonal way of approaching these thing what do I mean by that the summary of the law here with our Lord Jesus Christ say I love the Lord thy God with all in the back there is the full Decalogue and in the thing it says particularly appropriate during Lent you know that that's a real thing I've only heard it once actually in all of our parishes in four years which is I think a poverty that we should recover or something like the last gospel you know the the the the last gospel is there the last gospel is an option is there a time of year when the last gospel might be more appropriate to do and emphasize Christmas epiphany tide for example you know that that would be a thing and or maybe in lens you know if you weren't doing the Decalogue maybe that's a time to do the prayers and at the foot and and and certainly an Easter tide you wanted to do the videoclip as a regular feature you know that these things are there but I'll tell you just from having made that initial visit an initial survey of the parishes you know the there was that sense of every option all the time you know and when you frankly when you're at Mass for 25 minutes before you sit down for the readings that's a problem I mean we're all fine with mass being longer on a Sunday at an ordinary parish but come on there is a there is also great spiritual development and again it's about what has been done and a lot of it has been done and I under the leadership of the Anglican arm trade EBU society you know to put some resources in the hands of the faithful this is uniquely important because in a certain sense we we're dealing with the priests with the missile with the publication of ordinary of vocational services we still need to do the pastor care of the sick and dying that's actually with Pope Francis right now there's still something that's yet to be done with the Divine Office but what about the lady so the publication of the st. Peter gradual you know a hugely important you know even for parishes that don't sing it all the time you know there's a sense to which okay but with you do these chants there's no mystery to them we actually do begin the intrigue the same way with the same musical setting every Sunday for a reason because these are meant to be the chants of the people you know to - you can buy the Saint Peter gradual and have everything you need for the chance of something that's the st. Gregory prayer book is meant to be the devotional you know that and the Bible is kind of what you need you know because it's all there you've got your devotional prayers in there you've got a doable form of the Divine Office because it's somewhat shorter you've got the full form of complan if you want to do night prayer you've got lit knees and devotions and meditations that do not exist anywhere else in English in the st. Gregory prayer book you know that we have been able to get from Walsingham and we have been able to get from some of these wonderful medieval sources that that aren't available anywhere else there's a there's a it's a Treasury the the st. Gregory prayer book and so that's that's something you know - to grasp as well all of this has been happening all of this has been has characterized the first ten years so as we take this moment of Jubilee and we look back at that we've done a lot we've done an awful lot and sometimes again that that experience of fragility makes over look just how much has been accomplished its enormous Lee an important opportunity therefore to take back to our own parishes that sense of what we have done because what if you don't have a clear sense of what God's grace and God's providence has already brought forward what we have done in race you can't reasonably look at what we have failed to do or what we have yet to do you know what what's next because one builds off of the other and if you engage the the the what next without of without a firm appreciation of what is already well then actually you know that's when it becomes overwhelming that's when it becomes overwhelming we can't afford at this point deadweight we can't afford the parishes that decide not to engage this kind of reflection because they will not grow and if they do not grow they will not survive it's as simple as that but you know so but small is not the measure size as it turns out is not everything if you go on the ordinary website into the resources architects of communion is available this is the resource that the Governing Council did very early on after I was appointed appointed bishop that is meant to be the benchmarks for parish growth and development it is a document that is built not only for priests but for parish councils for the vestry if you will for the people of the parish to see what are the other measures of vitality you know what what are we look how do we how do we plan to be the parish with its own building well there's actually three steps before that so why don't we not be overwhelmed by this and look how do you get from here to here you know and if you can do that in a stepwise manner you will grow your parish so if you have read or haven't seen architects for communion go see it you know there's not nothing is meant to be hidden in this thing so it's it's it's there because that is how that's how we move forward encouraged by our patrimony encouraged by this identity and and is how we avoid frankly kind of just you know very unhelpful navel-gazing which you know really doesn't contribute anything to life and growth and vitality I will close with the Bible because you know 1 Peter 3:15 always be prepared to give an account of the hope that is in you some translations actually say a defense a defense of the hope that is in you and in our world today you know as I walked from the hotel over here this morning all the people who you don't see a Roman collar on the street and it's weird you know they look at me and not at the homeless person screaming to themselves think about that for a minute hope Christian Hope Living discipleship trying to build a church trying to engage a robust parish life this is not something readily understood in the world well that's your mission field that's your opportunity that's that that's the place where you proclaim the gospel share that hope share what has brought you to be interested enough in the ordinary and its identity and its mission to come here to this conference and the two to construct a parish life where a lot of us are in less than ideal situations at a less than ideal time on a Sunday why do you do that and and beginning to share that you will discover that the world not just the church but the world is actually much more receptive to that than you might imagine because if the world shows us anything there's not a whole lot of other reason for hope so maybe we should just give them one thank you we have about ten minutes or so before you all have to go over to church and I have to go to an airport so if there are questions or something I would be glad to entertain a few [Applause] sure sure so the question was married priest is the first question that cradle Catholics will ask and weirdly you know they ask it strangely different times because sometime if for a more traditional Catholic it's the worry that we're trying to sneak something in this is the Trojan horse for a more liberal Catholic it's the great excitement oh great you know this is what we've been you know of course neither of these things are true actually the second most robust defenders of clerical celibacy that I have ever encountered are our priests and the most robust the most robust defenders of clerical celibacy I have encountered are their wives because you know I mean there's there's there's a sense to which there's a sense to which you know when you're dealing with a just on the on the sociological level folks you know when you're dealing with a small largely Protestant you know in mentality community it's manageable when you when you're ordained one of the wives said it to me this way she was at obviously the ordination of her husband and the bishop at the ordination mass you know King down in the closing procession and she was sitting on the front row and the bishop came over and gave her a hug and said to her thank you for giving your husband to the church and then proceeded out and she sat there now I mean the husband had been an Episcopal priest for you know 20 years or some such thing and you know now he was being ordained a Catholic priest at 60 you know so this was not this was not a fresh young you know vocation kind of a thing and she thought what an odd thing to say I had and she said to me I had absolutely no idea what that man meant three months later I understood it's not the same it's not the same the demands are not the same the expectations are not the same you know the sacramental principle for one thing you know the phone doesn't ring in a Protestant rectory at 2:00 o'clock in the morning because there's not sacraments to be given to a person when they're dying there's family to be comforted and they can be comforted as easily at 8 o'clock in the morning as a two o'clock in the morning the the whole thing shifts and the expectation of the parishioners is entirely different in terms of availability so it's a stretching beyond the exception for the ordinary is articulated based on one thing and one thing only it has nothing to do with how good the priest is or how fruitful his ministry has been or anything he has done in the past it's because of the pastoral need of the group of faithful coming into full communion that's it it is for you that Pope Benedict wrote that that exception in for the ordinary so that when a group of the faithful comes into full communion they can be accompanied by the very pastors that brought them to that point and so the sheep are not abandoned that's the pastoral principle which also explains why going forward our seminarians and we have seven of them now are celibate because that's what Catholic priests are they are being formed for Catholic priesthood which is a celibate expression of priesthood so it's it's yes you have to deal with that and it's it's it's one thing you know if the priest is a bit older because then it looks more normal but when the priest is younger fatherly already snuck out to go get ready for church you know and you know baby number six is now on the way in the Kenyan household okay that starts looking a lot different you know and and and it's hard it's very hard on the practical level it's also hard on a theological and a pastoral level for the priest and his wife there are tensions born in that kind of marriage that on a good day are creative very creative on some days they don't feel so creative you know but it's Oh to realize with a lot of patience and care that we have to give to this because the church isn't really set up for it and so there's even when you know the priest goes to a gathering of other Catholic priests and the diocese there's always that awkwardness of of how that how that interaction takes place so it's it's it's something that we bear but you know that's that's the reason it it was not for example well this is what Anglicans did and so Anglicans in the Catholic Church can do the same thing see this is not this is kind of key this is the Mary priesthood was not identified by the church as an expression of something patrimonial there were those who would make that argument but it is not an argument that the church ultimately took so an ongoing provision for a married clergy was not part of the Apostolic Constitution but the pastoral needs of the faithful now though we've got you know right now that's that's a hugely important principle and right now unfortunately there are many who are trying to to to exploit that in the Amazon and and whatever and I think there's probably room to look at it but my own sense of it is that discussion is still very surface level and not not dealing with the realities that that that creates a particularly in family life and how that's going to be supported in the Amazon I have no idea what else [Music] yep yeah yep so you know when when the Holy Father uses periphery you know we think strange things because he means strange things you know I mean in that he grew up in a Latin American context so when he's thinking periphery he's thinking of a socio-economic expression he's thinking of the barrio he's thinking whatever he's thinking in an American context hi you're the periphery you know the nuns the NO NES people who are raised now with no religion which is kind of the religion majority of people under the age of 25 that's the periphery that's you know or if you want to use a different word than periphery because it's kind of loaded you know it's the Areopagus of where Paul had to go and preach it was very interesting you'll know Bishop Robert Barron you know and his his whole attempts at evangelization when he gave a talk at the bishops conference last week and he identified three areas where you can get the nuns 3 the what are the three things that appeal to you know people 25 and younger who have grown up with no religion and hook them into at least having the conversation authentic charity you know so there is the lived gospel that that faith in Pels you into service and and authentically so that there's a desire to serve those in need beauty beauty communicates far more than words this is a generation that did not grow up reading books it's a generation that grew up reading watching YouTube and and and communicating in memes and not in poetry you know so imagery sound color you know beauty is is is is something you know I mean and that it's expressed in all different ways and thirdly intellectual seriousness intellectual seriousness because they're just this generation is just as critical of the sciences it is of religion you know postmodernity destroyed all meta-narratives the Bible and the science will actually answer all your questions meta-narrative it's a skepticism of anything that proposes to have it all figured out so if you can get into with seriousness philosophy and and theology and show that these are not just things that we thought up one day but that they actually make sense and that there's an interrelatedness of the doctrines that bring you into a further appreciation of the truth it turns out intellectual conversion is still possible but you're starting from behind because you're starting with a with a group of people that does not have necessarily the philosophical background we don't think we don't teach critical thinking and certainly not critical writing in you know with kids between 14 and 18 anymore and so by the time they get to university you know you're starting from scratch because you have to teach them how to think before you can teach them how to pray you know so but but when you talk where the Ordinariate can can do this thing well as it turns out in all three we got the beauty thing handled I think you know if we do it right Anglo Catholicism has always had that very strong emphasis on direct service to the community you know and you see you see that you see that you know from the drip of the high candle to the poorest of the poor you know there's a direct line and that whole sense of what anglo-catholics I've brought to that Christian experience and you know with John Henry Newman with the Oxford movement and some of these others we can certainly halt in the intellectual conversation as well so you put those three things together and I've said it before well you know I've said it to the priests and I say to you we have all the tools we need to make ourselves one powerfully evangelizing force all right it's five after ten you've got choral Matins in ten minutes so off the church you go thank you [Applause] [Music] [Music] you