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by Jim Holman.
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Not "No," But "Hell, No!"

OF ANGLICANS WHO WOULD HAVE BEEN CATHOLIC

By Charles A. Coulombe

Septuagesima Sunday, in 1976, I first set foot in a non-Catholic church. I had been sent by my confessor, Cardinal McIntyre, a prelate not known for his ecumenism. But this was no ordinary non-Catholic church. Located at 4510 Finley Avenue in Hollywood, St. Mary of the Angels was a place apart.

The music at the Mass I attended that day was by Palestrina. The celebrant, a deacon, and sub-deacon served at the altar. Clouds of incense ascended to heaven, the movements of the trio and the army of acolytes were precise, and the devotion of the people intense. The officiant, Father John Barker, ascended the pulpit and preached the best sermon I had ever heard up to that time, filled with references to the Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament, and the Sacrifice of the Mass.

I was not the only Catholic who visited St. Mary's in search of Catholicism. Seminarians from St. John's Seminary, Camarillo, would come incognito; students from Thomas Aquinas College would come as well. Outside the sanctuary, however, St. Mary's had troubles. An outpost of Anglo-Catholicism (which holds that Anglicanism is, with Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, an equal branch of the One Catholic Church), St. Mary's felt constrained to leave the Episcopal Church in 1976 when the national body voted to ordain women. The Episcopal diocese sued the parish for its property in a legal struggle which went all the way to the California Supreme Court, which after nine years ruled in favor of St. Mary's.

With the fight against women's ordination lost, Father Barker of St. Mary's and others sought for an alternative for Anglo-Catholics who believed the Episcopal Church had abandoned them. Though many of the clergy and laity sought to constitute some sort of continuing Anglican Church outside the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, the people of St. Mary's and other clerics and layfolk around the country thought it best to go to Rome.

At Vatican II, Cardinal Seper (later head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Paul VI) had argued that, since Anglicanism had maintained many Catholic practices which should be reintegrated into the Church, an Anglican uniate rite would be appropriate. In 1978, Canon Alfred Dubois, a prominent Anglo-Catholic, and Fathers Barker and W.T. St. John Brown met with Cardinal Seper in Rome. He was very receptive to the idea of an Anglican uniate rite, complete with its own liturgy and bishops; as in the East, Anglicans would be received as a group and remain independent of the local Latin Rite bishops. The pope was favorable, and it appeared that an agreement would soon be reached.

However, Paul VI died that year, and two years would pass before the new pontiff could turn his attention to the question. What emerged in 1980 was a "pastoral provision" for an "Anglican Use" within the Catholic Church in the United States. What this meant was that Anglicans would be reconciled with the Church as individuals, allowed to form parishes if the local ordinary (who would retain jurisdiction) permitted them to, and use a modified Anglican rite. Then archbishop of Springfield-Cape Girardeau (now cardinal-archbishop of Boston) Bernard Law as "Ecclesiastical Delegate" would have oversight of the communities who would benefit from the program.

Anglican use congregations were established in Texas, South Carolina, Nevada, and Massachusetts. When Archbishop Law came to St. Mary's twice (one time celebrating Mass at their altar) the parishioners rejoiced: for nine years they had been without a bishop (a fact which caused a number to leave) and they had trusted Rome to take care of their spiritual needs. They voted to accept the pastoral provision, and to apply to Cardinal Manning. He did not act upon it, and so St. Mary's tried again with the cardinal's successor, Archbishop Roger Mahony. His response was a letter dated October 27, 1986:

"I wish to acknowledge your letter of October 14, 1986," wrote Mahony, "with respect to your desire that St. Mary of the Angels Church community be received into communion with the Roman Catholic Church. The history of your parish community is not paralleled with any other similar Episcopal community which has been received into the Roman Catholic Church in our country. Your letter to His Eminence, Cardinal Bernard Law, does not reflect the long and very volatile public legal proceedings which you took against the Episcopal Diocese, a process which proceeded through both the Superior Court and the Appellate Court. This factor distinguishes your history from every other application of which I am aware. You indicate that your numbers continue to dwindle, and there is still division and divisiveness among the community. In addition, you seem to require that a major focus be upon the physical plant of St. Mary of the Angels community. All of these considerations compel me and my consultants to look negatively upon your interest in union with the Roman Catholic Church as an Anglican Use community. I am hopeful that this letter will help to crystallize once again the problems which have been so prevalent in the past efforts of your community to seek union with the Roman Catholic Church."

The letter fell like a thunderclap on the parishioners. Subsequent inquiries brought from the archbishop the advice that "if you want to be Catholic, join your local parish." One long-time parishioner observed to this writer about Mahony's letter later: "the letter was a lie! We did not initiate the legal battle, the Episcopal diocese did! And the courts said that we were in the right! As for our losing people -- sure! Try living a Catholic life without a bishop! That was why we appealed to Rome in the first place."

At any rate, given their reception by Mahony, the parish decided to look elsewhere. Father Barker himself went on to become a Catholic priest in the diocese of San Bernardino, where he currently serves. St. Mary's was received into one of the continuing Anglican bodies formed in the wake of the 1976 ordination of women. They received a new rector -- Father Gregory Wilcox -- who continues there to this day.

But many of those involved with St. Mary's at the time of Mahony's action remain nonplussed. Phil Mayfield, a parishioner since 1950, has served in various capacities at St. Mary's. He was privy to St. Mary's negotiations with Rome, Cardinal Law, and the archdiocese. Asked why he did not reconcile with the Church at Our Mother of Good Counsel, his local parish, Mayfield replied, "If I had gone there, I would have lost my faith. Many of our people did just that, after they saw what goes on at Mass in a lot of Roman parishes. I had five acolytes who wanted to be priests. They were told by the vocations director of the archdiocese, when it looked as though the parish would be received, that they needed to be Catholics for two years before they could enter seminary -- so the five decided to be received in advance of the rest of us. Only one of them has stayed Roman; two came back here and the other two are Greek and Russian Orthodox.

"One thing the archbishop either didn't appreciate or didn't care about was that Anglo-Catholic parishes are rarely territorial. People will come for miles to go to one whose liturgy is reverent. The parish family is very important, and having us received separately, breaking us up, would be very un-pastoral."

Robert Kennedy, the only one of the five to remain Catholic, is a 36-year old para-legal, married, and a father of three. He was received into the Church on January 15, 1985. "I was raised Episcopalian," he explains. "My parents divorced when I was seven, and my father was Episcopalian. When he moved to Los Angeles, he found St. Mary's. He had visitation rights, and my sister and I would go to church with him a few times each year. Midnight Mass on Christmas at St. Mary's was wonderful; I wanted to go every Sunday. St. Mary's was already out of the Episcopal Church, and that was fine with me because I don't believe in women priests.

"The people at St. Mary's gave me books to read, and I started listening to Archbishop Sheen's tapes. My college, Cal State, Los Angeles, had a wonderful Catholic library. By this time it looked like St. Mary's was going to be received by Rome.

"With two years to go before graduation, I felt I might have a vocation to the priesthood. Confident that the parish would be received soon, I was reconciled with the Catholic Church, but continued to attend and serve Mass at St. Mary's -- but I would attend Mass the night before at St. Elizabeth of Hungary in Altadena.

"As time went on, and there was no assurance about St. Mary's future state, it became apparent that I would never, as a priest, see in the Catholic Church what I had seen at St. Mary's. Should I be a priest? I met my wife then and introduced her to St. Mary's, and we started doing both Masses together. But after St. Mary's was refused by Cardinal Mahony and joined a continuing Anglican group, we stopped going."

Bill Zuk, born in 1943, was raised in the Evangelical United Brethren Church. Studying the Bible as a young man, he "realized that the Bible teaches Catholicism." Zuk attended Mass between 1964 and 1969, in that latter year going regularly to St. Ferdinand's, San Fernando. Afterwards, he did not attend Mass for another five years.

"In 1976, I went back to St. Ferdinand's -- and was horrified," said Zuk "It was another eight years before I finally found a Mass under archdiocesan auspices I could pray at. In May of 1977, I walked into my first Anglo-Catholic Mass. At the time, it looked like the Anglicans would soon enter into communion with Rome. In May of 1978, I was confirmed in the Episcopal Church, but Holy Week 1982, I discovered St. Mary's. After the cardinal's rejection, I was received into the Catholic Church on my own in 1987. I still do go occasionally to Masses in the archdiocese, and I am a Roman Catholic."

But how does he justify not merely attending St. Mary's on Sundays and Holy Days, but receiving the sacraments there? "Well," said Zuk, "Canon 844 says, 'Whenever necessity requires or genuine spiritual advantage suggests, and provided that the danger of error or indifferentism is avoided, it is lawful for the faithful for whom it is physically or morally impossible to approach a Catholic minister, to receive the sacraments of penance, Eucharist, and anointing of the sick from non-Catholic ministers in whose churches these sacraments are valid.' Well, for the reasons I mentioned, it is morally impossible for me to go to most parishes near to me, and physically impossible for me to go to those where that is not a problem."

But what about the invalidity of Anglican Orders? "Oh, I absolutely agree with Leo XIII about that -- the Edwardine Ordinal of 1549 was invalid, but the Caroline Ordinal of 1662 was specifically composed to remedy the first one's defects. For a long time in the Episcopal Church, and especially in the continuing groups formed after 1976, Old Catholic and Orthodox bishops have been used to co-ordain priests and consecrate bishops."

Beau Davis was also received into the Catholic Church in 1987, and like Zuk, he has come back to St. Mary's. Born in 1937, he is now studying for the priesthood in the continuing Anglican church, and has been ordained a sub-deacon.

"Reluctantly, at St. Mary's, we had come to believe that there must be something in the papal claims --Anglicanism was dissolving around us," said Davis. "I expected the same kind of reception that Mother Seton and Father Paul of Graymoor received from the Roman Church, when they and their religious found they could not live out their vocations in Anglicanism. But what happened was that the pope said 'yes,' Archbishop Law said 'hem-hem,' and the local ordinary said 'no.' How could this be? A pope whose authority we had come to accept made a decision which was nullified by the local archbishop. We thought we had some things of value to bring home to Mother Church, and the Holy See apparently agreed. Mahony didn't. He accused us in his letter basically of being trouble makers. If standing fast when lawless thugs are taking over your Church is trouble making, then we were. The pope said, yes; Law said, maybe; and Mahony not only said, 'no,' but, 'hell, no.' To which this parish replied 'and also with you,' and turned to the continuing movement.

"For myself though, at the time, I didn't see where this was all leading. When I joined the Catholic Church in 1987, the Masses were horribly irreverent almost everywhere I went, so I chased the Tridentine Masses on the indult circuit. But finally, after three months, I literally burst into tears in the confessional. I told my confessor, 'remember how I told you that I wanted to die in communion with the Holy See? Well, I'm not dying now. I'm sick of bad theology, bad liturgy, and bad homiletics.' He replied, 'I release you from your vows to the Holy See for the time being. If you stay in, your religion will kill your faith.'

"I am a Roman Catholic," concluded Davis. "The St. Mary's folk are not anti-papal, and I consider the present pope a blessing. But we're tired of strife, we're tired of change. We just want to live our faith, and I at long last am pursuing my vocation."

The current rector of St. Mary's, Father Gregory Wilcox, is a 46-year-old San Antonio, Texas native. Married, he was at an Episcopal seminary when the Protestant Episcopal Church voted in priestesses. Recalled by his parish, St. Barnabas', he joined a continuing Anglican body and was ordained in 1984. Under his aegis, the parish has issued eight times a year for the past five years a magazine devoted to spirituality -- the Ave. There are five parish guilds: altar, ushers', acolytes', choir, and -- in keeping with St. Mary's history and heritage -- the St. Genesius Guild of Actors (he also has a shrine in the church). There is a seminary-in-progress. Matins, low Mass, and vespers are offered daily, with an additional low Mass and a 10 a.m. solemn high Mass on Sundays. Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament takes place on special occasions. Father Wilcox's comment on all this activity is simply "This is our way -- the best way that we can see of worshipping the Lord. We give the best we can."

Archdiocesan spokesman Gregory Coiro refused to comment on this story.

-- from the Los Angeles Lay Catholic Mission, December 1999

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