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| Father Christopher G. Phillips, pastor of Our Lady of the Atonement, the first personal parish erected under the Pastoral Provision. |
This is the first in a series of articles covering the national Anglican Use Conference held in San Antonio in July.
BY CAROL BAASS SOWA
TODAY’S CATHOLIC
SAN ANTONIO • Falling at a time when foundational shifts within the Anglican and Episcopalian churches hold promise of reuniting a segment of their followers with the Catholic Church, the tone of the national Anglican Use Conference held at Our Lady of the Atonement Parish on July 10-12, was decidedly one of optimism. It was a time to reflect on the struggles and triumphs of the past and look with renewed hope to the future.
Under the Catholic Church’s 1980 Pastoral Provision to the Anglican Usage of the Roman Rite, former Episcopalians seeking reunification with the church from which their forefathers split at the time of Henry the VIII are able to retain much of their Anglican liturgical heritage when converting to Catholicism.
Included in this provision is the erection of “personal parishes” for such converts. Six such parishes currently exist, three in Texas.
Also notable under this provision is that former Episcopalian priests — some married and with children, after studies and church examination, have been able to be ordained as Catholic priests and head such parishes. One of these is Father Christopher G. Phillips, pastor of Our Lady of the Atonement, the first personal parish erected under the Pastoral Provision. Speaking on the 25th anniversary of this historic provision and of the parish, Father Phillips paid tribute to the many who had done “yeoman’s work” laying the groundwork for the provision and its implementation.
Among those cited as expressing early interest and encouragement in the provision was then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, who served as Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, under which the Anglican Use’s Book of Divine Worship (based on the Gregorian or Roman Canon) was compiled and approved. Father Phillips himself served on the special commission for this liturgy and was instrumental in gaining the commission’s approval for it.
As to why some Episcopalians have made the difficult journey to Catholicism, Father Phillips gave his own motivation as an example. “For me,” he said, “the answer to the question ‘Why make the move?’ was because I knew I could not stay where I was.” Beginning in the ’70s, with dramatic changes in doctrine being approved at the Episcopal Church’s General Convention, he became painfully aware that whatever claim to Catholicity he had thought existed in the Episcopal Church was quickly disappearing.
It was not just the ordination of women or approval of abortion that brought about his personal crisis of faith in his former church. “Rather, it was that the authority to make such a decision was claimed by whatever majority had pushed its agenda through the hardest,” he said. “It was politics pure and simple, and it made me think: ‘What next?’”
Each person’s primary obligation, he noted, is the salvation of their own soul and the souls of those for whom they are responsible. “If we cannot be assured of being able to save our souls where we are, we need to get where we know that can happen,” he said. For him it became evident that the only place to find “stable, trustworthy, Godly authority” was in the church founded by Christ, who had passed on that authority to Peter and his successors — the Catholic Church.
“The short answer to ‘why,’ he added, is that we were looking for a home that didn’t have constantly shifting foundations.”
However, it takes much courage to realize one is on the wrong road and do an about face and turn back to find the right one, he admitted, referencing thoughts expressed by C.S. Lewis and Cardinal John Newman. Very often heavy sacrifice is involved, and the practical implications weighed heavily on Father Phillips as a young married Episcopal priest with three small children, who felt compelled by conscience to renounce his church and follow a new path to the Catholic faith.
Leaving the Episcopal Church meant the loss of the parish-owned house they lived in, as well as the termination of his salary and diocesan insurances as a priest in an Episcopal parish. He was made an example of in his then Episcopal Diocese of Rhode Island by being deposed with a large and public ceremony.
Called to Texas to pastor what would be the first Anglican Use parish established, he, his wife and children (all under the age of five), along with the family dog and hamster, departed New England in their aging Volkswagen in the midst of blizzard and headed for San Antonio, where they knew nary a soul.
At the time, Father Phillips had no one to look to as a model for navigating the uncharted waters he had set sail upon, but feeling God had a plan, he persevered and on Aug. 15, 1983, was ordained a Catholic priest by Archbishop Patrick F. Flores in San Fernando Cathedral. At the same time, the parish of Our Lady of the Atonement, though without a permanent home, was established, consisting of 18 converts, including himself and his family.
“In the 25 years that I have been a Catholic priest,” he said, “I can honestly say, even though there have been some difficult times, I have not had one day of regret thinking: ‘Why did I do this?’” He added, “I hope I may strike a chord for those of you who have been in similar experiences and, even more importantly, I’m hoping that these stories will encourage those of you who are perhaps at the beginning of your journey into the Catholic faith.”
He pointed out it is not necessary to have a large number of people to start an Anglican Use parish, but finding a permanent location is important, as well as having an understanding and supportive Catholic bishop. Our Lady of the Atonement first held services in San Francesco di Paolo Catholic Church downtown, but its distance from where all the parishioners lived started Father Phillips on a search for a suitable permanent site. He was overjoyed when he discovered six and a half acres of undeveloped land near the new UTSA that was already owned by the Archdiocese of San Antonio.
The underbrush was so thick he recalls crawling on hands and knees to get into it, eventually coming to a giant cedar tree at whose base he carefully buried a medal of Our Lady of the Atonement, for whom the new parish would be named. Working his way a little further on, he reached a natural clearing where he was stunned to find a rough wooden cross with a small crucifix wired to it — a final sign that this was the land the future church was meant to be built on.
He was elated then when Archbishop Flores agreed to sell the parish the property, only to have his hopes dashed shortly thereafter by a call from the archbishop saying Dominican priests had requested the land to set up an intended chaplaincy at UTSA and he had decided it would go to them instead. Unable to convince the archbishop to change his mind, Father Phillips promised that he and his parishioners would begin praying for this. They began a nine-day novena and, by the fourth evening, he received a call. “I don’t know what kind of prayers you’ve been saying,” said Archbishop Flores, “but the Dominicans don’t want to come here anymore.”
Groundbreaking for the church took place in 1985, with a wood altar constructed where Father Phillips had encountered the solitary cross. Both the little cross and altar have since been encased in a rock shrine on that site. A thriving school of 500 pre-kinder through 12th grade students has also been added, and he describes the school as a tremendous evangelistic tool. “Through the children,” he said, “many families are returning to the practice of their faith.”
Many inspiring things are taking place in all the Anglican Use parishes and communities, he observed, but there are still persons scattered throughout the country seeking guidance in establishing similar ones. “We know from the Gospels,” he said, “that Christ is not pleased when his sheep are left to scatter. We know that Christ thinks it’s pretty important to ‘gather up the fragments, that nothing be lost.’ And we’ve got to do whatever we can do to make that happen.”
He urged those present to shine as an example of what can be accomplished, assuring those seeking that God has made for them “a home, a church founded by Our Lord Jesus Christ,” one with infinite room, because it is God’s wish that all be saved. “And the means of salvation given to us,” he said, “is one holy, catholic, apostolic and Roman church."