What the Ad Clerum COULD have said

John S. Morgan of Fort Worth offers his response to the Ad Clerum in which four senior priests of the diocese apologized. It begins with a brief excerpt from the document the four sent to the Roman Catholic bishop.
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Background: "Furthermore, in April, 2006 the four priests making this presentation, with our Bishop and two other priests of our Diocese, met with Bernard Cardinal Law at his residence in Rome. At that meeting we discussed our plight with him."

What the ad clerum said:

We wish to emphasize:
1. That the documents and our conversation with Bishop Vann solely ever
represented the four priests named.
2. In retrospect, we regret our choice of timing for starting these
conversations.
3. We deeply regret the phraseology of the
document which has caused hurt and division.
4. We remain fully committed to the goal of this Diocese, as plainly
stated by Bishop Iker, to realign with an Orthodox Anglican Province.
Respectfully submitted, N,N, N, and N


What the ad clerum could have said:

We wish to emphasize:

1. That the documents and our conversation with Bishop Vann solely ever represented the four priests named. But our estimate still stands. "There are currently 60 active clergy We believe 9 will opt to stay in The Episcopal Church. 51 will remain in a temporarily realigned diocese with the Southern Cone. 5 are not interested at this time in working for full communion. 46 are truly interested. If we add our seminarians currently on the priesthood track and our retired clergy the number becomes 59." Badmouthing the Episcopal Church year in and year out helps get active recruits. "Our best guess is that approximately 59 clergy are willing to pursue an active plan to bring the Diocese of Fort Worth or a significant portion of it into full communion with the Holy See, if this be God's will." At least it is what we want to do. Will some be without a church building in this schism? Yes but that is not our concern.

2. In retrospect, we regret our choice of timing for starting these conversations. There is a timing problem here. First we go to the Southern Cone then, later, we become Roman Catholic. No sense rushing things. While we still "believe the Catholic Faith is true" we are not going there alone. "The Protestant/Low Church teachings, the Liberals experiential teachings are just not true." "The Catholic faith, the Catholic practice, the Catholic teaching - is true." Meanwhile we shall remain in the camp of the false for a season.

3. We deeply regret the phraseology of the document which has caused hurt and division. We don't regret the content of the document but that will have to wait for a while since premature disclosure of our clandestine work has created such an uproar that we feel pressured, not to recant or repent, but merely to apologize. We well understand that the "phraseology" of our attempt to move a whole Episcopal diocese to Rome might be unsettling to some. We would be grateful if you could propose better words or phrases for our endeavor.

4. We remain fully committed to the goal of this Diocese, as plainly stated by Bishop Iker, to realign with an Orthodox Anglican Province. We are fully aware that the constitution of the Southern Cone does not permit this. But, we shall remain as committed to Bishop Iker as we are to our oath to uphold the, doctrine, discipline, and worship of the Episcopal Church.
Like we indicated in 1 and 2 above, first we go to the Southern Cone then, later, we become Roman Catholic. By that time there will be few options left for a maverick Anglo-Catholic diocese residing, temporarily, deep in Evangelical territory. And, yes, we also recognize that it will take time to bring the laity on board with this proposal. Perhaps longer than we think.


Respectfully submitted, N,N, N, and N