Also, in fact, the real horrors of the San Joaquin situation is the two-decades’ long degeneration, Schofield’s loading of the clergy list with cronies, the total administrative break with the national Church, etc., etc. It seems that under present canons, nothing can be done until the horse has left the stable, and by then immeasurable damage has been done.

I’m not a canon lawyer, and I don’t know the exact canonical modes, but Br. Thomas is right on target. Some way is needed both to keep a finger on the pulse and to provide canonical machinery for appropriate interventions.

I wonder about something like the periodical accreditation process required of our seminaries?

at least, it seems to me that it is the only plausible procedure.

a diocese is free to redesignate a parish as a mission, at which point the bishop becomes free to order all that church’s affairs, including appointing its new bishop’s committee and a vicar. in most dioceses this authority rests in the convention, but a diocese could rest that authority where it chooses.

we need a national canon which permits extraordinary interventions in cases like the one in San Joaquin. it needs to be pretty general, because we cannot anticipate the various extraordinary things which can happen. certainly it could provide that the presiding bishop should have the authority (perhaps require the consent of the council of advice, say) to require a diocese to have a diocesan convention, which convention would have the power to establish itself anew, replacing any diocesan officers except the bishops at its will.