Why were the UK Marian Franciscans dissolved?

The association said it could not continue without "practical and canonical support” for future ordinations.

At 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, May 31, a U.K. community known as the Marian Franciscans ceased to exist, in terms of the Church’s canon law.

The friars were given oversight of St. Mary’s Church in Gosport, southern England, in 2015. Credit: Hassocks5489/wikimedia CC0 1.0.

The Marian Franciscans announced May 28 that they had taken the unusual step of dissolvin…