Last month I was ordained as a Catholic priest. My wife and children sat in the front row.
Although I am married, I was given permission to be ordained as a Catholic priest because I used to be an Anglican priest. Special permission is granted direct from Rome for this to happen.
My own particular journey has been particularly unusual. I was brought up in the United States in evangelical fundamentalism, and attended the Bob Jones University in South Carolina famous for giving Ian Paisley his honorary doctorate. After college I went to England to study theology at Oxford and was ordained as an Anglican priest. After serving in a parish on the South Coast, and doing a stint as a chaplain at Cambridge, I ended up as vicar of two country parishes on the Isle of Wight.
From there we became Catholics in 1995, and I began work for a Catholic charity that supports convert clergy. For the next ten years I pursued the dream of ordination as a Catholic priest in England, but the right mixture of circumstances never arose. Then, in the summer of 2005, a job as a Catholic school chaplain came up in my home town in South Carolina. The Catholic bishop was willing to put my application forward, we moved back to America and began our new life.
That I was able to be ordained is a story in itself. In the late 1970s, with typical American chutzpah, a group of Episcopalian priests, led by Father James Parker, wrote to Pope Paul VI saying they wanted to become Catholics. They also expressed a wish to be ordained and humbly asked whether they might be dispensed from the vow of celibacy.
They understood that clerical celibacy is a discipline of the Catholic Church and not a dogma. Therefore the Church could make an exception to the rule. Indeed, the equally ancient Eastern Orthodox Church allows for married priests, and the Eastern Churches that are in full communion with the Pope, such as the Maronites, Chaldeans and Ukrainians, also have married clergy.
Father Parker and his friends knew their request was revolutionary, and didn’t hold out much hope. They waited for a reply, and watched as Pope Paul died before he was able to process their request. His successor died within a month and the request ended up on the desk of Pope John Paul II. Permission was finally granted in the early 1980s and a process was set up called “the Pastoral Provision” through which a Catholic bishop can apply for individual married convert clergy to be ordained. Since then about 80 married former Episcopalians, Lutherans and Methodists have become Catholic priests in the United States. Numbers look set to rise as the Episcopal Church continues to divide over hot issues such as the role of women clergy and homosexuality.
When the Anglican Church divided over women’s ordination in the early 1990s the English Catholic bishops were faced with a large influx of Anglican clergy. Knowing the US precedent, they asked for permission to ordain married former Anglicans, too. In the end, more than 700 Anglican priests joined the Catholic Church. Most of them were ordained as priests and about 175 of them were married.
The reaction to the married men on both sides of the Atlantic has been almost universally warm-hearted and generous. There have been a few grumbles from traditionalists. There have also been grumbles from liberal Catholics who want married priests, but not this type of married priest — ones they perceive to be “dangerous conservatives”. There have also been hard feelings from some Catholic priests who left to get married and would very much like to return to ministry.
What exactly is Rome up to? Is it feeling the heat from all those who are pushing for married clergy? Is this a safe way to test the water? Is it getting ready to relax the rule about clerical celibacy? Probably not. Three years ago there were discussions about this issue and Rome came down in favour of the status quo. In November Pope Benedict met Vatican officials to discuss the matter again, and again they decided to retain clerical celibacy.
The best way to understand what the Catholic Church is up to is to reflect on the words of John Paul II to Cardinal Basil Hume when he was faced with the large number of convert Anglican clergy. The Pope was reported to have said: “Be generous to these men.” That’s all. It’s quite simple. The Catholic leadership is watching the situation in the Anglican Church very carefully, and wants to offer every gesture of generosity and support to those who wish to become Catholic.
Pope Benedict has continued to extend the warm welcome to Anglican priests, and he is willing to adapt the Catholic disciplines to make room for those who are willing to make considerable sacrifices to make the long journey into full communion with the Catholic Church.
For me and my family, that journey has not only been “home to Rome”, but also “home to South Carolina”. To be ordained as a married Catholic priest is one thing. To do so in the heart of the American Bible Belt, with its tradition of anti-Catholicism, is another challenge altogether, and this reveals two more reasons for the Catholic leadership making an exception to its own rule.
They hope converts who are ordained will not only minister to the Catholic flock, but also bring gifts from their former traditions to enrich the Catholic Church. Finally, they hope that the convert clergy may be the bridge to help others who long to come into the Catholic Church and are trying to find their way “home to Rome”.
The Rev Dwight Longenecker’s books on the Catholic faith include The Path to Rome, a collection of stories about conversion.
www.dwightlongenecker.com
