Former Protestant Minister Pursues Priesthood

Catholic Anchor, Newspaper of the Archdiocese of Anchorage ^ | October 17, 2008 | James DeCrane, Anchor Writer

[Titanites]

When Steve Olmstead served as a Presbyterian minister in Juneau, he would often finish his duties on Sunday, close up the church and head to Mass with his devout Catholic wife and their children.

“I had a place to worship, which a lot of pastors don’t,” Olmstead said in an interview with the Anchor. “It was nice to go to a place and worship where I wasn’t the minister.”

The Anchorage Archdiocese’s newest seminarian grew up in a Presbyterian home and always had a strong spiritual life. When Olmstead entered adulthood, he felt called to serve as a youth minister, and was later ordained a minister in the Presbyterian Church.

Throughout his life, he said he had many positive contacts with people who were strong in the practice of their Catholic faith, including his wife of 22 years, Janet.

“I married the most devout and most amazing Christian I’ve ever met in my life,” Olmstead said, crediting her with his conversion to Catholicism. Before the two wed, he agreed to raise the children in the Catholic faith. Steve and Janet Olmstead were married in Juneau by then Bishop Michael Kenny.

He continued to serve in a Presbyterian church in Juneau, but over the years grew enamored with Catholicism.

“I love the devotional practices of the Catholic church, its prayers and devotions,” Olmstead said.

He says he was especially drawn to some core beliefs that are often points of contention between Protestants and Catholics; matters of faith like belief in the true presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and devotion to Mary.

“Ultimately those core beliefs created this tug that led me to the (Catholic) Church so that I would be more congruent with myself,” Olmstead said.

His family’s faith helped with that tug. In addition to Janet’s steady faith, the Olmsteads’ seven children, ages 2-18 years, helped play a part.

The Olmsteads have three older biological children, another three they adopted, and one foster child, which they hope to adopt soon.

“My older kids started asking me questions (like), ‘How come you believe this, but you aren’t teaching it,’” Olmstead recalled. “I had this inner conflict and I had to make that decision.”

Ultimately he did, and left his position at the local Presbyterian church in Juneau to officially enter the Catholic Church in 2006, a decision that brought Olmstead much peace.

“A huge thing for me is mystery,” he said. “I really need mystery and mystery in my faith. The Catholic Church (allows) me to have that mystery — Christ held that for me.”

Having served as full-time Protestant minister, Olmstead still felt a strong call to a minsterial or religious vocation.

Last year he participated in a 30-day Ignatian Spiritual Exercises retreat to investigate how God wanted him to serve in his new church, and he felt called to serve as a priest.

“At the end of that retreat, I realized that this is where God was calling me,” he said.

While celibacy is the rule for Latin rite Catholic priests, there are approximately 100 married former Protestant clergymen in the United States who have joined the Catholic Church and received Vatican permission to become priests.

[Titanites]

That is a depiction of the sacrifice our Lord made. Surely you understand that is an inanimate object.

The symbol of the Crucifix demonstrates the power of God, as explained in 1 Cor 1, and demonstrates the love God has for us by giving up His only begotten Son for suffering and death for our sake. If His sacrifice is too difficult for you to contemplate, that is fine, but stop with the business that ours is a "dead Jesus". It is not true, as you've already been told. But I guess persisting in the lie is in accordance with the Reformation's "sin boldly".

[narses]

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Obama Says A Baby Is A Punishment

Obama: “If they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”

[Titanites]

...and the Mormons, the Moonies, and the Jehovah's Witnesses!

So by this standard, your denomination is excluded and doesn't teach that He is risen? Sad.

Jesus set us free from the law. He gave us eternal life through His death and RESURRECTION. Without the Resurrection, there is no hope.

In agreement with the Catholic Church. So, in light of these facts, why do you think St. Paut preach Christ crucified? Do you even have a clue?

Take Jesus off the cross and raise up hope!

Preaching Christ crucified is raising up hope, as St. Paul tells us.

[Lucius Cornelius Sulla]

I guess Jim is conspiring against you! I guess you’ll have to grin and bear it, and ignore religious posts.

[lonestar]

I think he is, too! LOL!

[Petronski]

But, I don't keep a reminder of the death.

The crucifix shows Christ dying, the essence of Paul's charge to "preach Christ crucified."

The EMPTY cross signals victory. Your crucifix shows Him in defeat!

That is completely upside-down. His crucifixion is not defeat. Christ came to earth to be crucified and die for our sins. Paul quite wisely admonishes us to remember that.

It is an idol.

Ridiculous. It is the most perfect non-verbal way to "preach Christ crucified."

[Petronski]

The empty cross is like saying “Yeah yeah Jesus you died for our sins, whatever....skip to the end!”

[Petronski]

Your crucifix depicts a dead Jesus...

False.

The crucifix depicts Christ dying for our sins.

[Petronski]

The empty cross signifies victory. I'm with the winner!

Which means what? That Christ on the cross, dying for our sins, is the loser?

What a ghastly idea!

[Petronski]

Your organization prefers to see Him dead, though.

Is this a reference (a weak-kneed refusal to refer to the Catholic Church as a Church) to the crucifix again?

Who ever told you the crucifix depicts Christ dead?

[Petronski]

But, like them, your organization places the burden of law right back into, the mix. Jesus set us free from the law.

More protestant confusion.

[WVKayaker]

Ridiculous. It is the most perfect non-verbal way to "preach Christ crucified."

Your commitment to the RC organization is duly noted.

Ex 20:4

Thou shalt not make for thyself any graven image (carved idol) or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, punishing the iniquities of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those that hate me; but showing mercy to thousands of generations of those that love me, and keep my commandments.

So, a RC comes into the building, and dips finger in "holy water". makes a sign on their body. Then, they go into the sanctuary to their pew, but stop before entering to kneel and genuflect (bow) toward this carved image on an altar... and is told to hear from God in a language he doesn't understand (until VAT2).

Nope, nothing wrong here! That's exactly what the Bible teaches, right? (do I need the /sarcasm?)

[Petronski]

Your commitment to the RC organization is duly noted.

Some folks' animosity toward--hatred of--the Catholic Church is so powerful, they simply cannot even utter it's name. Duly noted.

Does that image of a golden calf represent Christ or do anything to lead us to Christ? No?

That's why you'll never find it in a Catholic Church.

[Petronski]

...makes a sign on their body...

How interesting the detail you omit. What sign?

The sign of the cross? A physical reminder of Christ's sacrifice on the cross and an outward declaration to the world that the believer is marking himself with that cross?

[Petronski]

...and is told to hear from God in a language he doesn't understand...

Sounds like you know very little about Catholic liturgy.

[WVKayaker]

The crucifix depicts Christ dying for our sins.

That is why He is always looking out toward heaven in crucifix's, right?

In every crucifix I have seen, He is dead, defeated, with His head hanging and eyes shut. and was never taken down to be buried. Now, let's hear from Paul again...

*************

1 Cor 15: (NIV)

1Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.

3For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance[a]: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Peter,[b] and then to the Twelve. 6After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

9For I am the least of the apostles and do not even deserve to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 10But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. 11Whether, then, it was I or they, this is what we preach, and this is what you believed.

12But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. 15More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. 16For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. 17And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. 18Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. 19If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.

20But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. 23But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him. 24Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power. 25For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. 26The last enemy to be destroyed is death. 27For he "has put everything under his feet."[c] Now when it says that "everything" has been put under him, it is clear that this does not include God himself, who put everything under Christ. 28When he has done this, then the Son himself will be made subject to him who put everything under him, so that God may be all in all.

[Petronski]

That is why He is always looking out toward heaven in crucifix's, right?

Right? Uh, no.

In every crucifix I have seen, He is dead, defeated, with His head hanging and eyes shut.

No, that is your misapprehension, apparently universal ("every").

...and was never taken down to be buried.

LOL

Honestly, tell me: what Catholic-hating organization taught you that?

[WVKayaker]

Sounds like you know very little about Catholic liturgy.

Sounds like you read little of what I have said...

I made reference to Vat2, or I guess to explain it more slowly, v a t i c a n II... in which the Pope and his council made significant changes, including the right for use of the local languages in worship. But that may change...

*******

...Is Pope Benedict XVI determined to restore the Latin mass that many Roman Catholics thought had been consigned to the dustbin of history? The answer, in short, is both yes and no. But neither the "yes" nor the "no" quite fits the conventional speculations in several recent media reports following off-the-cuff remarks to a small Catholic association in Great Britain by a Vatican official. In unraveling this, it helps to begin at the beginning...

[Petronski]

Sounds like you read little of what I have said...

Oh, I understood you completely. You said "...hear from God in a language he doesn't understand."

The Latin in the pre-Vatican II Mass were the prayers TO God (with English and Latin side-by-side in the missal). Readings from Scripture--hearing from God--were in Latin and English (or whatever the local language), and homilies were also English.

[big'ol_freeper]

*sigh*

I remember the days when one could wake up to a nice bowl of Wheaties. Today its bigots for breakfast.