Come on down, and we'll paddle some deep water!
bigot: One who is strongly partial to one's own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ.
-txmn
Posted on 03/22/2009 5:16:39 PM PDT by 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.
Come on down, and we'll paddle some deep water!
bigot: One who is strongly partial to one's own group, religion, race, or politics and is intolerant of those who differ.
-txmn
Please don’t make this personal...you’re only sinking to their level.
I see the idiocy continued after I left. Unbelievable.
It's the ultimate false statement in a long series of false statements.
I'm not intolerant of liars, but I will not tolerate lies...not as long as I am able to correct them.
As long as the BereanCall/LetUsReason types spread lies about the Catholic Church, I am going to persist in correcting the record.
“lack of courtesy” coming from you is rich indeed!
And it doesn’t sound as if you need any paddling partners - I’m sure you’re all set.
Have a great weekend and don’t get those white sheets dirty.
I am all set. I'll be with about 30 of them tomorrow on the Potomac... come on down and join us. Maybe you'll learn something new...
There now. Isn’t the view much better from the high road?
I never, and I mean never, get into these discussions/disagreements on FR, because it is not my forte.
But that cartoon you posted is disgusting, and it says a whole lot about what kind of “Christian” you are. All other arguments aside, that is just gratuitous hatred.
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