Posted on 01/04/2005 2:34:33 PM PST by churchillbuff
ROMAN CATHOLIC DIOCESE OF SCRANTON TO RECEIVE FIRST ECUSA PRIEST
By David W. Virtue
SCRANTON, PA (1/4/2005)--For the first time in the 137-year history of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Scranton, Bishop Joseph F. Martino will receive a married former Scranton Episcopal priest and father into the priesthood from the Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem.
The Rev. Eric Bergman, an Anglo-Catholic priest at Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Scranton's Green Ridge section in the liberal ECUSA diocese, renounced his orders effective December 31st and left the Episcopal Church over the church's acceptance of homosexuality and the consecration of an avowed homoerotic bishop to the episcopacy in the person of V. Gene Robinson.
In a phone call to VirtueOnline Fr. Bergman, 34, and the father of three children said, "I think that the ordination of Robinson is the logical conclusion of the contraceptive mentality. When Lambeth approved contraception for married couples in 1930 they set the stage for the Robinson consecration in 2003. You remove the marital act from its purpose and we bless sterile intercourse. It is not a big jump to bless then sterile homosexual intercourse."
Some 60 parishioners at Good Shepherd will follow the priest and become Roman Catholics. About 275 will remain in the Episcopal parish. The group leaving the Episcopal parish also includes a small group from St. Stephen's parish in Whitehall, the former parish of Fr. William Ilgenfritz, who recently left that parish for a parish in the Diocese of Pittsburgh.
In an open letter to the congregation Fr. Bergman wrote, "The events that have unfolded within the Episcopal Church USA and across the worldwide Anglican Communion can certainly be understood to be a catalyst that precipitated action on my part. That is, the election of an unmarried and unchaste man to the office of bishop demands a response from the faithful, particularly when the institutional response on the part of the Anglican Communion to this innovation has been so feeble. Nevertheless, I now view the incidents of General Convention 2003 as the logical outcome of a flawed orientation that betrays the Anglican Communion’s ability to proclaim the Good News, especially that truth that life comes to us through sacrifice. It is this orientation, ensconced in the teachings of the Anglican Communion for the past 74 years that finally led me to renounce my orders."
Episcopal Bishop Paul Marshall knew I was going to Rome and asked me to write this letter to the congregation on why I was leaving and renouncing my orders, Bergman told VirtueOnline.
Fr. Bergman, a Bethlehem native, will be received into the Roman Catholic Church through a process known as the "Pastoral Provision Decision," and will result in the conversion, priestly formation and potential ordination of Mr. Eric Bergman, a former priest of the Episcopal Diocese of Bethlehem, as a member of the clergy of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Scranton, said a press statement from the Roman Catholic diocese. Bergman and his wife, Kristina, are the parents of three children, Clara, Eric and Julia, all of whom who will become Catholic.
The Pastoral Provision Decision, rendered in 1980 by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, came in response to a request from the North American Province of the Society of the Holy Cross, a secular institute of Anglican priests, whose married members wished to offer themselves for priestly ministry in the Roman Catholic Church, as well as lay Episcopalians who wished to enter the Catholic Church with a common spiritual and liturgical identity.
In its acceptance of former married Episcopalian clergy as clergy of the Roman Catholic Church, the Pastoral Provision Decision grants a special exception to the Roman Catholic Church's rule of mandatory priestly celibacy. However, the Decision stressed that this particular exclusion "should not be understood as implying any change in the Church's conviction of the value of priestly celibacy, which will remain the rule for future candidates for the priesthood from this group."
"I warmly welcome Mr. Bergman, his family and members of his former lay community on their new faith journey to become Roman Catholic," said Bishop Martino. "We assure them all of our prayers and complete cooperation as they take the initial steps toward full communion with the Roman Catholic Church in the Diocese of Scranton," the bishop stated.
Bishop Martino said that the Diocese of Scranton and Mr. Bergman have taken initial steps to begin the conversion/ordination process established through the Pastoral Provision Decision. The steps include preparation and submission of a dossier, or report, containing required documents which will accompany Mr. Bergman's petition to the Holy See for priesthood and incardination, or service to the Diocese of Scranton.
Fr. Bergman told VirtueOnline that his new congregation will use the Book of Divine Worship published in 2003 in which elements of the Book of Common Prayer are revised and adapted according to the Roman Rite for use by Roman Catholics coming from the Anglican tradition.
On January 2, Bishop Martino announced that Mr. Bergman will become Executive Director of the newly-formed St. Thomas More Society of St. Clare's Church in the Green Ridge section of Scranton. Members of the St. Thomas More Society of St. Clare's Church will provide for the temporal needs of Mr. Bergman and study with him in preparation to enter the Catholic Church. Mr. Bergman said that membership in the St. Thomas More Society is open to all former Anglicans or Episcopalians.
To date, the Holy See has permitted the ordination of a number of former Anglican or Episcopal priests who have become Catholic in the U.S., Canada and Great Britain.
Episcopal Bishop Paul Marshall was in Africa and could not be reached for comment.
Leaving unexplained the biblical reference to Peter's mother-in-law.
What source are you relying on? Paul, in 1 Tim. 4:3, considered it part of the great apostasy to forbid marriage. That doesn't include voluntary singlness, which is commended. I can't find in scripture, or any other source close enough to the time that teaches that Peter stoped having relations with his wife.
Wow! OK, I'll think about it again. You don't know my wife though. ;-)
No, it was preventing the cutting off of other parts that helped my choice in life. :oP
My source is "Saint Peter and the First Years of Christianity", by the Abbe Constant Fouard, translated by George F. X. Griffith (second edition 1892, Longmans, Green and Co.). On page 248, in a chapter describing St. Peter and the Jews of Rome, Abbe Fouard writes: "But though the wife of Simon the fisherman did not accompany him during the Master's lifetime, yet after the Resurrection, united to him now by purely spiritual ties, she could have no reason for leaving his side." Footnotes acompanying the paragraph reference Cor. ix. 5, the writings of Clement of Alexandria (Stromata, vii.11), and Eusebius, Historia Ecclesiastica, iii. 30. I have not reverted to the original sources to confirm this statement of Abbe Fouard.
Hi Tantumergo,
How are you my brother. LOL! I've been very close to the ordained life for many many years. And fortunately saw so many things before I was ordained. So I was very familiar with the everyday affairs and duties of deacons, priests and bishops. Casual demeanor often plagues one who has a lot of time on his hands, and even the most dedicated and orthodox are affected by it. I know both part and full time clergy, celibate and married. Orthodox and dedicated one and all. And as far as devotedness and dedication to the vocation and duties, I see so little difference that it makes no difference, IMHO. The celibate person, whether a deacon, priest, bishop, brother, sister, friar, or lay person has one advantage that I can see. They can live in community! But that is a rare case these days! Almost unheard of in the diocesan priesthood. Outside of that, I know way too many married clergy who work as hard, in many instances harder, for the sake of the name, than their celibate counterparts. I support celibacy for those who are called to it. It is a gift. But it is a discipline as well. There will be much resistance to changing this disipline in the Latin Rite from being mandatory back to being optional.
Does that mean you are a Baptist minister?
If that's true, then "Pope Peter the First" was in a continuing state of sin. The Bible says:
1st Cor.7:3 The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. 4The wife's body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband's body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife. 5Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of selfcontrol.
Well, that's the Apostle Paul's take on the matter. Temporary marital abstinence is permitted (it's the sexual equivalent of fasting), but permanent abstinence is not. Regular sex (assuming no medical or other impediment prevents it) is a requirement of Christian marriage.
Hallelujah.
If your interpretation is correct, there are many saints recognized by the Church who died in a state of sin. Not a possibility. There are countless examples of saints who were husbands and wives mutually agreed to celibacy. Let's see, your view or the Church's view?...hmmmm...let's see...
O.K., I'll go with the Church.
And I'll go with the Word of God.
Nobody is disputing the value of celibacy for those who are called to it and embrace it. The issue is whether the Church should continue to impose mandatory celibacy on every Catholic man who presents himself for the priesthood.
My own view is that, were it put to a vote among the world's bishops, the discipline would be changed.
This saying is trustworthy: whoever aspires to the office of bishop desires a noble task. Therefore, a bishop must be irreproachable, married only once, temperate, self-controlled, decent, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not aggressive, but gentle, not contentious, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, keeping his children under control with perfect dignity; for if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how can he take care of the church of God? He should not be a recent convert, so that he may not become conceited and thus incur the devil's punishment. He must also have a good reputation among outsiders, so that he may not fall into disgrace, the devil's trap. Catholic Bible Online -- 1st Tim. 3
"The idea that men, young men of twenty say,..take a vow of celibacy. That they will never get married. And that they can keep that without getting twisted and psychologically moronic and finally ending up in pedophilia or sadism or in some twisted psychology. That is the normal attitude towards priests today. So the idea of Roman Catholic celibacy is something that is utterly alien to the mind.
Why? Because the idea of priesthood is. And this is where the great lack in teaching in seminaries and in the Catholic populace lies." Fr. Martin
"He should not be a recent convert, so that he may not become conceited and thus incur the devil's punishment."
I'm glad you agree that this protestant shouldn't be a priest. But, then, extrapolating whole new religions from bits and pieces of scripture is a protestant thing, isn't it?
I never said or implied that. I think you were trying to be humorous, but humor doesn't work unless it contains some truth.
But, then, extrapolating whole new religions from bits and pieces of scripture is a protestant thing, isn't it?
Ignoring chunks of scripture in favor of Church Tradition is a Catholic thing. Indeed it is THE reason for the existence of non-Anglican Protestantism. "You have nullified the word of God for the sake of your tradition." --(Matt. 15:6)
Maybe. But fortunately the Vicar of Christ is rather less eager to jettison centuries of tradition to appease the devotees of the Sexual Revolution.
A married priest? Interesting.
Are the other 22 Rites of the Catholic Church that ordain married men devotees of the Sexual Revolution?
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