Former Lutheran to be Sacramento diocese's first married Catholic priest

Sacramento Bee ^ | 12/12/10 | Anita Creamer

[Tax-chick]

Best wishes to all.

[nagdt]

It’s about time.

[narses]

+

Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:

Add me / Remove me

Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.

[steve86]

Catholic canon law since 1980...

Don't trust changes in canon law or otherwise in the Catholic Church since about 1960.

[mlizzy]

If I read this correctly, Jeff Henry was a Lutheran pastor for only three years, and hasn't been a practicing pastor for 5 years, yet he is able to become a Catholic priest. Maybe I didn't read it right. Better go back and read again.

Anyway, if the Church wants more priests, I would think a heavier push for the Latin Mass would be beneficial, where boys are the altar servers, and not in any type of competition with the girls. Also Eucharistic Adoration is a big plus. I've heard whenever a parish has Adoration, their vocations increase.

[Don Corleone]

Years ago we used to pray for the “Conversion of Russia”. Now I think that we had better start praying for the “Conversion of America.”

[sayuncledave]

Hi J,
you said it. That second paragraph of yours is golden, in my very humble opinion. Especially about the Latin Mass.

The author of the article seems to have been unable to resist taking a potshot about the Vow of Celibacy, not to mention the addition of the nonquote from the “FutureChurch” person. It might have been nice to see something about those priests from Eastern Christianity who convert and hear the call, or those coming from the Anglican world. Pretty decent article otherwise.

[Salvation]

**Catholic canon law since 1980 has allowed former clergy from other faiths – primarily Episcopal – to be ordained into the priesthood. About 100 currently serve in this country, including a handful of former Lutherans and one converted Baptist. **

Glad to see that some statistics are coming out on this.

[P-Marlowe]

I guess that's the road to take. Leave the Catholic Church, become a Lutheran pastor, then get married, then return to the Catholic Church and you can be a married priest.

[Salvation]

He had to complete four years of Catholic theology — so I don’t think it went quite so fast there!

[ThePatriotsFlag]

I told you so! Just a little “slip” to the left ... hey, no big deal ... it’s just one priest. Slip slip slip ... right off the edge like the Episcopal church did. If there’s “leftys” in your pew, better weed em out ... they’ll take over your church just like they did our country. If you want to have a “married priest” ... then join the Episcopal church.

[Mrs. Don-o]

We have a bunch of seminarians here in the Diocese of Knoxville, outstanding for a tiny diocese where only 2% of the total population is Catholic (Upper East Tennessee) and sometimes more ordinands annually than the vastly, vastly-bigger dioceses of Los Angeles and Chicago.

What draws them? A bishop zealous about prayer and the Sacraments, and serious about doctrine and discipline.

I agree with what you said, mlizzy, about Perpetual Adoration; and like you, Don Corleone, I've been praying for the Conversion of America for decades.

I'm also an advocate of No More Alter Girls. Invent special non-acolyte roles for the girls if need be (more processions! more flowers! more Marian choirs!) but let the boys see the service of the Altar as something austere and virile, aomething fit for a Man.

[Salvation]

You are not usually one to voice such sour grapes. Give thanks that this man is answering the call to serve God.

He must have felt something or else he would not have quit as a Lutheran priest. Until we could talk to him, we really can’t tell, can we?

[Adams]

.....or join any of the Orthodox Churches, who have always allowed married priests, even before the great schism with the Bishop of Rome in 1054. Unmarried priests are a construct of the post - schism church.

[Campion]

I guess that's the road to take. Leave the Catholic Church, become a Lutheran pastor, then get married, then return to the Catholic Church and you can be a married priest.

Applications for ordination under the Pastoral Provision are vetted through Rome, and I'd imagine they'd have some questions for a man who did that.

[P-Marlowe]

I find it interesting that the Catholic Church has a special dispensation in regard to priestly celibacy for apostates who leave the Catholic Church and then who later become apostates from Protestant denominations.

The Bible says a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Here we find that double-mindedness is given a special dispensation. Why not grant the same privilege to faithful Catholics? Why not admit married Catholics who have been faithful to their church and their family the privilege of serving as priests?

[P-Marlowe]

Applications for ordination under the Pastoral Provision are vetted through Rome, and I'd imagine they'd have some questions for a man who did that.

Well, isn't that what happened here?

Who exactly in Rome is charged with "vetting"? Is it the same guy who vets out the perverts?

[Salvation]

Do you really think that he was double minded since he converted from Lutheran to Catholic?

I sincerely think other Lutheran pastors may follow and we might see what is now happening in the Anglican Church happening in the Lutheran Church.