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Jeff Henry's long journey of faith has brought him full circle, not only back to the church in which he was baptized as an infant but also back to serving God. When he's ordained at the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament on June 4, he will become the Sacramento Catholic Diocese's first converted, married priest. "This will be new for us," said Bishop Jaime Soto. "I announced it to our priests on Monday, and they're very excited. They were curious but very welcoming of the idea. I think it will be an adventure not just for Jeff and his wife...

Paul Schenck and his family say grace before dinner at their Manchester Township home in 2007. Schenck will become the first married priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg on Saturday. A former Anglican pastor will become the Roman Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg's first married priest when he's ordained Saturday in Springettsbury Township. Paul Schenck, 51, of Manchester Township will be ordained by Bishop Victor Galeone of the Diocese of St. Augustine (Fla.) during a 10 a.m. Mass at St. Joseph Catholic Church. Galeone, a longtime friend of Schenck's, will perform the rite because the Diocese of Harrisburg has...

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican says it will admit married Anglican priests to the Catholic priesthood case by case. Vatican officials recently announced changes to make it easier for Anglicans to convert, as many conservative Anglicans are disillusioned by their own church's allowing women priests and gay clergy. The new move left some wondering whether Rome would embrace married Anglican priests in large numbers. A Holy See statement Saturday quoted Cardinal William Levada as saying the Vatican would consider accepting married Anglican priests into the Roman Catholic priesthood as it has in the past -- evaluating each case on its...

  In the late 1970s, a group of Episcopal clergymen with typical American chutzpah wrote to Pope Paul VI. They said they wanted to become Catholics, and wished for their priestly ministry to be fulfilled by being ordained as Catholic priests. The only problem was that they had wives and children.   Paul VI received their petition, and they heard nothing. In the autumn of 1978, the pope died; then another pope died, and John Paul II took charge. The little group of Episcopal priests waited with crossed fingers and bated breath while Rome made a decision. In 1980...

ROME (CNS) -- If using dolls to practice the baptismal ritual is a humbling experience for seminarians, one can imagine what it was like for someone who already had baptized hundreds of babies. Father Jeffrey N. Steenson, the former Episcopal bishop of the Rio Grande, prepared for his ordination to the Catholic priesthood with seminarians from Rome's Pontifical North American College.

As reported in the Santa Fe New Mexican, Archbishop Michael Sheehan ordained three priests at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi here in Santa Fe yesterday, and one of the three was Jeffrey Whorton, a married father of five.

In the late 1970s, a group of Episcopal clergymen with typical American chutzpah wrote to Pope Paul VI. They said they wanted to become Catholics, and wished for their priestly ministry to be fulfilled by being ordained as Catholic priests. The only problem was that they had wives and children. Paul VI received their petition, and they heard nothing. In the autumn of 1978, the pope died; then another pope died, and John Paul II took charge. The little group of Episcopal priests waited with crossed fingers and bated breath while Rome made a decision. In 1980 they finally had...

The St Thomas More Society AU group in Scranton will be received into the Catholic Church on October31 at 7PM at St Clare's Church in Scranton, Pa.

My Priest Fr. Christopher G. Phillips of Our Lady of the Atonement Catholic Church in San Antonio, TX will be the guest on The Journey Home on EWTN tonight August 12th at 8pm Eastern/7pm Central. He was the first Priest ordained under the Pastoral Provision which allowed for certain married clergy of other faiths to become Roman Catholic Priests, and for the establishment of Anglican Use Parishes in the Roman Catholic Church. He recently celebrated the Anglican Use Mass at Mother Angelica's Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament in Hanceville, AL. He has also been featured on past EWTN specials,...

The Anglican Use liturgy

Today the Anglican bishops in London basically punted on the homo clergy issue. A "commission" will look at the issue - - as if the Bible wasn't already clear. For those Episcopalians who can't bear to go back to church - - but who treasure the liturgy they grew up with -- why ishn't the Roman Catholic Church making more of a marketing effort to win them over? There's a special liturgy that includes elements of the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer - under a special papal dispensation. But only a handful of churches - mostly in Texas -- use...

SAN ANTONIO, Texas - Picture a Roman Catholic parish where the priest celebrates Mass facing away from the congregation, where the prayers sound like Elizabethan English and the pastor is married with five children. You're in the Church of Our Lady of the Atonement in San Antonio, Texas, the first parish in the United States established to accommodate Episcopalians who become Catholic and want to keep certain liturgical and cultural traditions. A pastoral provision issued in 1980 by the Vatican permitted the ordination of married men who were priests in the Episcopal church and allowed for a special adaptation of...