The Price of Coming Home
Many of you are already familiar with the Coming Home Network. CHN provides fellowship, encouragement and support for pastors and laymen of other traditions (Protestant, Orthodox, etc..) who are somewhere along the journey or have already converted to the Catholic Church. They are particularly noted for helping Protestant clergy who are considering becoming Catholic.
According to their latest newsletter, they have worked with nearly 1300 ministers to date. As Marcus Grodi put it: "Many, if not most, of these formerly ordained clergyman presume that God is calling them to continue at the same level of ministry once they become Catholics . . .from ministers to priests." Of course, it isn't that easy.
I read recently that about 60 married men had been ordained under the Pastoral Provision (including, very recently, blogging Frs. Dwight Longenecker and Alvin Kimel.)
Of the 440 clergy converts for whom CHM has full data, 2/3 have remained laymen after conversion. 114 have become priests (presumably a goodly number of those were single) and 7 have become religious. 60 work as academics, and 97 are in some form of full time lay apostolate. 129 are in secular employment.
I remember discussing this once a few years ago with Scott Hahn. I asked him if there was some kind of informal network of converts strategizing how to offer our evangelizing expertise to the Church. Scott just shook his head. "No", he said, "they are too busy trying to figure out how to survive now that they've given up their livelihood."
My friends and I were all young and totally obscure lay types so we didn't experience this particular sacrifice. Some of us, like Mark Shea and I, felt led to gradually work our way into full-time lay apostolate. Others have pursued various secular callings.
But I have talked to older men, who after a long and fruitful career in ministry, are simply torn and don't know what to do. Becoming Catholic means that they would lose everything, including their homes, the ability to support their families, their retirement, their life's work, and their sense of themselves. They wrestle themselves into exhaustion over "what is God asking of me?"
And, of course, there are a few women now, who feel called to leave ordained ministry or the possibility of ordination to enter the Church. One such young woman, who is single, and has taught for us, was on the verge of being ordained as a UCC minister and now is eeking out a fragile living as lay staff in a parish.
I know the realities of the situation well. CHN has done wonderful work but I know all too well that a converting clergyman, especially if they are not from a high church background, is not likely to experience significant personal support from the average Catholic diocese or parish. And it is very difficult, even for the best willed cradle Catholic, to understand all that one has given up and still grieves. The older you are, the harder it becomes.
I keep thinking that we could make much better and more fruitful use of these exceptionally committed and well trained people who have paid such a high price for the right to be called Catholic. In any case, we can all make a special effort to be-friend them and be an encouraging presence in their lives.
posted by Sherry W @ 4:18 PM
9 Comments
9 Comments:
I've known of and admire their sacrifice very much. I know what it's like first hand. I had a "dream job" with a faith-based (not Christian) charitable organization, and was abruptly fired along with 5 others for being Catholic. They of course would not state that this was the reason, but I had the facts to know that it was a purge. This was so abrupt and unforeseen by me that I could not recover and lost my house, my possessions, and my savings. So I know what a sacrifice those who are coming home are making.
All I can say is that in this economy in general there ought to be more generosity toward our neighbors than there is, and certainly within our Catholic family. I know that Vestal Goodman sang the beautiful "Wait Till You See My Brand New Home", but until that house comes through, those who have need to reach out to those who have not, and who have lost financial security for their faith.
Deacons can do everything that a Protestant Minister can do. Additionally a lay man can be ordained a Deacon even if he is married.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if the parishes that have priest shortages would be assigned these wonderful protestant minister converts? They could validly preach a homily at mass or a communion service, validly baptise, marry and bury. These former Protestant members would be likely to have excellent people and administrative skills and they would probably have already learned how to balance family and ministry. What a great gift they could be to the Church! Of course there is the issue of money. Few Catholic parishes have the money to support a family in a addition to a priest. To many Catholics are still giving the same dollar they gave when they were 15.
Have a Deacon would be so much better for a parish without a priest than having an unordained lay person serve as a parish administrator The parishoners would be able to have more sacraments available to them.
I wonder why more ministers do not become Deacons?
PS...I would also endorse them to be lay parish administrators as well if they did not discern they were being called to be ordained as Deacons.
Therese:
Only 7 out of the 440 Coming Home Clergy became deacons. I don't know why.
You make a good point - they would make good deacons. Except that being a deacon is a long way from being a pastor - and, as you point out, they are hardly ever paid a salary - and they need to support a family. I imagine that's why so many choose lay ministry over the deaconate. No need for further education and a salary to live on.
Deacons, oddly enough, are very seldom made Parish life directors. There seems to be a fear that it smacks too much of a "married priesthood" in the eyes of average Catholics. That's also why none of the 60 married guys ordained under the Pastoral Provision will be made pastors. They serve in "helping" assistant roles, as chaplains, etc.
The pastor of Our Lady of Atonement Anglican Use Church in San Antonio is a married convert, so I don't believe the rule holds.
I suspect the real problem may be that many of the existing Catholic deacons are not as well trained as Protestant Ministers in terms of skills necessary to run a parish. This coupled with a trying to find positions of importance for lay women may tend to work against deacons being assigned to parishes as administrators. Personally, I think that it would be a wonderful way to utilize the gifts of these men. The deacons are allowed to married and as long as they respect the boundaries between being a deacon and a being a priest, one has to wonder what makes this situation any less desirable than a lay administrator taking liberties? I would trust someone who trusted the Lord and gave up a lot to follow the rules quicker than someone who didn't.
Then again maybe these conversions are so under the radar that the average bishop is not aware of them. Maybe its time to...uh..pray? Pray that they might be better used... :-)
I also think that the Diaconate might be a good fit for many of these men coming home. However, if the diaconate is, indeed, what the Church says it is (and I have no doubts), then it requires a specific call. I think it is a little dangerous to see the diaconate as "priest-lite" (not that I think Sherry or Therese actually sees it that way).
On the other hand, I don't have a problem at all with Lay Parish Life Administrators, provided their focus is actually administration--since the ordained office focuses on governance.
I do have a problem when the use of a PLC leads the community to view their pastor as a "Sacramental Priest--" something like a Pez dispense of Grace.
Therese:
It's not a "rule" of any kind and it varies from diocese to diocese since it is the local bishop that would make the decision - it's just a de facto practice. Just my observation in traveling the country - that deacons seldom function as heads of parishes.
There are 3,251 priestless parishes in the US. As of 1999, there were 12,862 ordained deacons. Yet, only 81 parishes are headed by a full time deacon. 32 parishes are served by part-time administrator deacons.
Again, since each bishop would make his own decision about this, it is hard to say exactly why so few deacons, who would seem to be an obvious choice, serve in this way. I’m sure there are multiple reasons, unique local situations and resources, the judgment of the individual bishop, the pool of candidates, US Bishops and Vatican policies, etc.
Keith: Of course, theologically, the diaconate isn't priest-lite. If we are going to use that kind of image, both priests and the deacons are, in a sense, "bishop-lite" in that both share in the bishop's office, which is *the* pastoral office, but not fully. Unfortunately, deacons are often regarded by priests as "priest-lite" and are treated in that way.
We have to remember that the theology, formation and practice of the diaconate is still very much in development. As one theologian who teaches in diaconate formation told me “The first generation of deacons were mostly just good guys – you know, the head of the local Knights of Columbus, the usher, the good guy who did lots of service in the parish. And their formation was pretty low level.”
That is changing significantly. Many diaconate programs have been beefed up theologically and are now being extended to 4 or 5 years. But it still isn’t comparable to the demands of priestly formation (such as two years of philosophy).
For instance, I recently became aware of one diocese which, as many are doing, moved their lay formation programs out of the local seminary. But they also moved their diaconate formation program out at the same time and housed the lay formation and diaconate formation together.
At a practical level, that makes sense since many diaconate programs are built upon and intertwined with lay formation programs. Sometimes the diocesan director is the same and may be lay. Sometimes, lay formation programs are used as a required first step in deacon formation.
But the very fact that the diaconate program is seen to have more in common with lay formation than priestly formation is at odds with the underlying understanding of the office which is supposed to be, like priests, a participation in the office of the bishop, and essentially different from the lay office.
At a lived level, most Catholics regard deacons as kind of a lay/priest hybrid because their lives look much more like that of a lay person than a priest (the overwhelming majority are married, have children, a secular career, etc.) Bishops know this and in an era where there is tension over priest shortages and the many thousands of priests who left to get married and are forbidden to exercise a ministerial role, it has to be a factor in their ultimate decision.
The Pastoral Provision for former Anglican ministers is different from the steps for those from congregationalist churches, who generally have to "start from scratch." There are actually two parts of the PP, the Anglican Use parishes, which are generally entire Anglican congregations who have come to Rome (there are 7 currently, with an 8th in formation), and the ordination of formerly Anglican priests to serve as Catholic priests in non-AU parishes. This is where the "60" figure comes from, though the last time the PP website was updated, it was over 80, and I think the number is now closer to 100. In both cases (The 7-8 AU parishes and the 80+ priests in "regular" parishes), they may receive dispensation to be ordained as married men (as is the case of Fr. Dwight and Fr. Al).
In my own case, I received Baptist ordination, and later Anglican orders, before eventually coming Home last year. However, as a "revert," the PP does not apply to me. I also do not have the same level of training as Catholic priests do, and starting over in seminary is not a likely option for me. I am seeking God's will about the future, and the diaconate seems a strong possibility. As I am not married, pursuing the diaconate would mean a promise of celibacy, and also a dispensation from the Holy See itself, since I am considered to have formally defected in the past. And my diocese actually has a five-year waiting period for reverts before admission to formation.
So, patience is the thing...
Thanks, Franksta, for bringing us up to date with the numbers who have been received through the Pastoral Provision and explaining the options in detail.
God bless your journey!
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