Rome welcomes married priests:

...RONE WELCOMES MARRIED PRIESTS FLUKE OR PRECEDENT...

...From the earliest centuries, the Eastern churches have ordained married men, but have not married ordained men...

...Without exception they were Anglo-Catholics in their training and beliefs, long convinced of the "branch" theory of Christian unity, and certain that the break with Rome in the sixteenth century was a political blunder...

...I don't have to be 'on call' for a congregation, teaching Sunday school, playing the organ, acting as hostess for endless lunches, teas, and receptions...

...There was a close sense of fraternity, not only among the Episcopal priests, but among their families.'' Perhaps the wives are the greater novelty in this new 'dispensation, and they are getting less publicity than their priest husbands...

...I could think that God put me there so I could work from the Anglican side to help restore corporate unity...

...He is to be scolded and penalized...

...In general, the transfer priests report a charitable reception by the clergy, but with some stiffness and formality in the relationship...

...The Vatican can, at any time, cancel the American bishops' right to ordain married...

...He would have a better prospect in one of the Eastern Catholic churches...

...After interviewing the first applicants, he claimed that it would be impossible to "characterize them as either conservative or liberal...

...It was aimed at the prospect of numbers of Episcopalians, clergy and laity, who seemed ready to convert to Catholicism after the 1976 decision of their JOSEPH H. FICHTER, S.J., is professor of sociology at Loyola University of the South...

...If not all the Roman Catholics are elated by the advent of these former Episcopal priests, neither do all the Episcopalians look upon this situation benevolently...

...Cardinal Bernard Law, appointed by the Vatican to oversee these transfers, seemed to anticipate this complaint even before any of them had been officially received...

...Episcopal priests...

...Certainly one of the most difficult things I ever did was tell the people of my congregation, my fellow Episcopal priests, and the bishop himself, that I was planning to enter the Catholic church...

...The worrisome clergy shortage in the Catholic church is probably most severe at the parish level, where there are not enough priests to cover the conventional religious needs of the people...

...Yet, this eventuality is thinkable to almost half (47 percent) of American Catholic laity answering a 1985 Gallup Poll...

...The local bishop's practical arrangement, therefore, is to give these priests a double assignment...

...The man who abandoned the Episcopal church to join the true church of Ronje is to be praised for good moral behavior...

...One critical Episcopal rector thinks they are something less than high quality men: "As a matter of fact, they are not much of a loss to us, and they're not much of a gain to you.'' He thought it was just as well that they left a church with which they were dissatisfied...

...all have been invited for weekend "supply" at one parish or another...

...With a touch of cynicism, Frank Bonnike, a leader of CORPUS (Committee of Resigned Priests United for Service) asked whether "a Roman Catholic priest who left the Catholic priesthood to marry and become an Episcopalian priest now can be accepted back into the church...

...Another Episcopal priest did not find fault with the "renegades," but applauded their departure because it opened opportunities in the overcrowded "job market" of the Episcopal clergy...

...Such non-parochial assignments, however, have not completely immunized the parish laity from contact with married priests...

...Previously, and in other countries, the Holy See had accepted married priests...

...Another said,' 'We don't have any example to imitate...

...From this perspective the whole program is relatively novel...

...Yet, there seems to be an aura of secrecy about this innovation...

...They become part-time parish priests, celebrating and preaching on the weekend, and' 'filling in" wherever the pastor has the most need of their assistance...

...General Convention to accept women priests...

...A certain coolness has been detected also among the Irish clergy who do not fully appreciate the "English" background of these priests...

...in the latter case it is the only thing that matters...

...Nevertheless, this condition rankles the Episcopalian authorities and tends to weaken the ecumenical relationship between the two churches...

...Some bishops are known for their unwillingness to "try anything new...

...My moral justification for staying with Canterbury was that I was working and praying toward the communion...

...Regardless of the reasons alleged to him, why he made up his mind to shift to the Roman church, he did have to make a resolution of conscience...

...It would be a gesture of love and admiration for the enduring faith of the people of Czechoslovakia who have had a long and harsh winter and who hope that there will be another "spring" in Prague...

...No one knows how many Episcopal priests are deterred by this regulation...

...His most recent book, A Sociologist Looks at Religion (Glazier), is forthcoming...

...Of course, there are only about forty of them, and they are fairly well dispersed among the Catholic dioceses...

...I knew that to be fully Catholic I should be in communion with the See of Peter...

...Hundreds of resigned priests, who maintain a deep devotion to the church, would like to be included in this "exception to the rule of celibacy...

...There is a deep human need to build new friendships in a new and different community...

...The assumption seems to have been that the ordinary parishioner would be "scandalized" to see a married man celebrating Mass, while his wife takes charge of the rectory and his children play on the front lawn of the church...

...As long as the Anglican church officially taught the Catholic faith, stood by the Catholic seven sacraments, and maintained the Catholic succession of ministry, I could stay in the Anglican church...

...Up to now this could happen only by way of transfer from a Protestant church...

...There are no clergy wives gatherings, obviously...

...in the second case he has to leave his wife but retains his church: A different kind of complaint has been voiced by Catholic liberals, especially by proponents of the Women's Ordination Conference, who are sure that these for- mer Episcopal clergy bring with them a conservative church ideology...

...The network of long-established friendships tends to dissolve, and in some cases his relatives treat him like a stranger...

...It is not a smooth and easy experience to leave a church to which one has given a full and serious commitment...

...It is probably true that the growing category of "low church" Episcopalians have little or no concetti about their departing clergy...

...More than that, they are disloyal to their serious commitments...

...Still others feel constrained to decline because they have no institutional chaplaincies available, and have good use only for priests who can do parish work...

...We laugh when we say that, but that was a significant part of ministry in the Episcopal church-the wives play a big role...

...One priest told me, "as long as the Anglican church adhered to the Lambeth Quadrilaterals I was satisfied...

...They couldn't keep up with the contemporary changes in the church...

...The bishops weren't hiding anything," said one of the new priests, "but at the same time they didn't want to wave a red flag at the groups who were urging that we do away with celibacy...

...Whether or not it is to be judged a lasting success is not up to the American Catholic laity or hierarchy, or to the participants themselves...

...The American experience is a complete novelty only in America...

...Among the diocesan clergy, the first reaction to these "strangers" seems to depend largely on the manner in which their bishop handles the case...

...A few have been popular enough to be elected to the clergy council...

...In that part of the one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic church it has always been true that husbands may become priests but priests may not become husbands...

...Any American Catholic seminarian who is planning matrimony before receiving holy orders might as well leave the seminary...

...For Pope John Paul to acknowledge the significance John Hus has in the national and spiritual yearnings of the people of Czechoslovakia would be a gesture of profound ecumenical import both within Czechoslovakia and abroad...

...It was as recently as 1982 that the first Episcopal priest was ordained as a Catholic...

...He deserves commendation and rewards...

...No matter what other explanations may be offered, the historical event that triggered the decision to apply to Rome was the decision to ordain women...

...In fact, they are not religious and spiritual converts...

...I have asked a number of such priests why they became Catholics, and although all are different a common theme runs through them: It was the conviction that the fullness of Christianity lies in Rome...

...This revives the memory of a papal bull of 1896, that most ecumenical experts consider a "dead letter...

...Indeed, they were informed that their personal "reconciliation" with the Catholic church was not to be interpreted as an ecumenical activity...

...Motivation is always multiple and complex, but these men are viewed as ' 'dissidents" seeking refuge in the Catholic church, only after the Episcopal General Convention in Minneapolis ratified the ordination of women...

...In the first case he has to leave his church but retains his wife...

...His income is sharply decreased and the living conditions of his family will be lowered during the year or more of preparation for ordination...

...There were no sudden "conversions...

...Some of these priests seem to be disappointed that they are not being followed by large numbers of Episcopal priests eager to transfer...

...Making the shift from the Episcopal to the Catholic priesthood involves the certainty of being deposed by the Episcopal bishop and the uncertainty of receiving holy orders from the Catholic bishop...

...Since then, a total of about fifteen married priests have been accepted in continental Europe...

...The explanation, why the Episcopal priest may bring his wife with him and why the resigned Catholic priest may not, has been put in the bluntest moral terms...

...What is' 'novel'' about the presence of married priests in the American Catholic church is the formal procedure of admission, established in 1980 at the specific request of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops...

...Although a recent Gallup Poll found more than six out of ten (63 percent) Catholic lay persons in favor of married priests, there are still large numbers of American Catholics who are unaware that an increasing minority of Catholic priests are also husbands...

...John Jay Hughes remarked that "the Roman Catholic church may not afford permanent protection against what they consider a nightmare...

...The fact is that these men are almost exclusively from the " Anglo-Papalists'' who constitute less than 20 percent of the American Protestant Episcopal Church...

...It was noted also that the Church of England suffers a clergy shortage, but that few priests want to go to England where they are needed...

...It would be an acknowledgment on the part of the church that perhaps the work of the Spirit in the church in the fifteenth century can only now be seen and understood...

...Episcopal priests.arried...

...On the other hand, they did not want to shock those Catholics who are scandalized at the very thought of married priests...

...Nevertheless, Archbishop John Quinn at the same time expressed the hope that the acceptance of these ex-Episcopal clergy would not "impede the ongoing Anglican-Roman Catholic ecumenical dialogue.'' Despite such declared hopes, and despite the relatively optimistic reports of the Joint Commission on Anglican-Roman Catholics Relations in the United States, the Anglo-Papalists among the Episcopal clergy concluded that the policies and practices of their church were moving in the direction of "low-church" Protestantism...

...One of the reasons why these married priests are not widely known is because they do not do much parish work...

...The threat of derogating the reputation of the celibate priesthood has been lessened- at least temporarily-by assigning these men to non-parochial ministries as teachers and administrators, as chaplains in hospitals, colleges, and prisons...

...In the early 1950s the Archbishop of Mainz, Germany, presented three married Lutheran pastors for ordination...

...Why did they not "cross the Tiber" sooner...

...Through no fault of their own their transfer process has helped to widen rather than close the gap between the two churches...

...The man who abandoned the Catholic priesthood to take a wife is to be blamed for reprehensible moral behavior...

...At the same time, they already have daily contact with many laity in their institutional roles...

...There is a vague rumor about a "liberal" bishop who interviewed a conservative applicant, and after meeting with his consultors said he could not accept priests who are unfavorably disposed to women's ordination...

...They do not fit a mold any more easily than do Catholic priests...

...JOSEPH H. FICHTER The Holy See did not enjoin silence on the American hierarchy in 1980, when granting "pastoral provisions" for the acceptance of married Episcopal clergymen into the Catholic priesthood in this country...

...We have to invent something new: the Catholic wife of a priest...

...In several instances nuns have taken umbrage that these "outsiders" have been accepted while many resigned priests are excluded...

...In the former case it does not matter that the priest is married...

...About a half-dozen have been incardi-nated in the dioceses of Australia...

...It is certainly an affrdnt to the bishops and theologians of the Anglican persuasion, who have long since proven to themselves that Leo XIII's noninfallible statement of 1896 is itself a void document...

...These priests cannot even begin the process of transfer until they have found a bishop who is willing to present their case to the Holy See...

...In the present mood of the Vatican one could say it is unthinkable that women be ordained to the priesthood...

...Nevertheless, Cardinal Seper, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, suggested that publicity be kept at a low key...

...These "high church" Episcopalians are firmly convinced that their priests are validly ordained, and they resent the Vatican insistence that these transfer priests must submit to Catholic holy orders...

...While those who have been received are assured of the permanent priesthood, there is no guarantee that the Holy See will continue the procedure as a permanent concession...

...Others will accept only celibate clergy converts...

...While there has been little objection from the Catholic laity who happen to be aware of the ' 'breakthrough'' on traditional clerical celibacy, the first anguished complaints came from resigned Catholic priests who had married...

...Nevertheless, the.timing and the volume of these applications after the 1977 Episcopal schism cannot escape the fact that the focal protest was against female priests...

...A more practical problem, and sometimes a hindrance, for these transfer priests is the lack of enthusiasm on the part of Cathojic bishops who want nothing to do with them...

...One of them remarked that "it's much easier than being a minister's wife...

...In other words, he is "defrocked" and is deprived of all the clergy rights and privileges that have accrued over the years...

...Bishop Spong of Newark has angrily charged that the acceptance of Episcopal priests into the Catholic church is a deliberate repudiation pf his church's approval of the ordination of women...

...The program was introduced as "provisional," and it must still be interpreted as experimental and temporary...

...One of the provisions was that they not be assigned to the "ordinary care of souls" during the first five years after diocesan incardina-tion...

...The priest who has been celebrating the sacraments ever since his ordination in the Episcopal church is now asked to submit to a new and authentic Catholic ordination...

...They have been Anglo-Papalists from their seminary days...

...As though in anticipation of this respectful protest, the Holy See had already specified that' 'this exception to the rule of celibacy is granted in favor of those individual persons, and should not be understood as implying any change in the church's conviction of the value of priestly celibacy...

...The bishop is friendly...

...At the center of all these arguments, being buffeted by his former friends and by his current associates, is the man who is now in a new and different environment...

...If he had been in the Episcopal clergy for less than ten years, he is cut off from the ultimate benefits'of the pension fund...

...The brotherhood with the priests is different...

...When they finally despaired of organic ecumenical unity between the two communions, they felt they had nowhere to turn except to Rome, and on an individualist basis...