For the first time in P.E.I., a married man was to be ordained as a Roman Catholic priest on Sunday.
Martin Carter, 63, said the Pope occasionally grants special permission for married men to become priests in cases where they’ve converted from other Christian churches.
The former Anglican clergyman said the church has made provisions for some cases, but he doesn’t anticipate a shift in the traditional approach to priests marrying.
“Not that there is anything wrong with marriage, it’s a status of life, but for the work of the church, the church becomes your bride in a sense,” he said.
My grandfather was born in PEI and was baptized at St. Dunstan’s. My mother’s family has a plot up there and my brother is buried there. I’ve only been there three times.
I knew one of the first Pastoral Provision priests. He ministered in Oklahoma and retired to Olympia, WA. When coming back to the Seattle archdiocese he was forbidden to serve in any capacity whatever in the very large (3000 + families, 7000+ people, no kidding, and **ONE** priest!) parish there. Got that? Not a weekday Mass, nothing. They were so terrified of a married man (hand approved by the Pope) celebrating they leave a situation like that and forbid extra help. Rome has still got some very very strange baggage about marriage, sacraments and what constitutes pastoral care. In the almost 30 years of the Pastoral Provision, less than a hundred men have been ordained. Not bad “Provision” for a church of a couple billion, wot? It’s news, but not very important. Certainly doesn’t “mean” anything about Rome changing.
I am glad that the Pope makes room for cases like this. It honors the years of service that these men have given to the Church Universal.
My Catholic diocese ordained it’s first married priest about 1990; since then at least 3 more have been ordained. Two currently serve as pastors, one of an Anglican Use parish and one in a regular Latin Rite parish. The third was a pastor until being appointed chancellor of the diocese (sort of like Canon to the Ordinary, I think). I believe we also have a retired married man assisting at a larger parish in a northern suburb. All of these were Episcopalian.
This diocese was formed 40 years ago by splitting a larger diocese and we got the “free-thinkers” (the word was used by one of those very me). These former Episcopalians have been important in the transition of our diocesan to a more classic approach to the Catholic Faith under our new bishop.
The scandal of the limits placed on Anglican Use rites ranks up there with the limit placed on Latin services. Power grabs like these make me thank God for the blessings of superficial schisms.