Like many Roman Catholic men who feel called to the priesthood, the Rev. Jim Hearne wrestled with whether ordination was right for him.
The youngest of seven in an Irish Catholic family, he saw the joy of family life firsthand and never could quite extinguish the desire to one day have children of his own. But spurred to help stem the priest shortage and strengthen the integrity of the cloth, Hearne donned a priest’s collar in 2005 at age 25.
Now he wonders if his six years in the pulpit as “Father Jim” might have been preparation to become Jim, the father. After a six-month leave of absence from St. Giles Roman Catholic Church in Oak Park, Ill., Hearne has decided he will not return to the pulpit, but he will stay in the pews and pray to one day start a family of his own.
My first impulse upon seeing this post was to “fix” the title to read “Husband leaves his wife for the sake of love”. My first impulse was wrong. The title in the Tribune is better: Priest gives up his vocation not his religion for love. I would argue that here, “romance” would be more precise than “love”, but then, I was influenced at an early age by C.S. Lewis’ The Four Loves.
Now, it’s true that the guy made a mistake some years ago, or he’s making one now, and God knows which is true. But he sounds honest and sincere, working with the Church and his archbishop to get to the place he needs to be. He sounds like a man of faith when you read the whole article.
Arguing clerical celibacy would be fruitless, but I think you can make a case for delaying ordination until after 30, or even later. The youngest guy ordained in our diocese in the past few years was 28, and, honestly, he had some maturity issues. Most of our ordinands these days range from 30-something into their 50s, with one widower ordained at 72. They seem a more stable lot than the boys ordained in the 1940s and 50s, who seemed to get into all sorts of personal and theological trouble.
It’s a divorce, to be mourned. He made a vow to God to be celibate so that he can serve God will all his energies, and now that he has lost 130lbs and women are interested in him, he is breaking his vow to God to marry someone else.
Interesting to note it was a Chicago Tribune Article, published in a South Carolina paper. Priests leave the Roman priesthood all the time. This one is being used as a stick to beat Rome, and to try to prove you are sub-human if you aren’t sexually active in or out of marriage.
It’s timely. How it must rankle this man and others in his situation to see the Episcopal priests waltz in with their wives, kids, and papal blessings. Perhaps he should come over to TEC, marry, and then return to the RCC with mea culpas. Or have they sewn up any potential loopholes like that?
Teatime2, that particular loophole has explicitly been sewn up.
Thanks, RandomJoe. I figured it would be, lol.
I’m a little surprised that this is news.
Surely he should be thinking about whether he really feels called to this ministry and, if he has serious doubts, isn’t it better that he not go ahead with a key vocation?
Here in Anglican Diocese of Sydney we have a large seminary (Moore). I am not sure precisely how big it is but there are hundreds of students at any one time. I have spoken to a number of them over the years, and I have never had a sense that they are pressured to continue, more the reverse!
Mind you, the precise issue highlighted by this article doesn’t apply – students for the ministry at Moore are strongly encouraged to marry, if they aren’t married already, as parish ministry is based around the ‘norm’ of married clergy. But then, I wonder if the marriage thing is the whole story with this RC priest also – after all, it is the first thing that the Mainstream Media seem to hone in on. He may have just realised that he wasn’t called to this ministry.
This article seems fairer than many of a similar ilk I’ve read over the years. Not nearly so prone to Catholic-bashing as all too many newspaper stories are. In particular, I was pleased at the way Francis Cardinal George is quoted positively. He comes off looking like the outstanding Christian leader and caring man of integrity that he is. He is vastly superior to most TEC bishops.
That generally high quality to this article makes the weak ending to the piece all the more disappointing. To wrap up the article by quoting the line where Fr. Hearne lamely says, “[i]God ultimately wants us to be happy[/i],” is a real let down, that left a sour taste in my mouth.
Now yes, as Americans, we are conditioned to believe that, as the Declaration of Independence puts it, we all have an unalienable right to “life, liberty, and [i]the pursuit of happiness[/i].” But that is the world’s way of thinking, not the Church’s. God wants and calls us to be joyful, but that’s an entirely different matter from mere happiness.
In the end, what God wants for all of us and calls us to isn’t the superficial and fleeting emotion of happiness, but the enduring state of holiness, and the wholeness that is tied to it. For example, in the classic text at the end of Romans 8, we are taught that while God does indeed work all things for our good, that is not for the purpose of our feeling happy and fulfilled, but with the much higher and grander goal that we’ll be conformed to the image of Christ.
Now perhaps Fr. Hearne understands all that very well and he was merely trying to use language that the general public could understand and relate to, but I still think it was an unfortunate way of expressing it. In any case, I’m very glad that he isn’t trying to do the Fr. Albert Cutie thing, and become a celebrity convert to TEC, where he can continue his preistly ministry and be treated as something of a star.
David Handy+