The Pastoral Provision Spreads... Again
Now in Louisville....
-30-
Jeffrey Hopper, a former Episcopal priest who converted to Catholicism in 2003, is a newly ordained Catholic deacon who is on track to be ordained a priest next May under a little-used church provision....Now, I've seen this in more than one diocese -- that a married priest ordained under the pastoral provision is barred from attaining a parish of his own, per the decision of his ordinary.... A little unfair, no?More than 70 former Episcopal priests to date have become priests under the provision throughout the United States -- just a fraction of the nation's 42,528 Catholic priests.
If Hopper, 47, completes training to become a Catholic priest, he cannot be a senior pastor of a church, but he will be able to teach, perform sacraments and do other ministry.
-30-
posted by Rocco Palmo at 10:27
2 Comments:
Rocco:
This part of the provision is, specifically: By the rules, he is not allowed to be pastor of a territorial parish. He can, however, be pastor of a non-territorial, personal parish (which, I assume, was put in for the sake of Anglican-use parishes).
However, as my husband likes to say, "You can get a dispensation for anything." Just off the top of my head, there's a married Catholic pastor of a large parish in the Fort Worth diocese, and at least one in the diocese of Charleston, SC.
And there is a pastoral provision priest in the Raleigh Diocese who has been a pastor of several different parishes.
Post a Comment
<< Home