From the Canterbury Trail to the Roman Road

A former Methodist and Episcopal minister was ordained a Roman Catholic Priest on January 28, 2009 while his wife watched in great delight from the congregation.

WASHINGTON (Catholic Online) - When Waldo Emerson Knickerbocker was ordained a Methodist minister in 1966, little did he know that a more than four decades later he would have spent time as a minister in the Episcopal Church and later ordained a Roman Catholic priest.

"Knick" Knickerbocker is one of more than 80 married men in the United States ordained to the Roman Catholic priesthood through the "pastoral provision" instituted by Pope John Paul II in 1980. He is the first to be ordained in the Diocese of San Angelo (TX) under the provision allows for married clergy from the Episcopal Church to prepare for and receive the Sacrament of Holy Orders.

Bishop Michael Pfeifer began the liturgy by saying, "I've never done this before - ordaining a man as a priest who is here with his wife, his children and his grandchildren. So I just hope I get it right."

Knickerbocker and his wife, Sandie, were received into the Roman Catholic Church in 1994 after a journey of faith that took them first to Anglicanism and then to Rome.

Receiving his Ph.D. in Church History from Emory University in 1972, he began teaching at Memphis Theological Seminary. Knickerbocker credits his immersion into church history for the decisions that led he and his wife to The Episcopal Church and, ultimately, the Roman Catholic Church.

In an interview with the Midland Reporter-Telegram, he stated, "I came to the conviction that the fullness of truth was to be found in the Catholic Church. It's not that other Christian communions don't have truth, but I became convinced that the fullness of truth was in the Catholic Church."

In 2005, being convinced of his call to priesthood, he began the process through the pastoral provision. After several years of preparation, he was ordained a Deacon on December 28, 2008, on his 70th birthday, which was previously reported on Catholic Online. His ordination to the priesthood took place one month later at Sacred Heart Cathedral in San Angelo.

Bishop Pfeifer was personally involved in Fr. Knickerbocker's preparation. "I am very happy that finally my good friend can be ordained a deacon and priest," he told the Reporter-Telegram. "There is no finer candidate for the diaconate and priesthood than Knick Knickerbocker. I ask God's blessings upon him and his good wife."

Fr. Knickerbocker will be serving as a sacramental priest under the bishop, assisting Fr. Michael Udegbunam in his pastoral ministry to parishes in Junction and Menard, Texas.

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Randy Sly was baptized into the Episcopal Church. After having wandered from the faith, he experienced a genuine conversion as an adult and became a Wesleyman Minister. His journey through the early fathers led him to his time as an Archbishop of the Charismatic Episcopal Church. He and his wife Sandy were received into the full communion of the Catholic Church three years ago.

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