Fr. Dwight Longenecker: What Shall We Do with the Convert Clergy?

The Anglican Ordinariate may well help to solve the vocations crisis.These priests will also be authorized to celebrate Mass according to the Latin rite.

GREENVILLE (Catholic Online) - Some time ago I attended a conference for Catholic priests. As a married, former Anglican priest, I felt honored and humbled to be numbered among them. The topic of our conference was the vocations crisis, and I could not help but notice that I was one of the younger priests, and I am in my early fifties. It is not enough to look forward and say that in a few years we will have a crisis in vocations. We already have a crisis in vocations.

Where will we get the priests we need to serve the American church? One of the solutions is to bring priests in from other countries. Already priests are helping us from Africa, India, Poland and South America. But is it really fair to take priests from the developing world? In his book Future Church, John Allen points out that while the seminaries are full in countries like Nigeria, they still are not producing enough priests for the exploding Catholic population in their own country.

Many observers feel that we have turned the corner. The seminaries and houses of religious formation are experiencing a new influx of young men with vocations. Ordinations are slowly on the increase. However, even with a large influx of young men, it will take more time than we have to train them and for them to get enough experience to become parish pastors. The vocations crisis is already here. Where will we get the priests we need?

I believe there is a pool of well trained men already waiting in the wings. However to tap into this hidden mine of talent the church will need to think and act creatively. A few risks will need to be taken and the wave-walking attitude of St Peter will have to be re-discovered.

The group of men I am thinking of are convert clergy. It is often imagined that the only Protestants who convert to the Catholic church are Episcopal and Lutheran ministers. Not so. Jim Anderson, of The Coming Home Network International points out that their special apostolate to assist convert clergy have men from the whole range of different denominations on their books. These are men who between them bring a vast wealth of education and experience into the Catholic Church.

Only some of them may go forward to ordination as Catholic priests. If the convert clergyman is unmarried, and feels called to the Catholic priesthood he will usually fit rather quickly into the mainstream of Catholic seminary life. If the convert clergyman is married the path is more difficult. If he is from the Anglican tradition he may be ordained under the special Pastoral Provision. Through this process a bishop applies to Rome for a dispensation from the vow of celibacy allowing the married former Anglican to be ordained. Men from the Lutheran tradition (and a few others) have also been ordained through a similar process on a case by case basis.

However, this path is neither automatic nor assured. Some bishops don't wish to have married clergy at all. Others are not sure what to do with them once they have them. Others are worried about the financial implications. As a result a good number of men from the Anglican and Lutheran traditions languish while they wait for a decision from their bishop.

Married men who are from other Protestant traditions are very unlikely to be considered for ordination. There are several reasons for this: first the Catholic hierarchy are rightly cautious about having too many married priests for fear that their presence will erode the tradition of clerical celibacy. Second, some fear that the influx of convert clergy will transform the traditional forms of Catholicism with 'Protestant imports.' Third, the training and formation of Protestants from other traditions is less likely to have been Catholic in it's mindset, and therefore it is arguable that these men are less likely to make appropriate pastors and leaders in the Catholic Church.

As a result, even more experienced men who have excellent qualifications, and who are eager to serve the church are spinning their wheels, waiting and wondering how they can serve the church they have given up everything to join. Added to the men who have already converted and are being unused are a large number of men who remain in their Protestant denominations because they cannot see a way forward for effective service in the Catholic Church.

One of the ways through this impasse will undoubtedly be the new Anglican Ordinariate. If the right man is appointed as Ordinary the convert clergy will immediately have a sympathetic mentor. The Anglican Ordinary will have both the understanding and authority to welcome the convert clergy from the Anglican tradition, ordain them and put them to work. Furthermore, the Apostolic Constitution allows people to join the Ordinariate who have been converted through the evangelistic efforts of ordinariate congregations.

The ordinariate may therefore become a 'way in' for a good number of convert clergy and their families from Protestant traditions other than Anglican. Whether these married convert clergy will be eligible for ordination within the ordinariate remains to be seen, while celibacy will remain the norm for new priests within the ordinariate there is a provision for the Ordinary to put forward married men for ordination on a case by case basis, and it is convert clergy from other denominations who come in through the ordinariate who may be the most obvious candidates for this exception.

The Anglican Ordinariate, therefore, may well help to solve the vocations crisis, for while "Father Anglophile" is ordained for the Anglican Use congregation, he will also be authorized to celebrate Mass according to the Latin rite and will be expected to help out in the Latin parishes as he is able.

There is another way that convert clergy can help to ease our vocations crisis without being ordained as priests. A good number of men from traditions other than Anglican and Lutheran have become Catholics. They are theologically trained and pastorally experienced. Many of them have run churches and ministered for many years. If there were a special training course established for them to prepare for ordination as permanent deacons these experienced and enthusiastic men could assist the priests in administering parishes.

If a bishop needs to combine parishes under the ministry of one priest, who better to reside in the second parish and administer for the priest it than a well qualified, enthusiastic and experienced convert clergyman? If that man were ordained as a permanent deacon he could virtually run the parish in co operation with the parish priest. He may not be a priest, but he could do many of the jobs that our priests still take on themselves, thus releasing the priest for his essential ministry of celebrating the sacraments and preaching the gospel.

What is needed for this to happen is for the Catholic Church to wake up to the reality of the good number of convert clergy who are already in the Catholic Church, and to the larger number of men who are waiting to take the step. If there were a central clearing house and training center for these men they could have their callings validated and discerned and move into the roles they long for--serving the church as priests, deacons and qualified laymen.

-----

Fr Dwight Longenecker is a former Anglican priest ordained through the pastoral provision. His books are available through Catholic bookstores and at www.dwightlongenecker.com. Fr. Longenecker is Chaplain to St Joseph's Catholic School in Greenville, South Carolina. You can check out his many articles and books on his website, and from there you can also visit his popular blog, "Standing on My Head" where he comments daily and posts his weekly homilies as podcasts.

---

'Help Give every Student and Teacher FREE resources for a world-class Moral Catholic Education'

Copyright 2021 - Distributed by Catholic Online