The title of this post is probably inaccurate. David Harris is probably already a priest by now. The story I stumbled across is from August 2008, just a couple of months ago, is of a man who was raised Baptist and spent some years in full-time, paid congregational ministry with Baptist churches before finding his way into the Roman Catholic Church. Though I left that communion at age 17 and have never really looked back (nor can I imagine ever going back) I found his story fascinating. The oddest part, to me, is that the Vatican actually accepted his prior ordination as a motivation for accepting him in the priesthood.
Celibacy for the priesthood in the Roman Catholic Church is considered to be a discipline of the church rather than a rule of faith given by God (I know, I'm probably not using the "official" terminology here), so there is room for exceptions or for the policy eventually being changed altogether. In either case there have to be compelling reasons. The Roman Catholic Church does not officially recognize even the apostolic succession of the Anglican Communion (of which the Episcopal Church is part), so it is even more surprising that an exception would be made for a "low-church" ordination like this one from Baptist churches.
Click here to read the article for yourself.
An interesting story. To the Church, where the Baptist preacher came from is not as important as where he is now. By definition, Anglican priests are not within the communion of the Roman Catholic Church. But the former Baptist preacher is. This sort of thing has happened before, for example, in the case of Richard John Neuhaus, priest, editor of First Things, and a former Lutheran. Don't know if he's married or not.
ReplyDeleteDon't quote me on this one, but it seems like I remember a little known Roman Catholic priestly order that is not of the Roman Rite and whose priests can and do marry.
Correction: I suppose they would not be ROMAN, but Catholic priests not of the Roman Rite.
ReplyDelete