Anglican minister becomes Catholic priest

Father Shier joins Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter set up by Pope Benedict
By Agnieszka Krawczynski

25 March 2014

The fruits of Pope Benedict's efforts to welcome Anglicans to the Catholic faith were manifest at Holy Rosary Cathedral as Deacon Michael Shier was ordained a priest for the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter.

"It's amazing that the ordinariate has actually happened," Father Shier said after his ordination March 15.

The Rev. Shier, a pastor for the Anglican Catholic Church of Canada, and 11 members of his former parish converted to Catholicism in June 2012.

"It started when Anglicanorum Coetibus was given by Pope Benedict," explained Barbara Shier, his wife.

The apostolic constitution, written in 2009, describes the possibility of creating ordinariates, which function like dioceses, for Anglicans to enter the Catholic Church while keeping some liturgical and spiritual traditions.

"He invited us to make the transition and to bring the best of Anglicanism with us," Father Shier explained. "We sent our prayer books and missals to Rome and received back a liturgy that surpasses all our hopes and dreams."

The Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, created in January 2012, spans all of North America. Its ordinary, or head, is Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson, who arrived from Texas and concelebrated along with about 20 other priests of the ordinariate or the Vancouver diocese.

"It is our brothers and sisters in the whole Catholic Church who have strengthened us and given us a joy in our lives. We are so pleased and so happy to be with you in full communion," he said.

Archbishop J. Michael Miller, CSB, celebrated the ordination Mass. "(The priesthood) is both a gift and a mystery," he pointed out in his homily...

Father Bruce McAllister, archdiocesan chancellor, prepared the congregation of converts to join the Catholic Church through a series of retreats while Msgr. Steenson trained their pastor.

Father Shier "is a very scholarly person," said Father McAllister, also a former Anglican.

"He is a man of deep prayer. You'll often see him at prayer in church prior to the liturgy. And I know that he prays for many people, including those who are his former parishioners who have not come into full communion" with the Catholic Church.

Father McAllister guessed 20-25 priests in Canada are former Anglican clergymen, including those incardinated in the ordinariate and those incardinated in dioceses...

Father Shier and his congregation will use the chapel at St. Patrick's Parish in Maple Ridge.

Read the rest at The B.C. Catholic

Hat tip to Mary Ann Mueller

Quad Cities man to enter Davenport Diocese as its first married priest

By Deirdre Baker
March 22, 2014

The 29-year marriage of Chris and Jody Young will continue, even after he is ordained as a priest in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Davenport this summer.

"I get to keep my wife, and I am keeping my wedding band on," Chris Young says.

Although the Catholic Church historically has prohibited priests from marrying, the 53-year-old Davenport man is joining the clergy thanks to a special 1980 dispensation from Pope John Paul II called The Pastoral Provision, which applies only to former clergy of the Episcopal -- or Anglican -- church.

This will make Young a rarity. It's estimated that about 100 Catholic priests in the U.S. have made the same conversion that he has.

Young, a lifelong Episcopalian until eight years ago, previously served as the priest at Christ Episcopal Church in Moline.

His entry to the Catholic faith brings a different dimension to the priesthood, Bishop Martin Amos of the Davenport Diocese said.

Amos, who has led the diocese since 2006, agreed with Young's quest for the priesthood and sponsored him in a 26-step process that has taken six years.

Young will be made a transitional deacon — one who intends to become a priest — in a ceremony Tuesday at Davenport Assumption High School, where he has taught religion classes for two years.

Then, on June 7, Young will be ordained by the bishop at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Davenport. Two other men also will be ordained as priests at that time, but both are following the more traditional path...

Read the rest of this article at the web site of The Quad Cities Times.

Hat tip to Mary Ann Mueller

Blogger's Note: We posted about the ordination of Rev. Young a few days ago, but this is a new story, and worth your while. While the frequently reported "fact" that there are about "100 Catholic priests" with wives is routinely reported in stories like this, given the many ordinations for the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, along with continued Pastoral Provision ordinations such as this one, the number should clearly be bumped up to at least 150. Still a tiny percentage of the more than 45,000 priests serving the Catholic Church in the US, but a large increase all the same.

Ordination as Catholic priest for Iowa diocese brings man's vocation full circle

By Barb Arland-Fye

DAVENPORT, IOWA  -- Chris Young will become a pioneer in the Diocese of Davenport this summer when he is ordained to the Catholic priesthood by Bishop Martin J. Amos.

Young, 53, is a married, former Episcopal priest, and Pope Francis has given Bishop Amos permission to ordain for the diocese him under a 1980 pastoral provision admitting former Episcopal priests who have become Catholic into the Catholic priesthood.

Under the provision, more than 100 men have been ordained to the Catholic priesthood in U.S. dioceses since 1983.

For Young, it's been a long, arduous process prolonged by the historic resignation of one pope and election of another.

On Feb. 3, while teaching his fifth-period religious class at Assumption High School in Davenport, he took a phone call from Father Thom Hennen, diocesan vocations director, with the good news about ordination.

Bishop Amos anticipates ordaining Young as transitional deacon before Easter and as a Catholic priest June 7, along with two other men studying to be priests for Davenport.

When Young called his wife, Jody, "she was ecstatic. ... She's so grateful to Pope Francis and to Bishop Amos that I have this opportunity," Young told The Catholic Messenger, Davenport's diocesan newspaper.

The pastoral provision requires she agree with her husband's ordination as a Catholic priest.

"It's like I'm giving him away to my Church, which gives me joy," said Jody Young, a cardiopulmonary rehabilitation nurse. "It's a sacrifice; there's a lot of sacrifice in this role (as a priest's wife). But it's a beautiful sacrifice."

...

Read the rest of the article in the St. Louis Review at: http://stlouisreview.com/article/2014-02-26/ordination-priest

Hat tip to Mary Ann Mueller.

Anglican priest ordained to Catholic priesthood in Savannah

December 11, 2013

Following his ordination, Fr. Lindsey gives his
blessing to Bishop Hartmayer.

In a first for the Catholic Diocese of Savannah, Bishop Gregory J. Hartmayer ordained an Anglican priest to the Catholic priesthood Wednesday.

The Rev. Lucien Lindsey was ordained a Catholic priest at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Savannah and incardinated in the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter.

The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter is a structure, similar to a diocese, that was created by the Vatican in 2012 for former Anglican communities and clergy seeking to become Catholic.

It was established by Pope Benedict XVI for those of the Anglican heritage who enter full communion with the Catholic Church while maintaining distinctive elements of their theological, spiritual and liturgical patrimony.

Wednesday’s ordination was the 49th since the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter was created...

Read the full story in The Savannah Morning News.

Hat tip to Mary Ann Mueller.

Newly ordained priest for the Ordinariate to serve in Military Ordinariate (Archdiocese for Military Services)

Father Jerry Sherbourne, an active-duty U.S. Army Chaplain, and former Anglican priest, was ordained a Catholic priest Sunday at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Through the invocation of the Holy Spirit and the imposition of hands, His Excellency, the Most Reverend Timothy P. Broglio, J.C.D.,  ordained him during a 10:00 a.m. Mass.

Father Sherbourne becomes a Catholic priest, incardinated in the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, a special Church jurisdiction established by Pope Benedict XVI for those of the Anglican heritage entering full communion with the Catholic Church while maintaining distinctive elements of their theological, spiritual, and liturgical patrimony.

In preparation for his transition from Anglican to Catholic, Father Sherbourne underwent a two-year formation program approved by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Holy See, a process that included his ordination as a transitional Catholic deacon. A married father of six, he also received a dispensation from Pope Francis to be a priest without embracing celibacy. Father Sherbourne and his wife Heather live with their family in north Alabama where he currently serves as deputy Garrison chaplain at Redstone Arsenal....

Read the rest at Deacon Greg Kandra's The Deacon's Bench.

Hat tip to Mary Ann Mueller.

Anglican Ordinariate Priestly Ordination and Mass of Thanksgiving

Recently, in Melbourne, Australia, Bishop Elliott ordained another priest for the Anglican Ordinariate. Congratulations to the Rev. Richard Waddell, who was ordained. He will now be leaving to study Canon Law in Rome. There are pictures of both the ordination at St Patrick's Mentone, as well as his Mass of Thanksgiving, which he celebrated at the Community of Bl. John Henry Newman.

I am also told that this was a historic  situation: while the Mass of Ordination was celebrated according to the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite, the Mass of thanksgiving was the very first use of the Interim Liturgy of the Anglican Ordinariate in Australia...


Read the rest of the article and view the many photos on The New Liturgical Movement.

Archdiocese for the Military ordains two Ordinariate priests for service

AMS Celebrates Catholic Priestly Ordination of Two Former Episcopal Military Chaplains

Ordination Masses celebrated in Germany and Guam on Saturday

 
WASHINGTON, D.C. –  The Archdiocese for the Military Services (AMS) is celebrating the Catholic priestly ordinations on Saturday of two United States military chaplains and former Episcopal priests, both entering the Catholic priesthood through the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, established by the Holy See in 2012 for former Anglican communities and clergy seeking to enter the Church. 
 
Father Joseph Francis Vieira, III, CH (MAJ) USA, was ordained in Grafenwoehr, Germany by His Excellency, the Most ReverendTimothy P. Broglio, J.C.D., Archbishop for the Military Services.
 
Father Richard Rojas, Ch Capt USAF, was ordained in Inarajan Guam by His Excellency, the Most Reverend Anthony S. Apuron, OFM Cap., DD, Archbishop of Agana.
 
In his homily at the ordination Mass for Father Vieira, Archbishop Broglio said the faithful expect the new priest to “ignite a blaze of new evangelization as he is ordained in the Year of Faith.” 
 
Addressing Father Vieira directly, Archbishop Broglio said:
 
“You will be empowered to nourish the community of faith with the most precious gift she has to offer, the Body and Blood of Christ. No one else can give it and so your contribution will be priceless. For the Army, the greatness of that gift is so appreciated, because it is in short supply. Every Catholic who has been deployed knows the value of what you and your brother priests alone can give. You will, to quote Karl Rahner, ‘lift the chalice with the blood that was redeemed and sanctified in the truth.’”
 
Click here to read the full text of Archbishop Broglio’s homily.
 
Father Vieira, a married father of two, holds a Master of Divinity from Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in Mill Valley, California. He was ordained an Episcopal priest in December 1994 and entered Active Duty with the U.S. Army in July 1995. 
 
Father Rojas, a married father of four, holds a Master of Divinity from Westminster Theological Seminary in Glenside, Pennsylvania. He has been a military chaplain for eight years.
 
Father Vieira said:
 
“It is with great joy that I enter this next stage in my faith journey which has led me ever closer to the Throne of God, through the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church He established.  I have been convinced of the veracity of the Catholic Church for many years, but until recently I have been unable to act on that faith.  Through the grace of God and the beneficence of the Catholic Church I now have the privilege to serve God in the Church I love. I wish to express my deep gratitude to the Holy Father, Pope Francis; and to my family, for their trust and unwavering support.  I also want to thank each of the Military Catholic Communities which have nurtured me as one of their own for over thirteen years as I walked the line between the Catholic and Protestant churches. I have truly come home!”
 
Father Rojas said:
 
“I am overjoyed to be in full communion with the Catholic Church.”
 
 ------------
 
About the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter:

The Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter is a national structure, similar to a diocese, that was created by the Vatican in 2012 for former Anglican communities and clergy seeking to become Catholic. Once Catholic, the communities or clergy retain many aspects of their Anglican heritage, liturgy and traditions. Priests must apply for ordination as Catholic priests and first complete an approved formation program. 

Based in Houston, Texas, the Ordinariate includes communities throughout the United States and Canada. Our Lady of Walsingham in Houston is the principal church. Other large communities include St. Luke, Bladensburg, MD; Christ the King, Towson, MD; Church of the Incarnation, Orlando, FL; and St. Thomas More, Scranton, PA. Ordinariate groups and clergy are located in areas such as California, Iowa, Alabama, New York and South Carolina; Edmonton,Victoria, Ottawa and Calgary.

About the AMS:

The AMS was created as an independent archdiocese by Pope John Paul II in 1985 as the only Catholic jurisdiction responsible for endorsing and granting faculties for priests to serve as chaplains in the U.S. military and VA Medical Centers.

AMS-endorsed chaplains serve at more than 220 U.S. military installations in 29 countries, making the AMS the nation's only global archdiocese. AMS-endorsed chaplains also serve at 153 VA Medical Centers throughout the U.S.

The AMS service population also includes American Catholic civilians working for the federal government in 134 countries, but currently, due to limited resources, the AMS cannot adequately serve this population.
Worldwide, an estimated 1.8 million Catholics depend on the AMS to meet their spiritual and sacramental needs.

For more information on the Archdiocese for the Military Services, visit www.milarch.org, the only official Web site for Catholics in the military and for the Cause of Father Vincent Capodanno, MM.

Ex-Anglican ministers ordained as Catholic priests, married with children

Richard Watts

June 21, 2013

They are Roman Catholic priests but each has a wife and children. They don’t report to Bishop of Victoria Richard Gagnon, although Bishop Gagnon was the person who ordained them. They don’t even report to any other Roman Catholic offices in Canada.

Instead, they report to a special office in Houston, Texas, called the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. And from there, the hierarchy leads directly to Rome.

“We are not part of the Diocese of Victoria,” said Catholic the Rev. Michael Birch, 70, of Victoria, who is married with two grown children.

Birch was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest on June 14 at St. Andrew’s Cathedral, along with the Rev. Don Malins, 74, of Victoria, married with one grown son, and the Rev. Peter Switzer, 70, of Port Alberni, married with three children and two grandchildren.

All three began their careers in the clergy as Anglican priests, which was when they started their families. After retirement, they left the Anglican Church to join breakaway Anglican organizations, like the Anglican Catholic Church or the Anglican Network.

They have now been ordained as Roman Catholic priests, by special dispensation from the Vatican. “This all comes from the Holy Father,” Fr. Switzer said from Port Alberni. “If someone has a problem with it, go talk to the Pope. “This was his idea, not mine.”

Two years ago, Pope Benedict XVI issued the Apostolic Constitution Anglican [sic] Coetibus, allowing Anglicans to join the Roman Catholic Church.

Benedict also ordained [sic] the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter in Houston and gave it responsibility for all of North America. Canada is now a deanery in that jurisdiction, headquartered in Calgary...

Read the full story at http://www.timescolonist.com/ex-anglican-ministers-ordained-as-catholic-priests-married-with-children-1.330981">the Times Colonist

From Left, Msgr. Peter Wilkinson, Bishop Richard Gagnon of Victoria,  Fr. Peter Switzer,  

Fr. Don Malins, Fr. Michael Birch, and Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson. From the blog of St. John's Church

Calgary, Alberta.

Hat tips to Mary Ann Mueller and Charles Gilman for leads on this story.

The Ordination of Jonathan Gibson

The Canadian Deanery of St. John the Baptist, having added 3 deacons to its clergy last weekend (see the story at Deborah Gyapong's Foolishness to the World blog),  will add another member of the faithful to the clergy, for the ministry of the Sacraments, the preaching of the pure Word of the Lord 

and the greater glory of God.

ORDINATION TO THE DIACONATE
Saturday 18th May
at 10.30 a.m. at St. John the Evangelist
by Bishop Frederick Henry

ORDINATION TO THE PRIESTHOOD
Saturday 25th May
at 10.30 a.m. at St. John the Evangelist
by Bishop Frederick Henry
in the presence of Msgr. Jeffery Steenson, Ordinary
Hat tip to Michael Trolly

Ordinariate Ordination in June in California

Founding members of St. Augustine of Canterbury, Oceanside

From Fr. Bartus at Blessed John Henry Newman Church in Orange County, California:

The lay administrator of St. Augustine of Canterbury in Oceanside, Mr. George Ortiz-Guzman, will be ordained in a private service to the Sacred Order of Deacons on June 19, 2013! He will be ordained in a public service to the Sacred Order of Priests on Wednesday, June 26, 2013 at 10:00am at St. Margaret Catholic Church in Oceanside (St. Augustine’s host parish).
St. Augustine’s will, after nearly a year after being received into the Church, have their first Mass according to the Anglican Use, on Sunday, June 30, 2013 at 12:45pm inside St. Margaret’s, Oceanside.

Congratulations to all the members of St. Augustine's and to the future Fr. Ortiz-Guzman

Head of Anglican ordinariate grateful for former pope’s generosity, hopeful for future

By MARIO BIRD

Monsignor Jeffrey Steenson delivers a homily, March 7, at Our Lady of
Guadalupe Church in Anchorage during Father Ken Bolin’s
ordination to the priesthood. — Photo by Fr. Frank Reitter

Monsignor Jeffrey Steenson is a Catholic priest and former bishop in the Anglican Church. In 2012 Benedict XVI appointed him to lead the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, the new structure in North America by which former Anglicans can enter the Catholic Church while preserving many of their traditions.

As a married man, Msgr. Steenson cannot be ordained a bishop and thus depends on Catholic bishops to ordain priests for the Anglican ordinariate.

In March he was at Our Lady of Guadalupe Church in Anchorage where he delivered the homily at Father Ken Bolin’s ordination to the priesthood. Anchorage Archbishop Roger Schwietz ordained Father Bolin for the Anglican ordinariate.

After the liturgy, Msgr. Steenson spoke with the Catholic Anchor.

Could you comment on the Anglican ordinariate, how you’ve seen it develop, and how you think it will continue with the next papacy?

Msgr. Steenson: Our time with Pope Benedict was way too short! He created the ordinariate for the U.S. and Canada just last January 1. But he had been involved with this project when he was Cardinal Ratzinger. He’s so important to this.

I remember that, when I heard the news that he was stepping down as pope, I had a little stab of fear in my heart: “What’s going to happen to us?” But, in his wisdom, when he created the ordinariate he did it with an Apostolic Constitution, which gives us stability and permanence. The last two weeks I’ve been in Rome to meet the various congregations, and I consistently heard from everyone, “You’re family now.” I think that, whoever is chosen as pope, we’re not going to have to start from scratch.

Many cardinals were excited that the ordinariate is about bringing people into the church. Groups that are committed to evangelization and Christian unity will thrive — the Lord will bless them. That’s the heart of what Jesus had for us.

You liberally quoted the Church Fathers in your homily. Could you comment on Pope Benedict’s beatification of (Anglican convert) John Henry Cardinal Newman, and how Newman’s study of the Fathers brought him into the Catholic Church?

Msgr. Steenson: I was at Newman’s beatification. I was sitting with the priests as a concelebrant. It was so thrilling — it was the happiest I had ever seen Pope Benedict. He was so totally “in” that liturgy. And his face was beaming, you know, because Newman was important for him as a seminarian.

It’s a controversial point, but Newman is sometimes called the “hidden peritus” of the Second Vatican Council. What Newman did for the Catholic Church was teach her to think historically, with a critical-historical eye, to begin to understand the development and continuity of doctrine. This is something that deeply influenced Pope Benedict.

Newman is incredibly important for so many of us. He worked through the question, “Can you be a Catholic without being in communion with Rome,” and how the early church theologians would answer that question. “The Arians of the Fourth Century” — it’s not read by many people, but it is really a phenomenal piece of work. In there, (Newman) talks about the role of the Bishop of Rome, and how the whole Arian crisis (which claimed that Christ was not equal to God) was ultimately resolved. That really affected me...

Read the rest at the Catholic Anchor.

A step toward unity

Former Episcopal minister ordained as a Catholic priest

By Alan Burke

 

BEVERLY — Nothing like it has ever happened at St. Mary Star of the Sea Church before.
On Saturday morning, more than 400 people gathered to see Jurgen Liias join the Catholic priesthood. Included among them were his two children, his grandchildren and his wife, Gloria.

Mike Springer/Courtesy photo Cardinal Sean O'Malley,
archbishop of Boston, prepares to lay his hands on the
head of the Rev. Jurgen Liias during an ordination ceremony
Saturday at St. Mary Star of the Sea Catholic Church in

Beverly. Liias is a former Episcopal clergyman with a wife

and two grown children

The ceremony was not in defiance of the Vatican policy of celibate priests — rather, Cardinal Sean O’Malley officiated, instituting a policy set during the tenure of Pope Benedict. In 2012, he established the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, welcoming to the Catholic fold Anglican clergy dissatisfied with their own church.
This followed an earlier welcome to their unhappy parishioners from Pope John Paul II.
Liias literally grew up in the Episcopal Church and served as a minister for 40 years, including 14 at Christ Church in Hamilton. He now finds he cannot reconcile with new policies like welcoming homosexual clergy and countenancing abortion.
He describes these policies as an attempt to “compromise and sell everything out in an effort to be liked. ... The Catholic Church is closer to the things that are right and true.”
By becoming a Catholic father, he brings a dramatic new dynamic to that church — a priest with a wife and family.
Liias won’t say this speaks to things to come, but, “It at least shows the church it’s not impossible to be a married priest.”
In an interview prior to Saturday’s ceremony, Liias acknowledged that the priesthood has previously taken on widowers with children in a program of late vocations.
He is only the second Episcopal priest with a wife ordained in the Boston Archdiocese..

Read the rest at The Salem News

Hat tip to Deborah Gyapong at Foolishness to the World, where she has loads of great photos.

Diaconal Ordination of Jurgen Liias

Fr. Jonathan Gaspar, Co-Director of Worship and Spiritual Life,
Archdiocese of Boston, in Center, serving as MC, with Bishop
Deeley as he recites the ordination prayer.

from an email from the Ordinariate Community of St. Gregory the Great

About 50 individuals were able to join Deacon Liias for this important event in his and our life; they included members of our community, former parishioners of Jürgens and Fr. Brian Barry of Christ the Redeemer Anglican, pilgrims who had been to the Holy Land with Jürgen, and members of Saint Mary's and Margaret's parishes. For those of you who were unable to be physically present, here are some mementos of the day. The photographs were taken by our brother Steve Hawley — thank you, Steve! for providing these permanent reminders of a beautiful day; also attached are copies of the program and the hymns chosen by Jürgen for the liturgy.
An interesting — perhaps blessed — surprise was discovering that the presiding Bishop, who is Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Boston and therefore "second in command" to the Cardinal, had spent years in Rome working at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; indeed, he had participated in producing the canonical aspects of the erection of the Ordinariates! During his excellent homily he commented on the beauty of seeing the Grace of Pope Benedict's vision working out in the individual, personal, aspect of Jürgen's ordination. The Holy Spirit comtinues to watch over our small flock and send so many Blessings!
Bishop Deeley was exceptionally kind to arrange his schedule such that he could be with us to perform this ordination in time for Deacon Liias to participate in the liturgies of Holy Week. For those in the area, be aware that Deacon Liias will be delivering the homily at the 9:30 Easter Morning Mass at St. Margaret's church (672 Hale St., Beverly Farms).

Upcoming Diaconal and Priestly Ordination for Massachusetts Ordinariate community

News from Annunciation Ottawa

The Rev. Carl Reid of Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary church in Ottawa writes in the this month's Annunciator:

Please pray for me, a sinner. My ordination dates are now firmly set: Saturday, January 12, Saint Patrick’s Basilica at 10 AM, ordination to the diaconate; and, Saturday, January 26, Notre Dame Cathedral at 10 AM, ordination to the priesthood. Archbishop Terrence Prendergast, SJ will preside at both services, and also preach the homily at Saint Patrick’s, while our Ordinary, Msgr Jeffrey Steenson will preach at Notre Dame.

It seems that a number of local Catholics intend to be present for my first Mass, which will be Sunday, January 27 (Septuagesima, being the Second Sunday in Ordinary Time). As our little church on the edge of Westboro has such limited seating capacity, Fr Francis Donnelly has suggested and graciously offered, through Fr. Galen Bank, that we use Blessed Sacrament at 194 Fourth Avenue in the Glebe. To avoid conflict with their usual Sunday morning Mass schedule, we shall, for that one last Sunday, keep the 12:30 PM time that we have become accustomed to since last April.

Please note from the calendar on the last page that, once I am ordained, we shall begin to offer Mass every day of the week. As you will see, the times vary through the week, as we attempt to accommodate differing schedules for as wide a variety of people as is possible. The apparently peculiar time of 12:15 PM on Mondays and Thursdays looks toward the hope that perhaps people from Tunney’s Pasture may find our proximity agreeable. Attendance at noon–hour Masses at other Catholic parishes, especially Saint Patrick’s in downtown Ottawa, is quite healthy. If you know people who work at Tunney’s, please let them know.

My ordination will also mark the “winding down” of at least part of our relationship with the various Catholic priests who have so generously devoted their time in ensuring that we have had Mass every Sunday since our reception into the Catholic Church. I say “winding down part of our relationship” as we are looking forward to future opportunities where we might do things jointly, or, if I am required to be away on a given Sunday, one of them might be able to fill in.

In terms of doing things jointly, an obvious one, about which several people in our parish have been asking, going back even to before our reception into the Catholic Church, is perhaps a once-per-month Sunday Evensong and Benediction. Pursuant to that, Fr Scott McCaig donated to us, on November 16 an ostensorium (monstrance) for Benediction. We shall work towards beginning this wonderful devotional service hopefully in February, inviting as many of the Companions, or any other Catholic friends as may be able to attend, to join us.

January also marks the beginning of formation studies for Doug Hayman and Kipling Cooper, along with several other Canadians, and a goodly number of Americans, pursuant to their ordinations, DV, in Eastertide. Let us pray for them, as they “dive in” to the joys of Canon Law...

Carl

Congratulations to Deacon Reid and all of our brethren in Ottawa. I have warm memories of his visit to the Anglican Use Society's Conference in Newark, NJ in his role as suffragan of the ACCC and am grateful that his obvious pastoral skills and calling have been validated by the Church ad majorem Dei gloriam inque hominum salutem.

St Alban's Rochester prepares for Ordination, first Mass

Ordination of "Doc" Holiday on Saturday, December 15th

The Ordinariate's communications officer has sent out the following info on "Doc" Holiday's upcoming ordination this Saturday in Orlando, Florida. Holiday served as one of the TAC clergy at the Cathedral of the Incarnation (now the Church of the Incarnation) in Orlando, one of two TAC cathedral parishes that are now part of the North American Ordinariate (the other one being located in Ottawa in Canada).

Former Anglican priest William “Doc” Holiday will be ordained a Catholic priest by Orlando Bishop John Noonan on Saturday, Dec. 15, 9:00 a.m., at the Church of the Incarnation, 1515 Edgewater Drive, Orlando, Florida 32804. Monsignor Jeffrey N. Steenson, head of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, will concelebrate the Mass.

Holiday, a senior curate at Incarnation (www.theparish.org) since 2007, was among 140 parishioners who were received into the Catholic Church on Sept. 16, 2012 as part of the ordinariate. This national entity was established by Pope Benedict XVI on January 1, 2012, for former Anglican clergy and groups seeking to become Catholic while retaining aspects of their Anglican heritage and liturgy.

Holiday was ordained an Anglican priest in 2005 following studies at the Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando. He served at St. Alban’s Anglican Cathedral from 2005-2007 and since then as senior curate at Incarnation. A veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, he has worked in law enforcement since 1988, first on the SWAT Team for the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office (1988-1992), and since 1992, with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office. Since 1998, he has assisted in administration of that office’s chaplaincy program. He and his wife, Tammy, have been married for 25 years and have three adult children. Special permission has been given to former Anglican priests who are married to be ordained Catholic priests.

In speaking about his ordination, he said, “There are four men through whom God has shown his grace and to whom I would like to express my sincere appreciation. First is the Holy Father, who embraced those of us from the Anglican tradition who understood the necessity of communion with the Catholic Church. Second is our Ordinary, Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson, for his pastoral hand in guiding us. Third, I offer my personal appreciation to Bishop John Noonan for his unwavering and proactive assistance in facilitating our parish community’s reception into the Catholic Church and my ordination to the Catholic priesthood. Finally, I express my undying respect for Mr. Louis Campese, a former Anglican bishop whose vision and stalwart persistence in staying the course for the reunion of Anglicans with the Catholic Church exemplified the admonition of the Lord Jesus to ‘take up your cross and follow me.’ Words could never express my respect and devotion to these men, but I pray my priestly ministry will.”

The ordinariate will have 26 priests following Holiday’s ordination, and has more than 1,500 people in 35 communities across the United States and Canada (another ordination [with the reception of 30 layfolk - ed.] is scheduled for Dec. 16 in Payson, AZ). Its Ordinary, Msgr. Steenson, is a former Episcopal bishop who is based in Houston, TX. Msgr. Steenson noted that the ordinations this year “mark a significant moment in the history of Catholic unity.”

Congratulations to Fr. Holiday and to all the people of the Church of the Incarnation who have persevered in their journey toward the fulness of Catholic unity.

Ordination – First for Brooklyn – Married Anglican Priest Ordained to Catholic Priesthood

28 November 2012
by Ed Wilkinson

Auxiliary Bishop Paul Sanchez lays hands on the head of Father Belen Gonzalez y Perez as he ordains him to the priesthood
When Auxiliary Bishop Paul Sanchez laid hands upon the head of Belen Gonzalez y Perez Nov. 20 at St. James Cathedral-Basilica, Downtown Brooklyn, Father Gonzalez y Perez became the first former Anglican priest to be ordained a Catholic priest in Brooklyn.

He concelebrated a First Mass of thanksgiving Nov. 25 at St. Charles Borromeo Church, Brooklyn Heights, with Father Ed Doran, pastor.

“I’ve been in discernment about returning to the Catholic community for many years,” said Father Gonzalez y Perez. About four years ago, with the full support of his wife, he began taking the first formal steps toward reunion.

Born in Sunset Park and of Puerto Rican descent, Father Gonzalez y Perez was baptized a Catholic as an infant at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica, Sunset Park, but became an active participant in Pentecostal youth groups.

He received his bachelor’s degree in philosophy from State University of New York-Empire State College in Saratoga Springs. He went on to receive a master of divinity degree and a master of arts in religion, with a focus on systematic theology, from Gettysburg Seminary in Gettysburg, Pa. While in seminary, his studies included courses at Catholic schools such as Catholic University, Washington, D.C.; the Oblate School of Theology, San Antonio, Texas; and St. Vincent de Paul Seminary, West Palm Beach, Fla.

He was ordained a Lutheran priest in 2002 and received certification as an Episcopal priest in 2008.

He was director of pastoral care at Long Island College Hospital, Brooklyn Heights, and was a non-stipended pastoral associate at nearby Grace Church until becoming Catholic this fall. He hopes to continue in hospital or prison ministry...

Read the rest at the web site of the newspaper of the Brooklyn diocese, The Tablet.

BISHOP ORDAINS FR. CHORI SERAIAH

Bishop Richard Pates lays hands on
Father Chori Seraiah invoking the presence
and action of the Holy Spirit during
Fr. Seraiah's priestly ordination.

Anne Marie Cox reported on July 8th on the diocesan blog of the Diocese of Des Moines, Iowa:

Bishop Richard Pates ordained Father Chori Seraiah on Sunday, July 8, to the priesthood for the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, which is the equivalent of a diocese. The ordinariate was created on Jan. 1 and is composed of parishes, groups, religious communities and invidiuals of the Anglican heritage. The members of the ordinariate include "those faithful, of every category or state of life, who, originally have belonged to the Anglican Communion, are now in full communion with the Catholic Church, or who have received the sacraments of intitiation within the jurisdiction of the ordinariate itself, or who are received into it because they are part of a family belonging to the ordinariate" (Decree of Establishment, 1). Joning the new pilgrims may also be the clergy and people of the Anglican use parishes, who have been the pioneers in the noble work of living out the Anglican heritage within the Catholic Church.

Congratulations to Fr. Seraiah and many blessings on him and his family as he undertakes his mission in Iowa!

Newly ordained Fr. Joshua Whitfield & the parish of St. Mary the Virgin

Fr. Allan Hawkins writes in the June issue of Salve!, the monthly newsletter of the parish of St. Mary the Virgin in Arlington, Texas:

With joy and thanksgiving we welcome Joshua Jair Whitfield and his wife April Allison, with their little children Magdalene and Peter, into our Parish Family. In fact, of course, they have been part of this family for some two and a half years already; but Josh has now been ordained to the Diaconate and is about to be or- dained to the Sacred Priesthood – so, as Father Josh, that relation- ship to the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin will be deepened and changed in character. Josh has a distinguished academic back- ground, including study at Duke University under Stanley Hauer- was. His seminary training was in England at the College of the Resurrection -- a seminary connected with the Community of the Resurrection, an Anglican monastic community at Mirfield in Yorkshire. (My own last parish in England had numerous con- nections with – and vocations to – the Community of the Resur- rection; and my priest-father would make his annual retreat there.) As you will know, Josh served for a number of years in the Anglican priesthood; and thus he is an experienced pastor – most recently, until three years ago, as Rector of the Anglican parish in Mansfield. He and his wife were received into Full Communion in the Catholic Church by Bishop Vann in Novem- ber 2009, at which time they became members of the Church of Saint Mary the Virgin; and he has been working as Director of Faith Formation at St Rita’s Catholic Church in Dallas.

Fr. Joshua Whitfield will celebrate his solemn Mass of Thanksgiving for his ordination at St. Mary the Virgin on Sunday, July 8th at 10:30 a.m. with a reception to follow.