The name of my pain

Last updated on: January 27, 2016 at 10:36 am by Dave Griffey

The name of my pain 2016-01-27T10:36:00-04:00 Dave Griffey

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Is Protestant Clergy Convert. I received this little chart in an email the other day:

It’s from a lay apostolate (that’s ministry to you Protestants out there) that focuses on helping folks who convert to Catholicism. It’s main purpose originally was to help Protestant clergy converts. But over the years that broadened to include an almost equal focus on anyone who becomes Catholic.

A couple things. The total number of clergy converts is 994. That doesn’t tell me since when. But let’s assume since around the mid-90s, when the apostolate began. Let’s say 20 years. That’s around 49 a year.

It also doesn’t say exactly how one defines Protestant Clergy converts. I know it includes bi-vocational pastors, assistant pastors, seminarians and professors as well as those who are ordained but employed with denominational jobs. It might even include people ordained who never actually went into ministry. That happens sometimes. And that’s a big difference. A person who is a successful lawyer who just happens to be ordained and act as an assistant pastor is not in financial harm’s way by converting. Neither is a professor, who can simply slide over and get a job in a Catholic university (or a secular one as the case may be). It is not the same for a full time vocational pastor with no other financial resources and no career to lean upon.

Finally, it doesn’t tell me when what is happening. Of those hundreds who became priests, how many did so in the last ten years? How many in the 90s? The 00s? I know for a fact that the numbers in the chart aren’t too far off from where they were a few years ago when I saw similar numbers of clergy converts. Have the numbers diminished? How many have joined in recent years versus, say, 96 – 06?

I’m in that 3% unemployed BTW. I have it on good authority that the main reason for my plight is that our bishop is no particular fan of letting ministry converts get a job. The reasons are a bit murky, but the best I have been able to piece together is that he feels somehow that it might appear that the Church is ‘bribing’ clergy to convert. Well, if that is the reason, he can point to me and show that’s not true.

But that is a major problem. Added to Pope Francis’s own statements that seem to suggest that Protestants can get to God their way, the idea of ‘Clergy Converts Hurray!’ just seems to be fading. It already seemed to be waning under Pope Benedict XVI, who also spent far less time focused on our ‘Separated Brethren’ than his predecessor.

And it’s not just me. I’ve talked to a few others who are recent clergy converts and basically have asked ‘where’s the party’? If there was a time when the Church doors swung wide, and dioceses and parishes bent over to accommodate the particular hardships that clergy experience when converting, that time appears to have passed. In my diocese, in fact, I’ve been told by no less than two priests and a deacon that a blank resume with nothing on it that doesn’t include ‘former Protestant Clergy’ would be much preferred over any resume that included ‘former Protestant Clergy.’

That alone has been a major source of our trials, and has put our family to the test. Exactly how that test plays out remains to be seen. But I had to think on that as I looked at this chart, pondered the questions that immediately arose, and set it in light of our own experience. For what it’s worth, the email mentioned others who have gone through our trials and tribulations, and have been “disturbed and discouraged by what they experienced and how they were treated after their conversions.” Again, I just wonder exactly when they came in, and if there might be a chronological trend.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

January 27, 2016

Who is Pope Francis to judge?

Next Post

January 27, 2016 The Harris County Indictments

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Abortion Atheism Awesome things Bigotry for the hip American Blogging Books Catholic Catholic Teaching Catholics on the Internet Christian Persecution Christian Unity Christianity and America Christianity in the Post-Modern World Christianity in the world Culture of Death Culture of Life Current Events Decline and Fall of the Christian West Defending Liberty Fun Stuff Global Warming Good Causes Good News Gun Control Health Care History Holidays Homeschool Humor Important things Inspiring Stories Interesting Insights Interesting Stories Islam and the West Liberal "Tolerance" Liberal observations Life in a post-Christian world Memorial Movies Musings News Other Blogs Our Big Politically Correct Bother Politics Popular Culture Post Modern Values Prayers Pro Life Promoting LGBT Protecting Liberty Racism in the world today Scientism Social Observations Sports Strange Stories The Boys The Catholic Church and the Left The Decline and Fall of the American Dream The end of liberty The Faith and the Left The Faith and the Right The Family The Greatness of God The Internet The Leftist Juggernaut The LGBT Question The Media The Pope The post-liberal Left The Power of Propaganda Tributes Twilight of the American Experiment Uncategorized Uneducating Postmoderns When the Church is wrong Why learn from history when we can repeat it instead Wisdom in the Post Modern Age World Events

Select a Month August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What Christian group follows the "Westminster Confession of Faith"?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Baptists Lutherans Presbyterians Catholics