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.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment