Retired Albany [Episcopal] bishop joins Roman Catholic Church

[Timidity]

Daniel W. Herzog, the retired bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Albany, New York, and his wife, Carol, have become Roman Catholics.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori told Herzog in a March 28 letter (full text below) that she knows the couple’s decision was “made after careful prayer and consideration and so I wish you and Carol well as you enter another room in Christ’s church.”

Herzog had expressed disagreement with some decisions of the Episcopal Church’s General Convention, including its 2003 affirmation of an opening gay bishop elected in the Diocese of New Hampshire.

 

[auberginecow]

I myself left the Episcopal church back in 1986 for the Catholic church…I couldn’t stand the ECUSA’s liberal nonsense and disrespect of the Lord and Our Lady back then!

 

[Brian_C]

Interesting times in the Episcopal Church. What a wonderful testament that it’s never too late to swim the Tiber. It took me 29 years but…

So I wonder if he, even though retired, has any plans for joining the ministry in any capacity?

 

[M-Dent]

So I wonder if he, even though retired, has any plans for joining the ministry in any capacity?

He’d probably have to be a candidate for ordination first?

The story below, the 80th Episcopal priest to join the Catholic Church since 1980 noted some details that may be applicable here?

Kimel, married with four grown children, faces at least a two-year process to be ordained as a Catholic priest.

First, he will be considered a layman. He must be sponsored by a Catholic bishop willing to have a married priest in his diocese. A period of formation – 18 to 24 months of reviewing theological studies and getting acquainted with the Catholic Church – follows, after which Pope Benedict XVI will decide whether or not to approve Kimel’s ordination.

post-gazette.com/pg/05141/508401.stm

Finally, concerning married Episcopalian clergy becoming Catholic priests, “the Holy See has specified that this exception to the rule of celibacy is granted in favor of these individual persons, and should not be understood as implying any change in the Church’s conviction of the value of priestly celibacy, which will remain the rule for future candidates for the priesthood from this group.”

In other words, an ordained Episcopalian minister would make a profession of Faith and be received into the Catholic Church, and thereupon receive the Sacrament of Confirmation. He would then take appropriate courses which would enable him to minister as a Catholic priest.

After proper examination by his Catholic bishop and with the permission of the Holy Father, he would be then ordained first as a Catholic transitional deacon and then as a priest. If the former Episcopalian minister were single at the time of his ordination as a Catholic deacon and then priest, he would indeed take the vow of celibacy. If the married former Episcopalian minister were ordained as a Catholic deacon and then priest, he would be exempt by a special favor from the Holy Father of making the promise of celibacy; however, if he later became a widower, then he would be bound to a celibate lifestyle and could not remarry.

ewtn.com/library/ANSWERS/MARPRIE.htm