What denominations attract ex priests?

[commenter]

My understanding is that most Catholic laity who join another denomination go with evangelical or pentacostal churches, though non-denominationals are now attracting them the most. Some, not as many, join liberal type Protestant churches, to my knowledge.

But almost every Catholic priest who left the Church that I have heard of has joined either a mainline church, especially Episcopal, or some very liberal kind of group that has the word “Catholic” in its name, where they usually function as priests. I have not heard of priests joining the same conservative types of churches that attract Catholic laity.

Is this just my limited experience, or is that the trend; and if so, why?

(Though satisfying my curiosity is less important than prayer for the individuals involved).

 

[pensmama87]

From my personal knowledge (similar to yours), they tend to go Episcopal. I think there is an attraction to the liturgy, but (again based entirely on the people I know) there’s a desire to indulge in things that are not permitted in Catholicism. One person who served as a priest at my grandmother’s Episcopalian church left the Catholic Church to get married. The woman he married was also a “priest.” They later divorced. It was a mess.

If I had to guess, I would say that if the priest received decent formation in seminary, they’d recognize the importance of liturgy and more traditional forms of worship. Maybe the difference for laity is that this is less obvious, but they may not be prone so much to throwing out traditional moral values (though some evangelical groups take a much more neutral stance on those, at least around here.)

 

[Made]

I know of a catholic priest who left the church and became old catholic. He left the old catholic church and joined the Roman catholic church again.

We do not have that many protestant churches where I live + most protestant churches are really small here.

 

[SueZee]

I know of a catholic priest who left the church and became old catholic. He left the old catholic church and joined the Roman catholic church again.

We do not have that many protestant churches where I live + most protestant churches are really small here.

What does old Catholic Church mean ?

 

[nunsuch]

My suggestion would be that you check with the research done by CARA (Center for Applied Research on the Apostolate) at Georgetown. That is much more reliable than the information a few people here might be able to offer impressionistically. There’s also been a lot of survey research done on ex-Catholics generally, by organizations like Pew, and some published in journals like the JSSSR and Sociology of Religion.

 

[Sy_Noe]

I know the priest (or if you prefer, the rector) at my local Episcopal church is a former Roman Catholic priest. And the priest/rector at another nearby Episcopal church was a Roman Catholic. Though in this 2nd instance had not been among the clergy until after conversion to TEC.

 

[Ben_Quincy]

Not a Vocations topic.

Closed.