Monday, August 8, 2011

MARRIED PRIEST An Episcopal clergyman makes the conversion to Catholicism


From Oregon-

Two things set Father Bryce McProud apart from most newly ordained Roman Catholic priests: He once tried out for the Metropolitan Opera and placed highly enough to consider it a career option. And he’s married.

The opera part is easy to understand. About 40 years ago, about the same time he was considering a calling to the ministry, he “sang quite a lot,” and apparently very well. “At that point, I had to choose between opera and the church,” McProud said. “I prayed about it a lot and decided to go with the church.”

As for being married, McProud, a longtime minister in the Episcopal church and now parochial vicar at St. Mary Catholic Church in Eugene, received a dispensation from Pope Benedict XVI that allowed him to make the switch and, as an already married priest, to bring his wife along.

Since July 1, after a few weeks of volunteering in local parishes following his ordination on June 4, he has been a full-time member of the St. Mary clergy, celebrating Mass, officiating at funerals and hearing confessions of parishioners in the old brick church at 11th Avenue and Charnelton Street.

He and his wife, Deanna McProud, have been married “almost 41 years,” he said. “We have a son, and we have two wonderful grandchildren.”

Upward of 100 Episcopal priests in the United States have sought to become Catholic in recent years, reflecting schisms that have arisen within their ranks — originally an offshoot of the Church of England — over issues) such as same-sex marriage, ordination of women, abortion rights and updating of the Book of Common Prayer, the Episcopal church’s equivalent of the Catholic missal.

More here-

http://www.registerguard.com/web/livinglifestyles/26644763-41/catholic-church-mcproud-episcopal-married.html.csp

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