Pontificator crosses the Tiber

Earlier in the week, St. Blog's was abuzz with the news that Father Kimel, the Episcopal priest who writes the fine blog Pontifications, is crossing the Tiber and entering into full communion with the Catholic Church. On his blog he says, "It is my intention to renounce my orders as an Episcopal priest and to enter, for the sake of my salvation, into full communion with the Catholic Church. I freely affirm the Catholic Church to be the one true fold of Jesus Christ. It is also my intention to avail myself of the Pastoral Provision and to apply for ordination to the Catholic priesthood."

If you've ever read his blog, that's probably not terribly surprising news. I always kind of figured it would happen eventually, given his obvious embrace of so much Catholic doctrine and discipline...and his ample posts that provided long and approving quotes of Cardinal Newman writing about his own journey from Anglicanism to Catholicism. Being only an occasional reader of his blog, though, I didn't realize Father Pontificator was from the Pittsburgh area -- specifically Johnstown. Here's a brief Post-Gazette article on his decision to renounce his orders as an Episcopal priest and embrace Catholicism. If you go to the link for his blog (see above), you can read the entire letter he submitted to his parish about his decision, as well as another post which explains his decision.

In case you don't know what the Pastoral Provision is, basically it means the Vatican can make the decision to allow an already married man who has served as Episcopal priest to apply for ordination as a non-celibate Roman-rite Catholic priest. The decision is made on a case by case basis, and Church's intent is to discern the best course of action spiritually and pastorally for the man in question. It's not merely a loophole to get more priests by tapping into the pool of married men. :) Think of it more as a way of acknowledging that God writes straight with crooked lines. The Church has to try to figure out the best way to respond to and accomodate the sometimes windy path that some of us have to take to arrive at full and complete faith in the Church which Christ founded. So Father Kimel will have to wait and see whether the Vatican will approve his petition for ordination to the Catholic priesthood. Until then, since the Church does not recognize the validity of Anglican orders, he will enter the Catholic Church as a layman. He's got a wife and four children to support, so this is an extraordinary act of faith. He asks for prayers for him and his family.