\n| Elijah in the wilderness<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n Tomorrow, I begin my first step toward digging out of the hole we\u2019ve been in for the last several years. \u00a0I needn\u2019t say these last few have pushed us to the limit. \u00a0One thing after another, financial hits, hardships, death in the family, illnesses and health problems have all flown around our family like crows for almost three years (a little Theoden reference there). \u00a0That, of course, following the previous four where things were anything but calm. \u00a0Since we came into the Church, it\u2019s been frying pan to fire back into frying pan. \u00a0We knew it would be challenging, we knew it would be difficult. <\/p>\n What we didn\u2019t know is that the economy was poised to collapse around us. \u00a0We also hadn\u2019t reckoned with\u00a0the\u00a0fact that our society has changed in its views about religion to the extent that it has. \u00a0I guess being in vocational ministry, especially of the full time sort, can isolate you from the real trends in the real world. \u00a0We also didn\u2019t realize that, like it or not, the Great Clergy Convert Movement begun in the 80s with Scott Hahn has, unfortunately, slowed to a trickle. \u00a0Part of it may well be the other factors I just mentioned. \u00a0After all this is not Scott Hahn\u2019s generation. \u00a0Hahn, Grodi, Thigpin, others of the \u2018Celebrity Convert\u2019 movement came into the Church during booming economic times, under the passionate and charismatic leadership of Pope John Paul II, who put a major premium on reaching out to \u2018our\u00a0separated\u00a0brethren\u2019 as of prime importance in the New Evangelization. \u00a0And it was still a somewhat \u2018religious\u00a0friendly\u2019\u00a0culture. <\/p>\n I know, by the 80s America was hardly a Baptist tent meeting. \u00a0We were moving ever faster away from our cultural Christian roots. \u00a0Religion was becoming increasingly suspect. \u00a0Generations of kids never having graced the doors of the Church were becoming the norm rather than the exception. \u00a0But there was still not the automatic\u00a0suspicion\u00a0and contempt that our post-9\/11 world would bring to the minds of the unchurched. \u00a0There was still a\u00a0generic\u00a0nod, and even handshake, toward traditional religion. \u00a0Not all\u00a0portrayals\u00a0of the\u00a0religious\u00a0were Piper Laurie, some were still positive. \u00a0If the individuals were negatively portrayed, there was still some generic \u2018religion somewhere in some way is still OK\u201d attitude within our culture. \u00a0As an agnostic, I\u00a0conceded\u00a0the point back in the day.<\/p>\n But in these years, it\u2019s none of that. \u00a0Pope Benedict had his own priorities, and with the exception of reaching out to the Anglican Communion and the Orthodox traditions, there didn\u2019t seem to be as much focus on the rest of our \u201cSeparated\u00a0Brethren\u201d. \u00a0Perhaps it was beginning the process of actually figuring out how\u00a0to\u00a0bring the divergent traditions back into the Church, but that simply meant removing the focus from some abstract,\u00a0generic\u00a0\u2018them\u2019 and focusing on one tradition at a time. \u00a0Hostility toward religion is at an all time high, and many younger people (like young people who are HR managers who do the\u00a0hiring), look at religion somewhere between collecting Spock Ears and belonging to the KKK. <\/p>\n Naturally the\u00a0economic\u00a0collapse didn\u2019t help. \u00a0With ten people applying for every job, you could levitate into an HR manager\u2019s office, only to be told the last guy could levitate and juggle. \u00a0Having \u2018religious guy in religious stuff\u2019 on your resume was almost like an iron weight around a marathon runner\u2019s neck. \u00a0And there was the\u00a0Church\u00a0itself. \u00a0There simply were no positions, and no real desire at this point to do anything about it. \u00a0Because of the economy, Church jobs that may have once seemed\u00a0paltry\u00a0for their\u00a0compensation\u00a0were now like gold. \u00a0Folks just wouldn\u2019t give them up. And the Church, at least in these parts, no longer felt the need to create an \u2018office\u00a0of ecumenical relations for this clergy convert who can\u2019t find a job.\u2019 \u00a0The great enthusiasm about clergy converts had clearly dwindled. \u00a0After meeting with dozens throughout the diocese, it was typically \u2018we\u2019ll pray that things work out somehow\u2026though we have no clue how they will.\u2019<\/p>\n So no, this was not the Scott Hahn generation of converts. \u00a0Which could be why the overall numbers appear to have dwindled, and even lay ministries\u00a0supposedly\u00a0dedicated to helping clergy converts seem to be filling their testimonials with people coming into the Church who\u00a0actually\u00a0aren\u2019t, you know, clergy\u00a0converts\u00a0 \u00a0There is no Mother Angelica ready to swoop down and help form lay apostolates around a convert on the sole criteria that he is a convert. \u00a0 Come into the Catholic Church from\u00a0Protestant\u00a0ministry in the 00s or later, and you\u2019re pretty much on your own.<\/p>\n None of this is to say that we\u2019ve had no help. \u00a0On the contrary, the Church, in the sense of the people in the\u00a0parishes, \u00a0has been beyond overwhelming in generosity. \u00a0Had they given us all they\u2019ve given us when we had money to live, we could have afforded that month long round the world cruise we\u2019ve always dreamt of. \u00a0Of course the money, the gifts, the help and services have gone to keeping us alive all these years as I jumped from this temp job to that wild card chance. \u00a0And in these last few\u00a0years\u00a0 the help kept us just under the surface, but not\u00a0descending\u00a0into the depths of Davey Jones\u2019 Locker. <\/p>\n Now, as I begin my new job, I\u2019m reminded of just how long it\u2019s been. \u00a0The last time we had any sense of\u00a0stability\u00a0in our family, my oldest son \u2013 a Junior in high school \u2013 was in the third grade. \u00a0Our 7th grader had not started school. \u00a0That\u2019s a long time of jumping through hoops, and if anything, I regret\u00a0that\u00a0such a large portion of our life with our children was spent not knowing one day to the next what\u00a0would\u00a0happen.<\/p>\n I can\u2019t help but admit I wish something would have come by way of the Church, to keep the ministry going, to keep the sense of calling to vocational ministry to the Gospel alive. \u00a0But, as of now, it apparently was not to be. \u00a0I also have to admit that while this job helps, it gets us to the next place, sort of like that die roll that gets you past Boardwalk with a hotel. \u00a0We made it. \u00a0We got to GO and get to collect our $200. \u00a0But we still have \u00a0a long way to go. \u00a0We need my wife to find something that will bring in money and fit with our homeschooling. \u00a0We need my Mom\u2019s health to rebound. \u00a0And once the dust settles, we still need to find ways to settle into the\u00a0Church\u2019s\u00a0ministry. \u00a0Scheduling has been the biggest bane in that, and my job, alas, will \u00a0not help as the initial schedule will be alternately through late evenings. \u00a0No big problem, but makes taking part on a regular basis difficult.<\/p>\n So prayers will still be appreciated. \u00a0We have a long way to go, though we\u2019ve come along way in the process. \u00a0To the families at St. Mary and St. John Neumann we owe\u00a0much. \u00a0 To some of my readers and the prayers, kindness and generous offers, we al
\nso owe much. \u00a0I am\u00a0indebted\u00a0to Mark Shea and some of his readers for having come through for us when we were literally at the end of ropes. \u00a0It\u2019s for that I continue to visit Mark\u2019s blog, hoping that\u00a0things\u00a0go back to the way they used to be. \u00a0And, of course, I thank\u00a0God\u00a0 maybe not enough, because the air I breath and the health I and my family have, the food we have and the roof over our heads, ultimately come from Him. <\/p>\n I\u2019ll blog when I can, and hopefully get back to my goal of 2\/day in the not-too-distant. \u00a0Pray again, thanks again, and TTFN. <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Elijah in the wilderness Tomorrow, I begin my first step toward digging out of the hole we\u2019ve been in for the last several years. \u00a0I needn\u2019t say these last few have pushed us to the limit. \u00a0One thing after another, financial hits, hardships, death in the family, illnesses and health problems have all flown around […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2805,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n On Protestant Clergy Convert blogging with a new job<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Elijah in the wildernessTomorrow, I begin my first step toward digging out of the hole we've been in for the last several years. 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