Since I blogged.\u00a0 The reasons are legion, for they are many.\u00a0 Once again, our life is in upheaval.\u00a0 As it has been for going on seven years (that would be about how long it\u2019s been since we entered the Catholic Church).\u00a0 Some of it continues to be the unenviable task of attempting to start a new vocation in an increasingly hostile-toward-traditional-religion society experiencing a sluggish, if not declining, economy.\u00a0 Some also, apparently has to deal with the fact that this is not your father\u2019s Catholic Church welcoming Protestant Clergy.\u00a0 Ah yes, we\u2019ve all heard the stories about how, back in the day, when Protestant clergy came into the Church, they were welcomed with open arms; positions were made, jobs were given, ordinations were handed out, TV shows were established, classes at colleges and seminaries were opened \u2013 all on the so cool basis that these were former Protestant clergy converts who were leaving it all to become Catholic!\u00a0 Woo hoo!<\/p>\n
Well, that was then.\u00a0 Not saying it doesn\u2019t still happen, but not like it used to.\u00a0 Fact is, the Church has turned a corner and gone down a different path.\u00a0 There\u2019s still those, on the parish level, who may be impressed and glad to see someone come in with an arm load of experience, training, and schooling regarding the faith.\u00a0 But as a \u2018Church\u2019, things have changed.\u00a0 The 80s convert explosion was, after all, on the heels of Pope John Paul II\u2019s New Evangelism.\u00a0 Reaching out to our separated brethren was the talk of the day.\u00a0 But that was then.\u00a0 Our Pope now is not nearly as evangelistic, and what efforts he has spent reaching out has been confined almost exclusively to the Anglican Communion, Secular Europe\u00a0or the Islamic world.\u00a0 This could be one of the reasons.<\/p>\n
Another reason might just be that the great Protestant Clergy conversion movement was, in the end, a fad.\u00a0 It was hip at the time.\u00a0 Sort of like Dungeons and Dragons.\u00a0 At first, everyone was playing it.\u00a0 Then, somewhere it became stigmatized, and you couldn\u2019t get most guys to play it from a mile away for fear it would end the social life right there and then.\u00a0 Same here.\u00a0 Somewhere, somehow, things have changed.\u00a0 Not that there is nothing.\u00a0 Of course, by definition of he numbers of those involved, there is still something.\u00a0 There is at least one lay apostolate dedicated to keeping the issue of Protestant Clergy converts in the loop, no matter what the actual numbers might be, and no matter just how much actual help is really given. <\/p>\n
Likewise, there will still be the parish here or the odd diocese there that reaches out and attempt to assimilate these folks into the Church.\u00a0 But there were never that many.\u00a0 There has always been a net loss of former Catholic priests leaving the Church, and in all honesty, the numbers of Protestant Clergy converting were usually small.\u00a0 Those that did often were clergy in the looser sense of the word: a professor, a youth minister, a Christian counselor or missionary.\u00a0 Often they were folks who had \u2018non-clergy\u2019 vocations, able to more or less step into a Catholic, or secular, version of what they did in their Protestant lives.\u00a0 I came to find out that the storied full time minister who walks away from his pulpit, loses everything and then finds a miraculous path to fulfillment serving within the Church while making it back on his feet is a rare, rare thing indeed.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
In fact, some have long gone back to other Christian pastures, seeing the need to continue to eat and feed their families.\u00a0 Some did make it, but again, that was increasingly long ago.\u00a0 Some are still coming in, and I encourage them.\u00a0 Because I still believe the Catholic Faith is the true faith.\u00a0 But be warned: be prepared to give up everything, and get little to nothing in return except a more meaningful walk with God.\u00a0 You may well find none of your years or decades of ministry background utilized, and you may end up watching your family lose it all.\u00a0 It may be that giving everything up for that pearl of great value is worth it in the end, but you won\u2019t be able to eat it.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
So that\u2019s where much of our turmoil is right now, meaning that blogging has been light, and once again, will probably continue to be light as we work toward getting ourselves on a permanent path in life.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
On another front, my brother-in-law has been diagnosed with cancer.\u00a0 Like so many things in the last half dozen years, this has added to our sorrow and stress at a time when we had too much of both.\u00a0 Prayers for him and his diagnosis would be appreciated very much.\u00a0 Likewise, continued prayers for us as we, even now, continue to find where it is we are supposed to perch in this not-so-new life as Catholics.\u00a0 We are ever hopeful that things will work out, though we understand that many in our country, and indeed around the world, continue to struggle, and sometimes more.\u00a0 Nevertheless, when it is your own hearth and home affected, it weighs on your mind no matter how you attempt to qualify it, and we pray that no less than by the end of 2012, we will finally see the path laid before us how we will see these problems fixed, our vocations established, and the ability to relax and know that the proverbial daily bread will be coming in the future.\u00a0 Especially as we have a young man two years shy of a college we can\u2019t, at this time, hope to aid him in attending.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Since I blogged.\u00a0 The reasons are legion, for they are many.\u00a0 Once again, our life is in upheaval.\u00a0 As it has been for going on seven years (that would be about how long it\u2019s been since we entered the Catholic Church).\u00a0 Some of it continues to be the unenviable task of attempting to start a […]<\/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-2515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n