{"id":996,"date":"2016-01-27T10:36:00","date_gmt":"2016-01-27T10:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2016\/01\/the-name-of-my-pain.html"},"modified":"2016-01-27T10:36:00","modified_gmt":"2016-01-27T10:36:00","slug":"the-name-of-my-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/daffeythoughts\/2016\/01\/the-name-of-my-pain.html","title":{"rendered":"The name of my pain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Is Protestant Clergy Convert<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0 I received this little chart in an email the other day:<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

It\u2019s from a lay apostolate (that\u2019s ministry to you Protestants out there) that focuses on helping folks who convert to Catholicism.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s main purpose originally was to help Protestant clergy converts.\u00a0 But over the years that broadened to include an almost equal focus on anyone who becomes Catholic.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

A couple things.\u00a0 The total number of clergy converts is 994.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t tell me since when.\u00a0 But let\u2019s assume since around the mid-90s, when the apostolate began.\u00a0 Let\u2019s say 20 years.\u00a0 That\u2019s around 49 a year.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

It also doesn\u2019t say exactly how one defines Protestant Clergy converts.\u00a0 I know it includes bi-vocational pastors, assistant pastors, seminarians and professors as well as those who are ordained but employed with denominational jobs.\u00a0 It might even include people ordained who never actually went into ministry.\u00a0 That happens sometimes.\u00a0 And that\u2019s a big difference.\u00a0 A person who is a successful lawyer who just happens to be ordained and act as an assistant pastor is not in financial harm\u2019s way by converting.\u00a0 Neither is a professor, who can simply slide over and get a job in a Catholic university (or a secular one as the case may be).\u00a0\u00a0It is not the same for a full time vocational pastor with no other financial resources and no career to lean upon. <\/p>\n

Finally, it doesn\u2019t tell me when what is happening.\u00a0 Of those hundreds who became priests, how many did so in the last ten years?\u00a0 How many in the 90s?\u00a0 The 00s?\u00a0 I know for a fact that the numbers in the chart aren\u2019t too far off from where they were a few years ago when I saw similar numbers of clergy converts.\u00a0 Have the numbers diminished?\u00a0 How many have joined in recent years versus, say, 96 \u2013 06?\u00a0 <\/p>\n

I\u2019m in that 3% unemployed BTW.\u00a0 I have it on good authority that the main reason for my plight is that our bishop is no particular fan of letting ministry converts get a job.\u00a0 The reasons are a bit murky, but the best I have been able to piece together is that he feels somehow that it might appear that the Church is \u2018bribing\u2019 clergy to convert.\u00a0 Well, if that is the reason, he can point to me and show that\u2019s not true.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

But that is a major problem.\u00a0 Added to Pope Francis\u2019s own statements that seem to suggest that Protestants can get to God their way, the idea of \u2018Clergy Converts Hurray!\u2019 just seems to be fading.\u00a0 It already seemed to be waning\u00a0under Pope Benedict XVI, who also spent far less time focused on our \u2018Separated Brethren\u2019 than his predecessor. <\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not just me.\u00a0 I\u2019ve talked to a few others who are recent clergy converts and basically have asked \u2018where\u2019s the party\u2019?\u00a0 If there was a time when the Church doors swung wide, and dioceses and parishes bent over to accommodate the particular hardships that clergy experience when converting, that time appears to have passed.\u00a0 In my diocese, in fact, I\u2019ve been told by no less than two priests and a deacon that a blank resume with nothing on it that doesn\u2019t include \u2018former Protestant Clergy\u2019 would be much preferred over any resume that included \u2018former Protestant Clergy.\u2019 <\/p>\n

That alone has been a major source of our trials, and has put our family to the test.\u00a0 Exactly how that test plays out remains to be seen.\u00a0 But I had to think on that as I looked at this chart, pondered the questions that immediately arose, and set it in light of our own experience.\u00a0 For what it\u2019s worth, the email mentioned others who have gone through our trials and tribulations, and have been \u201cdisturbed and discouraged by what they experienced and how they were treated after their conversions<\/span><\/span>.\u201d\u00a0 Again, I just wonder exactly when they came\u00a0 in, and if there might be a chronological trend.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is Protestant Clergy Convert.\u00a0 I received this little chart in an email the other day: It\u2019s from a lay apostolate (that\u2019s ministry to you Protestants out there) that focuses on helping folks who convert to Catholicism.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s main purpose originally was to help Protestant clergy converts.\u00a0 But over the years that broadened to include an […]<\/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-996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe name of my pain<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Is Protestant Clergy Convert.  I received this little chart in an email the other day:It's from a lay apostolate (that's ministry to you Protestants\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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