Pope Names US Cleric For Ex-Anglicans

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI has named a married priest who converted from Anglicanism to head the first organizational structure in the U.S. for converts wanting to retain some of their Anglican heritage.

The Vatican said Sunday that the Rev. Jeffrey Neil Steenson, a former rector at an Episcopal church in Texas, will lead the Personal Ordinariate, the equivalent of a diocese.

Benedict in 2009 issued an unprecedented invitation for Anglicans to join the Catholic Church in groups or as parishes. Formerly, converts were accepted case by case.

The Vatican created the first such ordinariate in Britain last year. Married Anglican priests who convert to Catholicism can stay married, an exception to the Vatican’s celibacy rule.