Letters on the Priesthood

A first in a series of letters to a friend, an older gentleman and protestant minister considering the Anglican Priesthood. He was subsequently ordained...

I am delighted that the thought of priesthood has crossed your mind. I greatly admire and respect you and your many excellent accomplishments achieved over a lifetime of faithful service to Our Lord and the Christian community. It is because of this high esteem that I have waxed so bold as to suggest that you may have vocation to the priesthood - all of the requisite qualities, consecration of life, and commitment, are there. Please know that I am not trying to place any pressure on you. I do believe, and have believed since our first meeting, that a vocation to the priesthood belongs to you. But, the one who has to decide that, is, of course, you! I offer a few reflections based on your statements. I hope they will be edifying and not off-putting....

1. Please don't allow your age (which is not so old!) to deter you from consideration of a vocation to Holy Orders within the Church Catholic. I personally know, on one hand, of the case of a young RC man who was ordained, by special dispensation from his bishop, to the holy priesthood three hours before his death. At age 28, he had terminal cancer, diagnosed while in seminary. He was ordained to the diaconate before his condition worsened to the point of no return. Because his life was entirely consecrated to Our Lord, he was allowed to be ordained on his death-bed. His only priestly act was to give a blessing, a sign of the cross on his friend's hand, before he died. On the other hand, I know of several gentlemen over the age of 60 who, within Anglicanism, have discerned a vocation to the priesthood and have pursued it all the way to ordination. Many of these men had secular careers for their entire lives, although the call to the priestly life had chewed away at them for decades before they finally gave in.

It matters not what one's age may be, so long as one is able to exercise the ministry with energy and dedication, or even one's capacity for certain kinds of ecclesiastical work - all that truly matters is the vocation from God, which ultimately becomes expressed through the call of the Church in the person of the bishop. 'It is the Mass that matters.' The greatest dignity of the holy priesthood, apart from the pastoral, sanctifying and teaching office which is of supreme importance, is the offering and celebration of the holy Sacrifice of the Mass, for the priest does what no one else can do, even angels. No president, politician, scientist, philosopher, or king can take bread and wine, offer them in persona Christi in the name of Christ's Church before God the Eternal Father, and transform them into the very Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. Only a Catholic priest can consecrate and offer the Eucharistic Sacrifice, the sacramental making-present or re-presentation of the one all-sufficient Sacrifice of Christ, and administer thereby the true and objectively-present Body, Blood, soul, and divine nature of the God-Man in Holy Communion. This mind-boggling dignity alone calls men to the priesthood. I am sure you have contemplated this great dignity, and that you continue to do so. The Catholic priesthood is the most profound gift and highest dignity ever conferred on man.

2. The ministry you now have, I believe, would in no real way be affected. In fact, ordination in the historic Succession would certainly enhance and fulfil many elements of the ministry you already joyfully possess and successfully live-out. Priestly ordination at the hands of an Apostolic Bishop would give you the ability to celebrate the Holy Eucharist in a way that you have not been able to do so before, and would enable you to do such things as hear Confessions, and anoint the sick with the sacrament of Unction. The people you serve in an Anglican parish would therefore have access to Catholic sacraments. Your relationship to your former protestant congregants would, in all likelihood, have to change significantly. That would be a very difficult and painful sacrifice, I am sure. And, yet, the priesthood, because it sacramentally configures the ordained to the Crucified Lord of Sacrifice, requires in turn sacrifice of its own most deeply personal and painful kind. These are the sorts of changes you would have to consider if you actually contemplate a priestly vocation.

3. One in your position has only to receive Anglican formation since you already have a Master of Divinity degree from an accredited seminary. In this scenario, you would most likely be required more 'hands-on' preparation: serving Mass, layreading, preaching, independent reading, liturgical practicum, distance and online study, all under a priest-friend and mentor.

4. About your presbyteral ministry in a protestant community, I can say that I agree with you wholeheartedly, as does the Anglican Church, which would never seek in any way to bring your ministerial orders under negative scrutiny, or to 'un-church' you, your ministry, or your personal experiences. Anglicanism does, of course, believe in the necessity of Apostolic Succession for a regular and universally-recognised Ministry, an unbroken line and succession of episcopal consecrations and ordinations directly descending from the Apostles themselves and the Apostolic Church. As such, the orthodox Anglican position is exactly that of the undivided Catholic Church of the first millennium, summed up by the third successor of Saint Peter at Antioch, Saint Ignatius (d. 117 AD), who writes such things as 'Where the bishop is, let the congregation be - just as where Jesus Christ, there is the Catholic Church' and 'Where there is the bishop, there is the Church' and 'Where the bishop, priest, and deacon are not present, there the name "Church" is not given,' etc.

The Anglican position is that the threefold apostolic ministry of bishop, priest, and deacon is essential to the life, communion and unity of the Catholic Church as instituted by Our Lord, for the apostolic ministry is the organ and living instrument of Christ in His Body the Church, and has been so transmitted, handed-down to us, by Christ Himself. In other words, Anglicans believe the Sacrament of Holy Orders in its three grades or levels is of divine institution and of necessary government for the Church of Christ. The Catholic priesthood is thus the extension of the Apostles' commission in history and geography. All that said, Anglicanism has never sought to judge the 'efficacy' of non-episcopally ordained ministries. The Anglican Church simply requires that those who minister within her fold receive episcopal ordination to the diaconate and/or priesthood. She does not seek to condemn ministries outside the Catholic sphere. Quite the opposite, in fact, is true. The fathers of the 1920 Lambeth Conference issued an Appeal to All Christian People in which the Anglican Communion, in calling all Christians to visible unity in the Catholic Church based on the historic episcopate, said 'these ministries [of non-episcopal churches] have been manifestly blessed and owned by the Holy Spirit as effective means of grace.'

If you ever decided that you, in truth, have a vocation to Holy Orders within the Anglican expression of the Church, you would never have to renounce your prior ministry or question the spiritual efficaciousness of any sacraments or rites previously administered. You would simply embrace the historic ministry of the Catholic Church, the sacrament of Orders, as being of the fullness of the ministry commended to the Church by Christ and the Apostles - a Ministry which possesses a universally-recognised character both in time and space in the Christian world, which exists as a covenanted means of grace, a sure and certain sign and sacrament that what Our Lord promises in the sacraments through the ministry will be conveyed ex opere operato. Sacramental ordination guarantees Christ in the sacraments.

5. And, of course, the first and most necessary step in the journey that would lead to diaconal and priestly ordination in the Anglican Church would be joining the Anglican Church! I suppose I have been putting the cart before the horse. If you ultimately decide that you have a vocation to the Catholic priesthood, the first and irreplaceable step would be to have you confirmed by the Bishop of the Diocese, and then have you present yourself before the Board of Examining Chaplains of the Diocese, our commission on Holy Orders. From there you would have to be approved to begin the formation process which would probably last one to one-and-a-half years. Nothing gets started like getting started. So that is how things would proceed.