[Gamecock]

[Gamecock]

Thus sayeth the Lord:

Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” (Genesis 2:18)

[hinckley buzzard]

Cutie' is a classic sociopath. It just makes sense for him to bail out of the RCC and become a piskie.

[dangus]

80% Episcopagans... 11% Lutherans... Thanks. You’ve confirmed my hypothesis that precious few ever leave to draw closer to Christ: almost all those who leave are fleeing Christ into sinfulness.

[kaehurowing]

The Episcopal Church is a non-Christian cult.

[.45 Long Colt]

FEATURED ARTICLE
Why Did Fifty Catholic Priests Leave the Priesthood?
http://www.bereanbeacon.org/articles/on-catholicism/why-did-fifty-catholic-priests-leave-the-priesthood.html

A Catholic Priest Biblically Saved
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VKiv3ZGAWo&feature=youtu.be

[tinamina]

The Roman Catholic priest who serves the local parish in my town is a married man who converted from being an ordained Lutheran minister. He seems to be doing a great job. The parish is happy with him AND he was able to keep his wife.

[Alex Murphy]

How unique is Cutié’s story? How many other Catholic priests have left the church for another denomination in order to marry? Could Cutié’s conversion signal the beginning of another wave of men leaving the priesthood? Until November 2008, when I completed my dissertation on the transition of celibate Catholic priests into married Protestant ministry, it would have been impossible to address these questions. The data I collected over the course of a year allowed me to conduct the first-ever analysis in this field....Thanks to information gathered from the research offices of the five mainline Protestant Churches (Congregational, Episcopal, Lutheran, Methodist, Presbyterian), I was able to identify 414 such men in the United States. Following the advice of the late Dean Hoge, I did not contact the Baptist Church or any of the hundreds of small Protestant denominations, presuming that very few Catholic priests would be inclined to join them.

Nearly one-third of the 414 former Catholic priests now serving in Protestant ministry agreed to participate in my survey. Of the 131 respondents, 105 (80.2 percent) became Episcopalian, 15 (11.5 percent) Lutheran, eight (6.1 percent) Congregationalist, and three (2.3 percent) Methodist. I found a 40-year age range: the youngest was 42 and the eldest 82. Their mean age was 62.8 while the median was 64.

The “typical” participant in my study, therefore, was born around 1944. If we divide his life into seven 9-year periods, we find him immersed in Catholic devotions and rituals during the first two timeframes. His service as an altar boy and the encouragement he received from the nuns facilitated his entry into the seminary at the age of 18 in 1962. He dedicated the third period of his life, during the heyday of Vatican II, to preparing for ordination at the age of 27 in 1971. He spent the fourth phase in active Catholic ministry and struggled with his commitment to celibacy. At the age of 36 in 1980, at the beginning of the fifth period, he resigned from ministry, got married, worked for a few years in a non-ministerial job, and eventually began his journey to his new denomination. From 1989 to 2007, he served as a married Protestant minister, twice the amount of time he spent as a Catholic priest.

PFL

[Ransomed]

“...young priests today are more theologically conservative than their immediate predecessors and are more likely therefore to embrace the church’s traditional teaching on celibacy.”

Liberals of any faith invariably hate the Catholic discipline of celibacy. Try to find one person who accepts things like abortion, ‘gay marriage,’ or female clergy who also thinks the Catholic discipline is valuable and should be continued. They just aren’t out there, as far as I can tell.

Freegards

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Following the advice of the late Dean Hoge, I did not contact the Baptist Church or any of the hundreds of small Protestant denominations, presuming that very few Catholic priests would be inclined to join them.

So let's just cut a whole group out because the researcher has jumped to a major conclusion.

Is this "study" worth the paper it is printed on.

Possibly, if you are in the smallest room in the house.

Otherwise take with a number of very large grains of salt.

[Elsie]

It’s obvious!

[SuziQ]

One former diocesan priest, who is now 80 years old, said, “Humanae Vitae pushed me off the edge. I saw that act as the refusal of the Roman Catholic Church to enter the modern world.”

So many Catholics turned away because of Humanae Vitae, thinking "how could that dried up old man tell US how to live?"

Turns out that 'dried up old man' was pretty prescient, seeing as how most of what he predicted would happen as a result of procreation being separated from marriage, has, in fact occurred. But you'll never convince those disaffected Catholics of that.

[GGpaX4DumpedTea]

I decided to comment on this thread, because of a good friend of mine, now diseased and with his Lord. We will call him 'Jacob', not his real name. He was in his 80's when I came to know him. What I will relate now is what he told me. He was a Roman Catholic Priest in Florida. The Lord told him to go to New York City; he had work for him to do there. He was obedient. He went. He soon found himself in the company of some 'evangelicals', and they were at a street corner, preaching the Gospel. He was there and he was asked to 'preach'. He did. Something totally not in his upbringing nor in his 'ecclesiastical' training. From there, his story continues. He worked with many in various ways to present the Gospel to all. He was in the company of a well known preacher who told him he would meet a woman who would become his wife, and described her to him. Sometime later he was with friends, and the hostess was busy in the kitchen with preparations for dinner and there was a knock on the door. She asked 'Jacob' to answer the door. When he opened it, there was the woman who had been described to him in detail sometime earlier, his 'soul mate'. Later they were married. At this point, I would interject that I do not know all the ins and outs of his no longer being a 'celibate' priest, or his connection directly to the Roman Catholic Church. He and his wife had a mission in New York, and provided help, including food to many. Later he was involved in distribution of Bibles in Poland. He met the bishop of Kraków. The bishop heard about his being able to arrange food in quantity for the needy and asked 'Jacob' if he could help. 'Jacob' did, and the food flowed into Poland. 'Jacob' and the bishop of Kraków became good friends. Now for the rest of the story. The bishop of Kraków was elected Pope John Paul II (now Saint John Paul the Great). When Karol Józef Wojtyła was inaugurated as Pope John Paul II 'Jacob' and his wife were invited by Karol Józef Wojtyła to be there for the ceremony. They had seats near the front. When the ceremony ended and Pope John Paul II came down to greet those there the first one he embraced was my friend 'Jacob'. And he and his wife were invited to a morning mass in the Pope's private residence the next morning. My friend 'Jacob' was a great man of God. He exemplified what Jesus taught. He is missed, but his wife and I know that he is basking in the presence of his Savior. .