Anglican Clergymen Become Catholic Priests: Taking the Final Steps to Ordination

Anglican Ordinariate’s new chief priest oversees course of studies, teleconferencing of married men.

by CHARLOTTE HAYS

Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson was installed as ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter on Feb. 12.

(National Catholic Register) CLEBURNE, Texas — Charles Hough already had quite a career, including 18 years in the prestigious post of canon to the ordinary in the Episcopal Church’s Fort Worth Diocese. Now he wants to become a Catholic priest.

Hough hopes to lead a group of former Episcopalians in Cleburne, Texas, who have asked to belong to the new Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, created by Rome for former Episcopalians. Every Saturday, from 9 to 4, he participates in a newly developed program of training for former Episcopal clergy.

He and approximately 60 other former Episcopal priests around the United States, many of whom are married, are studying for the priesthood using a teleconferencing system to hear lectures and discuss their intense course of readings. While some men join the teleconference alone, Hough gathers with several other men at a Catholic church.

A similar group meets in Baltimore for the weekly teleconference. Hough has special ties to one of the other Texas participants — Charles Hough IV, his son, another former Episcopal clergyman who hopes to become a Catholic priest.

Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson, who was installed as ordinary of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter on Feb. 12, said the planning for the program of study for these men began late in the spring of 2010 and is based on a document prepared specifically for former Episcopal clergymen by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. This was in turn based on Pope John Paul II’s pastoral exhortation Pastores Dabo Vobis (I Will Give You Shepherds) on preparing men for the priesthood. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith document is the basis for course preparation in both the U.S. and the U.K. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, papal documents, and other assigned readings are the backbone of the studies in both countries...

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