(The Salem News) BEVERLY — A longtime North Shore clergyman is in line to become one
of the first Episcopal priests in the country to be ordained as a Roman
Catholic priest.
The Rev. Jurgen Liias, who led Christ Church in
Hamilton for 14 years before forming a breakaway Episcopal church in
Danvers, has applied to the Vatican to be ordained into a new U.S.
ordinariate created by Pope Benedict XVI on Jan. 1.
Liias said
he will resign as an Episcopal priest and will be confirmed as a
Catholic in a Mass on Wednesday at St. Margaret Church in Beverly Farms.
If his application is approved by the Vatican, he will be ordained as a
Catholic priest this fall.
Sitting inside St. Margaret’s on
Friday, still wearing his Episcopal priest collar, Liias said, “I feel
like this is what God wants me to do.”
Liias is among the first
wave of Episcopal priests who have responded to Pope Benedict’s
invitation to join the Catholic Church through the ordinariate, which is
designed to allow Anglicans to become Catholic while retaining elements
of their Anglican heritage. Church officials describe an ordinariate as
a parish without geographic boundaries.
Liias said that about
20 members of his former church, Christ the Redeemer in Danvers, plan to
convert to Catholicism. The group would like to form its own parish
within the Catholic church, with Liias serving as their priest and
services held at St. Margaret’s.
Liias said he would also seek
permission from Cardinal Sean O’Malley to assist the Rev. David Barnes,
the pastor at St. Mary’s in Beverly and administrator at St. Margaret’s,
in saying Masses and hearing confessions. St. Margaret’s does not have
its own priest.
Barnes said he could not comment on Liias’
ordination because it has not yet been approved but said he is excited
to have him join the Catholic faith.
“He’s definitely a leader,”
Barnes said. “He’s got a lot of spirit and a lot of creativity. He’s
dedicated to the Scriptures and to the Lord and to the church. I’m sure
where he goes, a lot will follow.”
Liias, 64, is married with
two grown children and two grandchildren. Priests who join the
ordinariate are allowed to remain married but must submit a written
letter of support from their wives in their applications for ordination.
Liias’ wife, Gloria, a member of Christ the Redeemer, is not converting but is supportive of his decision, he said.
“We’ve
been married for 42 years, and we’ve managed to make our marriage work
with differences,” he said. “It’s important to model marriages that
don’t depend on absolute uniformity.”
Liias has been an Episcopal priest for 40 years, but his ties to the religion go even deeper.
He
was born in Germany in 1948, just after World War II. His father was an
Estonian who was wounded during the war and conscripted into the German
army during the Nazi occupation. His mother was separated from her
family in East Germany.
His parents applied for emigration after
the war, and his family, which now included his younger brother, moved
to the United States and lived in a camp for displaced persons in
western Massachusetts.
The family was eventually taken in by the
priest of an Episcopal Church in Charlestown and lived in the church
rectory for 10 years.
“That had a profound influence on me,” Liias said. “From the time I was a little boy, I wanted to be a priest.”
Liias
served for 14 years as rector at Christ Church in Hamilton. Concerned
about what he said was the Episcopal Church’s move away from “basic
Christianity” with its support of abortion and homosexuality, he led the
effort to form a breakaway church, Christ the Redeemer Anglican Church
in Danvers.
“I found myself moving in a different direction
ideologically,” he said. “I began to wonder if the Episcopal Church was
the best home for me.”
Liias said he had thought about becoming
Catholic ever since Pope John Paul II made a “pastoral provision” in
1980 allowing Episcopalians to join the Catholic Church.
When
Pope Benedict renewed the effort this year with the establishment of the
ordinariate, he said, “That, to me, was the final sign that this was
the time to become a Catholic. I couldn’t say no to that invitation.”
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