Welcome to the new and recently refurbished web site for the Pastoral Provision. I hope that this newly updated website will help anyone seeking answers to questions about the Pastoral Provision.Farther down, after a summary of what the Pastoral Provision is about, it says in bold,
Even with the establishment of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, the Pastoral Provision remains available for individuals and married former Episcopalian priests to become Catholic priests in a diocese.Bishop of Orange, CA Kevin Vann is now the delegate for the Pastoral Provision, having presumably replaced Cardinal Bernard Law.
This raises a number of interesting questions. First, there continues to be a critical shortage of diocesan clergy. My own parish has had to cancel masses and rearrange a reduced mass schedule due to a shortage of priests. Other local parishes are having to scramble to fill in for vacations and retreats. On the other hand, there has been a great surplus of Episcopal priests for several generations.
In addition, the ordination process for Ordinariate priests is sclerotic, with a chaotic situation of priests without groups and groups without priests. I'm aware of several good and sincere former Episcopal candidates who appear to have been placed on indefinite hold, while in one case a former Presbyterian pastor with only technical qualifications for the Ordinariate seems to be fast-tracked, while in another a former Charismatic Episcopal Church priest has in fact been ordained despite the fact that the CEC is not an Anglican denomination, and CEC priests are specifically excluded from the Pastoral Provision.
The main difference between married priests ordained as Catholics in the Ordinariate vs the Pastoral Provision is that Pastoral Provision priests are under diocesan authority. (The Pastoral Provision also applies only within the US.) The home page cited says, "Since 1983 over 100 men have been ordained for priestly ministry in Catholic dioceses of the United States" under it. The problem for the Church from the start has been to avoid a perception that the Pastoral Provision is a back door to a general married priesthood. As a result, Pastoral Provision priests have usually been put in non-parish work, such as hospital chaplains, but naturally there are prominent exceptions.
The problem I see throughout Ordinariates and the Pastoral Provision is the inconsistency with which policy is applied. Fr Chori Seraiah, one of the earliest Ordinariate priests, was ordained without an accompanying group in Iowa, first put in hospital chaplain work, and eventually placed as pastor of a diocesan parish, where he presumably says Novus Ordo masses exclusively. In effect, he's functioning as a Pastoral Provision priest, but I believe he's still in the Ordinariate. But other Ordinariate priests and candidates without groups are without duties, when they might be better utilized in diocesan work of some kind.
As a visitor puts it, "[I]it is understandable that a Catholic bishop would not be particularly happy about the idea of priests functioning within the boundaries of his dioceses but not under his control. This is before we get to the desperate manpower shortage he may be facing while an OCSP priest ministers to his congregation of twenty-two. But if something goes wrong, who will make the distinction that the priest on the 6 o'clock news is actually from another jurisdiction? No upside for the local bishop here."
I hope that Bishop Vann can begin to rationalize this situation while increasing the opportunities for former Episcopal priests in the Pastoral Provision.
