We're All Called To Be Catholic, But

not everyone is called to be a priest. A visitor pointed me to a couple of articles, here and here, about Andrew Petiprin, who resigned his job as vicar general for the Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee effective December 31, 2018, and became Catholic the following day.

This raises a number of questions for me. The first is how he could justify keeping his job as an Episcopalian if, as would normally be the case, he'd been pursuing reception as a Catholic for some non-trivial period of time. RCIA takes from one to two years. Even less formal sessions with a priest (like those that Newt Gingrich underwent to marry his third wife) don't happen overnight. This brings to mind the various military chaplains in whatever Protestant denomination who suddenly become Catholic under Bp Lopes, presumably so they don't miss a military paycheck. Isn't the priesthood supposed to be a sacrifice?

Quitting a Protestant clergy job to become Catholic the following day is only half the problem, though it's significant. In the secular world, if I work for Company A and it becomes apparent that I'm seriously talking with Company B about jumping ship to work for them, it's cause for immediate termination, in fact for good reason -- I may be in a position to bring confidential information over from A that could be a big help to B, for instance. In a religious context, it calls one's sincerity into question, if not the canonical issue of abandonment of communion.

But let's look at another issue. According to the Tennessean article,

Petiprin, raised Methodist and then nondenominational Christian, has a long-held affinity for the Catholic Church. Although he became an Anglican while in England in 2002, he contemplated Catholicism after being affected by the 2005 death of Pope John Paul II. But he prayed about it and still felt he was on the right path.

Petiprin became an Episcopal priest and served in Orlando, Florida, before moving to Nashville. In Tennessee, Petiprin said he met interesting local Catholics, came across influential reading materials, and the strife he felt regarding the Episcopal Church dissipated.

In other words, even being an Episcopalian for Petiprin was a relatively brief ride on the denominational carousel. For now, his story is that he'd sorta-kinda wanted to be Catholic all along. Well, great! But why was he so committed to Episcopalianism that he became a priest, and not just a priest, but a vicar general? I mean, I was raised Presbyterian, left the PCUS in college, and came to The Episcopal Church ten years later, all the time growing in my understanding of Christianity, such that after retirement, I became Catholic.

But this was a gradual but steady move, and I didn't detour into non-denominatonalism and such along the way. I'll never have to groom my story for a Catholic vocation director, and I think St Peter will understand that not only was I never called to the priesthood, but I never thought to exploit it for a career.

Petiprin, on the other hand, chose TEC as a career and became a vicar general. This is normally a career step just below bishop. Exactly what was behind his decision to leave a career where he might have had a real future? The writeup says he was a "conservative" -- but TEC has been moving left since the 1970s. Approving same-sex marriage would not have been a surprise, as indeed the ordination of women was not a surprise to the Pastoral Provision candidates in the 1980s or the ordination of gays to OCSP candidates after 2012.

For now, Petiprin's explanation is

"One of the great things that has happened to me over the last few months is, although I remain conservative on many of the questions that the Episcopal Church is facing, I have far less anger or bitterness about any of that than I used to have."

It sounds like he's keeping his options open and making sure he doesn't say anything that would turn off a vocation director in the future.

Petiprin still needs to figure out his next career move. He is considering teaching, writing and administrative work, but has not ruled out the priesthood in his new church. A path exists within the Catholic Church that allows married Episcopal priests to become Catholic priests.

"I’m open to discernment on that question, but for the present I am seeking other employment hopefully within the church somehow," Petiprin said.

Er, why not get a real job? Cardinal Ladaria, shut this thing down.