There is a great shortage of priests in the church. Perhaps a "real" reason for the OCSP, in line with the general belief that God answers prayers, but not always in the way the petitioner expects, is to be a source, in the short-term, for priests. Not as the wired-in pastors of small, Anglican groups, but as priests in the church of God ministering to congregations that would otherwise face hardships due to the shortage. You've established that sustainability of the OCSP is unlikely. But the avenue of good men having been convicted that their ministry is best exercised in the Roman church, becoming available to fulfill the shortage crisis, seems to me to be a fragment of the OCSP, not to be wasted.As a practical matter, the ability of dioceses to make use of OCSP priests is going to be limited. Bishops will be likely to put them in non-parish roles like hospital and school chaplain, marriage tribunal, administration, and so forth. Some parishes will also object to married priests, as will some priests. Those few who get parishes will likely go to small and rural ones. An extra ten or a dozen won't make a whole lot of difference in any case.I know you believe that some of these former Anglican (or whichever) priests are inadequately prepared for the Catholic priesthood. No doubt more traditional entry men, having run the gauntlet of Catholic school, perhaps secular university training, then seminary, with each step submitting them to vocational discernment, would agree with you. But I have to think positively, that most vocations formed through an Anglican faith journey, are well-intentioned and are ultimately scrutinized by bishops with no need to grease the wheels to ordination. I would also hope that those new priests recognize the authority of the bishops and submit themselves willingly to the direction God sets for them. "Here I am, Lord." In this role as a supply of priests, I think the OCSP is a blessing.
Visitors have taken me to task for characterizing some of the Anglicans who've gone into the OCSP as opportunists. Sorry, looking at the career paths of some, I can't see a better explanation: these guys either performed marginally as Protestants and ran out of opportunities before retirement age, or they couldn't even be ordained in TEC and clearly needed a Plan B. In either case, I wouldn't go to any like that for confession unless the big asteroid were about to hit the planet and diocesan lines to get into confession were impossibly long.
Compare the very limited service these guys can perform as gap-filler priests to the service of Protestants who've given up their clerical careers to become lay Catholic apologists, like Jeff Cavins, Scott Hahn, and David Campbell. Clearly the option is there for married Protestant clergy who want to become Catholic to resign their orders and live Catholic lives in service as laity. This could even include working as lay employees of the Church.
Normally priests come from a process of discernment that, as my visitor suggests, starts with the family, proceeds through parish and school, and includes substantial theological study. When I reflect on my elite-school Protestant-heritage education, I realize more and more how much of a remedial effort is needed to acquire anything like a Catholic world view. A guy with a Protestant MDiv (or none at all) and a webinar makeup course can be authorized to say the words, wear the clothes, and make the moves, but that's not what the Church needs.
Remember that the biggest denomination in the US is lapsed Catholics. To address this problem, we need priests with a full understanding of the faith, not a rag-tag bunch of mediocrities who didn't work out as Protestants, however few they may be.
