KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When Father Earnie Davis prepares for Mass at St. Therese Church, where he has led the Catholic congregation for the past five years, he does so with a wedding ring on his finger.
Davis, who has been married for 33 years, is part of a growing number of formerly Episcopalian priests who have converted to Catholicism. He converted 12 years ago, and unlike life-long Catholic priests, the church’s rules on celibacy do not apply to him.
“I’ve had people tell my children, ‘No, your father is not a priest’,” said Davis. “I was not raised in the Roman Catholic system and so this is a generous outreach. It’s not required, the church doesn’t have to do it, but it’s a generous offer that they have made.”
Davis says that St. Teresa Little Flower Church didn’t have a priest before he came, but he says that he wasn’t recruited to the position by the church, and he says that he doesn’t believe that the Catholic hierarchy approved the celibacy exception to increase the number of priests.
“They will be very welcomed in places where there are a shortage of priests, but it’s not being done in order to do that,” said Davis, who says that there are about 100 former Episcopalian priests in the process of making the transition to Catholic priesthood across the nation.
He adds that if his wife were to die, he would not be allowed to remarry.
Jim Carlyle is another married former Episcopal priest who is now in the two-year process of becoming a Catholic priest.
“Celibacy is a gift and so it’s not a matter of well, ‘It’s not fair that I get to marry and they don’t’, it’s that they have a gift,” said Carlyle.
Carlyle says that the exception is fair to the men who were always Catholic to have to be celibate to enter the priesthood.
“Yes it is fair, because it’s not a question of ‘get to’. It’s a question of an opportunity to offer people different gifts to God in this way,” said Carlyle.
