Gaudium magnum!

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It is a very great joy to see so many being ordained for the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter.  I note with special joy the following announcement:

Six Former Episcopal Priests in Fort Worth to Make Catholic History

Father and son are among 30 former Anglican priests being ordained nationwide

Six former Episcopal priests from the Fort Worth area, including a father and son, will become part of history when they are ordained Catholic priests together on June 30.

The six are part of the first ordination class for the new Catholic Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. Based in Houston, the ordinariate is equivalent to a diocese, but national in scope. It was created earlier this year by Pope Benedict XVI for Anglican groups and clergy in the United States seeking to become Catholic while retaining elements of their Anglican heritage.

Fort Worth Bishop Kevin Vann will ordain the men as Catholic priests on Saturday, June 30, 9 a.m. at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church, 2016 Willis Lane, Keller, TX 76248.   Msgr. Jeffrey N. Steenson, head of the Ordinariate, will participate.

I find it especially wonderful that they will be ordained at a church dedicated to St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first Episcopalian convert to the Catholic Church to become a Saint of the Universal Church. 

 I sincerely hope, dear reader, that you will join me in prayer for the men to be ordained to the sacred priesthood: Joshua Whitfield, Christopher C. Stainbrook, Timothy Perkins, Charles Hough, IV, Charles Hough, III, and Mark Cannaday. Let us together ask the intercession of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton for these men and for their ministries in the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church as priests of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Let us also pray for their wives, children, Ordinariate groups, as well as other men who aspire to follow in their footsteps.

For my part on the day of their ordination I shall pray Te Deum laudamus for the incredible gift to the Church that these men represent, a gift from the Catholic heart of the Anglican Patrimony for the life of the Roman Catholic Church and the world.

+Te Deum laudamus.