Prince Albert sees its 1st married Roman Catholic priest

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He said normally people think of the Latin Rite priest, who takes a vow of celibacy and remains unmarried.

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“There are many different Rites in the Catholic Church, the most common one people think of is the Latin Right and that’s what we are,” he said.

He said for instance there is a Ukrainian Rite Catholic Church in Prince Albert and they have married clergy.

“There are 21 other Rites in the Catholic Church. They’re often called the Oriental Churches; they’re in the Middle East largely, but with immigration that’s why we have some here. There’s a Chaldean Church in Saskatoon and they would have married clergy too, one would have the option,” he explained.

“So it’s not as uncommon as people might think, just that in our culture, Western European oriented, the Latin Rite is the predominate Rite.”

He said it’s quite the process to be ordained a priest.

“The process was established with Vatican II and after Vatican II, Pope Paul VI established a pastoral provision for people who had been clergy in other denominations and become Roman Catholic,” he said.

The process includes the evaluation of the persons schooling and if there were any deficiencies in any area they would be given instruction and then could be ordained as Catholic Clergy receiving the dispensations which would allow the person to remain married.

When asked why he wanted to become a priest again he said, “When my wife and I became Roman Catholic, it wasn’t with that idea.”

“But something came up that demonstrated how people were being affected by the shortage of clergy. There was a person who does volunteer work with the prison and at the time she was unable to find a priest who was able to come and celebrate mass there at the prison and that haunted me for several weeks.”

“I thought, you know here I was with nearly 30 years of clerical experience with another denomination, so I went to the Bishop and said ‘you know there’s a need here if I can be of any help to you, use me.’”

Right now, Averyt will remain in his role as the director of Adult Faith Education after he is ordained, but he will also be filling in for clergy who are on vacation or away.

He will also be serving sacramental ministry at the prisons.

In the past, Averyt had taken part in various inmate visiting programs and once he is ordained, he will be able to hold mass and confession for inmates.

“I do know that my work in the prison that I’ve done so far, with visiting and so on, has been very important both to, I think, the people I’ve visited and to me personally.”

swallace@panow.com

On Twitter: @sarahthesquid