Monday, 22nd January, 2001: In which I call myself a Catholic, and look to future employment

The past week has been very good for me in coming to terms with my chosen direction. As I was going to Mass on Saturday night down at Cowes, I realised that I was no longer a Lutheran in any real sense at all. I am a Catholic in every sense except officially. The lack of official reception into the church is important, but so is the fact that in my faith I identify with the Catholic Church, not the Lutheran Church. Given all that, the time has definitely come for me to resign my parish and take leave of absence. Only one thing is keeping me from resigning from the ministry altogether and that is that if I am offiicially a Lutheran pastor, I may have a better chance of consideration for ordination as a Catholic priest.

There were several good librarians’ jobs advertised in Saturday’s Age, so I have begun reworking my resume (it is rather out of date). I received several messages from Anthony Fisher saying he needed a c.v. for the Archbishop and Vicar General, so I have been working on producing such a document as well.

I asked Anthony two questions on the phone this morning:

1) should I be applying for secular jobs while I have thrown myself on the mercy of the Church? Answer: “Yes, there will be no offence. If you can get a better job than the Archbishop can provide, by all means, go for it. I will tell him I told you to do so.”

2) What about Fr Kerin’s information regarding the order of annulment, profession and communion? Answer: “It surprises me, but there may be some canonical possibility there that I am not aware of. I will talk to the Vicar General about it.”