Word: convert
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...surprisingly, the influx of married priests has met resistance within the ranks of the Catholic clergy. Some of the loudest complaints have come not from traditionalists who think celibacy might be undermined but from liberal priests and nuns. One reason: the U.S. converts are mostly theological conservatives who left the clergy of the Episcopal Church because of that denomination's leftward drift on liturgy, doctrine and discipline -- particularly the Episcopalians' decision in 1976 to admit women priests. Also the wife of one priestly convert told Fichter she had run into resentment from nuns who wanted to become priests...
Fichter thinks that the number of married priests might have been greater had Catholic bishops proved to be more encouraging. As it is, a candidate for reordination as a Catholic priest must undergo an arduous process. Besides filing 13 documents, the prospective convert must take additional theology instruction and endure detailed inquiries into his psychological makeup and the health of his marriage. One requirement, controversial to Episcopalians, ; is that each clergyman convert must undergo ordination at the hands of a Catholic bishop, an unwanted reminder that Rome rejects the validity of Episcopal priestly orders...
...They sure don't make it easy," remarked one of the priests interviewed by Fichter, who quotes all of his sources anonymously. The various steps took one of the candidates 6 1/2 years. And the living is not easy either. Recalled a convert who had earned $50,000 a year in the Episcopal clergy: "I went into debt and lost my credit rating" while awaiting reordination. "For the first time in our lives," said one of the priests' wives, "we knew what it means to live on the edge of poverty...
...plus the husband's pay as part-time chaplain of a Carmelite convent. Cash is not the only problem in making the adjustment. One wife told Fichter that parishioners, accustomed to celibate clergy, are very demanding and "don't really give much thought to the priest's family." One convert admitted he favors retaining the celibacy rule because "quite honestly, I think that the personal difficulties and family pressures outweigh the benefits" of the married priesthood...
...emergency program Erman cobbled is intended to stop the rush to convert australs into dollars and force down the prices of goods. To achieve that, the government has promised to end its frenetic minting of money to finance decades of chronic deficits; no more australs will be printed until the level of Argentina's hard-currency reserves rises. If that promise is kept, it would amount to a tight leash on the inflationary money supply...