Something new to local Catholics: a married priest

John Cornelius

City and Region - The Buffalo News

The photo and following excerpt is from BuffaloNews.com:

BY: Jay Tokasz

A husband and father of three daughters will become the area’s first married Roman Catholic priest when he is ordained Saturday in Allegany County.

Bishop Richard J. Malone of the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo will preside over the ordination of John Cornelius, a former Episcopal priest who is being allowed into the ranks of the Catholic priesthood under a 2012 papal exception to the church’s celibacy rule.

Cornelius, 64, converted to Catholicism about two years ago with his wife, Sharyl.

He spent 20 years as a priest in the Episcopal Church until retiring in 2010.

“I look forward to celebrating Mass again. It’s been two years, and I missed it greatly,” Cornelius said Tuesday. “That closeness to God is an amazing thing.”

A directive by Pope Benedict XVI aimed at welcoming disaffected Episcopalians and Anglicans into the church allows for Cornelius’ ordination.

Last year, the pope established a new “ordinariate” – an entity similar to a diocese – serving former Episcopalians and Anglicans who have converted to Catholicism.

More than 100 former Anglican priests, including Cornelius, applied to become priests for the ordinariate, and Cornelius will be among the first 30 applicants to be ordained.

His wife of 33 years and their three daughters – Virginia, Rebecca Maier and Sarah – will be on hand for the 5 p.m. ceremony in Immaculate Conception Church in Wellsville.

Afterward, Cornelius will lead a small community of former Anglicans who meet in a Catholic church in Henrietta, in the Catholic Diocese of Rochester.

The community, known as the Fellowship of Saint Alban, is considered fully Catholic but may use a traditional Anglican liturgy, including the Book of Divine Worship, which features prayers in Elizabethan-style English.

Cornelius will be a priest of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, which is based in Houston, and overseen by Monsignor Jeffrey N. Steenson, a former Episcopal bishop turned Catholic.

But much of Cornelius’ spiritual work will be focused in the Diocese of Buffalo – in Allegany County, where he will celebrate standard Catholic Masses and participate in other ministries at rural Catholic parishes.

Read More: A Married Priest

Vatican-trained exorcist shares true tales of his craft

Vatican-trained exorcist shares true tales of his craft | Deseret News

The following excerpt is from DereretNews.com:

By Abbott Koloff, (Morris County, N.J.) Daily Record

MADISON, N.J. — The Rev. Vincent Lampert knows Hollywood has created an image of his profession, a dark figure in a hat looking up at a window, preparing to cast out demons.

He says most exorcisms aren't as dramatic as they appear in movies, but some come close.

There was the time in Italy when a woman shook violently and Lampert said he saw her levitate above a chair.

"If I had not seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it," Lampert, 48, a Roman Catholic priest and designated exorcist for the Diocese of Indianapolis, said in a recent telephone interview. "There was nothing between her and the chair. My jaw must have been open."

When speaking to groups, Lampert, who said he's always in demand in October, typically talks about the relevancy of exorcism in modern times, and about a moral crisis of people moving away from God that he says has led to a rise of secularism and superstition. He said he's one of just 36 Vatican-trained exorcists in the U.S., a number that's tripled over the past 10 years as the Catholic Church reportedly tries to stem a movement of people seeking answers in the occult.

"People were turning elsewhere for help to figure out what's going on." Lampert said.

It's not clear how many priests perform exorcisms in the U.S., and how many are performed. Lampert said every bishop is authorized to perform the Rite of Exorcism and may bestow the authority to perform that rite on priests.

Officials with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Paterson, N.J., say they have a designated exorcist, a priest who has performed at least two exorcisms over the past couple of years.

That priest's identity is kept secret from the public, said Ken Mullaney, the diocese attorney, because church officials don't want him to be inundated by exorcism requests. No exorcism is allowed to proceed without the approval of Paterson Diocese Bishop Arthur Serratelli, Mullaney said. The diocese also has another requirement implemented by Mullaney two years ago: Subjects must sign a waiver form.

He said a small portion have something going on that can't be explained by mental health professionals. He said they typically exhibit extraordinary strength, respond to Latin even though they don't know the language, and have an aversion to places and objects considered sacred, such as Holy Water.

Lampert said he prefers to be out in the open, rather than keeping his identity a secret, because that makes him more accessible. He said he receives about six calls a week from people seeking exorcism services.

Read more: Rev. Vincent Lampert