Father Martin Carter is one of only a handful of Roman Catholic priests in Canada who are married.
Formerly a married part-time Anglican
minister, Carter, 65, of Charlottetown was a granted rare permission by
the Pope to become a Catholic priest after he converted.
And last week, Pope Benedict gave the nod
for a German Lutheran convert, Harm Klueting, 61, to become ordained and
remain married to his wife.
Pope John Paul approved of married men being allowed to become ordained with special permission from the Vatican in 1980.
Since then, there have been about a dozen
married Canadian men and 100 married American men who have been ordained
as Catholic priests.
It took about two years before the Vatican gave permission for Carter to become ordained in August 2009.
Born in Wolverhampton, England, Carter immigrated to Canada in his 20s and married his wife Annie in 1972, before becoming a member of the Anglican faith in his 30s.
Born in Wolverhampton, England, Carter immigrated to Canada in his 20s and married his wife Annie in 1972, before becoming a member of the Anglican faith in his 30s.
Carter said it took five years of contemplation before he converted to Catholicism in 2005.
"(Becoming Catholic) had to do with the
nature of the Church. The Anglican Church was a state-formed church in
1500, which broke away from the Roman Catholic Church, and I had
concerns. I wished to reconcile back to the Roman Catholic Church,"
Carter said.
Carter and his wife have three grown children
and two grandchildren. Carter worked as a research assistant studying
soil at Agriculture Canada for 30 years before working full time as an
ordained Roman Catholic priest.
"If you're ordained, you also require your
wife's permission to become a priest because you're living in two states
of life," said Carter, who works as an associate pastor at St. Francis
of Assisi in Cornwall, P.E.I.
"Becoming a priest will have an effect on
your wife and family... It's not hard, but you have to set aside time to
spend with your family."
Neil MacCarthy, spokesman for the Archdiocese
of Toronto, said the married individual would need support from a local
bishop before applying to the Vatican.
"If the reasons for becoming an ordained
priest are satisfactory and the reasons are sound, then the individual
would receive special permission from the Pope," MacCarthy explained.
MacCarthy said under the jurisdiction of the
Vatican, there are some Eastern Orthodox European and Middle Eastern
rites which also allow married men to become priests.