The retired Bishop of Fort Worth, the Rt. Rev. Clarence C. Pope, Jr., has rejoined the Roman Catholic Church.In an e-mail sent to the clergy of the Diocese of Fort Worth on Aug. 6, the Rt. Rev. Jack L. Iker announced that his predecessor had “telephoned me this morning” to say that he and his wife had “returned to membership in the Roman Catholic Church, in full communion with the See of Peter.”
Bishop Pope is the second Episcopal bishop to join the Roman Catholic Church this year, and the fifth bishop of The Episcopal Church to resign from the House of Bishops since January.
The retired Bishop of Albany, the Rt. Rev. Daniel Herzog, also returned to the Roman Church this year.
The retired Bishop Suffragan of Albany, the Rt. Rev. David Bena, joined the Church of Nigeria; the retired Assistant Bishop of Oklahoma, the Rt. Rev. William Cox, joined the Church of the Province of the Southern Cone; and the retired Bishop of North Dakota, the Rt. Rev. Andrew Fairfield, joined the Church of Uganda.
Elected the second Bishop of Fort Worth in 1984, Bishop Pope was the first president of the Episcopal Synod of America, and a long-time advocate for corporate reunification with the Roman Catholic Church.
Upon his retirement in 1994, Bishop Pope announced that he and his wife were joining the Roman Catholic Church. Citing the Church of England’s 1992 Act of Synod permitting the ordination of women, Bishop Pope said then that the “pilgrimage I had longed to take corporately would now have to be taken alone.”
Received by Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston at a ceremony in a former Episcopal church in Arlington, Texas, Bishop Pope applied for ordination as a Roman Catholic priest in the Diocese of Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
The Bishop of Baton Rouge gave his conditional approval, subject to the agreement of his diocesan priests’ council, but the council refused his request.
Following pleas from Bishop Iker and former Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning, Bishop Pope returned to The Episcopal Church in 1995 and was restored to the House of Bishops.
In his e-mail, Bishop Iker stated he wished the former bishop and his wife well.
“They both gave 10 years of faithful service and witness here in the Diocese of Fort Worth, and we give thanks to God for their continuing friendship and ministry," Bishop Iker wrote.
"Bishop Pope wanted to assure me that he remains very attached to us and that his affection for the people of this diocese remains unchanged.”
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