The Rev. Gary Sherman, a priest in the Tulsa Diocese, has been married to his wife, Mary, for 36 years, and they have six children. Sherman is among a small group of Catholic priests who are married. A Seattle-area man became the first married priest in the Seattle Archdiocese in January.
Sherman has served at several diocesan parishes and is assigned to a chaplaincy position at St. John Medical Center in Tulsa.
Pope John Paul II approved the ordination in the United States of converted, married clergymen from other denominations in 1980. The married clergymen must apply to the Vatican for permission to be ordained and must undergo seminary training in Catholic doctrines.
Sherman came to the Tulsa Diocese much like the Rev. Tom McMichael came to the Seattle archdiocese — after leaving the Lutheran church, said John Johnson, chancellor of the Tulsa Diocese.
McMichael, 48, was ordained this month as a Catholic priest in Bellingham, Wash., after resigning from his post as pastor of Lynden’s Hope Lutheran Church in 2005.
Sherman, 59, said he was ordained as a Lutheran pastor in Pennsylvania. He said he served at several parishes in Pennsylvania. In the 1970s, he decided to petition Rome to enter the Catholic priesthood. He said his wife, who is Catholic, was a big influence on his decision to try to enter the Catholic priesthood.
He said he had no problems with the Lutheran church and enjoyed his time of service as a Lutheran clergyman.
"I just felt that being a Catholic was more in tune with my sensibilities,” he said.
The process to become a Catholic priest was lengthy, Sherman said.
"I didn’t really think I had much of a chance,” Sherman said. "I petitioned Rome, and I just waited.”
Sherman said in the meantime, he resigned from the Lutheran church and took a secular job in Pennsylvania. In 1982, he and his family moved to Oklahoma, and he began a process of independent study with the Most Rev. Eusebius Beltran, who was priest of the Tulsa Diocese at that time. Beltran is now archbishop of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City.
Beltran ordained Sherman as a priest in 1985.
Sherman said Catholics in the diocese were welcoming, and he has never faced difficulties. People who are caught off guard after learning that he is married are generally those who are not part of the local Catholic community, he said.
"To Catholics, it’s kind of old news by now,” he said.
"For most people who aren’t Catholic, it’s unexpected. They say, ‘I didn’t know they were doing that.’ My response is that they’re not doing that. It’s against the rules. I’m just the exception to the rule.”
Meanwhile, diocesan chancellor Johnson said the Tulsa Diocese had two other married priests at one time.
Johnson said like Sherman, the men had formerly been clergy in another denomination before the Catholic church granted its assent to their ordination as Catholic priests.
Johnson said one of the priests, a former Lutheran priest, died.
The other priest, a former Anglican priest, retired from the Catholic priesthood and moved to England, Johnson said.
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(Source: TAP)