NEWLY ORDAINED CATHOLIC PRIEST FOR THE DIOCESE OF SAVANNAH BLESSES HIS WIFE AFTER HIS ORDINATION

Anglican priest ordained to Catholic priesthood in Savannah

Following his ordination, Father Lucien Lindsey gives his blessing to his wife, Jeanne. (Courtesy Michael J. Johnson, editor Southern Cross, Diocese of Savannah newspaper)

The Catholic Diocese of Savannah, Bishop Gregory J. Hartmayer ordained an Anglican priest to the Catholic priesthood Wednesday.

The Rev. Lucien Lindsey was ordained a Catholic priest at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Savannah and incardinated in the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter.

The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter is a structure, similar to a diocese, that was created by the Vatican in 2012 for former Anglican communities and clergy seeking to become Catholic.
It was established by Pope Benedict XVI for those of the Anglican heritage who enter full communion with the Catholic Church while maintaining distinctive elements of their theological, spiritual and liturgical patrimony.

Wednesday’s ordination was the 49th since the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter was created, according to Monsignor Jeffrey N. Steenson, Ordinary of the Chair of St. Peter, who traveled from Houston to participate in Wednesday’s ceremony.

Lindsey will be assigned to St. Mary on the Hill Parish in Augusta. He and his wife, Jeanne, have four adult children — three sons and a daughter. They have 17 grandchildren.

According to the website for the Ordinariate, permission has been given on a case-by-case basis by the pope for former Anglican priests who are married to be ordained Catholic priests for the Ordinariate. If widowed, they may not remarry.

Hartmayer noted that Lindsey was ordained a Roman Catholic priest exactly 50 years after his ordination in the Anglican Church.

“There is so much to be celebrated about the patrimony of Anglicanism, its liturgical, spiritual and pastoral traditions, which the Catholic Church welcomes as a treasure to be shared,” Hartmayer said. “So many people, during the 477 years that Anglicans have been separated from Rome, have prayed fervently and made great sacrifices for this day to come.

“And this day has come to Savannah.”
Addressing Jeanne Lindsey at the end of the ordination Mass, Hartmayer said, “It’s not often that I have the opportunity to address the wife of one of our priests.”
He went on to praise and thank her for her 50 years of “being such a strong witness to the vocation of the priesthood.”