Rentapriest, the name--Chapter One

So, let's begin with the name "Rent A Priest." When I became aware of the severe shortage of priests in 1991 (almost everywhere except New England where I live), my inclination was to find out why we had not seen news articles about churches that had already closed by then in San Francisco, Detroit, Chicago and elsewhere. I had been a pay, pray and obey Catholic all of my life--attended parochial school, served the public at church suppers, taught religion classes to youngsters as well as being a weekly communicant at my local church. Yet, I had never heard--ever--that 20,000 priests had left clerical priesthood to marry in the U.S. between 1968-1992; that Canon Law says they are priests forever and by using certain Canon Laws, the public can bypass a bishop and request sacramental ministry from a priest who married--that their sacramental ministry would be valid. When I read in my research, however, that as far back as 1980, the church hierarchy began inviting Protestant ministers to convert to Catholicism and become ordained into the Catholic priesthood, yet were throwing out the front door priests who married, something about a terrible injustice made me snap inside. It happened right in Maine where I live. Rev. Harry Vickerson from the Buxton area was relieved of his church duties when he married, but was replaced with a married priest convert with wife and family. My professional background had included marketing, advertising, television and sales. That I should write news releases about my newfound discoveries was therefore a normal reaction. Armed with the research I had done, the newly-f0rmed CITI (Celibacy Is the Issue) began releasing data to the news media. The instant positive response I expected, however, never came. This was nothing new to reporters. Their reaction was something like, "Celibacy in the priesthood? That's been around for 860 years. Ho Hum!" A few months later, I met married priest canon lawyer Rev. Delmar Smolinski of Michigan. He handed me 20 years of his research to justify his own ministry as a hospital chaplain in a local Catholic hospital. I sent the 21 canon laws to one of the authors of The Code of Canon Law and asked, "Is this legitimate?" He said, "Yes!" OK, so here I was sitting with this new knowledge from my cursory research: 1. The realization that celibacy was a manmade law passed in 1139 because the church wanted the homes where priests lived; in some instances, they even sold their wives and children into slavery (Thomas, Gordon-Desire and Denial). 2. Canon Laws that say priests are priests forever and people could call them to ministry without permission from anyone. In fact, there are 21 such laws. And no one in the media--the threshhold to the public--cared. Meanwhile, I was hearing horrible stories about married priests being blackballed in their communities by their bishop and having difficulties getting decent jobs to support their families. Some had been told to move as far away as 500 miles. All had been told to put their chalice in the closet and, "Don't you dare celebrate Mass." I prayed. During the summer of 1992, I prayed. "OK, God, you've given me all this. So, what for? What do you want from me anyway?" I honestly didn't know what to do next. One of my sisters came to our Maine cottage for a visit in September. She slept upstairs, I downstairs. The following morning, she said, "You talked all night in your sleep. What was going on?" I told her about this dream I had, so vivid that it was like a vision. I saw a brochure in pale blue paper stock. On the cover were a pair of male hands holding the Eucharistic Host the way a priest does when he is consecrating it. The difference was that there was a brilliantly shining ring on the third finger of his left hand. Above the image were the words "Rent A Priest." That day, I called my canon lawyer friend and another married priest and together, we developed the brochure still being used today. Another friend, artist and illustrator Patricia Woodward designed the logo--an illustration of the image described above. It too is still being used today.

Media recognition and interest was almost instantaneous. Over the next five years, Rentapriest publicity attracted Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes, Time Magazine.com and front pages of the New York Times and International Herald Tribune along with scores of newspapers, magazines and online media. Belgium, Austria and Switzerland TV stations sent their camera crews to our front door and we were also featured on the BBC and CBC (Great Britain and Canada). No longer was celibacy a "ho-hum" issue and Rentapriest attracted not only the public, it brought married priests out of the woodwork, especially the 60 Minutes segment that ran in January 1995. CITI, through Rentapriest.com, has provided sacramental and pastoral ministry to over half a million people in the past ten to twelve years.