"They've been very nice about it here in Elizabethtown," said Hopper, who was ordained a deacon last Saturday at St. James Church there. "I've had some look at me and say, 'Did I hear that right? You're married and you're going to be a priest?' "

But he said they understand once he explains the papal exception.

More than 70 former Episcopal priests to date have become priests under the provision throughout the United States -- just a fraction of the nation's 42,528 Catholic priests.

If Hopper, 47, completes training to become a Catholic priest, he cannot be a senior pastor of a church, but he will be able to teach, perform sacraments and do other ministry. 'A surprise to some'

"Although Jeff's ordination will be a 'first' for us, there have been many others around the nation, and there is a strong precedent for success," Archbishop Thomas C. Kelly wrote in a letter to priests last week.

"Nonetheless, it will come as a surprise to some and will undoubtedly invoke strong feelings in others," Kelly wrote. "I ask you to assure your parishioners that while this is an exceptional event, it is altogether a good thing for our Church."

The Roman Catholic Church also has married priests in so-called Eastern Rite churches -- which are loyal to Vatican doctrine and authority but follow Eastern Orthodox traditions, including allowing married priests.

Hopper said he knows that some advocates are calling for the Vatican to allow all priests to marry, citing the exceptions for Eastern Rite and former Episcopal priests.

But "I don't really see myself as a poster child for that," he said. He expressed doubt about being able to handle the workload of his senior pastor at St. James while also being married.

"I appreciate the church allowing me to do this," said Hopper, who has two grown children and is helping to raise a grandchild. "But if (the church) said no, I'd still say, 'Thank God I'm Catholic.' "

In fact, while the idea of a married priest is surprising to some, Hopper said the very idea of becoming a Catholic would have shocked him as a boy, growing up in Russell County in Southern Kentucky.

"In a thoroughly Protestant part of the country, (Catholicism) was just not part of your radar," he said.

He grew up in a small church in the Separate Baptists in Christ denomination and was baptized in the frigid December waters of Lake Cumberland.

Hopper, who married his high school sweetheart, Betsy, believed he was called to the Baptist ministry. But as he served a career in the Navy, he grew attracted to the Episcopal Church with its sacraments such as communion. Both Episcopalians and Catholics believe that Jesus Christ is spiritually present in the bread and wine, although they differ on the theological explanations, and the Episcopal Church was "safely Protestant" to him at the time.

"Before, communion had been very special to me ... a very profound way of remembering (Christ's death), but there wasn't a sense of spiritual presence," he said.

After leaving the Navy, he returned to Kentucky, attended two seminaries in Lexington, was ordained an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Lexington and served as pastor of a church in Covington for three years.

He then served as a military chaplain for 12 more years and grew increasingly attracted to Catholicism. His wife and then he converted, as did his grown children and other relatives.

As he neared his military retirement in 2003, he contacted Archbishop Kelly about his interest in returning to Kentucky and joining the priesthood. Lexington Episcopal Bishop Stacy Sauls was "very gracious" in accepting his decision to leave that church's priesthood, Hopper said.

Becoming a Catholic priest required Kelly's permission as well as an application to Rome -- approved by Pope John Paul II just days before his death earlier this year. Hopper had to undergo many hours of study and examinations on theology, Scripture and ethics. Teaching and lay ministry

Since returning to Kentucky, he has taught science at St. Rita School in Louisville and more recently has worked as a lay minister at St. James, helping prepare people for baptisms, confirmation and other sacraments. He will continue in that role as a deacon, a type of clergy, only he can now perform some sacraments, such as marriages and baptisms, and he can preach at Mass.

The Catholic Church has often been a destination for conservative Episcopalians upset with liberal trends in the church -- just as some liberal Catholics have found a haven in the Episcopal Church.

The divide between the churches has grown since the Episcopal Church's ordination of an openly gay bishop in New Hampshire in 2003.

"When that broke, I was already halfway mentally there (to the Catholic Church) anyway," Hopper said. "But the Catholic Church's strong support of the traditional family, I have to admit was a strong part of what attracted me to the church."

He said he was also a great admirer of Pope John Paul II's opposition to abortion, the death penalty and euthanasia as part of a "seamless" ethic on the dignity of life.

But he said he's grateful for his time in the Episcopal Church.

"The journey became not something away from, but something toward," he said. "This was just the finishing of a journey that had started a long time ago."

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050826/NEWS01/508260387
END