WHY DR. CROSSAN LEFT THE PRIESTHOOD Here is his story in his own words: I was ordained a priest in 1957. My priestly life was spent more in the library than the parish, and included years of advanced study at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome and the French School of Archaeology in Jerusalem. As a priest, I taught in a number of colleges, universities and seminaries in the Chicago area. In 1969 I asked for and received permission to leave the priesthood and the Servite Order. I left primarily in order to marry, but also to avoid a conflict of interest between priestly loyalty and scholarly honesty. The official letter of permission from the Vatican was dated July 4th - which I considered rather appropriate. Did I leave with feelings of resentment and anger toward the Church? No. While I was a monk and a priest, I was quite happy. When I was no longer happy, I left. It was that simple. Some others have been badly hurt in such transitions; I was not. From those years in that medieval Order I have retained three rather medieval gifts. The first is my name: John is my civil name, and Dominic the new name given me when I entered the Servites. The second is a profound conviction that faith and fact, revelation and reason cannot contradict one another, unless the human mind has misunderstood either or both. The third gift is a very great love for Gregorian Chant, which I sang badly enough to ruin whole choirs and for whose survival my departure was probably a public service. For his complete story go here: johndominiccrossan/Who%20Is%20Jesus.htm
Posted on: Tue, 28 Jan 2014 00:23:06 +0000
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