While the world watches and wonders what will be happening with the Anglicans — and if we might see a small stampede of new Catholic priests with families in tow — it’s worthwhile to pause and direct our attention toward Milwaukee. They’re about to make a little history there.

This comes from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

For the first time in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee’s history, a married Roman Catholic priest with children will be serving the faithful in southeastern Wisconsin.

Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan asked his priests and deacons this week which of them would be willing to accept the man – a former Lutheran minister – as an associate pastor at their parish.

The priest and his wife, who have juvenile and adult sons, are moving from the Diocese of Venice, Fla. She has accepted a job here.

Although no married priest has served here, about 100 married priests have been ordained in the United States since the late Pope John Paul II created an exception in 1980 that allows married Lutheran and Anglican or Episcopal priests who have converted to Roman Catholicism to become priests, Dolan wrote in a letter to priests and deacons this week.

The priest, Father Michael Scheip, entered Catholicism in 1988 and was ordained in 1993 for the Archdiocese of Newark, N.J., by now-retired Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, D.C., Dolan’s letter says.

Dolan welcomes Scheip and his family and is working on a placement for him, archdiocesan spokeswoman Julie Wolf said Friday afternoon.

In his letter, which some priests received via e-mail on Thursday and others in regular postal deliveries Friday, Dolan says Scheip asked to be considered for a pastoral assignment here. His wife, Mary, has accepted a position at a Waukesha company, and his sons are enrolled in Catholic schools for the fall term, the letter says.

“I have spoken with Father Scheip, and he has met with the vicar (Father Curt Frederick, vicar for clergy) and we were both impressed with his sincerity,” Dolan writes. “He comes with a genuine desire to be of service to the church here in Milwaukee. . . . I am writing to you to elicit your help in welcoming Father Scheip to the archdiocese. Would any of you be willing to accept his service to your parish as an associate pastor? How can I, as your archbishop, be of help to you and to your people in this regard?”

Many of the married Protestant priests who have become Roman Catholic priests were Episcopalians. Pope John Paul II’s granting of the exception for converted, married clergy came after a significant number of Episcopal ministers and their parishioners converted to Catholicism after the Episcopal church decided to ordain women, a church law professor at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., told the Journal Sentinel in 2003.

The arrival of a married priest is expected to raise questions among the estimated 680,000 or more Catholics in the 10-county archdiocese. Not only are they accustomed to the Western church’s requirement of celibacy for priests, which went into effect in the 11th century, they also have been dealing with parish mergers and other effects of a worsening priest shortage.

You can read more at the Journal Sentinel link. And you can also read Archbishop Dolan’s Q&A on the subject, which is pretty interesting in itself.

I also found a worthwhile article on Fr. Scheip from a Florida paper, published three years ago. He sounds like a wonderful priest.