Pope is an Episcopalian. No, not that Pope.
Rt. Rev. Clarence C. Pope Jr., former Episcopal Bishop of Ft. Worth and multiple Catholic convert has returned to the Episcopal Church, again! Rev. Pope has left the Episcopal Church a grand total of three times to join the Catholic Church, only to eventually return to the Episcopal Church. Now he has done it again! David Virtue gives us the scoop on the very capricious clergyman.
Pope, 76, announced August 2007 that he was returning to the Roman Catholic Church. He was the second bishop in as many months to leave The Episcopal Church for Rome. The Rt. Rev. Dan Herzog, Bishop of Albany, recently renounced his orders following his retirement and returned to the Roman Catholic Church.
This was the third time Pope had left the Episcopal Church and gone to Rome.
Bishop Pope was first received into full communion with the Catholic Church in the mid-1980s. According to a Roman Catholic priest who has followed the bishop’s wanderings, Bishop Pope, facing surgery, returned to the Catholic Church. This lasted a few months. His ordination was delayed longer than he had expected and he returned to ECUSA. “This second return to the Catholic Church was kept very quiet, however; very few people seemed aware of it, and a priest on the staff of Saint Luke’s in Baton Rouge adamantly maintained that the Bishop and Mrs. Pope were at the altar rail there consistently every Sunday.
…
Pope once again, left The Episcopal Church in October 1994. He denied then that he was leaving, right up until the day he left, said a source. “When he made the announcement, he said he planned to seek ordination as a Roman Catholic priest. He told us he had known for the previous two years that he would go to Rome,” said Katie Sherrod, a liberal in the diocese.
Now he has done it again.
So you know there has to be a joke in here somewhere. Everybody join in….
I haven’t seen a Pope this confused since…
- That Papal mass in Papua New Guinea with the half naked woman in the tribal outfit did the readings.
- The Pope looked in his closet and said “I can’t make up my mind today. Should I wear white, white, or white?”
- The Pope asked “What do you mean the Muslims didn’t like my speech?”
- The Pope watched the James Cameron documentary on the Bones of Jesus and remarked to Cardinal Sodano “Is this right? Crap, now I have to get a real job!”
- The Pope read the secrets of Fatima and yelled to the camerlengo, “Hey! Who lost the last page?”
Your turn.
March 27, 2008 at 3:29 am
Wow. On one hand that’s just too rich, like a soldier who’s named Private Dancer or something…a guy named Pope that “popes” every so often. On the other hand, what a painful, confused existence. But anyway, I haven’t seen a Pope this confused since Pope Joan said, “Wait, I never existed…”
March 27, 2008 at 1:15 pm
Maybe the guy is negotiating for a better offer. Maybe he’s just nuts. How old did you say this guy was?
March 27, 2008 at 1:27 pm
Irenaeus….That’s a good one!
David L, He is retired now. I think he is 76 or 77. I agree, you don’t switch this many times unless the elevator is skipping some floors.
March 27, 2008 at 2:34 pm
Bishop Sheen said “There are many religions to live in, but only one to die in.” – (or words to that effect). So what do you bet he comes back? – confused or not – as long as he comes back, he’ll be doing the right thing.
March 27, 2008 at 4:41 pm
“Unconfirmed reports, reaching Virtueonline…”
And to date that is the ONLY story making this claim from an original news source that I have seen. Everyone else is is quoting ONLY that story!
16 days on, how come no one else like, I dunno, maybe Mr. Pope has corroborated?
March 28, 2008 at 12:06 pm
I haven’t seen a Pope this confused since…
A reporter asked him if it was true that the Vatican made a deal with a tennis shoe sweatshop in South Africa to make the shoes of the fisherman.
A reporter asked him if it was true that cafeteria catholics put signs out in front of their cathedrals saying “Over one billion served”.
It was true that quoting the Pope and Cardinals out of context and misrepresenting the Church for a good sound bite had been added to the Seven Deadly Sins.
March 29, 2008 at 1:51 pm
I think he’s a wee bit addled and I think he needs our prayers.
Pax
March 29, 2008 at 4:08 pm
AGAIN can anyone verify this besides this one story of a rumor in one place? Has more come out?
March 31, 2008 at 2:44 am
Of course, if he ever actually did become a Catholic he can’t stop being Catholic, he can only become a lapsed Catholic, which apparently he did.