Married father is now a priest

GRAND ISLAND, Neb. (AP) - Among the three men new to the Roman Catholic priesthood in Nebraska is one with a wife, four children and several grandchildren.

Bishop William Dendinger says the Rev. Sidney Bruggeman is believed to be the first married Nebraska man to join the priesthood.

Bruggeman, 52, was ordained Friday with two other men, the first ordinations in the diocese in five years.

Joining Bruggeman were a traditional seminary student and an immigrant from Mexico.

"It was a joyful day," Bruggeman told KHGI-TV in Grand Island.

Dendinger said there are only about 100 married priests in the United States.

"I think this is the first one in Nebraska," Dendinger said, "but it's a very, very small exception to the policy of mandatory celibacy for all those who are priests."

The chancellor of the Archdiocese of Omaha, the Rev. Joseph Taphorn, said there were no married priests in his archdiocese, which serves more than 221,000 Roman Catholics in 23 counties in northeast Nebraska.

Married priests are not required to live in celibacy, but they do have some restrictions. Bruggeman would not be allowed to remarry if his wife died, and he can not become pastor of a parish, Dendinger said.

Bruggeman will serve as an associate pastor at St. Libory Church in St. Libory, Neb., just north of Grand Island, as well as at Sacred Heart Church in Greeley, farther north.

He had been a minister for the Disciples of Christ Christian Church before he and his family converted to Catholicism about 15 years ago. His children are adults.

To become a priest, he received a dispensation from the pope.

Said Dendinger: "Father Bruggeman was pretty crystal-clear. He'd been Catholic for years and had thought about this a long time, so it was not a snap decision."

"The ordination of a former Protestant minister, still married, is not new," the bishop said.

"Since late 1950, Pope Pius XII started the process of granting a dispensation from the required celibacy in this limited situation. . . . It has been a practice for more than 50 years."

So, Dendinger said, the ordination of a married man should not be interpreted as a sign that the church is relaxing its requirement of celibacy for its clergy.

World-Herald staff writer Susan Szalewski contributed to this report.

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