'Married priest' describes why he left the church
Irish author, Michael Harding, has revealed he never officially left the priesthood — even though he has been married for 25 years.
The Cavan actor and raconteur was ordained for just a few years before walking away from the priesthood in 1984 at the age of 31 because he didn’t agree with Pope John Paul II’s agenda.
But in Brendan O’Connor’s new RTÉ series, , the playwright and novelist reveals he never applied to be laicised from the Catholic Church.
He said: “I was ordained a priest, I never left, that’s hugely important.”
When the RTÉ presenter asks him if he still regards himself as a priest he answered “yes” and when he asks if he is a married priest the writer says “yeah, of course”.
He said the status of his marriage to his wife, Cathy Carman, is a “civil issue”: “I don’t see it as the business of the Church.”
He goes on to explain exactly how he left the Church in his early 30s because he didn’t like the new direction under Pope John Paul II but he never officially nullified his ordination: “I retired from ministry because the Church was going into this restoration papacy that made no sense, that had no validity and with which I could have absolutely nothing to do with, I’ve had nothing to do with it since 1984. But I wasn’t laicised.
“I didn’t apply to get laicised which is what priests do, it’s like an annulment. You go and say, ‘Oh I would like to be laicised now because that was a mistake’.”
“Quite the opposite. I wrote to my bishop making clear that I didn’t have any crisis of faith but clerical life within the political context of what was happening in the Church made no sense to me and I was completely finished with it.
“So, in one sense I am completely finished with the Roman Catholic Church since 1984 but I didn’t lose my faith, No 1. And No 2 when a woman that became the beloved, that to me, is a continuation of a journey of faith, not some sort of chopping and changing.”
He told he originally went to the seminary when he was 19 before leaving but returned to the priesthood again when his dad died when he was in his 20s.
“I went to the seminary with this notion, it was really a mistake, a kind of deviant childish thing when I was 18. So, I got out of it within a year and I stayed in Maynooth and did a BA and became a teacher and became a social worker and worked in prison.
Somewhere there about 24 years of age I felt this is not satisfying me as a life. I felt to pray was the same as writing a poem.
When his father died when Michael was in his 20s he went back to the seminary and was ordained.
However, he said he wasn’t happy to stay in the Church under Pope John Paul II’s “restoration papacy”. He said his wife Cathy, who is a sculptor, inspired him to be the kind of writer he wanted to be.
In the interview with Brendan O’Connor, the 65-year-old also shares the moments that have defined his life, speaking very movingly about the death of his mother and his own depression.
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