After a long day of celebrating Mass, visiting the sick and tending to Holy Family Church in Grand Blanc, the Rev. Steven Anderson heads home.
But unlike most Roman Catholic priests, Anderson is greeted by his wife and three sons.
This is not a church scandal, but a beacon of hope for some that the church may one day allow all priests to marry.
Anderson, who was ordained last month, is among an estimated 100 married priests nationwide who converted from other Christian traditions. Anderson received special permission from Pope John Paul II under a pastoral provision that was initially set up for married Episcopal ministers to become Catholic priests by providing an exception to the church's celibacy rule.
Some hope the relatively unknown provision will be used as a test case to admit one of the estimated 25,000 Catholic priests who left the active ministry to marry.
"That's my prayer and hope," said Frederick J. Luhmann, author of "Call and Response: Ordaining Married Men as Catholic Priests."
"I believe the future church needs priests whether they be celibate or married."
But some traditional Catholics say that will never happen.
"This was not designed to give hope to those who want a married clergy in the future," said Deal Hudson, publisher of Crisis Magazine, a conservative Catholic monthly based in Washington, D.C. "If it were a step in that direction, you would see a lot more than (100) priests."
Anderson would rather not take sides in the debate because he wants to be a priest to everyone, regardless of their point of view.
"It's important to me not to be an activist for just a group of Catholics," Anderson said. "I am to be a priest to all."
His new life has been such an exuberant time for him and his family. He'd rather not see it immersed in controversy because his position at Holy Family is the end of a long journey that is more about spirituality than his status as a husband and father.
"I love being Catholic," said Anderson, 45. "I find it to be very rich, very peaceful. I very much feel like I've come home."
A native of Highland, Anderson was raised a Presbyterian. He and his wife of 24 years, Cindy, became childhood sweethearts when they met at White Lake Presbyterian Church.
He attended seminary in Philadelphia and Oklahoma and was prepared to become a Presbyterian priest in 1984 even though he took one class that planted a seed that he might be a Catholic.
Anderson decided not to get ordained and instead converted to the Episcopal Church, which he described as a faith midway between his Protestant roots and Catholic persuasion. He remained a parishioner for 10 years.
In 1995, Anderson converted to and was ordained in the Charismatic Episcopal Church, a branch of the Episcopal Church established in 1992. He became the founding pastor of Church of the Resurrection in Brighton. The church was similar to the Catholic Church, Anderson said, in that it believed in seven sacraments and the same books in the Bible.
One day in 1999, however, Anderson asked himself an important question -- "If I am so Catholic, why don't I just become Catholic?"
Nearly two decades earlier, Pope John Paul II had given Anderson the means to do so. That's when the Holy See approved a provision for the American Roman Catholic church to ordain married Episcopal priests into the Catholic priesthood. Bishops must petition the Vatican, and they are approved on an individual basis.
Luhmann, whose 2002 book outlines the history leading up to the provision, said a group of American Episcopal minsters prompted the change. They approached church officials in the 1970s after they felt their church was beginning to become too progressive by changing the book of prayer and ordaining women. Many wanted to become priests in the Catholic church, but were married.
On July 22, 1980, the Vatican granted the exception to the celibacy rule.
"There was a general caution about making too public the issue because there was a still a firm commitment to celibacy," said Luhmann, who left the active ministry after 12 years for many reasons. He is now married.
Roman Catholic priests were allowed to marry in the early church, but during the 12th century celibacy became canon law. The rationale, Luhmann said, was so a priest could model himself after Christ and devote himself exclusively to God.
Since then, Catholic reform groups have called for a change to the celibacy rule, especially as the ranks of priests worldwide have dwindled. In the United States, the number of priests has declined 17 percent since the 1960s, while the Catholic population has increased 38 percent, to 66 million people. These groups have called on the Vatican to open the priesthood to married men -- and women, too.
Pope John Paul II will not approve such a change, but his successor surely will, predicted Terry Dosh, a church historian, retired professor and author of two newsletters.
"It' a no-brainer," said Dosh, a former Benedictine monk who left the active ministry and is now married. "After John Paul II dies, the next pope will do it. He will have to do it. There is a serious crisis going on."
Many point to the provision for married Episcopal priests as a reason to be hopeful, especially since the Vatican has approved a handful of other married Protestant ministers under the provision that was originally set up for Episcopalians.
"I just wish they'd extend the same privilege to all the wonderful priests who have left the ministry to marry," said Sister Christine Schenk of the Congregation of St. Joseph. She is executive director of Cleveland-based FutureChurch, an organization calling for a more married and female clergy to make sure Catholics will always be able to participate in the sacrament of Holy Communion.
It doesn't seem fair, Sister Schenk said, that the church would welcome a married minister from another faith but will not open their arms to those priests who felt a calling to the church but had to leave to answer a call to marriage.
George Van Antwerp, who also left the ministry in Detroit after 17 years to marry in 1970, agrees and thinks it's wonderful that Anderson was ordained.
"Every married priest that is brought in contributes to the eventual change to the Catholic Church when we will have a more widely represented church, married or single, male or female," said Van Antwerp, 75, of Royal Oak.
Anderson is not the first married Catholic priest in Michigan.
In 1997, Gaylord Bishop Patrick Cooney ordained the Rev. William Lipscomb, a former Episcopal priest who is married with four children. He now ministers at St. Phillip Neri, in Empire, Mich.
Some parishioners enjoy having a married priest on staff at St. Phillip, as well as Holy Family.
Judi Sielaff, a Holy Family member since last year, said Anderson's life experiences help him better understand hers.
"He has a much broader idea of what goes on at 3 a.m., with the baby waking up in the middle of the night," Sielaff said. "It's kind of refreshing. God calls people to do his ministry and we follow."
Anderson is pleased that everyone has been so welcoming.
"I am just absolutely loving it."