BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - A married man with three children has been ordained a priest by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge.
The Rev. Frank Bass, a former Episcopal priest, is the first married Catholic priest in Baton Rouge but there are some 125 elsewhere in the nation, the diocese said.
Catholicism normally bars married priests, but Pope John Paul II issued a provision in 1980 under which some Episcopal, Anglican and Lutheran clergy have been admitted. The convert clergy cannot marry again should they outlive their wives.