In this clip, Cy Kellett welcomes Fr. Samuel Keyes to discuss how a former pastor can return to the Catholic Church. Fr. Samuel explains the importance of confession and the process for rejoining the faith, offering guidance for those in similar situations.
Transcript:
Caller: Father, if you would pretend for a moment that you were my local pastor. I was baptized and raised in the Catholic school system. I later became, through the Nazarene Church, enlivened to Christ, became a Presbyterian pastor for five years and then served later. Some five years later, was served as a Lutheran pastor for 25 years. And I’m now retired at age 70. My wife is very Catholic in perspective as I am, and I love the Catholic Church, but in my particular situation as a marriage within the Lutheran Church, I’m asking you to counsel me only because I’m a chicken to go to my local pastor. I thought I’d check it out with you first, how you would counsel me if I came to Mass and wanted to partake of the.
Fr. Samuel Keyes: So you mentioned that you had a background in Catholic schools. Were you actually initiated in the Catholic Church?
Caller: I was baptized and confirmed in the Catholic Church.
Fr. Samuel Keyes: Oh, wow. Okay.
Caller: I went eight years with the, you know, in grammar school and then I went to high school, public high school. Okay. So, yeah, I mean, you know, I have the baptism.
Fr. Samuel Keyes: Yeah. Yeah. Well, look, canonically speaking, if that’s, if that’s the case, you are a Catholic, right? I mean, the fact that you for, for some years were not practicing as a Catholic and even had a kind of ordained ministry in other non Catholic churches, canon law in the Latin Church pretty much says if you’re baptized in the Catholic Church, you are a Catholic in terms of the law. So, so, so all you have to do is go to confession.
Caller: Okay.
Fr. Samuel Keyes: Basically, you go to. No, of course. Now I would suggest that might be a longer confession. I mean, let’s be honest, because we’re talking about some years. And so what I would do would be to reach out, call a parish office or if there’s a priest maybe that you are inclined to trust, say, look, here’s my situation. I want to come back to the church. Want to come back into the full communion of the church. I’ve been kind of away for some years and, you know, therefore I might have a bit of a lengthy confession because I have this kind of complicated history and kind of make an appointment for that rather than just going and waiting in line. And I think that most pastors would understand that. Right. But because of that background, you don’t have to do anything else special. You know, there’s. Yeah.
Caller: Do I need to go to confession first before I participate?
Fr. Samuel Keyes: Yes.
Caller: Obviously the answer is yes.
Fr. Samuel Keyes: Yes.
Caller: Okay. So I should call the local pastor, make an appointment face to face.
Fr. Samuel Keyes: That’s what I would do. Just to kind of give. Give you the time to kind of. Because, especially if you haven’t been to confession as a Catholic in many years, I mean, for anybody, that might take a little bit longer, but because, you know, you had this particular situation of having an ordained ministry outside the Catholic Church, that’s something you just want. You just want a little bit more time to talk about that. Right? That’s not a. That’s not a. That’s not. I’ll just say that’s not something that comes up in the confessional every day.
Caller: Right.
Fr. Samuel Keyes: So, you know, the priest would probably appreciate having a little bit more time to just kind of talk through that with you. And so that the, you know, so that your reconciliation is more than just a kind of perfunctory. But you really. It’s just. It can be a more thorough, like, hey, I’m kind of laying out my history here. I want to come back into full communion. And, you know, I think that you would feel better about that, you know, honestly, than just trying to kind of slip in, you know, because, I mean, if I had somebody being like, oh, yeah, you know, my Last confession was 30 years ago, and, you know, since then I was, you know, Presbyterian pastor, etcetera, I’d be like, hold on, like this. This might be a longer conversation, you know, because that is just a little bit complicated to kind of sort through in terms in the context of a confession.
Cy Kellett: Daniel. Well, what a beautiful call for us to receive. Daniel, if I may ask you a question, have you ever heard of the show on EWTN called Coming Home,
Fr. Samuel Keyes: Journey Home.
Caller: Excuse me, The Journey.
Caller: I have heard of it, but they don’t air it on our local station.
Fr. Samuel Keyes: Well, you can look up the Journey Home, the Journey Home Network.
Caller: I’m familiar with it, and I will do that.
Cy Kellett: Okay. I keep getting my things backwards. It’s the Coming Home Network, but lots and lots of. I mean, your story is beautiful. What a wonderful story. For us as Catholics, we love to hear that story because it’s, it’s. It. It adds to the great.
Fr. Samuel Keyes: The.
Cy Kellett: The greatness of God, the way he takes us and on these journeys and walks with us on these journeys. But the Journey Home is just a wonderful program that has, I don’t want to say similar stories because there’s no similar story to yours, but stories.
Fr. Samuel Keyes: An incredibly wide angel.
Cy Kellett: Wonderful, wide, wild stories. And, and. And the Coming Home Network is. Is geared towards people who have been in Protestant minist Home to the Catholic Church. And so it just might be of interest to you. I’M not, I’m not trying to lay any burden.
Caller: Absolutely. No, no, no, I agree. I agree. And I have heard of that. And I if you could name the host, Marcus Groda. Well, that doesn’t ring a bell, but I will do that. And. Okay, Father, thank you. Thank you very much.
Fr. Samuel Keyes: Very well.
Caller: Thank you so much. You do a great job and I really appreciate it. Thank you.
Cy Kellett: Well, you really made our day. I gotta say, Father, I’m a big fan of Marcus Grodi. I love listening to his interviews. I absolutely love them. And I don’t really like hour long interviews. I’m usually like a two minute interview guy. And I never feel at all bored with Marcus Griffin.
Fr. Samuel Keyes: I was going to say I haven’t, I haven’t seen that many of them, although a lot of friends who have been on there. I know it’s like all your friends have been on there.
Caller: Like I’ve heard some of your friends on there. I’m like, I know this guy. Keys knows him. But anyways, what a lovely call. And we’ll take a quick break. We’ll be right back with more Ask a Question Priest on Catholic Answers Live.