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List of former Catholic priests

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a list of notable former Catholic priests. Both religious and diocesan priests, and bishops, are included. Most persons on this list can fit into one of the following categories:

  • Left the priesthood but remained Catholic (voluntary laicization)
  • Left the priesthood and the Catholic Church altogether (voluntary laicization)
  • Have been laicized involuntarily or excommunicated

A

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B

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C

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D

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E

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  • Eadberht III PrænKing of Kent from 796 to 798 and former diocesan priest
  • Johann Esch – Belgian former Augustinian friar who was martyred for adopting Lutheran beliefs
  • Louis ÉvelyBelgian Christian spiritual writer; left the diocesan priesthood after conflicts with his superiors over his writings

F

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G

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  • Vernon F. Gallagher – American former Spiritan priest and President of Dusquene University; left the priesthood and the Spiritans in 1972 and worked as an academic administrator at Saint Michael's College
  • Florentino García Martínez – Spanish professor and Dead Sea Scrolls expert; former diocesan priest
  • Pierino Gelmini – Italian former diocesan priest who founded a famous drug abuse rehabilitation center; laicized by his own request following a 2010 indictment under charges of child sexual abuse of 12 boys
  • John Geoghan – American former diocesan priest from Boston laicized by Pope John Paul II after being accused of sexually abusing more than 130 boys
  • Michael Glennon – Australian former diocesan priest; laicized in 1984 after being convicted of raping two preadolescent boys
  • Johannes Gossner – German philanthropist and charismatic diocesan priest from 1804–1826 before leaving the Catholic Church to become Protestant
  • Thomas Groome – Irish-American theologian and professor at Boston College; diocesan priest from 1968–1986 before leaving to marry a woman
  • Sally Gross – born Selwyn Gross, was a Dominican priest before leaving the order and exploring his intersex identity; laicized in 1987
  • Philip Guarino – American restaurateur, political activist, and former diocesan priest; left the priesthood in the 1960s

H

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J

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  • Luke Timothy Johnson – American New Testament scholar and historian of early Christianity; was a Benedictine monk until the early 1970s when he left to marry a woman

K

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L

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M

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N

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  • Xavier Novell i Gomà - Formerly the Bishop of Solsona in Catalonia Spain. Resigned to marry a erotic novelist.

O

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  • Charles J. O'Byrne – American lawyer, political staffer, and former Jesuit priest; was a Jesuit from 1996–2002 and was dismissed voluntarily after his superiors determined he no longer wished to be in the order; he later came out as gay and is now a practicing Episcopalian
  • John O'Donahue – Irish poet, author, Hegelian philosopher, and former diocesan priest who left in 2000
  • Gerald O'DonovanIrish-British former diocesan priest and writer; left the priesthood in 1908 after moving to London but failing to find employment
  • Oliver O'Grady – Irish former diocesan priest; laicized after being charged and convicted of the sexual abuse of at least 25 children in California from 1973–1990s
  • Huub Oosterhuis – Dutch theologian, writer, poet, composer, and former Jesuit priest; left the order in 1969 and was pastor of an independent Catholic church and married a woman
  • Joseph O'Rourke – American pro-choice activist and former Jesuit priest; dismissed from the Jesuits and later laicized over his unauthorized baptism of a child whose mother publicly supported abortion rights; remained Catholic while strongly criticizing church teaching on sexuality
  • Derry O'SullivanIrish-French poet and former diocesan priest
  • Julian Joseph Overbeck – British former diocesan priest who converted to Eastern Orthodoxy and became a pioneer of Western Rite Orthodoxy; originally converted to Lutheranism and married, and was received into the Russian Orthodox Church in 1865

P

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R

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  • Patrick RiceIrish Argentinian-residing human rights activist and former priest of the Little Brothers of the Gospel from 1972–1985, when he left to marry an Argentinian woman
  • Gerald Ridsdale – Australian priest and school and hospital chaplain; laicized after being convicted between 1993 and 2013 of numerous cases of child sexual abuse and indecent assault against 54 children
  • John RogersEnglish former diocesan priest, Bible translator and commentator, and the first English Protestant martyr under Queen Mary I of England; abandoned the Catholic Church in the 1530s under the influence of William Tyndale
  • Barry Ryan – American former diocesan priest suspended from priestly duties and later laicized amidst allegations of child sexual abuse; later convicted of sexual abuse of a 6-year-old boy in 2003

S

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T

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V

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W

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  • Józef Wesołowski – former Polish bishop; laicized in 2014 while on ecclesiastical trial for child sexual abuse and possession of child pornography
  • Richard WilliamsonEnglish Traditionalist Catholic bishop and former priest of the Society of St. Pius X before being expelled in 2012 for offenses including his repeated calls for the deposition of Bishop Bernard Fellay as the Superior General of the SSPX and his refusal to stop publishing his weekly email which often included his many controversial views
  • Finbar Wright – Irish musician and member of The Irish Tenors; was ordained a diocesan priest in 1978 before leaving the priesthood and becoming laicized in 1987, citing philosophical differences with the Catholic Church

Y

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Z

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See also

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  • List of former Roman Catholic nuns
  • List of former Roman Catholic brothers
  • Jewish pope Andreas, a Jewish legend about a Jewish boy in the Middle Ages from the German town of Mainz who is kidnaped while asleep, told his parents had died, converts to Catholicism, becomes a priest and is elected Pope but then engineers a meeting with Mainz Jews, discovers his rabbi father is still alive when he appears, before admitting to his father that he is his long-lost son, abdicates from the papacy, converts back to Judaism and moves back to Mainz.

References

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  1. ^ "Canon Lawyer on Father Pavone's Dismissal from Priesthood: Only the Pope Can Issue a Decision Without Appeal". NCR. Retrieved 2022-12-20.
  2. ^ Sanders, Gavriel Aryeh. "A Minister's Journey to Judaism".; "About Gavriel". 10 July 2008. Retrieved 16 November 2018.
  3. ^ Scalamonti, John David (1992). Ordained to be a Jew: a Catholic priest's Conversion to Judaism. Brooklyn: KTAV Publishing House. ISBN 978-0-88125-412-9.
  4. ^ "Ex-Christian ministers now active Orthodox Jews". Jweekly. 15 May 1998. Retrieved 20 December 2018.
  5. ^ a b Barr, Robert (12 May 2013). "Geza Vermes, renowned Jesus scholar, dies at 88". Times of Israel. Retrieved 17 September 2018.
  6. ^ a b Ivry, Benjamin (15 May 2013). "Geza Vermes, Hungarian Bible Scholar Who Returned to Jewish Roots, Dies at 88". The Forward. Retrieved 17 September 2018.