Catholic Church in Spain ordains first married priest

Spain's Roman Catholic Church has for the first time allowed a former Anglican minister who is married with two children to be ordained as a priest.

David Evans, 65, from Zimbabwe has converted to Catholicism and the Vatican has approved his ordination, the Tenerife Diocese, where Fr Evans has been assigned, said yesterday.

"Of course, David Evans will continue to be married to his wife, Patricia, after his ordination as a priest," the diocese added in a statement.

However the statement added that the case did not mark the start of the Catholic Church abolishing celibacy for priests.

"It is rather a very singular exception considering (Fr Evans') situation as a married man and his very particular circumstances in coming from the Anglican Church, a community which allows its ministers to marry," it added.

The Roman Catholic Church has accepted about 200 married Anglican ministers into its clergy in Britain and smaller numbers from Anglican and Protestant churches in other countries since Anglican ministers opposed to the ordination of women began converting to Catholicism.

The Anglican Church began ordaining women in 1992. Fr Evans, who is 64, is the son of an Anglican mother and a Catholic father. His wife is also a Catholic, and they have two daughters aged 30 and 40.

He chose Tenerife, in Spain's Canary Islands, because of its mix of Christian religions as well as a high number of English-speaking visitors and residents.

"With this ordination, my husband has come back to what was always his home," Patricia Evans was quoted as saying in the statement.

In recent years there have been several cases of priests converting to Catholicism from the Anglican Church. Within the Catholic Church married men may be ordained as permanent deacons, but not as priests.

Spain is about 78 per cent Catholic, a recent survey showed, although more than half of those surveyed said they rarely attended religious ceremonies.