Married ‘Rent A Priests’ Take Jobs That Others Won’t

Dominec Rizzo wanted to get married by a Catholic priest, but he had one problem. He did not want to go through the time and trouble of getting his first marriage annulled.

So he called Rent A Priest, a service that finds married priests to do jobs regular priests won’t or can’t do.

“They’re providing us a way to have a traditional ceremony--as close as possible--without actually being in a church,” said Rizzo, who is set to get married in October at this city’s Four Seasons Hotel.

Rent A Priest is the creation of Louise Haggett, a former manufacturer’s representative who started the service out of frustration over the shortage of priests and the celibacy vow that she says has caused many of them to leave the church. Operating from her Framingham, Mass., home, she keeps a computerized list, arranged by ZIP code, of 1,500 married Catholic priests around the country. Although some are retired, most of the priests have full-time secular jobs.

Haggett says Rent A Priest appeals to people who cannot wait for an available priest to perform a marriage, funeral or baptism; parishes looking for vacation replacements for their priests, or Catholics disgruntled with the traditional church.

Haggett’s service is nonprofit and she charges no fee. Customers do not actually rent the priests’ services. Although they accept voluntary contributions, the priests work for free.

A client fills out an application, and Haggett finds a married priest in the client’s area. Her first client was married on June 4, and since then, Haggett says she has received 35 calls.

After spending 19 years as a manufacturers representative for beauty products, Haggett got the idea for the service in 1991, after she could not find a priest available to visit her mother in a Maine nursing home.

Haggett also was motivated by her belief that celibacy should be made optional for Roman Catholic priests. Haggett says she was outraged by the increasing shortage of men drawn to the priesthood because of the celibacy vow and upset that thousands of married priests in the United States are barred from administering sacraments.

Catholic priests who marry or leave the church cannot act as priests, but they retain the priesthood for life.

After consulting with canon lawyers, John Walsh, spokesman for the Boston Archdiocese, said a marriage performed by a priest who has left the ministry would be invalid in the eyes of the Roman Catholic Church.

Under canon law, non-practicing priests can administer sacraments in emergencies. For instance, if someone is dying and the only priest available is no longer with the Catholic Church, that priest can hear a confession.

In the Rent A Priest brochure, Haggett lists excerpts from five of the “emergency” laws, which she interprets to mean married priests can perform all sacraments in any situation.

But Walsh takes issue with what Haggett considers “emergencies.”

“Basically it’s a scam,” says Walsh. “What she’s doing is coming up with a conclusion that is overtly against the will and the legitimate authority of the Catholic Church.”

In addition to a wedding not being an “emergency,” Walsh said, a priest who witnesses a marriage must have permission from the local bishop, and he said it is unlikely a bishop would give consent to a married priest.

“What Ms. Haggett has done is set herself up in the role of a bishop, which she clearly is not,” he says. “And what’s being created here is a sect.”

Haggett is not alone in her effort to boost the standing of married Catholic priests.

CORPUS, or the Corps of Reserve Priests United For Service, is a group of married priests who want the Vatican to welcome them back to the fold. The group estimates there are 20,000 married priests in the United States.

One CORPUS member, Lee Breyer of Tallahassee, Fla., was the first priest to perform a sacrament for Rent A Priest, marrying a couple from Maryland on June 4.

Now 55, he says his only problem with Rent A Priest is the need it fills. “I would hope that someday the reform movement in the church would be such that this kind of service wouldn’t be necessary,” he says. “But I don’t see it in my lifetime.”