AP reports on an effort to stop some deceptive attempts at ministry:
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has started screening priests who celebrate Mass aboard cruise ships to prevent unqualified clergy from ministering to Catholic passengers.The bishops have approved more than 650 priests to work on cruise lines in a process designed to weed out unsuitable candidates such as clergy who were suspended in the church's sex abuse scandal or those who have left the priesthood.
Priests who apply for the program, which started a year ago, must have their bishops' approval and are subject to yearly review. All dioceses conduct their own background checks on priests, said Doreen Badeaux, secretary general of the Apostleship of the Sea, a Catholic ministry devoted to seafarers.
Celebrity and Holland America lines are working with priests approved by the Apostleship, while other cruise lines continue hiring clergy privately or using agencies such as Rent-A-Priest, a group that provides former, now-married priests who are no longer authorized to conduct Mass.
Eventually, the bishops hope all cruise lines will adopt a more thorough screening process for clergy.
``It wasn't being regulated by the bishops' conference and they weren't doing background checks on these guys,'' said the Rev. Sinclair Oubre, president of the AOS-USA, a chaplains' organization affiliated with the Apostleship of the Sea. ``Since we started this, some of the cruise lines have become more alert.''
AOS-USA National Director Fr. John Jamnicky writes in the organization's December newsletter:
We continue to hear complaints from Catholics who take cruises on Norwegian, Royal Caribbean, Princess, and Carnival; that some of the priests that celebrate Catholic Mass and introduce themselves as Roman Catholic Priests are in fact [...] schismatic priests, suspended priests, former priests, or just plain impostors.
