The Diocese of Springfield in Illinois will add a new dimension to its presbyterate on May 26 when Bishop Thomas John Paprocki ordains three priests at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Springfield. One of the men is transitional Deacon Scott Snider, a married, former Protestant minister.

Snider was pastor of a Congregational church in Quincy in 2002 when both he and his wife, Pamela, "became convinced that the fullest expression of Christ's intentions for what his church should be and do is to be found in the Roman Catholic Church," Deacon Snider writes on the diocese's vocation webpage, www.dio.org\vocations.

Deacon Snider was born May 29, 1960 in San Jose, Calif. His father was a career military man and Deacon Snider said he grew up living on naval bases all over the country.

He was baptized in a Lutheran church when he was 17 and enrolled in a Lutheran college in Minneapolis, graduating from the pre-seminary program with a degree in philosophy and a minor in religious studies. He and Pam were married in 1983.

At various times, he ministered in several Protestant congregations and eventually graduated from the Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Austin, Texas, in 1996. He said he felt sure that "God was calling me to ministry, but I wasn't sure what that ministry was supposed to look like.

In 1999, the Sniders moved to Quincy where he was pastor of a Congregational church. The Sniders call the people in Quincy "wonderful" — the people in their congregation, the people they met in the course of their ministry and work. "We did a great deal of thinking and praying," said Snider.

"When I told my wife, 'Pam, I think we need to think about becoming Catholic', she told me 'I've been praying the rosary for two weeks, waiting to hear you say this."

Snider informed his congregation of their decision, resigned from his ministerial position and went to work for a business in Quincy. He and Pam began RCIA. They were received into full communion in the Catholic Church at the 2003 Easter Vigil at St. Francis Solanus Church in Quincy.

"I began talks with Bishop (George) Lucas that year, to discuss the possibility of my becoming a Catholic priest," he said.

"I have been serving God and his people professionally for 25 years in various capacities," Deacon Snider writes on the vocations webpage. "I am humbly grateful that my personal sense of calling has been confirmed in the church at each step along the way."

Snider received permission to enter Mundelein Seminary, and in July 2004 he and his wife moved to Chicago, where Snider was assigned to work as a pastoral associate at St. Gregory the Great Parish while attending Mundelein.

When he completed his studies and formation at Mundelein, Bishop Paprocki requested permission from Pope Benedict XVI to ordain Snider to the diaconate, under what is known as "the pastoral provision."

When permission from the Holy Father came Oct. 7, Bishop Paprocki was about to leave for Rome, but Cardinal Francis George of the Archdiocese of Chicago was already scheduled to ordain 10 men from Snider's class to the diaconate on Oct. 29 at Mundelein's Chapel of the Immaculate Conception. Snider asked to be ordained with them, and permission was granted.

Bishop Paprocki announced the diaconal ordination of Deacon Snider in his Nov. 6 column in Catholic Times, and explained what the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith looks at when considering dispensation for a married former Protestant minister to be ordained a Catholic priest.

"Dispensation is a grace given primarily for ecumenical reasons to facilitate a person into full communion with the Catholic Church along with his wife," Bishop Paprocki said. "This must be viewed as an exception to the church's long-standing tradition of priestly celibacy and not as an indication for anyone to anticipate changes in the church's practice in this regard.

"In fact, in a diocese the size of ours, only two such dispensations would be allowed."

At the February Presbyteral Council meeting, Bishop Paprocki explained to the council that one of the Vatican's conditions in permitting a married, former Protestant minister to be ordained a Catholic priest, is that he cannot be assigned as a pastor. He may serve as a parochial administrator, a parochial vicar, or in a specialized area.