Daniel Herzog, retired Episcopal bishop of Albany, NY, and his wife Carol have become Catholic. Retired bishop David Bena, from the same diocese, recently transferred his canonical ministry license to the Anglican Church of Nigeria.
The Episcopal diocese of Albany is pretty conservative, and a member of the Network of conservative Episcopalian bishops. I always admired Daniel Herzog when I was an Anglican, but honestly I haven’t heard much about him since I became Catholic in 2004. Now it seems after retiring, and fulfilling his commitments to his flock, he has entered into full communion with the Catholic Church.
Welcome Dan and Carol Herzog. We are blessed to have you enter our Church.
Note: Awhile back, William Tighe, one of the best Catholic minds around, predicted that an Episcopal bishop, and maybe two, would become Catholic this year. I spent some time figuring out who it was, but never thought of Herzog. I bet that he is who Tighe had in mind. See Tighe’s comments here.
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March 30, 2007 at 1:59 am
Actually Dan Herzog was born and raised Roman Catholic and attended Roman Catholic seminaries before leaving seminary, marrying Carol in the Roman Church, and subsequently joining TEC. So, in a sense, he is “going back home.” It had to be a wrenching decision for him and Carol to make, after investing so many years in devoted ministry to their church.
March 30, 2007 at 2:03 pm
I must confess that this irks the hell out of me. The Episcopal Church was good enough for him to devote an entire career to, and I would assume good enough to draw a pension from. We have had several Lutherans do that as well. Waiting until retirement from parish ministry to convert seems dubious at best, and intentionally deceitful at worst.
What does this sort of move say to both Roman Catholics and Protestants? If you want to be a priest and marry, you can just jump over to the Episcopal Church, and when you are done you can come back over to Rome???? At least Al Kimel had the integrity to count the cost.
I am sure this will be a less than popular comment on this blog, so forgive my rant.
April 4, 2007 at 11:16 am
LP,
I actually agree with you. When I found out the circumstances of his “poping” I was a little suspicious. I guess many of his priests, deacons, and laypersons didn’t have the same luxury he had, and converting for them might bring about certain hardships.
However, I also understand that sometimes you have to do what you have to do, and I can understand the reasons a person would wait to make sure everything is in place financially before making the move. It wasn’t my way, nor Al Kimel’s, but I can see why Herzog did what he did.
April 18, 2007 at 4:12 am
I rejoice that Dan Herzog and his wife have become (returned) Catholic.
Lutherpunk — do you know Dan Herzog? Have you ever met him?
I have met him (I am a 1998 graduate of Nashotah House, where he served on the Board of Trustees) and I, too, am now a convert.
I will not speak to Dan Herzog’s motives — I’m not God. But I will say this . . .
For more than 100 years, honest — HONEST — Anglo-Catholics have tried to “survive” in ECUSA, or in other branches of Anglicanism with greater (or lesser) degrees of success. Many Anglo-Catholics found their “line in the sand” with the “ordination” of women. Others, with the whole “gay” issue.
History demands facts — not merely opinions — and one of the facts of history, is that there was a 15-20 year period in which honest-to-God Anglo-Catholics had high hopes of reunion. (Archbishop Runcie, pray for us!)
The fact that Bp. Herzog has made an incredibly painful and difficult decision should be praised (just like Graham Leonard before him — although Leonard was allowed to remain active in ministry!)
God bless you, Dan Herzog — and if you ever read this, please feel free to contact me at
fatherz@charter.net
David Zampino
Nashotah House, ‘98
Former CEC Priest and Canon Theologian, and faithful Catholic since 2004
October 25, 2007 at 11:52 am
LP,
It isn’t as though the “TEC” that he is leaving is the same “PECUSA” he started in. With the writing on the wall the way that it is, it looks like both he and his successor planned an exit strategy…
But the idea that it is somehow dubious or disingenuous. I don’t buy that. Daily the headlines are showing the direction of Episcopalians, and they are hemorhaging membership and orthodoxy. That these guys decided to “stay on” for the time they did making the efforts they did is laudible.
They certainly could have left much sooner, and chances are good if they had been dealing with the right bishops they could have spent the last 20 years serving as priests or teaching in seminaries in the Catholic Church. The notion you allude to - that they milked the system for the past few decades - is hard to swallow.
In fact it is inaccurate to say “If you want to be a priest and marry, you can just jump over to the Episcopal Church, and when you are done you can come back over to Rome” the Pastoral Provision - as it stands - precludes jurisdiction jumping for that intention… Those that were raised Catholic may NOT be ordained priests under the PP. But honestly they men I have met who have made this move - to the man - did NOT do so on a plan to “sneak in the loophole”. The idea that they underwent seminary formation, ordination, and service to the Anglican or Lutheran (or even Methodist or other) community) just to become Catholic in the end, is odd and false.