Ex-Lutheran bishop found Catholic rock

Joseph Jacobson will be ordained a Catholic priest by Christmas

- WCR photo by Ramon Gonzalez Joseph Jacobson is looking forward to becoming a Catholic priest after 40 years as a Lutheran minister.

By RAMON GONZALEZ
WCR Staff Writer
Camrose

Forty years after he was ordained a Lutheran minister, Joseph Jacobson is looking forward to becoming a Catholic priest.

Jacobson, the former bishop of the Alberta Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada, was to be ordained a deacon for the Grouard-McLennan Archdiocese at St. Albert Church Sept. 21.

The 66-year-old father of two and grandfather of five expects to be ordained a priest before Christmas and to be appointed chancellor of the Grouard-McLennan Archdiocese and interim pastor of St. John Baptist Cathedral in McLennan immediately after his ordination.

God's path

"I'm very excited," he said. "After 12 years of retirement and wondering where God was leading us, it is good to have a direction. And the job couldn't fit me better as I see it. As chancellor I'll be able to draw on my own experience as a Lutheran bishop. It's amazing."

Jacobson and his wife Carolyne, who live on a farm near Bashaw, joined the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults at Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Bashaw in 1999 and became Catholics at the Easter Vigil of 2000. Their two adult children are also in the process of joining the Church.

Jacobson's journey to Catholicism began many years ago, but took a decisive turn in the late 1990s.

"There was a long process leading up to it and a long process that followed after it. But the key moment was in Ireland in 1997 when I realized that the teaching authority of the Church is something Jesus gave to Peter and the bishops and no other Church really can duplicate what Jesus gave," he explained in a recent interview in Camrose.

"You can't substitute for it. You can't find something better. You can't do without it. The Church needs a rock and the rock is the one Jesus gave us and it's the holy father with the bishops and without that there is no rock.

"Any Church that tries to live without that is subject to the shifting sands. Most churches function by a majority vote of members and that means they are very vulnerable to the popular culture. In fact they are exposed to all kinds of extremes with the result that there is no safeguards that we are going to stay on the rock, stay on the foundation of Christ."

Clarity in Ireland

That realization hit him like a ton of bricks while sitting on a rock in Ireland looking at the Atlantic Ocean. "I said, 'Oh, good Lord. I have been trying to reinvent something Jesus made right the first time."

He describes the insight as a "moment of clarity" that didn't just come out of the blue. "I had been wresting with the issue for a long time. It crystallized after a long period of prayer and reflection." It helped that Jacobson served as co-chairman of the Lutheran-Catholic theological dialogue for Canada for almost eight years together with Vancouver Archbishop Adam Exner.

His wife was part of the journey. "It took her a long time to understand what the real breakthrough was for me - about a year. But it took me many years to get there, so a year for her wasn't that long," he laughed. Some of Jacobson's family and friends of course haven't come on that particular journey and no matter how much he explains it, they can't identify with it.

In 1998, almost five years after he took "early retirement" as Lutheran bishop, Archbishop Joseph MacNeil invited Jacobson to consider becoming a priest. "I had not actually thought about that. He asked me if I would serve if the opportunity was there and I said I would if the Church decided that was the right thing to do."

Drawn to the West

Jacobson was born in Milwaukee in 1940, the son of a Lutheran minister. He earned his bachelor of arts from St. Olaf College and his bachelor of divinity from the University of Strasbourg, France, before graduating from Northwestern Lutheran Theological Seminary in Minneapolis in 1965.

His fluency in languages led him to serve in Western Canada, where there were many first generation immigrants and there was a need for a minister who could preach in German, French and Spanish.

Over the years he served in Westlock and missions, Calgary, Camrose and then Donalda. He eventually became Lutheran bishop of Alberta, serving in that position for 10 years.

How does it feel to become a Catholic after a lifetime of Protestantism? "A great relief and a wonderful joy in the homecoming," he said, explaining that many Lutherans understand their entire progress as a gradual homecoming.

"Once the causes of the Reformation were reckoned with, many Lutherans believed that union with Rome would be the way the Church would go. But it became apparent about 1990 to many of us that this was not about to happen within any Protestant Church at this point in history.

"And so whereas I was always on a homecoming journey, back into the Catholic Church for my entire ministry, all of a sudden I realized that the Church that I was part of was not."

Jacobson said he was asked to join the Grouard-McLennan Archdiocese so he would not be in the face of the people that he has served before and thus offend them unnecessarily.

As a pastor and chancellor he plans to serve the people with dedication and enthusiasm. "I see myself as a pastor that's very close to the people and a faithful servant of the Lord that always functions within the guidelines," he said. "I'm not going to challenge authority."

During his term as Lutheran bishop, Jacobson ordained many women as ministers but he said that doesn't mean he endorses it for the Catholic Church "because a priest is not a minister. There is a difference."

In his free time Jacobson pursues interests in botany and animal life as well as in music and poetry. A prolific writer, he has written several books, the latest being All Nature Sings, a book of poems that speaks about creation and new creation through the eyes of the Scriptures.

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