NEW YORK : Married Father of 4 Ordained as Priest

A married father of four was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in Yonkers, N.Y., in a rare Vatican-approved ceremony that defied the church’s longstanding general ban against wedded clergymen. Father Trevor Nicholls, 47, a former Anglican priest, was accepted to the priesthood under a special papal order that can be used only in the United States. At the behest of American bishops, Pope John Paul II issued the order in 1980, sanctioning the ordination of converted Anglican, or Episcopalian, priests and Lutheran ministers. The ceremony sparked a demonstration by about 15 protesters who demanded that the church lift its general ban against accepting married men and women into the priesthood.