Episcopal Priest

The Rev. James R. LeVeque, a retired Episcopal priest and mathematics instructor, died of kidney failure Saturday at Keswick Multi-Care Center. The Charles Village resident was 81. Born in Cassopolis, Mich., he attended the Howe Military School in Howe, Ind., and earned a bachelor's degree at the University of Chicago. He then earned divinity and theology degrees at Nashotah House Seminary in Nashotah, Wis. He was ordained a priest in 1956. He later earned master's degrees in mathematics from the Johns Hopkins University and Morgan State University.

The Rev. James R. LeVeque, a retired Episcopal priest and mathematics instructor, died of kidney failure Saturday at Keswick Multi-Care Center. The Charles Village resident was 81. Born in Cassopolis, Mich., he attended the Howe Military School in Howe, Ind., and earned a bachelor's degree at the University of Chicago. He then earned divinity and theology degrees at Nashotah House Seminary in Nashotah, Wis. He was ordained a priest in 1956. He later earned master's degrees in mathematics from the Johns Hopkins University and Morgan State University.

The Rev. Jason Catania was ordained an Episcopal priest a dozen years ago. He will be ordained again Saturday at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Baltimore. This time, he will be vested as a Roman Catholic priest. Catania moved to Roman Catholicism in January, along with the Revs. John Anthony Vidal and David Reamsnyder, two colleagues in the Episcopal priesthood. All three are set to be ordained this weekend. Several dozen parishioners who had been pastored by Catania, 40, at Mount Calvary Church on North Eutaw Street for six years have also converted to Catholicism.

If you've lost a pet, sometimes it helps to have a ceremony remembering your furry, scaled or feathered friend. Trust me -- once I had an Episcopal priest and a smattering of friends in my backyard for a full-on, formal memorial service to help me get over the untimely death of Atticus, my beloved tabby. This Sunday, Sept. 9, is the first annual Pet Memorial Sunday Ceremony at Nicodemus Memorial Park at Baltimore Humane Society. The ceremony will feature several speakers, live music and a portrait artist who can create (for a small fee)

A retired Episcopal priest, whose last assignment was as the vicar at a church in northern Harford County, pleaded guilty last week to sexually abusing two young girls in Cecil County. The Rev. Donald W. Belcher, 82, entered an Alford plea on two counts of sexual abuse of minors in Cecil County Circuit Court. An Alford plea allows a defendant to maintain his innocence while acknowledging that the state has enough evidence to convict him. Belcher was released on $100,000 bond and is awaiting a June 28 sentencing, in which he could receive 25 years on each count, to be served consecutively, said Kevin Urick, assistant state's attorney for Cecil County.

The Rev. Howard G. Norton, an Episcopal priest and former educator, died Tuesday of Alzheimer's disease at College Manor in Lutherville. The longtime Roland Park resident was 77. Father Norton had been an interim priest at the Episcopal Church of the Guardian Angel in Remington and was part-time priest at Episcopal Cathedral Church of the Incarnation in Baltimore from 1966 to 1970. He taught philosophy at Morgan State University from 1975 to 1980. From 1979 to 1986, he coordinated the Institute of Philosophical Theology at Coppin State College.

The Rev. Robert Rolfe Gilson, a longtime Episcopal priest, died of heart and lung failure Monday at Pickersgill Retirement Community in Towson. He was 98. Born in Concord, Mass., he was the son of an Episcopal priest, the Rev. Roy Rolfe Gilson, who had served in churches in New England as well as in the diocese of Easton, including St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Salisbury. He would fondly recall serving as an acolyte as a boy, swinging the incense burner for his father, family members said.

The Rev. Robert Nelson Davis, an Episcopal priest and interim rector of a West Baltimore congregation, died Saturday of heart failure at St. Joseph Medical Center. He was 79 and lived in Guilford. He was interim pastor at St. Katherine of Alexandria Church, Presstman and Division streets, and earlier at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Essex. He was a member of the Episcopal Diocese's Commission on Ministry and helped run a program called Finding Our Way for persons interested in becoming priests.

The Rev. Donald F. Etherton, an Episcopal priest and community leader, died Friday from complications of a heart attack at his home in St. Michaels. He was 72. At the time of his death, Father Etherton was vicar of Saint John's Chapel in Cornersville near Cambridge. He had been vicar of Christ Episcopal Church in St. Michaels from 1963 to 1994. His family described him as a humanist, historian and a devotee of professional baseball, especially the Orioles. "He saw goodness in absolutely everyone who walked this earth except, perhaps, the New York Yankees," said a son, Dr. Jeffrey H. Etherton, a cardiologist in Salisbury.

The Rev. Stephen Heiks Paul, rector of the historic Sherwood Episcopal Church in Cockeysville, died Thursday of multiple myeloma at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The Cockeysville resident was 50. Father Paul had been rector since 1994 of the landmark stone church and cemetery on a hill overlooking Cockeysville, which was founded in 1830. Previously, Father Paul had served three congregations in Mercer and McDowell counties in the coal country of southeastern West Virginia from 1990 to 1994.

When my cat Atticus died, I was a wreck. We got a call from a neighbor who found his little tabby body in the street. He'd been hit by a car. My husband (at the time) scooped him up and brought him home to the garage and left the cat there, as he had to fly off on a business trip. Long story short: A day later, I had an Episcopal priest in my backyard, giving my cat a send-off as we buried him (probably illegally). It made me feel a little better, standing with my friends, giving Atticus, a great feline, his due. At some point, I stopped continuously crying and shaking.

I have to vehemently differ with letter writer Theresa M. Becker who was greatly offended that the Roman Catholic Church ordained three former Episcopalian priests ("Ordaining married Episcopal priests as Catholics is a sacrilege," June 15). Closed-minded opinions like that keep the Roman Catholic church firmly ensconced in the Dark Ages. The Roman Catholic church is in desperate need of priests; this move is not unprecedented. If Ms. Becker did her homework, she would find that married ministers and priests from other denominations have been ordained and are recognized by the Vatican as being legitimate priests.

As a baptized Roman Catholic who attended a Catholic school for eight years, I was absolutely appalled to read that three Episcopal priests, two of whom are married with children, were being ordained as Catholic priests ("Three Episcopal priests to be ordained Catholic," June 8). Any young Catholic man in the seminary studying to be ordained is expected to remain celibate; why in heaven's name is the Church allowing these ordinations to take place? Allowing these ordinations to occur is a direct contradiction to the Church teaching that Catholic priests must not marry.

The Rev. Jason Catania was ordained an Episcopal priest a dozen years ago. He will be ordained again Saturday at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Baltimore. This time, he will be vested as a Roman Catholic priest. Catania moved to Roman Catholicism in January, along with the Revs. John Anthony Vidal and David Reamsnyder, two colleagues in the Episcopal priesthood. All three are set to be ordained this weekend. Several dozen parishioners who had been pastored by Catania, 40, at Mount Calvary Church on North Eutaw Street for six years have also converted to Catholicism.

The Rev. Mary-Patricia N. Ashby, a retired Episcopal priest who had been rector of a Frederick County church, died Wednesday of a cardiac arrest at Frederick Memorial Hospital. The Mount Airy resident was 71. The daughter of a career naval officer and a homemaker, the former Mary-Patricia Neese was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. "Because she was a Navy brat, they moved every three years. So, she was raised in Annapolis, Florida, Washington and Hawaii. She never really called any one place home," said her husband of 48 years, John Ashby, a retired history professor who taught at the Community College of Baltimore County in Catonsville.

The Rev. James J. McNamee III, a retired Episcopal priest who had pastored St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Annapolis, died Friday of cancer at his home in the Ambassador Apartments in Tuscany-Canterbury. He was 76. Mr. McNamee was born in Baltimore and raised in Roland Park. "His father was killed during World War II and his mother managed apartment houses," said Dr. John W. Payne, Richey Hospice medical director and a boyhood friend. After graduating from City College in 1953, he studied at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service for two years and spent his junior year abroad at the Sorbonne in Paris.

James N. Purman, a World War II veteran and former Episcopal priest who became an addictions counselor, a house painter and curator for a municipal museum, died Monday of heart and circulatory disease at the home of his daughter in Wichita, Kan. The former Sykesville resident was 81. Mr. Purman served at parishes in Baltimore and as the rector of St. Barnabas Episcopal Church until he left the ministry in 1973 to work in counseling. He also maintained a painting business that ultimately led him to the Gatehouse Museum in Sykesville.

Baltimore's new Roman Catholic archbishop removed a priest who was pastor of three South Baltimore parishes for offenses that include officiating at a funeral Mass with an Episcopal priest, which violates canon law. Archbishop Edwin F. O'Brien personally ordered the Rev. Ray Martin, who has led the Catholic Community of South Baltimore for five years, to resign from the three churches and sign a statement yesterday apologizing for "bringing scandal to the church."

A retired Episcopal priest, whose last assignment was as the vicar at a church in northern Harford County, pleaded guilty last week to sexually abusing two young girls in Cecil County. The Rev. Donald W. Belcher, 82, entered an Alford plea on two counts of sexual abuse of minors in Cecil County Circuit Court. An Alford plea allows a defendant to maintain his innocence while acknowledging that the state has enough evidence to convict him. Belcher was released on $100,000 bond and is awaiting a June 28 sentencing, in which he could receive 25 years on each count, to be served consecutively, said Kevin Urick, assistant state's attorney for Cecil County.

The Rev. R. Douglas Pitt, a retired Episcopal rector who had been senior minister at Old St. Paul's in downtown Baltimore and earlier served two other city parishes, died Jan. 27 of complications from a stroke at Gilchrist Hospice Care. He was 85. Mr. Pitt was born and raised in Richmond, Va., and attended the University of Virginia, earning his bachelor's degree in 1951 from the University of Richmond. His college studies were interrupted by service with the Army's 279th General Hospital during the Berlin airlift after World War II. Mr. Pitt graduated in 1954 from Bexley Hall, the divinity school of Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio, where he won a prize for his preaching.