WNY Activist, Married Father of Eight Becomes Catholic Priest
by Staff
June 14, 2010
HARRISBURG, Penn., (christiansunite.com) -- Rev. Paul Schenck, pro-life activist and former Western New York pastor, was made a Roman Catholic priest on Saturday, June 12. Schenck was a pastor in the Reformed Episcopal Church after leaving the New Covenant Tabernacle, the Town of Tonawanda evangelical Church he founded, in 1994.Paul and Rebecca Schenck have been married for 33 years and have 8 children. He was ordained a Catholic priest under a provision begun in 1980 by Pope John Paul II that allowed married men with families to be admitted to the priesthood. He is the first married priest for the central Pennsylvania Diocese.
After leaving Western New York Schenck became the Executive Vice President of the American Center for Law and Justice, a Washington based public interest law firm with more than a dozen Supreme Court cases, including Schenck's, to its credit. In 1997 he moved to Baltimore and opened the National Pro-Life Center at the US Supreme Court in Washington, and joined the Catholic Church in 2004.
Today he is Director of the Respect Life Office for the Diocese of Harrisburg, PA and Chairman of the National Pro-Life Action Center. He conducts pro-life work in Washington, DC, Annapolis, MD and Harrisburg, PA. Schenck celebrated his first Mass with his mother at St. Francis Home in Williamsville.
