A Priest, a Nun and Their Children

Feb. 6, 2007 — -- Bill and Mary Manseau's marriage has brought them into a decades-long confrontation with the church they love.

From a young age, both were devout Roman Catholics.

As a kid, Bill Manseau said he "used to play Mass … as many Catholic kids do." He would recruit his younger siblings to be altar servers and use Necco wafers for communion. At age 19, he entered the seminary.

At age 17, Mary Manseau entered the convent. "I was a very strong, very loyal, very devout Roman Catholic," she said. "And in those days, whatever the church said, that's the way it was."

Despite their devotion, both Mary and Bill eventually began to question the church. Mary left the convent after only a few years.

At the seminary, Bill came to a radical conclusion: Forced celibacy is wrong -- an invention of the church, not the Bible. "For thousands of years," he said, "there were married Catholic priests, married bishops, married popes." Manseau decided that to be more fully a holy man, he needed to experience the "holy union" of marriage.

Not long after that, he met Mary.

In 1969, the priest and the former nun got married. They went on to have three children.

By the time they wed, Mary was no longer a nun. Bill, however, was still technically a priest, although he was no longer allowed to perform many priestly duties, such as running a parish.

Bill became a crusader for the rights of married priests -- a position that put him at odds with the church hierarchy. The church believes that the commitment of celibacy is an act of love for God and is central to a priest's ability to do his job.

Manseau's conflict with the church entered a new level in 2003, when he decided to ask the church to formally recognize his marriage. In response, he said the church asked him to sign papers that essentially said his ordination was a mistake, "I could not assent to that," he said, "because it's not true."