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Friday, January 29, 2010

Roman Catholic Womenpriests: Progressives seek bishop's ear

http://www.sunnewspapers.net/articles/tsnews.aspx?ArticleID=451671&pubdate=1%2f29%2f2010

Progressives seek bishop's ear
"VENICE -- About 30 members of Call To Action, a group of progressive Catholics, called on Bishop Frank Dewane on Wednesday to address claims that he has discriminated against Catholics in his diocese who hold liberal views.
Members of churches from Sarasota to Naples staged a protest outside the Diocese of Venice office at 1000 Pinebrook Road, then went inside to seek an audience with the bishop. A spokesman said he was in a meeting. "

Roman Catholic Womenpriests; Dissent is necessary/St. Thomas Aquinas excommunicated

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2010/1/28/134333/686

The Road to Remonstrance
By
Frank Cocozzelli

"Dissent also draws attention to vital new ideas even if they were treated with scorn upon arrival. For example, a reconsideration of natural law principles in light of knowledge acquired since St. Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century offers strong arguments in support of artificial birth control and embryonic stem cell research while establishing homosexuality is not the aberration Church fathers believe it to be. Even the great Aristotelian thinker, St. Thomas Aquinas was treated as a heretic and excommunicated shortly after his death. And yet his ideas came to greatly influence Catholic theology."

Excommunication is not a barrier to canonization in the Catholic Church: three examples, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Theodore Guerin, Blessed Mother Mary McKillop and of course, Joan of Arc was burned at the stake! So Roman Catholic Womenpriests who are excommunicated now, may one day be canonized. In fact excommunication could be a fast track to canonization!!! So reform-minded Catholics, cheer up!!
Bridget Mary

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Roman Catholic Womenpriests: "Mary Ward:Then and Now" by Gemma Simmonds CJ

Mary Ward: Then and now
Gemma Simmonds CJ
Thinking Faith (UK)
January 22, 2010
http://www.thinkingfaith.org/articles/20100122_1.htm

"Celebrations to mark the 400th anniversary of Mary Ward’s foundation of the first unenclosed religious order of women on the Jesuit model continue this weekend with a Mass at Westminster Cathedral. Gemma Simmonds CJ looks at the life and writings of this woman of ‘heroic virtue’ who wanted to secure a better role for women in the Church and in society, and at how this struggle continues today. Why is Mary’s vision for women, yet to be fully realised, still a vital goal to strive for?"

"In December 2009 Pope Benedict XVI formally promulgated a Decree recognising the ‘heroic virtue’ demonstrated by Mary Ward, conferring on her the title ‘Venerable’ and setting in motion her cause for canonisation. This judgement reverses that of Pope Urban VIII who condemned her as a ‘heretic, schismatic and rebel to Holy Church’ and her sisters as ‘poisonous growths in the Church of God [which] must be torn up from the roots lest they spread themselves further’. "

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Roman Catholic Womenpriests; Music Director Forced to Resign after comments supporting justice for women in church/Washington Post/Michelle Boorstein

Music director says she was told to resign for comments on status of women in Catholic Church
By Michelle Boorstein

Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 27, 2010; 12:19 PM

The music director at a traditional Catholic parish in Fairfax says her pastor demanded her resignation after she was quoted in a Washington Post article sympathizing with the women's ordination movement -- an assertion he denies.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/27/AR2010012702258.html

Last Saturday, Jan. 23, the Washington Post published an article giving an update on the impact of our Roman Catholic Womenpriests Movement, highlighting the progress and support from women leaders including women leaders like Erin Hanna of Women's Ordination and Sister Maureen Fiedler. The article began with a description of a Mass in my home in N.Va. See link to article.

Sr. Maureen Fiedler wrote in the National Catholic Reporter the story of Sylvia Mulherin, who was forced to resign because she made a positive comment about women's ordination as a justice issue.

"Sylvia Mulherin, 69, a former nun and music director at St. Leo's Parish in Fairfax, Va., was quoted as saying this: "Jesus was progressive in his treatment of women but, over time, men unjustly pushed women out. Maybe the women don't have to come in the back door, but we still have to sit in the pews."
The very next day, she was told to tender her resignation immediately!
In a message she sent to her choir members and colleagues, she said:"My sole point is that I believe women have not achieved true equality in the Church and this fact deserves further consideration by the Church's leadership. This position is apparently unacceptable in the Diocese of Arlington."


Bridget Mary's comment:
When an institutional church gets so afraid of a movement for justice and equality for women in the church, that thoughtful dialogue and questioning is no longer acceptable, it is in danger of not only losing millions of Catholics who believe that Jesus treated women and men as equals, but also risks losing its soul by failing to follow Christ's example and the early church tradition of women in ordained ministry.
Bridget Mary Meehan
Music director loses job over pro-woman quote National Catholic ...The major photo featured Bridget Mary Meehan, one of the women bishops in the Roman Catholic Women Priests Movement. But the article was wide ranging, ...

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Roman Catholic Womenpriests: "Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Faces Excommunication for Support of Catholic Women Priests"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-archer/nobel-peace-prize-nominee_b_431987.html

Greg Archer

Professional writer based in the San Francisco Bay Area
Posted: January 25, 2010 03:51 PM


Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Faces Excommunication For Support Of Catholic Women Priests
What's Your Reaction:
huffington_post:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/greg-archer/nobel-peace-prize-nominee_b_431987.html

"Meet Fr. Roy Bourgeois, a celebrated priest and Nobel Peace Prize nominee. He\'s joined forces with supporters of Women\'s Ordination, which has been sending a clear message to the Vatican for decades--that womenpriests were part of the original Catholic Church before Canon Law was...',"

Monday, January 25, 2010

Roman Catholic Womenpriests: "Diocese Pushes Strong Marriage Bond"

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2010/01/25/20100125marriage0114.html

"Roberta Meehan, an acknowledged foe of Olmsted's conservative approach who is ordained as part of the Roman Catholic Womenpriests movement, said the diocese should offer marriage preparation, but one size does not fit everyone. "
"What works for two Ph.D. scientists is not the same for a couple of 19-year-olds just out of high school," she said. "Each couple should be counseled on an individual basis."