|
Posted:
22 Jan 2015 11:00 AM PST
On
January 3rd, Georgia Walker (photo below) became the first woman Catholic
priest to be ordained in 2015 and the first in the conservative
Kansas City-St. Joseph diocese. During a ceremony presided by Bishop Bridget
Mary Meehan of the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, the 67 year-old
convert to Catholicism who had originally thought of joining the Sisters of St.
Joseph but left during the discernment process, joined the ranks of several
hundred women worldwide who no longer want to wait for the institutional Roman
Catholic church to grant them full equality.
According to ARCWP, Rev. Walker has held a variety of
positions in the health care industry and has a degree in sociology. She taught
sociology for many years at three universities in Kansas and at the federal
prison in Leavenworth. She is now the co-founder and executive director of Journey To New
Life, an agency that specializes in serving former convicts who suffer from
addictions, mental illness and chronic health conditions. Over the last twenty
years she has also done accounting for numerous parishes, schools and social
agencies. She currently serves on the Board of Peace Works-Kansas City, often
engaging in nonviolent civil disobedience and she volunteers with local Catholic
Worker houses. She has been convicted of trespassing at the Bannister Federal
Complex in south Kansas City and at Whiteman Air Force Base near Knob Noster,
Mo. Now Rev. Walker wants to work in prison ministry.
Four days after her ordination, Kansas City-St. Joseph Bishop
Robert Finn issued a formal decree stating that Georgia Walker had been
excommunicated latae sententiae. Perhaps the speed of the order reflects
the fact that there isn't much love lost between Rev. Walker and Bishop Finn.
They had previously tangled over the firing of a food pantry employee in the
diocese for her marriage to her lesbian partner. Rev. Walker spearheaded a petition campaign that gathered more than 30,000
signatures calling on the diocese to reinstate Colleen Simon. Along with the
petition, Walker delivered a personal message to Bishop Finn: "...The Roman Catholic
parishioners in the Diocese of Kansas City-St Joseph yearn to have a
bishop-shepherd who leads with compassion, understanding, dialogue and peace. We
pray for one who hears the voice of conscience and follows gospel values of
Jesus of Nazareth, who was welcoming, inclusive, collaborative, forgiving and
loving. We are weary of actions that reflect inflexible church rules despite the
devastating consequences in the lives of sincere human beings striving to
respond to God's call to ministry...Please pray about that as you ponder why the
parishioners of this Diocese are leaving the church in droves!...Respectfully, I
ask that you resign from your position so that we can participate in a more
loving and inclusive Roman Catholic Church!" Simon has since filed a lawsuit against the diocese for "fraudulent
inducement" arguing that her relationship was known when she was hired.
Given the history, Rev. Walker's response to the excommunication
decree should come as no surprise either. "What the official church does to me
is not relevant," Rev. Walker said. "They can't take away my baptism, they can't
take away my calling to the priesthood. All they can do is deny me their
sacraments. But now, I am a priest and I can provide those sacraments. Not just
to myself but to others."
Two
weeks later, more ordinations. On January 17th in a ceremony in Orlando,
Florida, Bishop Meehan ordained one woman, 80 year-old Rita Lucey of Orlando, to the
priesthood, and Jim Marsh of Albany, NY and St. Petersburg, FL, Kathryn Shea of
Sarasota, FL and Mary Catherine White of Gorham, NH to the ARCWP diaconate
(photo above).
Rev. Lucey has a
bachelor's degree from Barry University, Miami, and a Masters in Pastoral
Studies from Loyola University. As a military wife, she volunteered with the Red
Cross in military psychiatric hospitals stateside and overseas. During that time
she was also a catechist and then for many years a director of religious
education. Later she volunteered with Hospice of the Comforter for 25 years
until the facility was sold in 2013. Like Rev. Walker, Lucey has also been
involved in civil disobedience. She trespassed at Fort Benning, Georgia during
the SOA Watch protest to close the U.S. Army School of the Americas, for which
she spent six months in federal prison in 1998. She is an active member of Pax
Christi, is a board member of the local chapter of Amnesty International, and
past president of the local chapter of the United Nations Association. She has
been dubbed by the media the "Rebel Granny" because she has four children and
nine grandchildren.
Rev. Lucey told the Orlando Sentinel that she doesn't accept the
institutional Church's arguments against women's ordination. "I see that as a
man-made thing rather than a revealed truth. It's a patriarchal interpretation
of the Scriptures that definitely has sexual bias." Nor is she afraid of
excommunication, saying that she remains Catholic through her baptism,
confirmation and faith. "Jesus was a good Jew who didn't leave his Judaism any
more than I have left my Catholicism in my heart and soul," Lucey reasons. "I
asked myself, 'What are you doing this for at this age?'? I know why I'm doing
this -- because the spirit is calling me. Women can be priests. We are called to
the priesthood."
|
No comments:
Post a Comment