Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests:Ordination of Rosemarie Smead, Reuters Article By Mary Wisniewski"Kentucky woman ordained as priest in defiance of Roman Catholic Church"

(PHOTO CREDIT: Reuters) Ordaining Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan ordains Rosemarie Smead into priesthood as Roman Catholic priest, during Celebration of Ordination at St. Andrew's United Church of Christ in Louisville

Kentucky woman ordained as priest in defiance of Roman Catholic Church

REUTERS

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — In an emotional ceremony filled with tears and applause, a 70-year-old Kentucky woman was ordained a priest today as part of a dissident group operating outside of official Roman Catholic Church authority.
Rosemarie Smead is one of about 150 women around the world who have decided not to wait for the Roman Catholic Church to lift its ban on women priests, but to be ordained and start their own congregations.
In an interview before the ceremony, Smead said she is not worried about being excommunicated from the Church — the fate of other women ordained outside of Vatican law.
“It has no sting for me,” said Smead, a petite, gray-haired former Carmelite nun with a ready hug for strangers. “It is a Medieval bullying stick the bishops used to keep control over people and to keep the voices of women silent. I am way beyond letting octogenarian men tell us how to live our lives.”
The ordination of women as priests, along with the issues of married priests and birth control, represents one of the big divides between U.S. Catholics and the Vatican hierarchy. Seventy percent of U.S. Catholics believe that women should be allowed to be priests, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll earlier this year.
The former pope, Benedict XVI, reaffirmed the Catholic Church’s ban on women priests and warned that he would not tolerate disobedience by clerics on fundamental teachings. Male priests have been stripped of their holy orders for participating in ordination ceremonies for women.
In a statement last week, Louisville Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz called the planned ceremony by the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests a “simulated ordination” in opposition to Catholic teaching.
“The simulation of a sacrament carries very serious penal sanctions in Church law, and Catholics should not support or participate in today’s event,” Kurtz said.
The Catholic Church teaches that it has no authority to allow women to be priests because Jesus Christ chose only men as his apostles. Proponents of a female priesthood said Jesus was acting only according to the customs of his time.
They also note that he chose women, like Mary Magdalene, as disciples, and that the early Church had women priests, deacons and bishops.
The ceremony, held at St. Andrew United Church of Christ in Louisville, was attended by about 200 men and women. Many identified themselves to a Reuters reporter as Catholics, but some declined to give their names or their churches.
’NEW ERA OF INCLUSIVITY’
The modern woman priest movement started in Austria in 2002, when seven women were ordained by the Danube River by an independent Catholic bishop. Other women were later ordained as bishops, who went on to ordain more women priests and deacons.
“As a woman priest, Rosemarie is leading, not leaving the Catholic Church, into a new era of inclusivity,” said Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan during her sermon today. “As the Irish writer James Joyce reminded us, the word ’Catholic’ means ’Here comes everybody!” ’
Smead had to leave the rigorous Carmelite life due to health reasons, and earned a bachelor’s degree in theology and a doctorate in counseling psychology. She taught at Indiana University for 26 years, and works as a couples and family therapist.
During the ordination ceremony, Smead wept openly as nearly everyone in the audience came up and laid their hands on her head in blessing. Some whispered, “Thanks for doing this for us.”
During the communion service, Smead and other woman priests lifted the plates and cups containing the sacramental bread and wine to bless them.
A woman in the audience murmured, “Girl, lift those plates. I’ve been waiting a long time for this.”
One of those attending the service was Stewart Pawley, 32, of Louisville, who said he was raised Catholic and now only attends on Christmas and Easter. But he said he would attend services with Smead when she starts to offer them in Louisville.
“People like me know it’s something the Catholic Church will have to do,” said Pawley.

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http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/28/us-usa-religion-womenpriests-idUSBRE93Q0EE20130428







Luncheon of ARCWP and Community  on April 26th in Louisville, KY.

Google Alerts Picks Up Bridget Mary's Response to Kentucky Bishop on Upcoming Ordination of Rosemarie Smead

"Group to ordain woman as priest in Kentucky" Bridget Mary Meehan ...
"Group to ordain woman as priest in Kentucky" Bridget Mary Meehan Responds to Article on Rosemarie Smead's Historic, Upcoming Ordination in Louisville, KY ...bridgetmarys.blogspot.com/.../group-to-ordain-woman-as-prie...

Archives Demonstrate How LA Cardinal Mahony Obstructed Investigation on Sex Abuse Scandal

http://ncronline.org/news/accountability/la-cardinal-called-obstructionist

"In 2003, with the country newly focused on the sex abuse scandal in the Catholic church, a senior U.S. church leader attempted behind the scenes to head off the investigation of the crisis by researchers at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, disparaging the institution and its researchers as inadequate.

Los Angeles Cardinal Roger Mahony, in a strongly worded letter to then-Bishop Wilton Gregory, at the time president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, complained at length about the forms that John Jay researchers produced. He described them as "designed by people who apparently have no understanding of the Roman Catholic Church, ecclesiastical culture, hierarchical structure, or the language of the Roman Catholic Church."

The previously unpublished letters that circulated among Mahony, Gregory, former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, Justice Anne Burke and others provide a behind-the-scenes view of some of the tensions in the air the year after the U.S. bishops formulated their Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People during their June 2002 meeting in Dallas. Public outrage had forced the bishops to take a dramatic step to deal with the scandal of sexual abuse of children by priests and the cover-up of the abuse by scores of bishops across the United States.

The letters are part of Burke's archives, held by DePaul University in Chicago. Burke, a member of the Illinois Supreme Court, initially served as vice chairperson of the National Review Board for the Protection of Children and Young People, established under the charter. She later took over as chairperson when Keating resigned. The correspondence provides a window into the high-stakes tensions of that period, as questions swirled regarding the board's independence and whether bishops would cooperate with or undermine investigations.

In an April 4 phone interview, Burke said she thought the letters would provide further insight, given the recent disclosures in Los Angeles, of hierarchical attitudes in dealing with the crisis.

She described Mahony at the time as "an obstructionist" and said he represented "a pattern of conduct of circling the wagons so they [the bishops] could protect the clerics and themselves. The first thing they thought of in every instance was 'protect, protect, protect,' and not about the truth or the victims."

Mahony apparently had written letters and made a phone call to Kathleen McChesney, the first director of the U.S. bishops' Office of Child and Youth Protection, in January 2003, urging that such forms be reviewed "by a large number of" dioceses before being used to survey the dioceses. That didn't happen, and in an April 23, 2003, letter to Gregory about the John Jay study, Mahony wrote, "One could even surmise that the ill-conceived and poorly thought-out questions were designed to create a further media 'feeding frenzy.' It almost seems that the forms were designed, on purpose, by people who have a vested interest in confusing the many intricate issues and maximizing the statistical number of perpetrators, as well as attaching the greatest possible numbers of perpetrators to Diocesan Reports."

Mahony also expressed fear that the information being collected by John Jay researchers, though it went through an elaborate system to disguise the dioceses and keep accused perpetrators and victims anonymous, would be both leaked and subject to legal discovery."

Rosemarie Smead To Be Ordained A Roman Catholic Woman Priest in Louisville, KY/ Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests/Courier-Journal

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20130424/NEWS01/304240125/Group-ordain-Kentucky-woman-priest?nclick_check=1

Deacon Rosemarie Smead and Bridget Mary Meehan at Atlanta Ordination

"Pope Francis and the Ongoing Reform of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious"/ James Martin SJ

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-james-martin-sj/pope-francis-and-the-ongoing-reform-of-the-leadership-conference-of-women-religious_b_3085985.html
Bridget Mary's Response:
I hope that James Martin is right that the new pope is open and the outcome could be positive.
However, if not, the nuns could become non-canonical and continue their exact same mission with the support of the majority of U.S. Catholics, plus they could be ordained priests, if called by their communities, to serve the people in a renewed priestly ministry. Bridget Mary Meehan, www.arcwp.org

Pope Francis to Appoint More Women to Key Vatican Posts/ Looking Forward to the Announcement!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/vaticancityandholysee/10008833/Pope-Francis-to-appoint-more-women-to-key-Vatican-posts.html

"Group to ordain woman as priest in Kentucky" Bridget Mary Meehan Responds to Article on Rosemarie Smead's Historic, Upcoming Ordination in Louisville, KY.

USA TODAY
by Peter Smith, The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal

Published: 04/21/2013

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- "Rosemarie Smead sees herself as preparing all her life for the step she's about to take.
She was brought up a devout Catholic. She lived for a short time as a cloistered nun. She has theology and counseling degrees. She marched for civil rights in Selma, Ala. -- then worked with troubled children there for years. She forged a career as an Indiana University Southeast professor, training school counselors.
Now the petite 70-year-old from Bedford, Ky., is preparing for what she freely admits is a flagrant defiance of Roman Catholic law -- specifically Canon 1024, which restricts the priesthood to baptized men.
On Saturday, Smead is scheduled to be ordained by the dissident Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests. The service will take place in a Protestant sanctuary.
It will be the first such ordination in Louisville by the decade-old Women Priests group, which has been holding such services around the world.
"It's illegal, but it's valid," said Smead. "In order to challenge this law, we have to break it."
National and Kentucky polls have shown around two-thirds of all Catholics -- but a minority of those who frequently attend Mass -- support ordaining women. But church leaders insist that public opinion won't alter Catholic doctrine.
"Despite the name, the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests is not an entity of the Roman Catholic Church or the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville," Louisville Archbishop Joseph Kurtz said in a statement. "Its action in carrying out a simulated ordination of Dr. Rosemarie Smead stands in direct opposition to the Roman Catholic Church's teaching on the priesthood."

Bridget Mary's Response: The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests are leading the Catholic Church into its future which is now. Like Rosa Parks, who refused to sit in the back of the bus, we are taking our rightful places as equals in our church. Women Priests are visible reminders that women are spiritual equals in God's eyes. We are offering a path to renewing our church into a more inclusive and egalitarian community of faith rooted in Jesus' example in the Gospels. Visit us at www.arcwp.org

"Kurtz said the "simulation of a sacrament carries very serious penal sanctions in Church law, and Catholics should not support or participate."...

Bridget Mary's Response: We are praying that the church will be filled with enthusiastic Catholics who love the church and support women's equality in the Roman Catholic Church.
Excommunication is a badge of honor. The church burned Joan of Arc at the stake and later declared her a saint. Pope Benedict relativized it by canonizing Mother Theodore Guerin and Mother Mary Killop, two excommunicated nuns. So one could argue, Benedict made excommunication the new fast track to sainthood.

"In 2008, the Vatican stated that any woman who attempts ordination, and anyone seeking to confer it on her, faces automatic excommunication.
The association's 2008 ordination of a Lexington, Ky., woman, Janice Sevre-Duszynska, led to the defrocking of a Roman Catholic priest who took a prominent role in the ceremony.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says Jesus chose men as his apostles and that they chose men as their successors.
"The Church recognizes herself to be bound by this choice made by the Lord Himself. For this reason, the ordination of women is not possible," it says."

Bridget Mary's Response: The Twelve symbolize the Twelve Tribes of Israel. There were more than 12 apostles. The Risen Christ appeared first to Mary of Magdala  and entrusted the most important teaching on which Christianity is based to her, not to Peter or any of the males, and that is why the Church Fathers referred to Mary of Magdala as the apostle to the apostles. Also, Paul was an apostle and so was Junia and her husband Andronicus. See Romans 16:7. Historians assert that for twelve hundred years women were ordained in the Roman Catholic Church. In 494 Pope Gelasius wrote a Papal Bull demanding that the bishops of Southern Italy, modern day Sicily stop allowing women to preside at the altar.

"In the face of such opposition, Smead admits she hesitated to seek ordination at a retirement age, a decision "that would require me to have a great deal of courage and to stand up to the dudes."
But, she added, "I have never been a stay-in-the-box person. Because of my relationship with God, I have no fear of excommunication."
The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests traces its roots to 2002 and says it has ordained about 100 women priests worldwide, including several bishops, many leading small congregations independent from Vatican authority."

Bridget Mary's Response: The international movement has approximately 150. The Association is one of the branches of the worldwide movement. We have priests and deacons in the United States, South America and Canada.
Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan of the association said its first bishops were ordained by a Roman Catholic bishop whose name has not been disclosed, giving them valid orders in the line of succession from the apostles.
Advocates for women's ordination contend there is evidence in ancient texts, burial art and other sources that early churches ordained women.
"We're reclaiming that earlier tradition," said Meehan, who will preside at Smead's ordination. She also cited gospel accounts of Jesus first appearing to women after his resurrection and telling them to bring the good news to others.
"That's the meaning of the word apostle, (one commissioned to) go and tell," she said.
Meehan said Smead has had "a lifelong call" to serving others and that ordination "would enhance and expand her ministry."
Smead attended Catholic schools while growing up in Ohio in the 1940s and 1950s. She said she felt a call to serve God and others, but the notion of a woman priest was never discussed then.
"I felt like the best thing I could possibly be is a contemplative nun in a monastery," Smead said.
She spent about three years at a Carmelite convent but left after her health broke down. "We went to bed at 11 o'clock at night. We got up at 4:30 in the morning," she said. "I could not deal with the sleep deprivation."
Eventually she went to Marquette University, where she earned an undergraduate degree in theology. In 1965, she and fellow students took part in the historic march through Selma in support of the Rev. Martin Luther King and other civil rights activists.
After a brief marriage, Smead began working toward a doctorate in counseling psychology at Auburn University while starting a clinic in nearby Montgomery, Ala., for children with severe learning disabilities and emotional problems.
She later returned to Selma to direct a treatment program for juvenile delinquents.
"They were lost in the system, but we took them," she said.
Seeking to train others in similar work, she became professor of counseling education at IUS in New Albany in 1981 and published how-to textbooks on group therapy for children.
Heart attacks in the 1990s prompted Smead to scale back her stressful regimen of teaching, publishing and conference travel. She pursued a new avocation -- raising Australian shepherds and bringing them to dog shows, then training children on how to do the same. Smead retired from IUS in 2007.
"All this time I was going to my Catholic church on Sundays, following what I believe is my spiritual life," she said.
But, she added, "doing couples counseling and family counseling for 40 years, you get pretty darn liberal. ... I've counseled so many women who would come in crying. They had six kids, and the husband and the priest were saying, 'Sorry, you cannot use birth control,' when she was at her wit's end."
When Smead learned about Bourgeois' plight, she looked up the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests online.
She contacted members, began attending its meetings in Cincinnati and was urged to apply for ordination. She said that was an answer to her prayer for direction after retirement.
"I'm in good health," she said. "I'm not going to sit on my duff. I never have. I need to be giving back."
Smead took correspondence courses in theology and was ordained a deacon by the association last fall.
Bridget Mary's Response: Rosemarie has a rich background in theology and ministry that prepares her for priestly ministry in an egalitarian community where all are welcome to receive sacraments, and all are co-equals, rooted in baptismal grace. She has spent years in prayerful preparation and service to people in need, which gave her an ideal background for priestly ministry in the 21st century.
"Many women priests host small churches, as Smead has begun doing in recent months, calling it Christ Sophia Inclusive Catholic Community. Starting May 11, she'll be leading monthly services, using space at St. Andrew.
St. Andrew's pastor, the Rev. Jimmy Watson, said hosting the service was natural for a congregation that welcomes openly gay members and whose denomination was a pioneer in ordaining women.
"These acts reflect the United Church of Christ's extravagant sense of hospitality and inclusion," Watson said."
Bridget Mary's Response: We give thanks for Pastor Watson and the United Church of Christ for the open embrace of our movement for justice and equality. They are beloved brothers and sisters who walk with us on this sacred journey of love and renewal.

Article on Rosmarie Smead's Ordination in USA Today

USA TODAY

"LCWR President Asks Pope Francis to Promote Women" Joshua J. McElwee /Time to Appoint Nuns to Top Vatican Posts

http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/lcwr-president-asks-pope-francis-promote-women

Bridget Mary's Response: The majority of the nuns in the U.S. are at a critical crossroads with
the Vatican. Pope Francis would be wise to affirm nuns as equals in our church and appoint them to top jobs in the Vatican now! Bridget Mary Meehan, arcwp, www.arcwp.org
"The president of the primary group of U.S. Catholic sisters has asked Pope Francis to consider appointing women to "major leadership posts" in the church and to be open to dialog with women religious.

Franciscan Sr. Florence Deacon, president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), makes those encouragements in the May issue of U.S. Catholic, the magazine published by the Claretians.
"Recent popes have ex-pressed gratitude for Catholic sisters’ deep love of the church and generous service to God’s people," Deacon, whose organization represents some 80 percent of the country's 57,000 sisters, writes.

Introducing NCR's first eBook: Best Catholic Spirituality Writing 2012

"However, there were two investigations of Catholic sisters undertaken during Pope Benedict’s era. We hope that Pope Francis, a member of a religious order himself, will be open to a dialogue with women religious and will work with us to support our mission."
"Today young women in the United States are leaving the church in larger numbers than young men, and parents are questioning raising their daughters in a church that doesn’t seem to value women’s participation," Deacon continues.
"We hope Pope Francis hears their concerns and appoints significant numbers of women to major leadership posts in the universal church."

Books by Bridget Mary Meehan/Kindle/Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=by%20Bridget%20Mary%20Meehan

"We Have a Pope: An Ex-Priest Speaks"

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/We-have-a-pope----An-ex-priest-speaks_14109565

..."So with this strong prayer of gratitude for my life as a Jesuit, why did I leave?

The irony of my vocation is that with the very vision the Jesuits gave me and the motivation behind it, I could no longer limit my God, nor my 'self'. The Jesuits made me the fullest being I could have been, until my point of departure. I was approved by Father General Peter Hans Kolvenback in 1998 to profess solemn vows, but it was time to move on. Being a Jesuit meant being a Roman Catholic, and the limitations of a doctrinal, dogmatic church reached its threshold in my personal life.

My discovery of reality brought me to the fact that all aspects of the universe is dialectical, and therefore is masculine and feminine, having animus and anima. Living with merely a masculine understanding of priesthood and having "authority" only from a male perspective limited my God, my Self and, for me, my church. As a Roman Catholic priest, John Paul II forbade priests to even discuss women priesthood. In my vision and in my theology, God cannot be selective in the call to priesthood. We are all called to this vocation. I find it a travesty of justice that in my church women cannot be priests. As much as Catholic philosophy and theology speak of the equality of all humans, women are still second-class citizens. I could no longer actively minister in an institution which expected blind obedience to such a travesty. The world has seen what happens when those in authority passively sit back and do nothing.

Historically, Jesuits have regularly had their hands slapped by Rome for their theological and social positions. What happens when one speaks out with a new vision? The Jesuit, Roger Haight, SJ, who was my primary mentor in writing my new philosophy and theology has been silenced by Rome; he is not to teach at a Roman Catholic institution and has also been forbidden to teach at any protestant school of theology. It has been deemed that his Christology does not conform with formal Roman Catholic theology in light of the divinity of Jesus the Christ. Oh, how we limit God!

So my gratitude for my life as a Jesuit passes over to my love for the church. If a Jesuit vision could awaken me from my dogmatic slumber, my hope and prayer is that this same Jesuit vision of Pope Francis can awaken the Roman Catholic Church from its dogmatic slumber.

Blessings to Pope Francis, may you truly follow the ways of Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, and Francis of Assisi, the founder of the Franciscans, and be a true channel of peace, love, faith, hope, light, and joy in the world."

Martin J Schade is a lecturer in the Faculty of Liberal Studies at the University of Technology, Jamaica, and is a former Jesuit, Roman Catholic priest.

Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/columns/We-have-a-pope----An-ex-priest-speaks_14109565#ixzz2R1JJglHh

Editorial: Vatican, LCWR Approaching Critical Crossroads /National Catholic Reporter Editorial Staff

http://ncronline.org/node/50081

“A church that does not go out of itself, sooner or later, sickens from the stale air of closed rooms,” Pope Francis has written in a letter released Thursday to his fellow Argentine bishops. This is a similar message to the one he delivered to his fellow cardinals before the conclave, impressing them enough to elect him bishop of Rome

In his new note he went on to say in the process of “going out” the church always risks running into “accidents,” adding, “I prefer a thousand times over a church of accidents than a sick church.”

A church of accidents … a church willing to take risks on the edges … a church dedicated to service of the most needy … a church working on behalf of mercy, peace and justice…

This sounds a lot like the church U.S. Catholic sisters have been building in recent decades. Not only U.S. women religious, but also women religious around the world have been at this work. It is the women who have lived closest to the marginalized; it is the women who have worked on the “peripheries;” it is the women who have gone precisely where Francis is encouraging others to go.

And what has been their reward?

Have they been lifted up by others?

Have they been acclaimed by their church leadership?

No. Despite occasional laudatory words to the contrary, these faith-filled women have been too often demeaned and too often tarnished with accusations of alleged infidelity. The most ironic element in this sad story has been that these accusations have arisen out of the ranks of the very men who have inflicted great damage to the church by repeated patterns of sex abuse cover-up.

Christians have learned to expect persecution. Being voices for the poor, the marginalized, gays and lesbians, the uninsured or pregnant young mothers are rare undertakings. But the women religious have toiled endlessly to assist and represent these largely voiceless people.

While persecution comes with the territory of living and working in the “accidental” church, we don’t expect such attacks to come from our own clergy. Yet, too often they have.

Hiding behind highly exaggerated accusations of infidelity, certain bishops have revealed stunning ignorance. In the process they have abused their authority. It’s been the easier course.

The takeover of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) by the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the result of an extended “doctrinal assessment,” knowledgeable Catholics understand has much less to do with core beliefs than with episcopal obedience.

Our women religious are among those who understand this firsthand. We have all come to see too many of our prelates feel uncomfortable around women. The result is they stay away from them. This results, over time, in more fear and almost certain misunderstandings. Only open, sustained discussions -- on equal footing -- can set a new course toward church health.

We need conversations in which Catholic women and men -- religious, clergy and laity -- can talk freely in a spirit of mutual support about their faith and church lives.

It would be a healing experience and needs to take place in dioceses across the country. This would be a step.

Our women are the most theologically educated in the history of the church. The differences between their thinking and our bishops’ thinking has less to do with faith and doctrine than church structure, and more to do with applications of church teachings and mission. There is plenty of core common ground.

The first step, however, is to recognize that women carry vital insights necessary to restoring health to the “sick” church of which Francis speaks. Without women participating as equals in engaged discussions there is little hope such health can be found.

Even more fundamentally, then, the Vatican/LCWR issue is really about whether the current male clerical decision-making system can sustain church life in the 21st century. Huge numbers have concluded it cannot. 

The Vatican’s current path, which excludes women religious from any semblance of self-determination, ostensibly in a spirit of mutual episcopal cooperation, threatens the continue life of the church. Moreover, it is an assault on all women. In turn, it is an assault on all Catholics.

We are fast approaching a perilous moment. This highly visible rift between the Vatican and Catholic sisters begs a question: Can our church sustain theologically literate women in its ranks? More widely, can it attract dedicated women of any stripe? We are losing these women faster than one can imagine. Ask almost any parent of a grown daughter.

The Vatican congregation’s doctrinal assessment of LCWR, apparently for now upheld by Francis, is, then, a blow to all who want to restore community and health to the church.

If the Vatican insists on carrying out its LCWR takeover, the group will have no choice but to end its canonical relationship with the institutional church. This is because the entire LCWR body almost unanimously voted last August to continue a dialogue with the bishops as long as the effort does not compromise LCWR integrity.

At issue is not obedience. It is rather the dignity of every person and the rights of every person in the church, stemming from his or her baptism.

We are coming perilously close to a point of rupture. Some, of course, would relish such a break. However, their satisfaction would be short lived. For such a break would send out a loud signal, one that would echo through history, that the most significant U.S. women religious body had concluded fidelity to conscience and fidelity to the values of the Gospels required separation. It would be a stunning blow to all Catholics.

LCWR, canonically or not, in reality or in spirit, will continue to serve our communities of women religious and, through them, the neediest of human beings.

Our women religious will remain Catholic to the core despite efforts by some to paint them otherwise. Indeed, they will have concluded church dedication to missionrequired separation.

Charges and counter-charges will ensue. But an honest evaluation would find that the women took action only following the deepest of soul searching in a spirit of community, dedication and love.

It would also find the final straw was not doctrinal. Instead, it was finally about faithfulness to the very Gospel ideals which Francis preaches each day. "

 

Listen "To Believe", A Song by Jackie Evancho/ as Prayer of Comfort for all those who suffer

http://www.staged.com/video?v=NtK

Pope Francis Reaffirms Censure of LCWR/ Women's Ordination Conference and Call to Action Respond

Erin Saiz Hanna:  202.675.1006

Nicole Sotelo: 773.404.0004 x285 

 

WASHINGTON D.C. - One year ago today, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), an umbrella group representing 80% of the 57,000 nuns in the

 United States, came under fire from the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for their social justice ministries and not supporting the U.S. bishops' agenda of attacking expanded healthcare, women's ordination, and same-sex marriage.

 

LCWR described the assessment as "based on unsubstantiated accusations and the result of a flawed process that lacked transparency," causing "pain and scandal in our church." 

 

On Monday, Pope Francis reaffirmed the censure.

 

"While Pope Francis presents a fresh face in Vatican City, breaking from papal tradition by washing the feet of two women on Holy Thursday, for example, without dismissing the mandate against the nuns such symbolism appears meaningless at best and hypocritical at worst," stated Erin Saiz Hanna, spokesperson for the Nun Justice Project and Executive Director of the Women's Ordination Conference.

 

"Catholics around the country have been inspired by the faith and work of the sisters and will continue to support them; we urge Pope Francis to recognize their commitment and contributions and dismiss the mandate," said Jim FitzGerald, spokesperson for the Nun Justice Coalition and Executive Director of Call To Action. 

 

Last summer, nearly 70,000 Catholics signed a Change.org petition and hundreds organized vigils to rally around the sisters.

 

 "The pope intentionally chose St. Francis as his namesake," continued Hanna.  "St. Francis of Assisi's sacred friendship with St. Clare is well documented.  He wrote a promise of mutual respect for her and for the women who joined her community.  St. Francis worked collaboratively alongside his sisters rather than against them. We expect Pope Francis to do the same."

Mary Hunt on Francis and American Nuns: Atoning for Centuries of Discrimination Will Take More Than Four Clean Female Feet/ Gender Equality and Women Priests

                   

Theologian Mary Hunt thinks the jury is still out on Pope Francis, though early impressions of his pontificate are positive on several fronts. She notes that she expects, however, more than friendly cosmetic changes:

Rather than washing feet, I suggest looking Catholic women in the eye and saying, “You are my sister, equal in every way to me,” and then changing structures accordingly. To atone for centuries of discrimination against women will take more than four clean female feet. I despair of those who say, “It is a start,” to which I respond, “Obviously, but how pitifully inadequate.”

And her conclusion:

I urge that if women are not welcomed into all forms of ministry, decision making, and administration of the Roman Catholic Church in the very near future—I mean a year, max two, not a lifetime—then the jury find this pope as guilty as the rest in the ‘disappearance’ of half of the Catholic community. Maybe we will be surprised, and I will be the first one to rejoice that my skepticism was unwarranted. 

Bridget Mary's Response:
I agree with Mary Hunt. I also believe that he should apologize to our Roman Catholic Women Priests International Movement for the Vatican's oppressive tactics and many punishments. And Pope Francis should affirm our movement as prophetic and life-giving to the church. Bridget Mary Meehan, arcwp, www.arcwp.org
 

Did Pope Francis get enough information on the LCWR mandate? by Maureen Fiedler/NCR Today/April 16, 2013

"The Leadership Conference of Women Religious has posted a statement from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in which Archbishop Gerhard Müller of the doctrinal congregation said he talked to Pope Francis about the LCWR mandate and claims the pope affirmed it. I am frankly very skeptical of that information. First, I doubt this issue is on the top of the new pope's agenda or that he had much knowledge of this when he was an archbishop in Argentina.

And what does "affirm" mean? Affirm what? Some general, vague report? Did Müller give him a full explanation, talk about the opposition to it among U.S. Catholics or give him an outline of the actions proposed? Did he talk about the accusation that says U.S. women religious spend too much time on social justice and not enough on other issues? I frankly doubt the new pope would "affirm" that.

Introducing NCR's first eBook: Best Catholic Spirituality Writing 2012

Did he even mention the questions raised by LCWR at the meeting several months ago? I doubt he gave both sides.
It could be a case of the "good 'ole boys" in the Curia wanting everything to remain the same and trying to make the new pope go along on an issue about which he knows little.
Two things: First, this is a wait-and-see situation. Second, LCWR would be well-advised to seek a private audience with Pope Francis to explain the full story."
Bridget Mary Meehan's Response
Amen, Sister Maureen Fiedler! Let's hope the Pope checks out the Curia report on LCWR. Let's hope that Pope Francis appoints a LCWR member to a major position in the Vatican as a sign of reconciliation and hope for the world's nuns!

Let us give thanks for God's boundless love

Boston Marathon Bombing Kills 2, Injures Over 130

http://news.yahoo.com/boston-marathon-bombing-kills-2-injures-over-130-001628616--spt.html
My prayers are with the families of the dead and the injured in this tragedy. May God comfort and strengthen all who have suffered harm and their families. Bridget Mary Meehan, arcwp, www.arcwp.org

Vatican Reaffirms CDF's Doctrinal Assessment of LCWR/A Major Disappointment/Take Action to Support the Sisters

LCWR Statement on Meeting with CDF

April 15, 2013

On April 15, 2013 Sister Florence Deacon, OSF, LCWR president; Sister Carol Zinn, SSJ, LCWR president-elect; and Sister Janet Mock, CSJ, LCWR executive director; met with Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF); Archbishop Luis Ladaria, secretary of CDF; and other members of the CDF dicastery. Archbishop J. Peter Sartain was also present.
The LCWR officers reviewed the activities of this past year since receiving the report of CDF’s doctrinal assessment of LCWR in April 2012.
In his opening remarks, Archbishop Müller informed the group that he had met with Pope Francis who "reaffirmed the findings of the assessment and the program of reform for this Conference of Major Superiors".
The conversation was open and frank. We pray that these conversations may bear fruit for the good of the Church.
Contact:
Sister Annmarie Sanders, IHM
Associate Director for Communicationsasanders@lcwr.org
301-588-4955

Bridget Mary's Response
This is a big disappointment and a setback for the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.
It is time for the nuns to move ahead and declare independence from Vatican control. Below is a letter from the Women's Ordination Conference suggesting a letter writing campaign to proclaim our solidarity with the Sisters. It is a call to action for justice. 
Bridget Mary Meehan, arcwp
www.arcwp.org

Dear Bridget,   

As you may have heard, almost exactly one year after the Vatican released its unjust mandate attacking the Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), Pope Francis has reaffirmed the critique, which found LCWR had "serious doctrinal problems," exposed "radical feminist themes," and needed to be reformed.

LCWR released a statement on Monday's meeting between their leadership and Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Müller, the head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: "We pray that these conversations may bear fruit for the good of the Church." 

We too pray for the good of the Church and ask that you make your support of the sisters heard. Consider writing a letter to the editor of your local newspapers, and writing to the U.S. bishops who are involved in carrying out the mandate against the sisters. Download sample letters and talking points here. 

 

During this time of renewal in our Church, let us remind Pope Francis and the bishops that we stand with the sisters. Let us pray for constructive dialogue and respect.  

 Faithfully, 

 

 

 

 

 

Kate Conmy

Membership Director

 

 

 

You Tube Associates Pope Francis' Easter Vigil and MMOJ Easter Vigil

                                         2:28:57 Easter Mass by vatican 26 views

 0:19 Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community/Easter Vigil/Woman Priest Katy Zatsick Leadsby Bridget Mary Meehan 14 views 

   

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75bwumFGcxA

Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community Easter Vigil is on same youtube page with Vatican Easter Vigil! See video bar on side of page.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCq-0DDEc9A

Acts of the Apostles 5:27-32,40b-41 "We Must Obey God Rather Than Men"/Modern Version/Women Priests and Married Priests

"When the head cardinal and the entire assembly of the Vatican Curia had brought together the women and married priests and made them stand before the Vatican assembly, the head cardinal questioned them saying: “We gave you strict orders, did we not , to stop raising the consciousness of the laity.  Yet you have filled the entire church with your teaching.  You claim the yeast of the Holy Spirit is acting like leaven among the People of God—calling all the baptized to be prophets, leaders in our communities and ministers in the universal priesthood.”  Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan and her apostles said in reply. “We must obey God and the Holy Spirit rather than men.

Then the Vatican Curia ordered the women and married priests to stop speaking in the name of Sophia and then dismissed them.  So the women and married priests left the presence of the Vatican Curia, rejoicing that they had been found worthy to suffer dishonor for the sake of justice."

(Anonymous Member of Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community)

 

Pope Francis Beings Reform of Vatican Curia

http://ncronline.org/node/49661

"In a signal that major reform may be on the horizon, the Vatican announced today that Pope Francis has formed a group of eight cardinals from around the world to “advise him on the government of the universal church” and “to study a project of revision” of a document from John Paul II on the Roman Curia.

At first blush, all these cardinals seem like strong personalities. Several have voiced criticisms over the years about various aspects of Vatican operations, while two, Cardinal Sean O'Malley of Boston and Cardinal Reinhard Marx of Munich, Germany, have played key roles in the church's response to the child sexual abuse crisis.

The group’s first meeting is set for Oct. 1-3, and meanwhile, according to the Vatican statement, the pope will be in regular contact with the cardinals individually.

The brief item in the Vatican’s daily press bulletin did not explain how these cardinals were chosen, or how long they will serve in these roles.

Strikingly, there was only one member of the Roman Curia among the eight cardinals tapped to assist the pope. The rest come from various parts of the world, with at least one representing each continent..."

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Pope Plans to Canonize Three Argentine Priests with Irish Connections

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Pope-Francis-launches-sainthood-case-for-three-Argentine-priests-with-Irish-connections-202677761.html

"Father Alfie Kelly was born in Buenos Aires to Juan Kelly and Elisa Casey, the youngest of seven children. He joined the Pallottines at a young age and studied in Buenos Aires and Rome before his ordination in 1957. At the time of his murder he was the pastor at St. Patrick’s, responsible for student formation and rector to one of the diocesan catechetical seminaries.
Notably, Kelly was the spiritual director to the young man who was to become the Cardinal Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Bergoglio, now Pope Francis I.
Kevin O’Neill SAC, described his life and work “He specialized in spiritual direction, retreats, Catechetics and in youth work which was his principal apostolate. The best word to describe his character is ‘solid’."
Father Alfie Leaden was born in Buenos Aires but his parents, Patricio Leaden and Brigida Ussher were of Irish descent. One of eight brothers and sisters, he was educated educated by the Irish Mercy Sisters and later by the Pallottine Fathers. He went on to study philosophy at the Pallottine seminary in Thurles, County Tipperary, and continued his studies in Rome, according to Pallottines.ie. Ordained into the priesthood in 1942 he worked in many Pallottine communities in Argentina.
Father Kevin O’Neill SAC described Leaden as “amiable. In the true sense of the word it means more than being worthy of love." A student of Leaden’s, Father Rodolfo Capalozza, wrote, “Alfredo seemed to have supernatural peace, an uncommon peace. He transmitted the peace of God. To go into his room was like the psychological experience of entering a sanctuary, it was orderly, and he radiated amiability and innocence.”

John Cooney/Irish Journalist Writes about Coverage of Conclave/ Meeting with Janice Sevre-Duszynska, ARCWP in Rome and Activists from WOC-Witness for Justice

Doctrine and Life
 Vol 63 No. 4 April 2013

 A Veteran Journalist’s
 First Conclave
 JOHN COONEY

" IN ALL my 43 years as a journalist, I never had the occasion to report
a papal conclave. Thankfully, this omission has been rectified with
the arrival of the 266th papacy. In spite of a harsh wet Roman evening
on Wednesday March 13, it was an unforgettable moment to witness
the election of the Cardinal Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Mario
Bergoglio, and to hear him take the name of Pope Francis. Although a
bit uncomfortable with the unbridled ultramontane enthusiasm of the
vast crowd in St Peter’s Square, I too came under Francis’s trinitarian
spell of humility, simplicity and spontaneity.
 On his awaited appearance on the loggia, my first impression was
that he looked like Pope Paul VI, then I felt he looked like Pius XI.
Certainly not a Pius XII, and not a showman like John Paul II or in the
diffident manner of Benedict XVI. The more permanent resemblance
was that of John Paul I, the smiling Pope.
 Growing up in the west of Scotland back in the 1950s as part of
 the Catholic Irish diaspora in which the Pope was our unquestioned
 spiritual leader, I remember watching the election on our recently
 acquired television set of Pope John XXIII in 1958, and that of Paul
 VI in 1963 with my late aunt Mary who was on holiday in her native
 Blantyre, having gone to Philadelphia in the depressed 1920s to earn
her way in life across the Atlantic as there was no prospect of employ
 ment in Scotland.
When John Paul I was elected in 1978, the year of the three popes,
I was in America on a travelling scholarship, and later that year when
Pope John Paul II took the Vatican by storm, I watched his bravura
balcony speech on a television set in the press room of the EU Council
of Ministers in Luxembourg.
 In 2005 when the white smoke ascended for Joseph Ratzinger, I
was involved journalistically; but my reporting was from Dublin for
 The Evening Herald and as a studio commentator with presenter Claire
 Byrne on TV3. At least I was getting closer to being a Vaticanologist, so
much so that last October I represented Doctrine & Life at the fiftieth
anniversary of the Second Vatican Council, which coincided with the
Synod of Bishops on New Evangelisation and the launch of the Year
of Faith.  1.

THE NAME FRANCIS

On my return to Dublin last autumn I was speaking to the art critic,
Kevin Ruttledge, and told him of my feeling that Pope Benedict XVI
had aged and would resign rather than die slowly and publicly as did
John Paul II. Little did I imagine, however, that five months later I
would return to St Peter’s Square following Benedict’s freely offered
resignation on February 11 to see the welcome given to the first Jesuit
Pope, the first Pope from Latin America – and, hopefully, potentially
the first truly collegial Bishop of Rome, instead of the Supreme Pontiff
 on the authoritarian model of my boyhood.
 Francis is a big name in the Cooney family. My late father was Francis
and my elder son was baptized Francis by the late Fr Austin Flannery,
O.P., and Monsignor John Greehy, the late parish priest of Terenure.
My aunt Mary was the housekeeper of the pastor of St Francis of Assisi
Church in Springfield, Pennsylvania.
 A ROOM WITH A VIEW

On a tight budget which was Franciscan in its economy I booked to
fly to Rome with Aer Lingus on Sunday March 10, returning Saturday
March 16. By Friday March 8, I was in a panic about accommodation
as hotels I knew were full.
 Then a touch of inspiration produced the solution. Bridget Mary
Meehan, who had spoken at the Humbert Summer School in County
1. John Cooney, ‘A Pilgrimage, a Council and a Synod’, Doctrine & Life, November  2012.
 Mayo in 2010,
emailed with the address in Rome of Janice Sevré-Duszynska, a minister of the
Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, which counts approximately 150
 women priests in Europe, the U.S., Canada and Latin America. Indeed, thanks to the
Italian police, I was able to identify Janice from the publicity she got on RTÉ television
and major world networks on Thursday March 7 when she was filmed being temporarily
detained by the Italian constabulary for demonstrating in St Peter’s Square vested
in her alb and green stole. For her trouble, Janice was released but the
police confiscated her banner proclaiming ‘Women Priests are here’.
I ascertained that Janice was staying at a Carmelite convent guest-
 house on the Via Paolo III, half an hour’s walk from the Vatican. My
email seeking accommodation for six nights was dispatched to Sister
Angela that Friday evening and to my relief by Saturday lunchtime I
had secured a room en-suite with a shower and breakfast for the bar
 gain price of 55 euro a night plus a 2 euro City of Rome tax. The downside
was that all guests had to be in the convent by 11 p.m. This convent
curfew would mean no late-night bar-stooling with other journalists
in the Piazza Navona.
Thus, on my arrival in Rome at mid-day on Sunday March 10, I was
taken straight by taxi to my humble quarters. I paid the frivolous fee
for six nights accommodation and was given the key to apartment 229.
Spartan it might be, but from my balcony when I opened the shutter,
I had a splendid view of the basilica dome, the magnificent, silver cupola
of St Peter’s. Suddenly, I was close to the action in the Apostolic
Palace, where history would unfold.
 
THE PRESS CORPS

As the sun was shining, I walked to the Vatican without my coat
and umbrella, forgetting that rain was forecast from late afternoon. I
headed to the Borgo Pio, where I was ushered to an outdoor table for
those wishing to eat al fresco. This was the same restaurant, Marcello,
where in 1971 during the Synod of Bishops which I was covering for
The Glasgow Herald, I was initiated into Vatican reportage by the Irish
press corps. I toasted my glass to the memories of Seán MacRéamoinn,
Joe Power, Kevin O’Kelly and Gary MacEoin, ecstatically in communion
with their eternal spirits in the kingdom of the saints, national union
of journalists branch.
By now, the temperature had fallen dramatically and rain was brood
 ing in the air. So I scampered to the nearby Piazza Risorgimento in
pulsating rain to meet Patsy McGarry of The Irish Times. Patsy had wisely
kept his coat on and was carrying an umbrella as his shield from the
torrential downfall. An easing of the rain led us to bolt to our separate
 destinations. To my dismay, it proved impossible to flag-down a taxi.
So I stated walking up the steep winding road bordering the walls of
 the Vatican in a merciless thunderstorm, taking a wrong turn and
 doubling the time it took to get to my casa.
After changing into dry clothing I wandered into a common room
to watch television which was already switched on by an absorbed
woman whom I recognized as Janice Sevré-Duszynska. We talked for
several hours and I took note of her planned activities. Next morning
at breakfast, I joined Janice who was in company with fellow guests
who included women canon lawyers, nuns and Catholic activists. A
yardstick for measuring the conclave proceedings was that the Church’s
foremost need was to elect a pope who was an administrator to clean
up the Curia; otherwise it was dead in the water.
 PREDICTIONS

> Monday March 11 was the last day of the pre-conclave discussions.
> Scholars and scribes flooded the Tiber with their prescriptions. I
> joined in the punditry on an RTÉ radio interview with Fergal Keane
> for Mary Wilson’s Drivetime. We did it on a street beside a restaurant
> on the Piazza Risorgimento. Asked what I wished from the conclave, I called
> for the next pope to confer an intellectual amnesty which would end the clamp
> -down on theologians and would invite all the cardinals to express their true
> thoughts rather than mouth the curial line on issues deemed to be
> closed including contraception, married male priests, women priests,
> gay marriage and same sex unions. This should be a prelude to a
> reopening of these issues in tandem with a curial reform that would
> send the old guard to Coventry. All cardinal electors should take as
> their bedtime reading Mary McAleese’s book, Quo Vadis? Collegiality in the
> Code of Canon Law.
> On the morning of Tuesday, March 12, after an early rise I was
> interviewed for the BBC World Ser vice by Nuala McGovern, an
> Irishwoman, at the Beeb’s stand on the Piazza Pio XII. Initially, I was
> booked to do one slot on the reaction of public opinion in Ireland to
> Pope Benedict’s resignation, my answer being that he had reduced
> the papacy to a job and that Ireland was on the left of the Vatican and
> wanted real change towards democratic decision-making. My stint
> expanded into three slots, the second of which was to identify three
> papal front-runners.
> I picked Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan, whom I had met at a con
> ference of Christian Democrats in September 2010 in Cracow, Poland,
> where he spoke on ‘The Christians’ Contribution to the European
> Integration Process’. While he was affable and approachable, I said
> his speech was too philosophical and I predicted he would bore for
> the papacy.
> Cardinal Marc Ouellet of Quebec was well placed as Prefect of the
> Congregation of Bishops, with an impressive presence at ceremonies
> as he demonstrated last June when he was papal legate at the World
> Eucharistic Congress in Dublin. I also contended that he took clerical
> paedophilia seriously, having held meetings in Ireland with victims
> of clerical sexual abuse which included spending an hour with Mark
> Vincent Healy, a victim of a Spiritan cleric and now a victims’ crusader.
> Thirdly, I named Cardinal Louis Antonio Taglé of Manila who impressed
> Fr Seán McDonagh recently in Dublin. But I felt he might be considered
> too young at 53. I ruled out an American pope.
> The third slot was to say when we would see white smoke. ‘On
> Wednesday or Thursday’, I forecast. That lunchtime the first ballot
> elicited black smoke and as I headed with the disappointed crowd
> towards the Borgo Santa Anna, I bumped into Mary McAleese and her
> husband Martin. This was fortuitous, as for some time I had been trying
> to track Mary down in Rome to arrange an interview for a biography
> of Cardinal Desmond Connell.
>
> AN ALTERNATIVE GATHERING
>
> That afternoon ahead of the cardinal electors entering the conclave, I taxied
> to the mountain ridge of the Piazza Garabaldi, close to the statue of the leader
> who in 1870 captured Rome and effectively ended centuries of the papacy’s
> temporal power. There Janice and women activists from the U.S., Canada, Australia
> and Europe raised pink smoke flares to promote their case for the ordination of women
> to the priesthood. This event highlighted the lack of women’s voices
> among the pope-makers and decision-makers in the Church. ‘We must
> as a matter of justice claim for women our equal rights to be ordained,’
> said Janice Sevré-Duszynska. ‘We do this by contra legem [against the
> law]. We are breaking an unjust law. Yet we remain within the Roman
> Catholic Church. The sacrament of Orders comes from our Baptism,
> not from our gender.’
> In pelting rain interspersed with thunder and lightning, Erin Salz
> Hanna, executive director of Women’s Ordination Conference, called
> for an official reopening of the discussion on women’s ordination. The
> people of the Church, she said, are desperate for a leader who will be
> open to dialogue and embrace the gifts of women’s wisdom in every
> level off church governance.
> Miriam Duignan, communications coordinator of Women Can Be
> Priests, said that the election of a new pope was a rare opportunity
> for the Church to reconsider its systems of governance, to introduce a
> more democratic system of electing leaders and to reassess the leaders’
> accountability to the faithful.
> Just five hours before Cardinal Bergolio was elected pontiff in the
> Sistine Chapel on Wednesday March 13, I was present in a downtown
> schoolroom for immigrants in the Via Ostiense where Janice Sevré-
> Duszynska intoned: ‘The Vatican gives flowers to women, but what
> women really want is full equality. Women priests are here!’ Janice’s
> ordination in 2008 was attended by Fr Roy Bourgeois who gave her a
> blessing, which led to his excommunication by the Congregation for
> the Doctrine of the Faith and his removal from the Mayknoll Order. 2
> In a statement of support for Fr Bourgeois issued in December
> 2012, the Association of Catholic Priests (Ireland) condemned this
> type of action as ‘unjust, and ultimately counter-productive’ and it
> 2. Roy Bourgeois, M.M., My Journey from Silence to Solidarity, Edited by Margaret
> Knape, fxBear, Yellow Springs, Ohio, 2012.
> called on the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith ‘to restore
> Fr Bourgeois to the full exercise of his ministry and to allow for open
> and honest discussion on issues that are of crucial importance for the
> future of the Church.’
>
> A POPE FOR THE POOR
>
> It was on Tuesday evening that Cardinal Bergoglio emerged as Pope
> Francis. Among his many homely gestures and bons mots my favourite
> is: ‘The Church is not just another human organisation. We can walk
> as much as we want, we can build many things, but if we do not profess
> Jesus Christ, things go wrong. We may become a charitable NGO, but
> not the Church, the Bride of the Lord’.
> On a sunny Thursday morning I participated at Cardinal Seán
> Brady’s press conference at the Pontifical Irish College, where it
> emerged that the Primate of All Ireland had made a prophetic intervention
> during the pre-conclave meetings by suggesting that the new pope should be
> marked by a love of the poor. Speaking, too, about his conversation with Pope
> Francis after his election, he said he will be inviting him to Ireland when an
> appropriate occasion arises.
> At his first press conference, the Pope said he was inspired to take
> the name because Francis was ‘a man of the poor’, a ‘man of peace’
> and a man who ‘loved and cared for creation.’
> Afterwards I went to lunch with Cardinal Brady’s spokesman, Martin Long, and
> Michael Kelly, the editor of the Irish Catholic, at which we discussed what kind of pope
> Francis would be, with me stressing he be collegial and bring an end to the People of God’s
> trek in the wilderness. While we shared a mood of optimism, Martin quipped that
> he had heard my interview with Fergal Keane but did not agree with
> one word I had said!
>
> WILL WE HAVE A VATICAN III ?
>
> On a sunny Saturday March 16 at the end of my six days amongst
> women, to borrow from the title of a John McGahern novel, as the Aer
> Lingus plane crossed the Alps, I thought of Lord Acton’s dictum that
> ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely’ and hoped that under Francis that
> kind of absolutism will be corrected. It was clear to me from Cardinal
> Brady’s enthusiasm that Bergoglio’s election gave him a landslide
> mandate to reform the Curia. It remains to be seen if he will translate
> his charisma into effective action and pick a team who will implement
> changes, a team which might find places for the respective talents of
> Cardinal Brady and the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin.
> However, on account of the Argentine Pope’s theological conservatism, I expect
> that there will be many disappointments for advocates of sweeping change. To avoid
> this, I would hope that Pope Francis summons a Third Vatican Council whose composition
> would extend to representatives of the clergy and laity as well as the world’s bishops. Its
> aim would be to complete the unfinished business of Vatican II. Indeed,
> perhaps the next time I travel to Rome those awesome ultramontane
> peaks will look less imperial and more collegial."
>
> (John Cooney, a historian, is also a journalist specialising in religious
> affairs.)