If I had 5 minutes with Pope Francis, I'd tell him that the God of endless possibilities and impossible dreams is rising up for justice for women in the church in our international Roman Catholic Women Priests Movement. I would invite him to visit our inclusive, empowered communities and see for himself the Spirit moving in the people of God. And I'd tell him, I like his smile! Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP, Sarasota, Fl.
If I had 5 minutes with Pope Frances I’d tell him that I’m a
“Jesuit product” and that I liked Jesuits so much
I married
one! Carol Canton, Canada
Wherever Francis and I would find
ourselves -- whether in Rome, Buenos Aires, Lexington, KY or Philadelphia --
using Spanish whenever I could be understood, I would invite him to share mate in
the calabash gourd I bought in Buenos Aires last summer. In Argentina and
Uruguay, sharing mate is sharing Eucharist with the people of God.
I'd
start by expressing deep gratitude to Francis for calling to task weapons
manufacturers and investors.
I'd
also bless him for his criticism of capitalism and for his desire to protect
Mother Earth. I'd ask him about Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, who wrote much
of the encyclical, and ask to be introduced to him.
Perhaps
Francis would ask me what I learned about Argentina. My conversation would
include bits and pieces of stories told by ordinary citizens -- former
prisoners tortured during Operation Condor and the Dirty Wars, including
Patricia, our guide who became my friend.
As human rights have everything to do
with liberations theology and the "church of the poor," we'd have much to talk about...
I'd mention my friend Roy Bourgeois and relate his transformation from a
"hawkish" Naval officer during the Vietnam War who wanted to make
millions in the oil fields of South America, to "wanting to do some good in
the world" as a Maryknoll priest. Working in Bolivia for five years
where he experienced firsthand how our U.S. taxpayer money props up military
dictatorships in Latin America (becoming the bullying muscle for
multi-national global corporations), Roy founded the School of the Americas
Watch in 1990 after his friends, Maryknoll sisters Ita Ford and Maura Clarke,
became martyrs, witnesses of the Gospel in El Salvador. Their killers, as well
as those of Bishop Oscar Romero and thousands of others, were traced to the SOA
at Ft. Benning in Columbus, GA.
I'd
thank him for speaking out about the harshness of capitalism and the Spirit
would prompt me to speak of Roy's support of women priests and the LGBT
community. I'd ask Francis if he had viewed "Pink Smoke Over the
Vatican." I'd bring along a couple of copies for him and friends.
Before
parting, I'd share two banner stories ("Women Priests Are Here" Mujeres Sacerdotes están aquÃ!), one from St. Peter's
Square just before he was elected Pope (five hours after I celebrated Eucharist
in Rome) and the other from Buenos Aires. He'd enjoy a good laugh from the
first story...and that's a good way to part...
Janice
Sevre Duszynska, Kentucky
Your
Holiness,I have here an invitation for your vacation
sometime
during this next year of mercy, as you have proclaimed it. You are to come and
enjoy the Catacomb existence of many members of our shared Church.Here you will
hear and learn of much you have not heard or yet learned, or have heard and
learned but could not heed because too exposed....But this is your church
too.So come aside and rest awhile with us.Let the graces here arrive for
you.Then I will hand him our letter and bow graciously as it is already
time to leave. Here are the instructions he will find inside: and
Yes,your
Holiness, instead of hiding away at Castle Gandolofo, pretend you are there and
come here to North America instead. Travel in disguise...say a straw hat or
else a baseball cap fitted together with state of the art adaptive sun glasses
and a false mustache, A favorite shirt of your choice matched with eco
hemp shirt and jeans
Fellow
travelers might say... ":Look at this guy. Doesn't he remind you of Pope
Francis? But no, you will have your altered passport ready and all will accept
the differences in your persua sive disguise. You will come through For the
first time you will see how easy it is to walk on water after all.
Thenyou
will meet various persons who will take you to different points of rest
where you can experience us and see and hear us with our communities in our
renewing model of priesthood. It will be easy to experience the consciousness
change you so desire and have no opportunity to access in your current
imprisonment in the sanctuary of the Vatican and all those guardians at the
gate, preventing you from passing through where you would like to go.Dr hrtr'd
your chance. Here are your getaway tickets., Just come and see what fun
you will have....barbecues, pizza parties after ordination rehearsals, banquets
after the many ordinations across and up and down the continent,
all
ecumentically hosted in United and
Episcopal churches. In Masonic and K of C halls, in house churches, evcen on
cursihips on our Grreat Lake s and Rivers.
Come
and see. Come and rest awhile,.Let Holy Wisdom receive you at her table .
Everything will be done for you.
All
you will have to do is walk on water for 9 incredible vacation months...just
the length of a pregnancy You will see...all easy peasy. then go back and
open a new conversation about the woman issue....!!!! Who knows what will come
of it....
See
you...
Submitted
August 16, 23015.
Michele
Birch-Conery
I
would say to Francis: what if someone had said "the door is closed to a
non-Italian pope"? What would you do? You would say, " but I am pope
and I am not Italian. So you are wrong." The very idea that a door
is closed to any discussion mandates that we open it, like John XXIIIs windows,
the door must be opened. So I say "but we are women and we are priests, so
you must be wrong." Then I would challenge him to read some of the
liturgies of our priests and I would say "pray these and see what
spirituality your church is missing for no good reason but stubbornness."
I'd also give him this poem: Women's Body by Frances Frank
Did
the woman say,
When
she held him for the first time in the dark of a stable, "this is my body,
this is my blood?" Did the woman say when she held him for the last time
in the dark rain on a hilltop, after the pain and the bleeding and the dying,
'this is my body this is my blood?'
Well that
she said it to him then, for dry old men, brocaded robes belying barrenness,
ordain that she not say it to him now.
Lorraine Sharpe,Florida
Spanish:
Para
mis compañeras hispanohablantes
Desde
esta mañana me quedé pensando y dándole vueltas a la preguntita, desde la
oración me sale que solo le pedirÃa al papa que rezara conmigo el Padrenuestro,
deteniéndose en silencio después del "hágase tu voluntad" en silencio
orante como 3 minutos. a continuación le preguntarÃa "¿cómo se puede
desobedecer cuando se te ha regalado la gracia de vislumbrar algo, aunque solo
sea un poquito de esa Voluntad? Yo no pude desobedecer. Por favor ayuda al
Pueblo de Dios a cumplir Su Voluntad en paz"
Esto
es lo que encontré en mi corazón
besos
para todas y abrazo gigante
Luz
Galilea, Colombia, South America
English
Translation
Ever
since this morning I kept thinking and mulling over the little question, from
the depth of prayer I get that I would only ask the pope to pray the Our
Father, pausing silently after "Thy will be done," in prayerful
silence for about three minutes. Then I would ask him: "how can one
disobey when one has been granted the grace to discern something, even if only
a little bit of that Will? I could not disobey. Please help the People of God
to fulfill His Will in peace." Luz Galilea, Colombia, South America
If I had 5 minutes with Pope Francis, I would
first express my deep love and gratitude for him and the healing he is
bringing to the Church and the world. I would also express my support if
he decided it was time to announce the 5th Marion Dogma.
Then I would express how I believe the argument to not ordain women is based on
a false premise and needs to be carefully re-examined. The
Church's argument is that Jesus chose the apostles only from among
the men. I would ask him to consider the possibility that Jesus did not call
the 12 males to promote and all male clergy and deny women ordination -
but rather to initiate a new way of being male among the men - to usher in a
new paradigm of consciousness with them that would dismantle patriarchal
domination and promote a non-violent and non-po wer oriented way of
relating. If this were so, the women would not have needed to be
part of this group and its intended initiation. To support this perspective
I would then bring to his attention the calling of two women
apostles Junia and Mary Magdalene following the Resurrection.
I
would ask Pope Francis to prayerfully consider this possibility as to why women
were not among the 12 male apostles and re-assess the question of women's
ordination.
Clare
Julian Carbone, Utah
Thank
you, Holy Father, for what he said on behalf of us women.
When
you start seeing concrete facts?
"whatever
you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Matthew 18:18
Also
I believe that Heaven is waiting to take action ...
Olga
Lucia ARCWP, Colombia, South America
I would like the pope to tell me
why the Church ignores a direct instruction from its Founder when He says,
"Take this, all of you, and eat of It . . ."I would also like
to know why God gave me a gift for preaching -- which S/He most assuredly did
-- if women are never allowed to preach. Why waste the gift? Nori, Kieran
-Meredith, California
Mother
Theresa once said leprosy is not the worst disease in the world-rejection
is.
As a faithful Catholic, one who dedicated myself to the gospel and work of the
church among God's poor, and as a sister of 23 years, a lay ecclesial leader
and now a woman priest, I have experienced first hand the sting of clerical
rejection and marginalization. My brothers have silenced and evicted our
sisters from parishes when we asked for just salaries, fair treatment of
Hispanics, overworked us to the point of exhaustion without pay, fired us
without just cause or because we addressed criminal behaviors on the part of
other clerics. We received this treatment, in spite of our dedication to
serve, being professionally capable, ethically moral and living our
calling to the fullest.
The above experience have sent many running, but I continue now on the
path of hope and renewal of the priesthood. I continue to dream.
I have a dream of a renewed Catholic Church....where women young and old stand
with men as equals...promoting gospel equality.
I dream of a a Catholic Church that reforms itself and in doing so, reforms the
world.
I dream of a church that recognizes multitude of diverse voices rising through
all corners of the globe ending violence against women and men and beginning
the work of building for a world that works for all.
I dream of
new Catholic structures arising from the ashes of our collapsed
societies, structures built to honor the gifts of people regardless of
gender or sexual orientation, their race color or creed.....
I dream of
a new kind of Catholic leadership that sits among people listening to and
finding their their wisdom-a wisdom that longs for sustainable
solutions that work for the many-rather than for a few.
I
dream that I live to see the day that the hierarchy descends from their thrones
and finds their way into our homes and hearts as equals, joining us on our
journey toward equal rights and restorative justice. Until this
happens, I walk with all brothers and sisters
Diane
Doughtery, Georgia
I
working to make this dream a reality today knowing we are making a place for
you tomorrow.
Diane
Dougherty, Georgia
After
the niceties that one uses when meeting any one new...I would tell him that I
was here to represent women everywhere, and not just women but all those who
are disenfranchised and on the margins of the community. I would tell him
I am not his enemy. I would remind him that any exclusion creates division and
oppression. I would ask him to work with all of us to create a community that
is no longer about the tribal-patriarchal mentality but rather a community
formed in connectedness and oneness with the Holy One. I would show him
our inclusive liturgies and invite him into our loving communities. Kathie Ryan,
New York
I
would ask him to lift the excommunication of women who follow the call of God
to be ordained as priests. I would also ask him to not threaten people with
excommunication and the loss of diocesan jobs just because they come to our
liturgies and ordinations.
Thanks
for asking,
Donna
Rougeux, Kentucky
I would
explain that our God asked me to become a priest on thousands of occasions and
that many, many times I said no, that I was a good Catholic, and that I
couldn't do what God asked. But God never stopped asking. What was
I to do? I knew that the only way I could stop the asking was to acquiesce, which I did. And now I'm in
major trouble with the Church. The Chancery is debating whether I can
even be allowed to play the piano for worship. As if I would poison the
keyboard. Why can't there be a place for me in the Church I love so well?
I would sing this while I danced:
Come and go with me to that promised land,
To that promised land, to that promised land,
Come and go with me to that promised land,
Where there's joy, joy, joy!
Nori Kiernan-Meredith, California
"I love you, and I trust that, as a man who has
dedicated his entire self to loving and serving God, you are following your
heart as it authentically leads you to serve the Church in the best way that
you alone can. With that being said, I will add two things. Because you are
incapable of seeing women as being worthy of full inclusion in the Church and
its ministry, I cannot deny the pain you impose on all of us women who seek to
give our fullest selves in service to God and all of creation through our
Catholic vision. At the same time, I also believe that your hardened heart must
remain as it is so that the Holy Spirit, in its continual presence within the
Church we both love and serve, may lead us to new ways of living our Eucharistic
presence in this world, ways in which certain Church dogma and practices now
limit and even prevent.
And
so, as we stand together in this brief moment, viewing our Church through
opposing paradigms, let u s acknowledge that within that space, that tension
between us lies mystery - the presence of God who, beyond our ability to see
and know, is weaving together our lives, both dedicated to God and all of
creation, in ways that will best serve all for generations to come.
I
may never be welcomed by you in the "official" Church. This I know. I
know this as well - the One whom I love so much, and who loves me so
completely, would never reject a gift of self, a self I vow to give as my heart
- aflame with the love for all - leads me even beyond borders you would rather
me not cross, to offer the love I have been given to all I come to know.
Together, each in our own way, we serve our Beloved; I offer you my hand and my
peace.....trusting that all indeed shall be well."
__._,_.___
Holy women priests will take us to that land,
Take us to that land, take us to that land,
Holy women priests will take us to that land
Where there's joy, joy, joy!
Ann Harrington, North Carolina
Five
minutes would not be enough for me to say what I think of the pope, the
doctrines ,dogmas and teachings of the RCC when it comes their position
and treatment of LGBTIQ people &women .Until the RCC gets out of
the Dark Ages and enters into the 21st century incorporating modern
science and medicine into their teachings and start following their own Vatican
II documents when it comes to equality and the concept that we are all equal
children in the eyes of God it is my opinion these people
requesting an audience with Francis are just wasting their time .They will just
be lamenting and merely adding to their own anxiety and
frustration .Just like the Rolling Stone songs ,"You Can't Always Get
What You Want" and I Can't Get No Satisfaction!"
Much
Love & Respect To All Of You,
Jeni
Marcus, Michigan
You
would not be here if we as women had not birthed you, nor would Jesus.
What do you mean we are not worthy to be priest? Rita Lucey, Florida
I would tell him that women are the lifeblood of the Church. Without us,
the Church will die. Your Holiness, you must give women equal standing in
the Church with men. You must accept the reality that the Church needs us
to thrive. Drop the barriers and ordain women now.
Anne
I
think the question needs to be reversed! It is really not about what I would
say to the pope if given five minutes. It is what the pope would say to me if
given five minutes with a woman priest. I do not seek an audience with
the pope. My life and ministry speaks for me. I am waiting for the pope to seek
an audience with me. I think he may find the Spirit he is ultimately looking
for if he affords himself that opportunity!
Peace,
Mary C.
Spanish and English
Mis cinco minutos con el Papa:
Mi querido Padre Francisco,
estoy tan agradecida por su ministerio por los pobres, los marginados, por la
paz y la justicia en el mundo, pero creo firmemente, como mujer y madre de
cinco hijos, como abogada de esos pobres y marginados en todo el mundo durante
más de cinco décadas, que la iglesia en el mundo entero peca de misoginia.
En Génesis se nos dice que el
hombre y la mujer han sido creados a imagen y semejanza de Dios. Dios no
tiene género, de hecho la palabra Ruah, femenina en el lenguaje hebreo, y
utilizada cientos de veces en el Antiguo Testamento, se usa asimismo para
hablar de la respiración, que es lo diferencia al muerto del vivo, y es también
lo que nos inspira (inspirare – llenar de espÃritu, de la Ruah, del aliento,
finalmente, con dios, en la misma forma en que hablamos de nuestros
entusiasmos, en-teos, con el dios interno, con la Ruah interna. El origen
de todo, entonces, es la Ruah, porque sin aliento no hay vida. Sin la Ruah, no
somos nada, sino carne moribunda.
Entonces, mi padre hermoso y
hermano, ayude a usted a remediar este gran pecado de nuestra iglesia, de
idolatrÃa y discriminación contra un elemento esencial de esa humanidad por la
que usted lucha, y con eso nos ayudará a las pobres y marginadas del planeta,
nos dará el poder de la buena nueva, seremos finalmente una comunidad de
iguales, hombre y mujer los creó Dios. Y que la Ruah lo siga bendiciendo
e inspirando con su luz.
Silvia
Brandon Perez, California
My five minutes with the Pope:
(English translation)
My dear Father Francis, I'm so
grateful for your ministry for the poor, the marginalized, for peace and
justice in the world, but I firmly believe, as a woman and the mother of five
children, as an advocate of those poor and marginalized worldwide for more than
five decades, that the church in the whole world is guilty of misogyny.
In Genesis we are told that man and
woman are created in the image and likeness of God. God has no gender, in fact
the word Ruah, a female noun in the Hebrew language, used hundreds of times in
the Old Testament, is also used to talk about the breath, which is what
differentiates the dead from the living, and is also what inspires us
(inspirare – to blow in spirit, the Ruah, to breathe, finally, with God, in the
same way that we talk about our enthusiasms, entheos, with the inner god, with
the Ruah. The origin of all that is, then, is the Ruah, because without
breath there is no life. Without the Ruah, we are nothing but dying flesh.
So, my beautiful father and
brother, help us to overcome this great sin of our church, of idolatry and
discrimination against an essential element of that humanity for whom you
struggle, as it will help the poor and marginalized of the world, it will give
us the power of the good news, finally we will become a community of equals,
male and female created (S)he them. And may the Ruah continue to bless and
inspire you with HER light.
Silvia Brandon Perez, California
If I
had 5 minutes with Pope Francis, I would first thank him for his time then I'd
give him this reflection and ask him to read it in my presence. While Pope
Francis did this, I would pray for his openness.
Then
I would present him with a black box. Inside would be magazine pictures of
young women pasted to the sides and bottom. There would be a red silk, small
bag lying at the centre. What would Pope Francis discover when he opened it? A
picture of me at my ordination holding a sign with the word FREE in large, red
letters.
I
would wish hi m blessings and all good things and ask him to pray for the souls
of each woman who has been confined to a box by our church. I would ask
him, "Will you set them free?" I would not expect an answer, but
would listen if he had one.
By
the way, this link came today from a woman who is discerning whether to be
ordained with us. She is coming from Michigan to join me for my first liturgy
as a priest with our Heart of Compassion Faith Community in Windsor, Ontario,
Canada. Grace upon graces keep coming. Barbara Billey, Canada
Thank you Carol Costello for raising this issue. I understand the reasons why young Catholic women are not putting up with the sexism of the Catholic Church. Until we have full equality for women in the church, including ordination, they won't be back. However, I wish that Carol Costello considered the fact that the hierarchy is not the church, the entire people of God are the church. All of us together make up the Catholic family. We are the church and we are losing our sisters because they are sick of the discrimination and subordination. A few women who head select Catholic organizations doesn't cut it. These amazing, gifted young women get it. They know that they are spiritual equals. Clearly the Vatican doesn't get it, or care enough to treat women as equals and put them in the top jobs in the church. These women are not fooled by tokenism. I'd like to invite young women to join our international women priests movement to shakeup the old boys network! We need your help! Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP, www.arcwp.org, sofiabmm@aol.com
