The Spirit of God Prays Within Us and Moves Through Us As We Heal and Comfort One Another- Romans 8:26

Be a lamp, a lifeboat or a ladder. Help someone’s soul heal. Walk out of your house like a shepherd. Rumi (1207-1273)

Let Catholic Women Preach by Abigail Eltzroth ARCWP, In our Inclusive Communities, Women Priests Are Preaching!

It is time to let women preach.  Let’s start with Sunday July 1st in Roman Catholic Churches across the globe!

 

Woman with a Hemorrhage, Orthodox Icon

On this Sunday the gospel reading for all Roman Catholic churches worldwide includes an optional selection concerning Jesus healing a woman suffering from a 12-years of bleeding—a condition know as menorrhagia.  Many celibate Roman Catholic priests, however, choose to slice this story out of the Sunday scripture reading.  

Unmarried men might find it dicey to preach about menstrual periods.  Even women hesitate to discuss menstruation in mixed company.  

However, this is an important story which needs to be heard.   And women’s experiences add a lot to the understanding of this story.  

The church will be enriched when women are welcomed to preach.   July 1st is a good place to start.

Abigail Eltzroth is ordained by the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests.

"A Southern Pilgrimage for Equal Justice " by Rev. Diane Dougherty, ARCWP

Beloved Community talks on the evils of Racism, Poverty and Militarism at the King Center, Atlanta, GA

In the last two months I realized I have been on a pilgrimage of sorts through the sacred spaces in the South where it was hoped that the blood spilled would bear fruit in gaining access to equality and human rights for African Americans.
In early March I walked over the Edmond Pettis Bridge in Selma with friends from WCEG and colleagues from the Concerned Black Clergy, as well as with thousands of ordinary people onthe 50th Anniversary of Bloody Sunday. In April, I joined hundreds of academic,political and religious leaders at the King Center, focusing on MLK’s call once
again to address the evils of Racism, Poverty and Militarism woven into the fabric of our society. I also marched in Decatur, GA at a Black Lives Matter Rally to the courthouse that will hold the trial of the Police Officer that killed an unarmed veteran Anthony Hill. And I have just returned from Montgomery, AL where America’s first concrete tribute to the southern African American genocide is
visualized at the National Peace and Justice Lynching and Legacy Museums.

This spiritual pilgrimage has given me a new kind of corrective lenses. By unearthing the once hidden underground of southern white supremacy embedded as DNA in all social structures within our cities, towns and people, an intense light shines on America’s volatile past and states, “This America is also our heritage,” and asks, “What America do we want to become?”

Social Architecture of the South
From its very beginnings, the south was built on the backs of those who were let out of English debtor’s prisons. They in turn would enslave others to build their plantations creating legacies as mini kings. From indentured servitude, to the purchasing of others, generations of slaves and immigrants built up the cities and towns of the south. Southern society reinvented itself on the same economic platform experienced in England, one based in the capitalistic goals of gaining wealth for a few over the many.
The DNA of wealth building so intimately tied to those social structures seemed to be imprinted in the minds of us all. As noted in a cursive study of the beginnings of societies from ancient times, when the biblical Joseph was “sold” into Egypt and his family migrated there to become enslaved; to the ancient Aztec society that raised itself on the backs of lower class workers; to the imperialist governance of the English, French and Roman cultures who invaded foreign nations imposing their culture by using every act of domination for the very purpose of extracting wealth for their own gain. Following suit in a

Walking and singing over the Edmond Pettis Bridge

multitude of parallel forms were Christian religious group that patterned themselves after the same social architecture...gaining wealth for a few on the lives of the many, noting that the common denominator of all forms of governance was legal and justifiable social domination.

That social domination can now be visualized through the art and architecture of both museums-a stark recognition of the southern white man’s fear of equality with the black man, sanctioned by the silent fear of the masses, in spite of our constitution and belief that all citizens have aright to equal justice under the law.

The 4400 metal tombs hang like the branches from
which African Americans swung, with the names of
men, women and children lynched in the 805 counties of the south.
uncovered by the Equal Justice Initiative, these tombs rise in a silent crescendo with a side row of markers naming the justification that hijacked the American legal system for a parallel system of injustice based in legalized notions of white

Painstakingly
As I have come to understand how my white privilege intersects with systems that
marginalize, I am simultaneously ingesting how distance and boundaries are maintained. Education, housing, churches, and job opportunity allow the few to achieve the American dream, while many invisible hands within our legal and economic systems, judges, courts and police deliver unequal justice to minorities keeping them oppressed. Presently, these are the mechanisms maintaining strong barriers to equal justice that need to be examined and rebuilt. What can I contribute to bring about change? The King Center made a great suggestion-one that I feel I have the power to do.
Solutions? It starts with one...

I have decided to continue my uncomfortable journey by gathering others to have hard conversations. Ending the Beloved Community talks, we were asked to consider sponsoring Civic Dinners- to promote hard conversations within diverse settings. Using the tools offered, I have agreed to use my home to begin the process, -continuing my pilgrimage into the hearts and minds of those gathered. In future blogs on this matter, I will share the fruit of this labor.

Enlightening Podcasts:
Buried Truths
Someone Knows Something

Mary Mother of Jesus at SCC May 3 2018 Celebration of Pentecost and Our Call to Holiness* Katy Zatsick ARCWP

“With this Exhortation I would like to insist primarily on the call to holiness that (our God) addresses to each of us, the call that (God) also addresses, personally, to you: “Be holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44). (Francis, paragraph 10)  

Presider: Infinite God in whom I live and move and have my being (arms outstretched), Holy Spirit Sophia in every person and all Communities (hands in Namaste position, bowing to person across from you), Inner God, my brother Jesus: I am your light for the world (hands crossed over heart) Amen. **

Opening prayer and asking for spiritual healing

All: “Let the grace of our baptism bear fruit in a path of holiness.  Let everything be open to God; (May we) turn to you in every situation. Let us not be dismayed, for the power of the Holy Spirit enables us to do this, and holiness, in the end, is the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives. (Gal 2:22-23).  When we feel the temptation to dwell on our own weakness, (we) raise our eyes to Christ crucified and say: “(Jesus), I am a poor sinner, but you can work the miracle of making me a little bit better.” (With the People of God), holy yet made up of sinners, (we) will find everything (we) need to grow towards holiness. Amen (Francis paragraph 15) 

(After we listen to each reading please circle a word or phrase that connects with you)

First Reading: Pope Francis, “Gaudete et Exsultate” taken from paragraphs 19, 20, 2l 

A Christian cannot think of his or her mission on earth without seeing it as a path of holiness, for “this is the will of God, your sanctification.” (1 Thess 4:3) Each saint is a mission, planned by (our Creator) to reflect and embody, at a specific moment in history, a certain aspect of the Gospel. (p19)  (pause for a minute to let the words sink in) 

That mission has its fullest meaning in Christ and can only be understood through him.  At its core, holiness is experiencing, in union with Christ, the mysteries of his life.  It consists in uniting ourselves to (Jesus’) death and resurrection in a unique and personal way, constantly dying and rising anew with him. But it can also entail reproducing in our own lives various aspects of Jesus’ earthly life: his hidden life, his life in community, his closeness to the outcast, his poverty and other ways in which he showed his self-sacrificing love.” (p20)  (pause for a minute to let the words sink in) 

May you come to realize what that word is, the message of Jesus that God wants to speak to the world by your life.  Let yourself be transformed.  Let yourself be renewed by the Spirit, so that this can happen, lest you fail in your precious mission. (The Spirit) will bring it to fulfilment despite your mistakes and missteps, provided that you do not abandon the path of love but remain ever open to (God’s) supernatural grace, which purifies and enlightens. The inspired words of Pope Francis.(p21)  All: Alleluia Thanks be to God (pause for a minute to let the words sink in) 

Responsorial: Psalm 23 

All: You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows

Loving God you are my shepherd: I shall not want. In verdant pastures, you give me repose; beside restful waters you lead me; you refresh my soul. All: You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows

You guide me in the right paths for your name’s sake. Even though I walk in the dark valley, I fear no evil, for you are at my side.  With your rod and your staff, you give me courage. All: You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows

You spread the table before me in the sight of my foes; You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Only goodness and kindness follow me all the days of my life; and I shall dwell in the house of my God for years to come.  All: You anoint my head with oil, my cup overflows

Second Reading: Pope Francis, “Gaudete et Exsultate” taken from paragraphs 31,32, 34

We need a spirit of holiness capable of filling both our solitude and our service, our personal life and evangelizing efforts, so that every moment can be an expression of self-sacrificing love in (our Brother Jesus’) eyes.  In this way every minute of our lives can be a step along the path to grow in holiness. (p 31) (pause for a minute to let the words sink in) 

Do not be afraid of holiness.  It will take away none of your energy, vitality or joy.  On the contrary, you will become what (our Creator) had in mind when God created you, and you will be faithful to your deepest self.  To depend on God sets us free from every form of enslavement and leads us to recognize our great dignity. (p 32) (pause for a minute to let the words sink in) 

Do not be afraid to set your sights higher, to allow yourself to be loved and liberated by God.  Do not be afraid to let yourself be guided by the Holy Spirit.  Holiness does not make you less human, since it is an encounter between your weakness and the power of God’s grace.  For in the words of Leon Bloy, when all is said and done, “the only great tragedy in life, is not to become a saint.” (p 34) The inspired words of Pope Francis.  All: Alleluia Thanks be to God

(pause for a minute to let the words sink in) 

Gospel: A reading from the Acts of the Apostles Chapter 2: 1-4 

When the day of Pentecost arrived, the disciples all met in one room.  Suddenly they heard what sounded like a violent, rushing wind from heaven; the noise filled the entire house in which they were sitting.  Something appeared to them that seemed like tongues of fire; these separated and came to rest on the head of each one.  They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages as she enabled them. Praise to our Brother Jesus who sends the Holy Spirit upon each of us. All: Amen, I do believe. Alleluia. 

Shared Homily Reflection

When have you experienced Sofia the Spirit’s presence?

What has been your path(s) to holiness? Do you trust the Holy Spirit guides you?  

In Pope Francis’ Call to Holiness what inspires you? What challenges you? 

Statement of Faith 

All: We believe in one God, a divine mystery beyond all definition and rational understanding, the heart of all that has ever existed, that exists now, or that ever will exist. 

We believe in Jesus, messenger of God’s Word, bringer of God’s healing, heart of God’s compassion, bright star in the firmament of God’s prophets, mystics, and saints. 

We believe that we are called to follow the Holy Spirit who comes with Her call to Holiness, our source of God’s wisdom and truth, and an instrument of God’s peace in the world. 

We believe that God’s kindom is here and now, stretched out all around us for those with eyes to see it, hearts to receive it, and willing minds and hands to make the kindom present in our time and place. May we become holy saints for our times. Amen

Intercessions:

At Pentecost dear Sophia, Holy Spirit, may God grant us your gifts so we may continue on the path of holiness.  Response: Holy Spirit fill our souls and our minds that we might do your will. 

In our every day lives may we know that every thought and action of compassion takes us further on the path of our mission in life. Response: Holy Spirit fill our souls and our minds that we might do your will.

For what else should we pray: 

Presider: Healing God, you faithfully listen to our prayers, those we say aloud and those we hold in our hearts.  We ask you to strengthen us on our path to holiness through our caring for one another and in our works for justice, equality, and peace in a world without violence.  As always, we make our prayer in the names of Jesus the Christ, and the Holy Spirit, our Wisdom.  Amen.

Commissioning  

Presider: We now celebrate our commissioning, a celebration of the gifts of the Spirit in our community of faith. We will use the symbol of anointing with chrism as a reminder of our baptismal call to live the fullness of the gifts of the Spirit in ministry to all. 

All: We bless this oil as a reminder that Jesus was so blessed before he died and rose again.  After his resurrection Sophia, Holy Spirit came upon his followers at Pentecost.  Jesus dear brother, we ask your Holy Spirit to bless this oil so each of us may be anointed to follow our unique mission to holiness in our life. Amen

As each person’s hands are anointed the following is prayed: Like Jesus, you are anointed to live the Good News and to become a saint for others. 

Presentation of the bread and wine 

Presider: Blessed are you, God of all life, through your goodness your community of MMOJ at Sun City Center has this bread and our own lives to offer for your mission. Through this sacred meal we become your holy ones, your saints. All:  Blessed be God forever.

Presider:  Blessed are you, God of all creation. Through your goodness we have this wine to offer, this fruit of the vine that human hands have made. It is our desire to complete the mission of our lives you have given us. It will become for us our spiritual drink.  All:  Blessed be God forever. 

Presider: My sisters and brothers, these gifts give glory to the Holy One. All: Sophia Holy Spirit we remember your coming to us at baptism and confirmation and remember your presence especially each Pentecost. You dwell in each of us, all of us and all creation. You accept our gifts and our worship that we offer in service to our faith community so all may become saints. We do this in memory of our brother, Jesus. Amen.

Eucharistic Prayer 

Voice 1: O Divine Flame of Love, your glowing embers dance in our hearts. Your passionate presence kindles our souls. You purify us with the searing truth that ignites our spirits. As the glowing embers of a fire penetrate the cold around us, so your tenderness sets our hearts aglow. We celebrate your nearness this day as we remember your Pentecost miracles. 

Voice 2: The wind of your life has blown across our world in the gentle breezes and thunder storms of your vision in your prophets and visionaries among us. We praise and exalt you forever with grateful hearts as we sing: 

Holy, Holy, Holy – Karen Drucker

We are Holy, Holy, Holy, we are whole; You are Holy, Holy, Holy, you are whole. I am Holy, Holy, Holy, I am whole.  We are Holy, Holy, Holy, we are whole.  

Voice 3: Passionate God, you kindle your fire of enthusiasm for our mission within us. You speak to us with assurance and excitement and reveal to us the infinite, boundless, depths of your love for us.

Voice 4: You awaken us to your promises to be always present in our lives, no matter what the obstacles or setbacks we experience. Your Spirit fills us with such a hunger and thirst for holiness that our words and actions encourage others to become living signs of your holiness working for justice. You give us eyes to see human needs, hearts to care for our sisters and brothers and hands and feet to lighten others burdens.  In this way we walk our unique path to holiness. 

 Invocation of the Holy Spirit (extend you hand in blessing)

All: You bless us O Holy One and you enliven all that exists. You transform these gifts of bread and wine, and our lives, by boundless grace that nourish and sustains us on our journey of our mission to holiness for others. 

Presider: On the night before he faced his own death, Jesus sat at the Seder supper with his companions. He reminded them of what he taught them and bent down and washed their feet. His action a symbol of the path to holiness for us. Jesus returned to his place at the table, lifted the Passover bread and spoke the blessing, and then broke the break with these words,

 All: Take and eat, this is my very self. 

Presider: Jesus then raised high the cup of blessing, spoke the grace, and offered them the wine with these words: 

All: Take and drink of the covenant made new again through my life for you and for everyone. Whenever you do this, you remember me. 

Presider: Let us proclaim the mystery of wonder in our midst: 

All: Jesus who walks with us on the path of holiness, you are the spark of love in whom we believe; the Wisdom of Sophia in whom we trust; and the desire for justice that consumes us. 

Voice 5: As we celebrate the memory of Jesus, we remember our political and religious leaders, especially Pope Francis, and our Bishop Bridget Mary. We remember the communion of saints who have gone before us and all who have inspired and loved us. 

(pause to mention names).  

Voice 6: May our hearts be joyful as we dream new dreams and see new visions on our path to holiness. May we recognize Christ present in every person we encounter. May we, like Jesus, become Spirit Fire, as we fan the flames of love in our families, communities, country and all over the world.  

(Co-Presiders hold up bread and wine.)

All: For it is through living as Jesus lived that we find our mission, that we awaken to your Spirit within moving us to glorify you through lives of holiness. Today at this time and in this place and always.  Amen

 Prayer of Jesus

Presider: Jesus knew it would be hard for us to follow our unique path of holiness, to discern and to fulfill our mission of life.  Let us join hands and pray together the prayer that Jesus taught us. “Our Father and Mother…” 

Sign of Peace  

Let us hold hands and sing “Peace is flowing like a river…, Joy is flowing…Alleluia. 

Prayer for the Breaking of the Bread 

Presider: Please join in praying the prayer for the breaking of the bread: 

All: Loving God, You call us to live the Gospel as we walk our path of holiness. We will do so.    Loving God, you call us to fulfill our unique mission in life for the world. We will listen for your will from the Holy Spirit. Loving God, you call us to speak truth to power. We will walk our path with integrity.  

(Co-Presiders hold up bread and wine) 

Presider: Let us pray our communion prayer together. 

All: What we have heard with our ears through Pope Francis and the Spirit of Pentecost, we will live with our lives. As we share communion, we will become communion, both Love’s nourishment and Love’s challenge on our path to holiness.  Amen.

Presider: Our Eucharistic celebration is all-inclusive. We are a spark of the Divine and nothing can separate us from God’s love. All: We are the Body and Blood of Christ for the world. 

Thanksgiving and Announcements 

Final Blessing (all extend their hands in blessing)

All: May God’s Spirit sent on Pentecost, given again to us in Baptism and Confirmation strengthen us to carry out our mission faithfully.  May you willingly accept your unique mission in our time and place. God’s Spirit calls you to heal and reconcile the hurts of the world. May God’s Spirit guide you in your mission of holiness for justice and peace for all. May God’s Spirit enliven you in prophetic and liberating obedience. Always we pray in Jesus our Brother’s name.  Together, we are one in Christ, loving and serving God’s holy people. Amen Alleluia.  

Notes: 

* APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION: GAUDETE ET EXSULTATE OF THE HOLY FATHER 

FRANCIS ON THE CALL TO HOLINESS IN TODAY’S WORLD, March 19 2018 

**From Integral Christianity: The Spirit’s Call to Evolve  by Paul R. Smith 

Liturgy adapted from Bridget Mary Meehan, Mary Theresa Streck and Jay Murnane, ARCWP

http://bridgetmarys.blogspot.com/ ,   www.ARCWP.org

____________________________________________________

"A Litany of the Saints: Homeless and Poor " by Judy Lee RCWP

https://judyabl.blog/2018/05/02/a-litany-of-saints-homeless-and-poor/

"I Was Part of the Problem" Pope Francis Tells Chilean Abuse Victims

https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2018/05/02/i-was-part-problem-francis-tells-chilean-abuse-victims

"In the Name of All That Is" and "I Say Yes" by Jan Novotko

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kR38ZBpAXZ8&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMaBuB91UkI&feature=youtu.be

"Blessings of Life to You" by Jan Novokta

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-SDd73WiJs&feature=youtu.be

In Memoriam: Michael G. Murray 1957-2018, Friend To All by Judy Lee RCWP

 https://www.judyabl.blog/2018/04/30/in-memoriam-michael-g-murray-1957-2018-friend-to-all/

In the early morning hours of Friday April 27,2018 Michael Gordon Murray quietly went home to the God he loved. He was suffering from COPD and other serious illnesses for many years and breathing was increasingly difficult for him. He was taken by ambulance to Lee Memorial Hospital last week and that is where he died. His death is a profound loss to all who knew him-for he was one who cared.
And yet, knowing Michael we know that he is fully whole, living with Christ in love and light now. For that, and for his life we are so thankful.

Michael was a member of Good Shepherd Inclusive Catholic Community since 2007 and Pastor Judy Beaumont and I had the privilege of being his Pastors. One of our hymns says after the passage in I John, “You shall know they are Christians by their love, by their love, you shall know they are Christians by their love.” And that is how we knew Michael -as one who loved all who touched his life-neighbors,church members, friends,and especially,the family he kept in touch with by phone and held always in his heart. He was known for his caring heart,generosity and easy conversation spiced with humor and laughter.He also loved God’s smallest creatures, the neighborhood cats, and spent his fixed income on carefully meeting their needs.

Michael,known as Mike,was born in Norwell, Massachussets,the third of three boys born to William and Kathleen Murray. He was graduated from Norwell High School and soon after served in the U.S. Army where he was an MP. He was honorably discharged. He attended the University of Massachussets for two years and left to marry and work to support his two sons, Paul and Keith. He proudly talked of Paul’s bands and auto mechanic abilities and Keith’s teaching music at the Berkley School of Music. While Michael was divorced he held his family in highest esteem. Mike and his brother moved to Florida to start a trucking business but after three years his brother returned to Massachussets. Michael worked as a store clerk at Publix until a variety of serious illnesses caught up with him. By 2007 when we met at our Church in the Park Ministry Mike was homeless and battling alcoholism yet the person he was shone through like a bright light. He could be counted on to read the Scriptures at the Park and later in the indoor Services and to help others,including his Pastors and our Volunteers. Mike’s Dad drank heavily after the death of his wife, Mike’s beloved mother, in 1980 and Mike traces his battle with alcohol to that as well. This was a very great loss for him. He noted that the genetic link also “caught him” and the loss of his Dad two years later in 1982 increased his sense of grief and loss. Mike was totally open to working with us toward health and sobriety and housing. He was one of the first four residents at our Joshua House Transitional Living Facility in November 2008. He worked hard in our Program and was accepted into Goodwill Housing for the Physically disabled in early 2009. This is Mike at Joshua House with other early residents Richie Duncan also a Vet, and Carl Palmer.

The following is a picture of Mike with his Pastors and Ben Walden and Brenda Cummings who were also moving, at that time, to Goodwill Housing in Charlotte County. Later Mike and Ben transferred back to Lee County in North Fort Myers and Cape Coral. Ben also had serious medical conditions and passed away last year. Yet both retained their housing and had a good quality of life over the years reconciling with family and having good friends, thanks be to God.

This picture (below) is Michael’s favorite view of Christ. He said that he identified completely with the man being lifted by Christ. Our church artist Hank Tessandori painted a picture on this theme for Mike who cherished it,and shared his testimony with all.

This is Hank with Mike, the Pastors
and some of the men.

On Good Friday our community would walk the Stations of the Cross in the nearby streets. Mike was our Jesus in two different years. He said that he knew about carrying his cross and he wanted to carry the cross for Jesus and to thank Jesus and the community. Mike’s openness about sharing his story and his struggles and redemption was inspiring and moving to all. (The prayer intentions of the community are nailed to the cross).

In an earlier blog I told the story of Mike’s giving his blood to help others and included a picture of Mike and one of his rescued cats standing in front of a patriotic door decoration at Mike’s home. Indeed, Mike struggled but he also gave himself to others and truly loved. We are so thankful for Mike’s life.

https://www.judyabl.blog/2015/06/04/a-rc-woman-priests-homily-for-corpus-christi-sunday-life-saving-blood-6715/

There will be a Memorial service announced here when we can work out the details with Mike’s family.
Now we commend Michael Gordon Murray to his loving God. (With The Order of Funerals we say:)
“Loving and merciful God,
we entrust our brother Michael to your mercy.
You loved him greatly in this life:
now that he is freed from all its cares,
give him happiness and peace forever.

The old order has passed away:
welcome him now into paradise
where there will be no more sorrow,
no more weeping or pain,
but only peace and joy
with Jesus your Son,
and the Holy Spirit
for ever and ever.Amen”

WE LOVE YOU Mike! REST IN PEACE AND JOY.

In the Risen Christ,
Love and Blessings,
Pastor Judy Lee
Rev. Dr. Judith A. Lee, RCWP
The Good Shepherd Inclusive Catholic Community, Fort Myers

"Navigating My Excommunication With Love In The Face Of Lovelessness" by Mary Sue Barnett ARCWP

Mary Sue Barnett ARCWP

I was ordained a Catholic woman priest in December 2013 by a Catholic woman bishop in the sanctuary of Central Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Kentucky. The doors of the church were open to me and to more than two hundred kind supporters as I took vows to God to live my priestly charism faithfully. After two graduate degrees in theology, scripture, and pastoral care, and after twenty-eight years of ministry, retreats, spiritual direction, and discernment, at age fifty-one I laid open my heart to live out my vocation with love and passion. Anonymity was no longer an option. The freedom of God at the ground of my being guided me, with increasing intensity, to rise fully into my authentic self. For how could I do the difficult healing ministry I am called to if I do not fully embrace my own deep self?

The light of my ordination is bright. It shines love upon my ministries. But there is a shadow side. The severe treatment of the Roman Catholic institutional church toward ordained women is the ominous underbelly that I must also navigate. In 2008 the Vatican issued an explicit decree against the ordination of women priests, punishing them with automatic excommunication. In 2010 Pope Benedict avowed that women’s ordination as priests is a grave sin on par with pedophile priests. In 2014 Pope Francis stated that the ban on the ordination of women is forever. This gender based spiritual violence against women strikes at the core of female selfhood.

It is a very dangerous form of misogyny. 

As the male hierarchy insists to ordained Catholic women, “I am. You are not. I resemble Christ. You do not. I am a priest. You are not. I am. You are not,” they negate female personhood while projecting a misogynist pall over her as if it were the skin she wears. I may as well walk through the world as a leper, placing my hand above my upper lip calling aloud, “Catholic Woman Priest,” to warn others of my arriving so that they do not have to look me in the eye, shake my hand, talk to me, be in the same room with me, speak on a panel with me, or give me communion. What is established against women in Rome is enacted interpersonally by many Catholics, clergy and laity alike, in the daily life of the church. The diseased underbelly of the Catholic Church is palpably real and pervasive. 

Ludmila Javorova, a Catholic woman secretly ordained as a priest in 1970 in the underground church during communist rule in Czechoslovakia, eventually faced severe resistance to her vocation as the secret began to unravel. She speaks of an experience when a male Catholic priest pressed her with the question, “Are you a priest?” in the context of the sacrament of reconciliation where she trusted him. She said that it was unbearably cruel. Afterwards, in an agonized state, she walked through the deserted streets groaning out loud, the sounds coming from deep within with a piercing intensity. Masculine spiritual violence strikes a woman at the core of her being. 

One might even suggest there is nothing more painful. 

Though the story of the groans rising from Ludmila’s soul on that lonely night is her own intimate experience of spiritual suffering, there is a collective cry that can move through the universe when a woman suffers so deeply. On that same night, Ludmila’s own intimate groans may have risen to the heavens with the cries of girls and women around the world, in streets and in sanctuaries, who suffer gender based violations of all sorts, connecting them one to the other at a profound level. The Roman Catholic hierarchy that fiercely betrays the personhood of a woman priest also betrays the female personhood of every woman and girl.

The misogyny is not selective. 

To navigate the filth that the Roman Catholic hierarchy projects onto Catholic woman priests and onto the universal feminine, I must abandon my heart to visions and dreams. I dream of children processing into a sanctuary led by a little girl who steps into the pulpit, and like a Fountain Rising, proclaims, “Holy Wisdom calls you to seek Her and to love Her.” While near at the Eucharistic table a woman known as Mountain lifts the bread saying, “This is My Body,” and another woman known as Whirlwind lifts the cup saying, “This is My Life Blood.” They process into a vast and verdant meadow where the Blackbird, the Phoebe, and the Bluebird give song to the joyous chant, “I am. May you be! I am. May you be. I am. May you be!” (Beatrice Bruteau) Child to Child and Adult to Adult the freedom blessing is sung, “I am. May you be!” as they eat their bread and drink their cup. The loaves multiply superabundantly and Christ Wisdom says, “Do this in memory of Me.

God is Love

Christ is Love

Holy Wisdom is Love

Roman Catholic misogyny is of none of these.