Women's Ordination Conference Statement on Penalties Imposed on Sister Louise Lears, SC by Archbishop Raymond Burke
Aisha Taylor, executive director of the Women's Ordination Conference, issued the following statement about the penalties imposed by Archbishop Raymond Burke on Sister Louise Lears, SC on Thursday, June 26. After six months of proceedings, the decree was issued the day before Pope Benedict XVI appointed Archbishop Burke to head the highest court in the Catholic Church, as the Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura in Rome.
The penalties callously doled out to Sister Louise Lears - a woman who has dedicated her entire life to serve the Church - is a prime example of the way women are often wrongly treated by the Catholic hierarchy, where dangerous secrecy runs rampant and preserving power in the hands a few ordained men reigns supreme. The Women's Ordination Conference supports Sister Louise in her life and ministry in the Church. We oppose these penalties as a way of dealing with differences and dissent. Such misuse of Church discipline will not intimidate women into accepting marginal status within the Church. Sister Louise remains steadfast in her faith and loyalty to the Church, and she has the support of millions of Catholics who seek only the gospel promise of equality. Archbishop Burke imposed two penalties on Sister Louise, 1) the penalty of interdict, which means that she cannot participate in public worship in a ministerial capacity and cannot receive the Sacraments and 2) the penalty of prohibition from reception of a mission anywhere in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, which means she can no longer serve in her positions as a member of the Pastoral Team at St. Cronan's Catholic Church and as the Coordinator of Religious Education. The decree announcing the penalties state that the reason for this action is due to Sister Louise's support of Rose Marie Hudson and Elsie McGrath, the two women who were ordained priests in a St. Louis synagogue on November 11, 2007. The Vatican's stance on ordination is based on arguments that have been refuted time and again. In 1976, the Vatican's own Pontifical Biblical Commission determined that there is no scriptural reason to prohibit women's ordination. Jesus included women as full and equal partners in his ministry, and the hierarchy would do well to follow suit. This is not the first time Archbishop Burke has used the Sacraments as weapons, stepping way beyond the line of his pastoral duties and out of sync with most of his brother bishops. In addition to these insensitive and unnecessary penalties, he has consistently worked to denigrate Catholics who use their conscience to inform their actions, as canon law requires. From the excommunications of Hudson and McGrath to his unwavering position on actions taken by Catholic politicians to his disputes with members of St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in St. Louis, Archbishop Burke has done nothing more than violate every aspect of the spirit of the Second Vatican Council. It is long overdue for the Vatican to respond to the church's need for an inclusive clergy, which embraces women - all of whom are created equal and can be called by God to serve God's people as priests in an accountable and inclusive Catholic Church. ### Founded in 1975, the Women's Ordination Conference is the oldest and largest national organization that works to ordain women as priests, deacons and bishops into an inclusive and accountable Roman Catholic Church. WOC represents the 63-70 percent of US Catholics that support the ordination of women as priests. WOC also promotes new perspectives on ordination that call for more accountability and less separation between the clergy and laity.
11 comments:
It appears as if the Catho-fascists have taken over the Church for the time being. Judging from the lack of response from progressive Catholics to the spiritual martyrdom of Sister Lears as well as the lack of media interest in this, B16 and the rest of the male hierarchy have effectively silenced the church and the 70% of Catholics who support women's ordination do not have enough fire in their belly to make a big noise. I have written several comments here and in other blogs including NCR and I get no feedback. Apparently, there are so few progressive Catholics really taking their faith seriously enough to make a noise. The church is a place for them to baptize their babies, get married and have a funeral for their parents and that's it. They don't really care or want to get involved in the struggle to make the Church inclusive and reflective of Christ's message. I really don't feel like continuing my struggle if there is no response from the rest of the Catholic world. When I travel around the blogosphere most of it is dominated by Catholics who want to take the church backwards to the 1940s and 50s. So the pendulum has swung the other way and I'm not going to keep posting when I am like a voice crying in the wilderness. Progressive Catholics Where are you? Stand up or you will find you cannot even baptize your children at it will be forbidden. And look who's in charge of the Court in the Vatican now. Ladies just lie back and enjoy it while your husband beats you because the time of easy annulments is over.
First of all, the "statistic" that 70% of Catholics support women's ordination is nonsense. There is no support for this claim.
Second, the reason no one responds to pamwv41 is that nobody gives a rip. You people are on the fringe of the fringe. Face it, nobody cares. Your "cause" is good for comic relief, nothing more. Women can not and will not ever be priests in the Roman Catholic Church. Try spending you time on something useful like helping the poor instead of trying to make a name for yourselves on a futile crusade.
Well, Mike you responded to me so it appears that you give a rip. As for Sr. Lears, she has dedicated her life to the poor. Until Burke stopped her she was ministering to the poor. It was its ministry to the poor that drew me to the Catholic Church. I live in rural WV and until I retired I taught the poor in D.C for more that 20 years and in my church worked with the homeless in DC. I have no interest in making a name for myself. I was not even aware of this movement until Burke brought it to my attention by the spiritual martyrdom of Sr. Lears. Most people who dedicate themselves to the idea of a inclusive church run by both men and women are serving the poor. It is sad that protecting pedophiles and suppressing the vocations of women has become part of what the higher ups of the church are interested in. Beautiful expensive vestments and lovely Latin masses and communion on the tongue are more important issues than the feeding of the poor and hungry .
I only give a rip because I'm sick and tired of seeing my Church bashed by people like you who have no idea of what you're talking about.
Somehow you think that taking care of the poor and following Church doctrine are somehow incompatible. You're just throwing up a red herring.
Lears was warned and she ignored the warning. She refused to discuss her heretical actions with the Archbishop and excommunicated herself.
It's too bad.
The idea of a Progressive Catholic is ridiculous. How many Popes need to condemn modernism before you realize how oxymoronic that label is? I think you are not trying to find the true teachings of Christ's Catholic Church. Instead, you are trying to create a new church. Or dare I say "Sing A New Church Into Being"? A new church which does not teach sound doctrine, but new doctrine which suits your itching ears. (2 Tim 4:3)
The vitrolic attirtude of the Church hierarchy on this issue is part of the reason that vocations to women's religious communities have dried up. Young women are as turned off by the hierarchy's rejection of female leadership in the Church as they are by the anti-feminine antics of the Taliban. American girls growup in a culture that has women in top places in government and industry, so the outmoded posture of the Vatocan and its bureaucrats repels thoughtful youth. Many of us older women left the convents years agao because we no longer wanted to serve as second-class citizens. Thirty years has only enhanced that position. The Womenpriest Movement is here to forge ahead to the future. Gone forver are the inequalities of the past. Get used to it and breathe free. Carol Ann Breyer, Ph.D. Ellenton. Florida
Well, I can begin to take back my first comment. I am happy to note the wonderful outpouring of sentiment from all over the world in support of Sr. Lears. More than 600 have written their notes of support for her asking that Abp Burke apologize to her and rescind his actions. There are indeed many loving Catholics out there who are deeply saddened by these recent actions.
>"The vitrolic attitude of the Church hierarchy on this issue is part of the reason that vocations to women's religious communities have dried up."
Um, only the "progressive" women's religious communities have dried up. The Dominicans and Carmelites, among others, are experiencing a sustained surge of women entering their orders. Would not the "vitrolic attitude of the Church hierarchy" effect all women's religious communities equally? That is doesn't seems to argue against the position.
God bless...
+Timothy
I love the Dominican and the Carmelite Orders.
They do wonderful things within the Church and the world! If I were younger, I would probably join one of these orders. It was a wonderful Dominican nun who introduced me to the works of Carl Jung and sent me on a fantastic journey that eventually led me to the Catholic Church.
Yes, there are some very courageous women among the Dominicans:
"Few Americans are as courageous as Hudson or her two "partners in crime," Sisters Carol Gilbert, 57; and Ardeth Platte, 68. Armed with truth and fearless faith, and buoyed by a deep love for both God and country, the three Dominican nuns refused to be silenced as Bush and his neocon jackals bayed for war, their wicked lies about WMD intimidating the terrified masses. On October 6, 2002, the first anniversary of the U.S. destruction of Afghanistan, the three sisters walked boldly into the inner enclosure around a Minuteman III missile site near Greeley, Colorado. Since Bush opened up the international conversation about the horrors of WMD, they believed it was not only their responsibility, but their duty to expose just one of many weapons of mass destruction in the United States.
You just gotta love em. All three are members of the Plowshares Movement, an international disarmament movement inspired by Isaiah 2:4 to "beat swords into plowshares." They were dressed in white coveralls, or "mop-up" suits, with CWIT (Citizens Weapons Inspection Team) printed on the back and "Disarmament Specialist" printed on the front. The "dangerously irresponsible" act of vandalism for which they were prosecuted amounted to the three "symbolically" disarming the Minuteman by tapping on the silo's 110-ton concrete lid with household hammers before marking the silo walls with their own blood in the form of crosses. Rather than run away, they then sat down, prayed and sang hymns as they waited for John Ashcroft's patriot police."
These fearless Dominican nuns really followed Christ's message all the way to jail. One of them was quite a solace to Martha Stewart while she was in Alderson, a prison for women in WV.
Vocations to women's religious orders are just fine in those orders that adhere to Church teachings. The lack of vocations is among the radical feminist groups that think they're somehow above the teachings of Christ.
Many young girls are just fine with dedicating their life to Christ, but only in an environment of piety and obedience.
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