Worldwide Audience Watch Roman Catholic Womenpriests Ordinations in Boston
Millions of people around the world watched on television as Gloria Carpeneto of Baltimore, Maryland, Judy Lee of Ft. Myers, Florida, and Gabriella Velardi Ward, of New York, New York were ordained priests and Mary Ann McCarthy Schoettly of Newton, New Jersey was ordained a deacon on July 20, 2008 in the Church of the Covenant in Boston. After the women were ordained, Bishop Dana Reynolds, the first U.S. womanbishop , presented the newly ordained to the assembly. They were received with thunderous applause from enthusiastic supporters, a reflection of Catholic attitudes around the world. Roman Catholic Womenpriests are one of the major changes that Catholics want!
Millions of people around the world watched on television as Gloria Carpeneto of Baltimore, Maryland, Judy Lee of Ft. Myers, Florida, and Gabriella Velardi Ward, of New York, New York were ordained priests and Mary Ann McCarthy Schoettly of Newton, New Jersey was ordained a deacon on July 20, 2008 in the Church of the Covenant in Boston. After the women were ordained, Bishop Dana Reynolds, the first U.S. womanbishop , presented the newly ordained to the assembly. They were received with thunderous applause from enthusiastic supporters, a reflection of Catholic attitudes around the world. Roman Catholic Womenpriests are one of the major changes that Catholics want!
Nearly 70% of Catholics in the U.S. are ready for womenpriests. In Europe, there are similar attitudes. Perhaps, the worldwide sex abuse scandals and the closing of parishes in many places explain the people’s readiness for womenpriests. Perhaps, the emperor has no clothes, the people deplore the clerical foot–dragging on gender justice issues and the exclusion of women from decision-making roles in the institutional church. According to canon law, governance is tied to Holy Orders. Therefore, women will never be equal in the Catholic Church unless they are ordained. Catholics who love their sacramental, mystical and social justice heritage, realize they have a right to the sacraments, contemplative prayer and peace and justice-making. Perhaps, the gifts that women bring for healing , community-building and working for justice explain people’s willingness to accept womenpriests now.
It is a well-known fact that in the U.S. women already make up approximately 80% of lay parish ministers . In my view, Catholics are ready to act on behalf of justice for women in the church now. We have opened a path for action. Catholics can go ahead and call forth women in their communities to be priests. There is no shortage of vocations. Roman Catholic Womenpriests are providing a path to a renewed priesthood in union with the people we serve. We are creating inclusive Christ-centered, Spirit-empowered communities.
Sometimes, I think that I am living a new chapter of the Da Vinci Code. The first ordinations of seven women took place on a ship floating down the River Danube in 2002. In our new book, Women Find A Way, The Movement and Stories of Roman Catholic Womenpriests, Bishop Gisela Forster recounts the excitement of this historic occasion and the role that church officials played in attempting to interfere with the ordinations, such as attempting to rent the ship for themselves the day before the ordinations. Another mystery remains who locked the RC male bishop who had planned to attend these ordinations in his room ? In this book, twenty-five womenpriests share their stories of call and describe the many ways they are serving the people of God in house churches, parish communities, hospitals and hospice chaplaincy, nursing homes, prison ministry, ministering with homeless people, peace and justice work, spiritual direction and sacramental ministry. For more information: http://www.virtualbookworm.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=bookstore&Product_Code=women_find_a_way&Category_Code=
The Vatican promptly excommunicated the Danube Seven . Shortly thereafter, several male Roman Catholic bishops, in full communion with the pope, ordained two of the womenpriests, Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger and Gisela Forster, as Roman Catholic bishops .The male bishops granted this ordination in the presence of witnesses, but otherwise in secrecy to avoid Vatican reprisal. Patricia Fresen was ordained a bishop in January 2004 by the same male bishops and by Bishops Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger and Gisela Forster. One of the prophetic male Roman Catholic bishops told Patricia that great day: "We are not doing this for you, but so that justice can be served in our Church .” Thus, the reason that women were ordained as bishops is so that they in turn can ordain priests without risk to the many male bishops who, while courageous and supportive, risked excommunication by the Vatican for their ordinations of women priests and bishops. Women bishops ordained in full apostolic succession now ordain others validly in the Roman Catholic Church.
Jesus set the example by calling women and men to be disciples and equals. “With Jesus went the Twelve, as well as some women… Mary of Magdala…Joanna…Suzanne…and many others …” (Luke 8:1-3). St. Paul called Junia and Andronicus (a married couple) “outstanding apostles “in Romans 16:7. Paul commends deacon Phoebe as a leader and missionary in the church (Romans 16:1-2) and Prisca and Aquila as coworkers in (Romans 16:3). In the early church women presided at the Eucharist. Mary, Mother of John Mark presided over Eucharist in her home which according to some scholars was the headquarters of the Jerusalem community.
Like Mary of Magdala, apostle to the apostles, whom Christ called to be the first witness of the resurrection, and the women deacons, priests, and bishops, who served in the early church up to the 12th century, Roman Catholic Womenpriests are reclaiming our sacred heritage. (For two of the scholarly books on the historical research, read , The Hidden History of Women’s Ordination by Gary Macy and Women Office Holders in Early Christianity by Ute Eisen as well as epigraphic evidence found on tombstones, frescoes and mosaics in the ancient world in the calendars of theologian and archaeologist, Dorothy Irvin.) “The history of Christianity is replete with references to the ordination of women,” concludes Gary Macy, “There are rites for the ordination of women, there are canonical requirements for the ordination of women, there are particular women depicted as ordained.”( The Hidden History of Women’s Ordination, p. 4)
On July 31, 2006, twelve womenpriests were ordained in Pittsburgh, PA .in the first U.S. ordinations. I am one of the women ordained to the priesthood on that historic day. Since then Roman Catholic Womenpriests have grown. In North America, there are 61 in our community which includes 1 bishop, 30 priests, 12 deacons, 18 candidates. Our numbers change frequently with ordinations and the acceptance of new candidates. In 2008, ordinations have taken place and/or are scheduled at 8 locations from British Columbia to Boston.
Roman Catholic Womenpriests do not use titles or the trappings of clerical power, but rather serve the people in a community of equals. This is the reason I do not use the title Mother or Rev. I invite people to call me by name. In our house church liturgies, I invite people to exchange thoughts and spiritual experiences in the shared homily. In addition, the community recites the prayer of consecration/words of institution together. The Eucharist belongs to the believing community and we celebrate Eucharist together. My focus is on affirming the gifts of the Spirit in the community. My role is to serve the community as their priest.
According to a Pew Survey one in ten Americans is a former Catholic. These alienated Catholics might consider coming home to a more open, compassionate, welcoming community of faith that resembles the Christ-Vision in the Gospels. I also know devout Catholics who are tired of the man-made rules and regulations that separate them from their beloved spiritual family. One of my friends refers to the “pay, pray and obey Catholics who are weary of Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility and Guilt!” One of my goals, as a Roman Catholic Womenpriest, is to provide a safe, spiritual home that is supportive and nurturing- and at the same time holds in its heart the treasures of Catholicism: the sacraments, mysticism and social justice. I serve now by celebrating a weekly liturgy/Mass in a “house church.” We preside at sacramental celebrations in inclusive communities where all are welcome at the Eucharistic table including those who have been alienated and marginalized by the institutional Catholic church, divorced and remarried, gays, lesbians, and transgendered, women and men who no longer feel at home in their churches.
Many people have asked me about our response to the excommunication that the Vatican issued on May 29, 2008. In some ways, I believe the excommunication has been a plus. It gives us freedom to live our new model until the institutional church decides to transform the structures needed to reform and renew the church into a more open, participatory community in contrast to the clerical model of power and control that it now embraces. The Catholic Church teaches that we must follow our well-formed consciences, and not the leaders of the church, even if that means we must endure excommunication, which Roman Catholic Womenpriests reject. We are not leaving the Catholic Church, but leading our beloved community into a new era of equality and justice for women. Roman Catholic Womenpriests are devoted members of the Catholic Church who are obeying the Spirit’s call to change an unjust law that discriminates against women. St. Augustine taught that an unjust law is no law at all and one has a moral obligation to disobey an unjust law. Roman Catholic Womenpriests are as Catholic as the pope is.
Excommunication does not cancel our baptism or throw us out of the church as some in the media mistakenly report. Excommunication prohibits a person from receiving sacraments, but ,in our case, it has no effect because, as validly ordained priests , we celebrate sacraments. Nothing or no one can separate us from Christ or nullify our baptisms. If God is for us, and I firmly believe that the Holy One created women and men as equal images of the divine, nothing can stop us. As St. Paul writes: “In Christ there is no…male or female. All are one in Christ Jesus.” (Galations 3:28) In our prophetic obedience we remind the hierarchy that they can no longer discriminate against women and blame God for it. The church is the people of God and all authoritative teaching must reflect the “sensus fidelium” that is “the sense of the faithful.” The papal teaching prohibiting women’s ordination contradicts the Vatican’s own scholarship. In 1976, the Pontifical Biblical Association concluded that there was nothing in the bible that would prohibit women’s ordination.
A few of our role models- in holy obedience to the Spirit in following our consciences and resisting unjust hierarchical authority- are the following holy women who were champions of conscience: St. Joan of Arc, Mary Ward, St. Theodore Guerin, and Blessed Mary McKillop. When Joan was asked whether she was subject to church authorities, she replied, “Yes, but Our Lord must be served first.” She was burned at the stake as a heretic and later declared a saint of the church, a role model for all Catholics to emulate. Mary Ward, founder of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, endured great persecution and hostility from ecclesiastical officials. She was condemned and jailed for attempting to start a non-cloistered religious order modeled on the Jesuit rule whose aim was to serve people in need , and to avoid being subject to the local bishop. More than 50 years after her death, Pope Clement X1 gave official recognition to her Institute. St. Theodore Guerin (United States) and Blessed Mary McKillop (Australia), founders of religious orders, were excommunicated by their local bishops and later declared holy witnesses by the pope. In fact, Pope Benedict XV1 canonized St. Theodore Guerin several years ago. Like these visionary women of conscience, Roman Catholic Womenpriests are faithful members of the church we love. Perhaps, one day, a future pope will affirm us as role models of faith and courage for bringing the gift of a renewed priestly ministry to the church.
For now, we are living the change we want to see happen in grassroots communities. We are pioneers for equality and justice in the Catholic Church. Each day we joyfully live Christ’s example of Gospel equality, reclaim our church’s earlier tradition of women in ordained ministry, serve God’s people in mutual partnership, lovingly and compassionately wherever they are, and whoever they are. We invite all to join us on our journey to the full equality of women in the Catholic Church! As the Irish say, “ Caed mil a failte”, a hundred thousand welcomes!
Bridget Mary Meehan
Roman Catholic Womanpriest
Spokesperson in the U.S.
sofiabmm@aol.com
