"Rise and Revolt: Catholic Women Take on the Vatican" / YoLadies.com

Ordination of Dena O'Callaghan (left)
and Katy Zatsick (right) as priests
in Sarasota, Florida
Feb.5,2010
http://www.yoladies.com/featured/2010/09/rise-and-revolt---catholic-women-take-on-the-vatican.html

September 25, 2010 | Kim Milata-Daniels

"Today, there is a growing number of women all over the world who intend to reclaim their once revered place in the church. Since 2002, they have been ordained deacons, priests, and bishops...

"I spoke to Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan about this affront not only to women but to society and the church. She and her sisters and supporters are only strengthened by the Vatican's archaic and offensive behavior. This is nothing less than a revolution, and in the spirit of women like Hildegard, Joan of Arc, and Saint Theodora - all excommunicated by the church only to later be named saints - the Roman Catholic WomenPriests are calling for a complete upheaval of the Catholic doctrine. They look not only to welcome women as leaders, but also to change the system from a closed and secretive hierarchy to an open, community based church. These women, although devoted to Catholicism itself, are modern and want their callings of service to be relevant to today's world - not only by supporting female leadership and married priests, but by supporting reproductive rights and gay rights, as well."

"What these women are finding, in their disobedience to unjust laws, is that they are gaining support from Catholics every day. After the Sarasota Diocese warned their members that anyone in attendance of this ordination ceremony would be excommunicated, many showed up stating that they didn't care. It was almost a dare from the backwards, medieval and increasingly irrelevant entity, and one that many were thrilled to take."

"Jesus was a major rule breaker," Bridget Mary points out to her critics. To those who state that women cannot be leaders because the twelve apostles were all men, she cries foul. It isn't true that there were only twelve apostles - the number was symbolic of the twelve tribes of Isreal and nothing more. In fact, the most revered apostle was Mary Magdalene, and she was not the only woman in the circle of Christ. When some try to point to Bible passages to back their misogynistic beliefs, Bridget Mary points to Romans 16, where Junia was named as an apostle."

"When I asked her what she thought of the church's unwavering stance on ordained women, she could only point to pure misogyny. "The Vatican's own scholars, in 1976 looked at scripture and concluded that nothing in scripture prohibits women ordination." The centuries of hatred for women and the feminine have saturated the inbred Vatican leadership, preventing them from even acknowledging their own findings, if it means that tradition is threatened in the process."...