"Activists Nuns Voice Support of Man of the Year" By Darina Naidu WeNews correspondent Friday, December 27, 2013

http://womensenews.org/story/religion/131223/activist-nuns-voice-support-man-the-year#.Ur3PiJv55_M

 (WOMENSENEWS)--"In the nine months since the white smoke went up at the Vatican, many of the same nuns who were running afoul of their leadership in Rome are happy about the Vatican's election of Pope Francis, Time magazine's person of the year.

"I think the Pope is showing all of us that each of us has this same capacity for compassionate openness – this largesse of soul – that is so needed in our world," said Sister Mary Beth Hamm, social justice coordinator of Sisters of Saint Joseph of Chestnut Hill in Brookline, Mass.

Bridget Mary Meehan, a bishop at the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, says Pope Francis is "doing terrifically well" and that he is "moving on toward the justice of the oppressed."

But she also hopes he will move the Church toward female ordination. "It is all about equality and justice," Meehan said in a phone interview. "Ordained women in the Catholic Church is the issue because women are half, more than half, of the population in the world. The Pope needs to recognize that global and gender equality and justice are essential."

The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests is a group, based in Florida, of ordained women who live and minister in the United States and South America. They prepare and ordain qualified women to serve the people as priests.

Two years ago in April, the Vatican concluded an investigation of the Leadership Council of Women Religious, an organization that represents 80 percent of the nuns in the United States, and criticized their "radical feminist themes" and focus on social services at the expense of other issues, especially their silence on same-sex relationships and abortion, Women's eNews reported..Janice Sevre-Duszynska is a priest at the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests. "Gays and lesbians have suffered enough," she said in a phone interview. "It was profound that he came out about the harshness of Catholicism."

Call for Female Priests

Sevre-Duszynska also hopes the Pope will call for the ordination of female priests. "We need a feminine image of God... 'it is required to open priesthood to both males and females, celibate or not celibate, gay, lesbian or heterosexual.'"

She added that she thinks the world is too capitalistic and needs to become more human-oriented.

"Too much money is going into weapons; meanwhile, the rights of the citizen are being taken away," Sevre-Duszynska said.."

Response to Article;

This excellent article by Darina Naidu for Wwe (Women’s E News) describes how activist nuns and women priests, such as Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan and Priest Janice Sevre-Dusynska of The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests support the Pope with his emphasis on simplicity and serving the poor and outcast while praying and hoping for the Ordination of women and the inclusion of those women priests already ordained. There are now over 160 validly ordained women world wide.  We are humbled and pleased to be among them. 

Rev. Dr. Judy Lee,ARCWP

Rev. Judy Beaumont, ARCWP