Women Priests Bring Healing to Church's Soul Wound by Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP

In response to Damon Linker's article (See link below) "Why Churches Should Brace for a Mass Exodus of the Faithful," I predict that our women priests' led inclusive, egalitarian communities will continue to grow because the Holy Spirit is rising up for justice in the people of God. In survey after survey, the "sense of the faithful "supports women priests. 

The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests is  blessed by the witness of  prophetic priests like Franciscan Jerry Zawada, Jesuit Bill Brennan and Maryknoll Roy Bourgeois who have co-presided at liturgies with Janice Sevre-Duszynska, ARCWP 

These courageous men have all received harsh punishments from the Vatican which include being  excommunicated and dismissed from their religious orders in the case of Roy Bourgeois, and being ordered not to function publicly as a priest in the cases of Fr. Brennan and Fr. Zawada. 


See the recent Vatican order, issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) this month which strips  Fr. Zawada of his right to function publicly as a priest, and orders him to spend his life in prayer and penance at the order's friary in Burlington. 

http://bridgetmarys.blogspot.com/2014/03/vatican-punishes-wisconsin-priest-for.html

In a spirit of openness to dialogue, we ask our brothers in the Vatican to respect the primacy of conscience of women priests and our supporters. We ask you to treat us as beloved members of the Body of Christ. We are living prophetic obedience to Jesus in the Gospel who called both women and men to be his disciples and treated them as equals. We are following the early church tradition of women office holders and leaders of house churches. In response to God's call, we are leading the church into a renewal of  priestly ministry that affirms the equality of the faithful. 

I believe that on a deep mystical level  that the Roman Catholic Women Priests Movement is beginning a healing  process to centuries old misogyny in which spiritual power was invested exclusively in men.  Our church has a  deep soul wound that needs healing. Women priests are visible reminders that  women are equal images of God, and therefore worthy to preside at the altar. Our church needs to reclaim the divine feminine in every aspect of its life to become more healthy and whole. Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP, 

www.arcwp.org

http://theweek.com/article/index/258520/why-churches-should-brace-for-a-mass-exodus-of-the-faithful

.."As I've argued at length, there is no indication that anything of doctrinal substance is going to change under the new pope — and least of all on the ordination of women, a subject on which Francis has explicitly endorsed Pope John Paul II's position, which unequivocally dismissed the possibility. Sooner or later — and probably sooner — egalitarian-minded Catholics are going to lose their patience with the hierarchy's unpersuasive defenses of the status quo...."