"Irish American Cardinal Raymond Burke Blames Women for Church’s Problems" by Dara Kelly/ /"Cardinal Burke Excommunicated Women Priests and Banned My Books" by Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Irish-American-Cardinal-Raymond-Burke-blames-women-for-churchs-problems.html
by  Dara Kelly @irishcentral  January 27,2016 01:19 AM

"Burke, 66, the firebrand conservative who was recently demoted by Pope Francis to the ceremonial post as patron of the Order of Malta, pointed to the introduction of altar girls as an example.

Serving mass is a “manly” job argues the Irish American Cardinal, and so the participation of women and girls in the daily life of the church has had a chilling effect that has led to a drop in morale and priestly vocations.

“Apart from the priest, the sanctuary has become full of women. The activities in the parish and even the liturgy have been influenced by women and have become so feminine in many places that men do not want to get involved."

Bishop Patricia Fresen Ordains Ree  Hudson and Elsie McGrath priests in St. Louis in Nov. 2007

Not only do boys not want to share altar time with the girls, they resent how much better girls do their jobs apparently...."

Bridget Mary's Response:

 I find Irish American Cardinal Raymond Burke's comments blaming women for Church's problems an example of extreme misogyny. Full disclosure, I am Irish born as most of my readers know. What you may not know is that my books were banned by him after I was ordained. 

 And though I have never met the former Cardinal of the St. Louis Missouri diocese, I believe that Cardinal Burke and his brother bishops have been the gift that keeps on giving! Every time they condemn or excommunicate women priests, our movement grows.  And in one sense, you could say that the Roman Catholic Women Priests Movement is a holy shakeup rocking the church! Now, in my view,  this is a real good thing, and should not be a red flag of impending doom and gloom, as Cardinal Buke fears. As we grow, we are changing the church, one inclusive community at a time. www.arcwp.org

After my ordination as a Roman Catholic Women Priest in Pittsburgh in 2006, Cardinal Burke ordered Liguori Publications to drop my books. At that time I had published six books which had over 100,000 in sales with Liguori, Many of my books even had imprimaturs:The Healing Power of Prayer, Nine Ways to Reach God, Affirmations from the Heart of God, Praying with a Passionate Heart, Praying with Women of the Bible and Praying with Celtic Holy Women. So, I put them on amazon.com and they are available there to this day. See sidebar on blog if you want to see the entire list of 20.

In 2007, Patricia Fresen ordained Elsie McGrath and Ree Hudson in St. Louis, Missouri.  Weeks before the ordination, Cardinal Burke sent an emissary with several warning letters of interdict and excommunication. Ree informed me that much of the letter was written in Latin! At the same time, Cardinal Burke went so far to stop the ordination that he contacted a high ranking Jewish Rabbi who lived in Rome. Rabbi Susan Talve and her congregation welcomed us with open arms at their Synagogue.  At that time, I was doing media for RCWP and a "media frenzy was created because of the Cardinal's opposition. 

Read the story here:

http://nihilobstat.info/2008/03/30/the-excommunication-of-three-women-priests/

"The area women, Rose Marie Hudson, 68 ,of Festus, and Elsie Hainz McGrath, 69, of St. Louis, were ordained as priests in November 2007.   They currently co-pastor a faith community and hold a worship service for about 35 people Sunday evenings at the first Unitarian Church of St. Louis.

Bridget Mary Meehan, a spokesperson for Womenpriests, said Burke is not authorized to excommunicate Fresen because she lives outside the Diocese of St. Louis.   Monsignor John Shamleffer, the archdiocese’s chief canon lawyer, said Burke is within his right to respond to disobedience within his geographic jurisdiction, regardless of Fresen’s residence outside the U.S. “Excommunication is not meant to be a penalty,” he said, but a “wakeup call” aimed at helping the women “see the error of their ways and return to full communion with the church.”

A total of 10 women priests  have been excommunicated since ordinations began in 2002.  The original “Danube Seven” were excommunicated within weeks of their ordination on the Danube River in Germany. Meehan indicated there are  53 women candidates for priesthood, deacons and priests in North America and elsewhere around the world.

In a statement on March 13, Hudson and McGrath said that they “and all Roman Catholic Womenpriests, reject the penalties of excommunication, interdict, and any other punitive actions from church officials. We are loyal daughters of the church, and we stand in the prophetic tradition of holy disobedience to an unjust man-made law that disciminates against women.”

They cited the words of Pope Benedict XVI, who, as Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, wrote that Catholics must obey their own conscience, “if necessary even against the requirement of ecclesiastical authority.”

Salon reported the Womenpriest movement “is the most flamboyant and incendiary challenge to the Roman Catholic Church’s unrelenting discrimination against women.” “They are asking, Is Sexism a sin? How does the Church reconcile its teaching that women and men are created in God’s image, that once baptized, there is ‘no male or female’ and ‘all are one in Christ Jesus,’ with its contention that women cannot represent the ultimate sacred or hold ultimate power through ordination because they are, literally, the wrong ‘substance’?”