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| From left to right, Mary Theresa Streck ARCWP, Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP and Abigail Eltzroth ARCWP at Ordination Liturgy of Abigail Eltzroth in Asheville North Carolina |
Women Priests Response in blue*
"The only future worth building includes everyone." Pope Francis
The only future worth building includes everyone, including women priests who are part of everyone. Bridget Mary Meehan
.- A breakaway Catholic group is in the news for attempting to ordain a woman as a Catholic priest at a non-denominational church in North Carolina.
Like the women in the early church, who were ordained, the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests is leading the church today to live justice and equality now.
Abigail Eltzroth, 64, went through the simulated ordination at the Jubilee! church in Asheville, N.C. under the aegis of the group Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests. She has said she intends to start a Catholic community in the area of Asheville.
The local diocese, however, reaffirmed Catholic teaching that such an ordination is null.
Our ordinations are valid because a male bishop ordained our first women bishops, therefore our ordinations are valid. We are breaking an unjust law that discriminates against women. The bible teaches that women and men are created in the image of God, thus, there should not be six sacraments for women and seven for men.
“I hope that Catholics in the diocese will understand that it would be sinful to receive a fake sacrament from a woman priest and that includes attending a fake Mass,” said David Hains, spokesperson for the Catholic Diocese of Charlotte.
Not only do we follow in legitimate apostolic succession and have valid orders, the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests follows their consciences in celebrating sacraments where all are welcome. Pope Francis said that we should have a church for everyone and that includes women priests and the 33 million ex Catholics who have been alienated and excluded because of issues like LGBTI and divorce and remarriage.
Eltzroth converted to Catholicism from a Presbyterian background in her 50s, the Charlotte Observer reports. The simulated ordination was carried out by Bridget Mary Meehan, who presents herself as a Catholic bishop.
All our ordinations valid and we are disobeying an unjust law. In order to change an unjust law in the church, we must break it.
Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests traces itself back to the attempted ordination of seven women on a ship cruising the Danube River in 2002. Attempted ordination of a woman is automatic excommunication for both the person attempting the ordination and the person attempting to be ordained.
Pope Benedict canonized two formerly excommunicated nuns, Mother Theodore Guerin and Mother Mary McKilliop, thereby making excommunication the new fast track to sainthood!
From the beginning of his papacy, Pope Francis has been clear on the issue of women priests, while still emphasizing the unique and important role of women in the Church.
Pope Francis needs to match his words with actions, like opening the diaconate to women in the church as a first step toward the full equality of women in the church, as well as appoint women to top -decision making roles in the Vatican and elsewhere.
On his return flight from Philadelphia for the World Meeting of Families Sept. 28, 2015, the Pope reiterated that women priests “cannot be done,” and called for a more comprehensive theology on women.
In an interview with Vatican Insider in December 2013, Francis responded to a question on whether or not he'd ever consider naming a woman a cardinal. The very question, he indicated, stemmed from an attitude of clericalism.
“I don't know where this idea sprang from. Women in the Church must be valued not 'clericalised,'” the Pope said. “Whoever thinks of women as cardinals suffers a bit from clericalism.”
The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests agrees with Pope Francis on the issue of clericalism. This movement was founded on the premise of a renewed priesthood in a community of equals. In our community everyone has an equal vote in decision making and the same applies to our liturgical communities.
Throughout the three years since, Francis has consistently called for a more “incisive” feminine presence in the Church, yet has refrained from limiting this presence to a mere position.
We support Pope Francis expanding the roles of women. Pope Francis said that the church must not be afraid of change and that means women at the Eucharistic Table.
Why the only future worth building includes everyone
www.arcwp.org
Why the only future worth building includes everyone
17:52 minutes · TED2017
A single individual is enough for hope to exist, and that individual can be you, says His Holiness Pope Francis in this searing TED Talk delivered directly from Vatican City. In a hopeful message to people of all faiths, to those who have power as well as those who don't, the spiritual leader provides illuminating commentary on the world as we currently find it and calls for equality, solidarity and tenderness to prevail. "Let us help each other, all together, to remember that the 'other' is not a statistic, or a number," he says. "We all need each other."
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