Living Gospel Inclusivity and Empowerment Now
Saturday, August 19, 2017
ARCWP Priests Visit Ireland , Day 19
Today we drove 8 hours across Ireland to Northern Ireland. We stopped at Giant's Causeway and took coast road to our destination in Larne where we will celebrate litury tomorrow with an inclusive Catholic Community at the invitation of Bishop Pat Buckley.
Friday, August 18, 2017
ARCWP Priests Visit Ireland to Grow Movement/ Day 18/ UPDATED Media Links
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| ARCWP Delegation to Grow Movement in Ireland: Mary Theresa Streck, Bridget Mary Meehan and Joan Chesterfield, left to right www.arcwp.org |
Irish Media Coverage of
ARCWP Women Priests Grow Movement in Ireland
Newspaper article links
The Journal
'Is it possible to be Catholic and a feminist?'
http://www.thejournal.ie/readme/column-is-it-possible-to-be-catholic-and-a-feminist-3506377-Jul2017/
Irish Independent
Female bishop calls on women to join movement
Irish Times
Catholic woman bishop on
Irish vocations recruitment drive
RADIO Links:
RTE
Interview on Ray Darcy Show, Aug. 17th, 2017, 4:15-4:30 PM
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The
call has come from Laois-born Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan, a former Pastoral
Nun who was ordained in the US in 2006 and is a member of the ...
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Great Interview with Gavin Grace on Clare FM
today in Ennis
Thursday, August 17, 2017
ARCWP Priests in Ireland - Day17, Interviews on Clare FM in Ennis , and RTE in Limerick Promoting Women Priests in Ireland, Visit with Tony Flannery in Bunratty
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| RTE Interview on Ray Darcy Show, Aug. 17th, 2017, 4:15-4:30 PM |
https://www.rte.ie/radio1/ray/programmes/2017/0817/898096-ray-darcy-thursday-17-august-2017/?clipid=102582105#102582105
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Bridget Mary Meehan on Clare FM, Ennis, Ireland, August 17th
Great Interview with Gavin Grace on Clare FM today in Ennis
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Wednesday, August 16, 2017
Tuesday, August 15, 2017
ARCWP Women Priests Visit Ireland- Day 15 - Ennis on Feast of Assumption of Mary, August 15th, Franciscan Friary and St. Peter and Paul Cathedral and Celebration of Fleadh Cheoil
Today we participated in the Liturgy at the Franciscan Friary. The homily made the connection between God the Mother and Mary as a reflection of the feminine. The liturgy featured prayers in Gaelic as well as Celtic music.
I prayed for women priests in Ireland at Mary's altar in the Franciscan Priory.
See clip below.
At the Fleadh, there was music everywhere on the street, children were playing instruments and dancing. It was a joy to be part of the energy of a huge throng of people celebrating their Irish heritage. See my facebook page for delightful music videos.
Today I received several calls from media, including BBC. We were invited to celebrate liturgy in Northern Ireland with Pat Buckely and his community on the Antrim coast, and heard from another woman who is interested in discerning a vocation to priesthood.
Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP, www.arcwp.org
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| Mary statue at Franciscan Friary |
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| Statue of St. Bridget at St. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Ennis, County Clare, Ireland |
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| Franciscan Friary, Ennis, County Clare, Ireland |
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| Mary Altar at Franciscan Friary, Ennis, Ireland |
ARCWP Women Priests Visit Ireland: Article in Irish Times: "Catholic woman bishop on Irish vocations recruitment drive"
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/catholic-woman-bishop-on-irish-vocations-recruitment-drive-1.3186561
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| Bridget Mary Meehan presiding at Liturgy |
"Five women who believe they have a vocation to the Catholic priesthood have contacted a US delegation visiting Ireland this month to recruit female priests.
From the US-based Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests (ARCWP), the delegation is being led by Irish-born Bishop Mary Bridget Meehan, who is accompanied by Rev Mary Theresa Streck and Rev Joan Chesterfield.
Speaking of the five women seeking ordination, Bishop Meehan told The Irish Times they “already have theology degrees and diplomas in spirituality”.
A Mass celebrated by Bishop Meehan, in a community centre on Dublin’s South Circular, was attended by “35 to 40” people earlier this month, while the delegation met a similar number more recently in Drogheda.
They have also visited Glenstal Abbey at Murroe, Co Limerick, where they met former Abbot Mark Patrick Hederman and NóirÃn Nà Riain who was ordained Rev NóirÃn Nà Riain, minister in the One Spirit Inter Faith Seminary Foundation, last month. The foundation embraces “the universal truth at the heart of all spiritual traditions”. Ms Nà Riain has a doctorate in theology.
Bishop Meehan said she had also met Limerick parish priest Fr Roy Donovanwho last week called for the ordination of women to the Catholic priesthood and objected to the introduction of a male-only permanent diaconate in his Cashel Archdiocese before completion of a report by the papal commission on women deacons.
The meeting with Fr Donovan was “very open” she said, and he had put her in contact with a woman who believes she too has a vocation.
Pittsburgh ordination
Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan was raised to the episcopacy in 2009 at Santa Barbara, California, after ordination to the Catholic priesthood at Pittsburgh in 2006.
Her family is from Crosskerry, near Rathdowney, Co Laois, but they left Ireland for the US in 1956. Nowadays, she holds weekly liturgies , including Mass, at the Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community in Sarasota, Florida.
In 2007, she and fellow women priests were excommunicated by Pope Benedict. He decreed that anyone “who attempts to confer a sacred order on a woman, and the woman who attempts to receive a sacred order” was automatically excommunicated. However, this decree has been rejected by the ARCWP.
In North America, there were about 250 Catholic women priests and 11 women bishops, Bishop Meehan said. Their ordinations were valid “because of our apostolic succession within the Roman Catholic Church”, she said.
This is so because “the principal consecrating Roman Catholic male bishop who ordained our first women bishops is a bishop with apostolic succession within the Roman Catholic Church in communion with the Pope. Therefore, our bishops validly ordain deacons, priests and bishops.”
As well as in the US and Canada, the ARCWP has members in Latin Americaand, increasingly, in the rest of the world.
Equality
They seek equality for women in the church at all levels, including at decision-making and ordination levels, and prepare and ordain qualified women (and men) to serve as Catholic priests. Theirs is “a renewal movement” within the church which aims at “full equality for all within” as “a matter of justice and faithfulness to the Gospel”, she said.
Bishop Meehan points out that their model of church “is exactly the opposite” of the current Roman model. For instance, “our bishops have absolutely no authority apart from ordaining [others to priesthood/episcopacy]. It’s like the monastic model,” she said.
She and other members of her delegation are back in Ireland (she has been a regular visitor over the years) “for the month of August” and hope to encourage other women towards ordination while here. They will be “celebrating liturgies and meeting with women’s groups”.
They would also “love a dialogue with the bishops” in Ireland and believe there is “a new spirit in the church” since the election of Pope Francis in 2013. They feel “in harmony with a lot of what Pope Francis is saying”.
Recently, two Vatican officials met ARCWP members in Rome and all attended Mass together, she said.
Women who believe they have a vocation to the priesthood can contact Bishop Meehan at 001- 703-505-0004, sofiabmm@aol.com and www.arcwp.org.
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