What I want the world to know about my call to priesthood- Marie David RCWP

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXklOE4XomI&feature=youtu.be

Marie David understands her call to priesthood as a chance to see God's grace at the core of every person, and to serve in love and joy.

In 1975, a first-of-its-kind questionnaire was circulated to evaluate the first Women's Ordination Conference attendees' call to priesthood. And the survey said ... 

Of the women who responded to the questionnaire: 34.5% answered with an unqualified YES to the question, "Do you want to be ordained?" Another 24% responded either "Yes, if there are structural changes," or "not yet." 

The question, "Who are these women who want to be priests?" began before our very first conference and remains at the heart of our mission today: equality for women ready to lead.  

In today's Catholic Women Called video, we walk with Marie David as she shares:

"My priesthood is my yes. My priesthood is an invitation to others to share the sacredness in their lives. To share their hopes, their fears, their joys, their struggles, their faith, that is so rooted deeply in who they are, but at times is covered over by life's circumstances."

Contemporary Women Theologians

Women theologians

http://englewoodreview.org/ten-important-women-theologians-that-you-should-be-reading

One of the great challenges of the theological academy in the twenty-first century is that it is still dominated by males. In honor of Women’s History Month, here is our recommended list of women theologians that you should be reading and talking about. We have reviewed many recent books by these theologians, and will continue to read and review their work.

NOTE: We are defining theology broadly here, to include biblical studies, ethics, etc.

Sarah Coakley

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sarah+coakley+theology

Sarah Anne Coakley is an Anglican systematic theologian and philosopher of religion with interdisciplinary interests. She is the Norris-Hulse Professor of Divinity at the University of Cambridge, and Professorial Fellow of Murray Edwards College, Cambridge.

Ellen Davis

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ellen+davis+theologian

Ellen Davis is an American theologian and Old Testament scholar. She is the Amos Ragan Kearns Distinguished Professor of Bible and Practical Theology at Duke Divinity School. Davis’s work has focused on how biblical interpretation can be used to address urgent contemporary issues in the church and world. She has considered how the Old Testament can be used to address preaching, interfaith dialogue, and the ecological crisis. (via Wikipedia)

Kelly Brown Douglas

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Kelly+Brown+Douglas+theologian

The Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas is the Susan D. Morgan Distinguished Professor of Religion at Goucher College in Baltimore and is the Canon Theologian at Washington National Cathedral. Kelly is considered a leader in the field of womanist theology, racial reconciliation and sexuality and the black church.

Mary McClintock Fulkerson

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Mary+McClintock+Fulkerson+theologian

Mary McClintock Fulkerson is Professor of Theology at Duke Divinity School. Her primary teaching interests are practical theology, feminist theologies, contemporary Protestant theology, authority in theology, and ecclesiology.

Grace Ji-Sun Kim

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Grace+Ji-Sun+Kim+theologian

Grace Ji-Sun Kim is a Korean-American theologian and professor. She is best known for books and articles on the social and religious experiences of Korean women immigrants to North America. She is currently an Associate Professor of Theology at Earlham School of Religion. (via Wikipedia)

Amy Levad

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGQwUKX2MgE&t=2s

Amy Levad is an associate professor of moral theology at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN. She teaches in areas of theology and criminal justice, environmental theology, and theological ethics. Her current work explores Christian responses to mass incarceration, particularly drawing on sacramental and liturgical ethics to argue for commitment to work for social justice and criminal justice reform.

Sallie McFague

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Sallie+McFague+theologian

Sallie McFague is an American feminist Christian theologian, best known for her analysis of how metaphor lies at the heart of how we may speak about God. She has applied this approach in particular to ecological issues, writing extensively on care for the earth as if it were God’s ‘body’. She is is Distinguished Theologian in Residence at the Vancouver School of Theology in British Columbia, Canada. (via Wikipedia)

Emilie Townes

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Emilie+Townes+theologian

The Rev. Dr. Emilie M. Townes, a distinguished scholar and leader in theological education, is dean of Vanderbilt Divinity School. She is also the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Professor of Womanist Ethics and Society. Townes’ broad areas of expertise include Christian ethics, cultural theory and studies, postmodernism and social postmodernism. She has been a pioneering scholar in womanist theology, a field of studies in which the historic and current insights of African American women are brought into critical engagement with the traditions of Christian theology. Townes has a strong interest in thinking critically about womanist perspectives on issues such as health care, economic justice, poetry and literary theory.

Eboni Marshall Turman

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Eboni+Marshall+Turman+theologian

Dr. Turman is Assistant Professor of Theology and African American Religion at Yale University Divinity School in New Haven, CT.  An author, ordained minister, professor, and public theologian, the Reverend Dr. Marshall Turman is a refreshing addition to our most pressing national discussions of faith, race and gender. With a decidedly womanist point of view, hers stands out as one of very few scholarly millennial voices offering moral perspective on issues facing the Black community.

Frances Young

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Frances+Young+theologian

The Reverend Frances Margaret Young, OBE, FBA is a British theologian and Methodist minister. She is Emeritus Professor at the University of Birmingham.

Eulogy in the Mass of the Resurrection for JoAnn Cecile Wells by Rev. Dr. Barbara J. Billey, Priest ARCWP (06 July 2018) , Obituary for JoAnn Cecil Wells

JoAnn Wells (1936-2018)

My mom, JoAnn Wells loved celebrations and, as did her mother, Cecile, she loved people. She and God must have conspired to have mom die on a blazing hot, Canada Day, July 1st, a national day to celebrate our wonderful country and our freedoms.

On behalf of JoAnn's husband and our dad, Bob; my brother, Mike and sister, Karen, and myself thank you for being an integral part of today's celebration of JoAnn's life, death and resurrection.

There's a proverb written by the Maori people, a tribe in Africa that says: "I am the river and the river is me."

Mom was born on Josephine Ave near the Detroit river in the West end of Windsor on Jan 12, 1936. She described the day as told by her parents as "snowing like crazy", surely a first sign of her powerful force arriving in our world. Born at home, her dad had called for the doctor but forgot to get the assisting nurse. Could this have been a foreshadowing of mom's future vocation as a home visiting nurse?

An insatiable hunger for learning and experiencing the untried, mom dared to risk and to discover. Before going into nursing studies, mom wanted to quit school in order to continue working in the bank because she liked the money.  

However, her older sister Geraldine went to their parents and begged them not to let mom do this. "Your aunt Gerry could see I was ambitious. She was instrumental in getting me to sharpen up and not to do stupid stuff." Given all the crazy antics that I've heard or witnessed, I'm not so sure mom ever settled down. Nonetheless, becoming educated and a nurse was, in retrospect, a great decision for mom and benefitted many.

What most of us appreciate and will remember about mom is her exuberance for life and her positive attitude. Mom devoted her entire life to faith, family and friends, and especially to our dad. A consummate organizer, she was always connecting or in connection with people.

Mom's sister, Annette shared with me recently that when mom was young she was like a bouncing ball, her energy huge and this continued even into her last weeks of life. Aunt Annette told me that one year as a teen she went to 7 proms. Why? Mom's guy friends would come to her because mom would recruit her sister or other girls to be their date.

I'm sure some of you with us today were part of mom's many circles of friends. Mom's loves and vast interests involved her nursing class or nursing colleagues from work, her creative expression through quilting, knitting and sewing, 3 card groups, her athletic pursuits - golfing, biking, qigong and racket ball, her church and after church Macdonald's friends, my Heart of Compassion Faith Community, and later as her illness progressed, she befriended people in the chronic disease management program.

There was an ironic twist of truth when dad left this message on my voice mail the day mom died: "The hospital called this morning. Mom's going out."

Mom was tenacious. Whatever she set her mind to doing she manifested without hesitation. She had no trouble expressing her values and needs, speaking her mind. Mom once told me that her mother would say, "JoAnn you're so blunt."  In my younger years this annoyed me and was often the source of our clash in personalities. I was too much like her.  Most of the time mom was right on the mark with her fierce wisdom, and when she wasn't she was easily apologetic. She forgave others quickly, too.  

Mom enjoyed talking and was an equally attentive listener. She was an accepting person and was open to engage others who had differing perspectives than her own. When mom would catch herself judging someone, she would instantly acknowledge her own limitations and give people the freedom to chose their own path. Her grandson, Brian's new wife Brittany wrote, "There was so much to love about JoAnn, but what I appreciate most is how accepting she was of me. She treated me like one of her own from the very beginning." And her, granddaughter Brooke wrote: "Grandma made me feel like I was her main priority. She always told me she was proud and happy for me.  She was always on my side." I ask, didn't we all feel like we were the most important person when we were with mom?

Although mom ardently enjoyed her various interests and had a lot of fun, she took seriously the needs of others. Minutes after mom's death around 9 pm her friends Lucy and Jane arrived. We spent time at mom's bedside sharing stories and praying. Lucy shared about the day her brother died in a tragic train accident.

Mom was sitting in her car waiting for Lucy to pick her up for a shift as a V.O.N. nurse. When Lucy didn't come, mom called into work for a ride and soon discovered what had happened. At the end of  her long work day, mom came to her door, not with a casserole or soup, but with a question: "What do you need?" This was only one of countless examples of mom's sensitivity to the needs of others and her enormous generosity. I can hear mom's voice right now inviting me to tone down my accolades of her. She wasn't a person who enjoyed being elevated and truly embraced her humanness. Okay, mom just a few minutes longer.

All of these beautiful qualities of caring and compassion intensified in Mom's two year cancer journey. We were all shocked and devastated with the news of mom's stage 4 cancer that eventually spread to her lungs, bones and liver. With her boundless energy and good health, I remain confounded that she was struck with such a fatal disease.

Mom inspired all of us with her courage and strength in frequent encounters with horrible pain and increasing disability. John, her grandson wrote: "I appreciate how strong she was. I'm thankful for how hard she fought and how she was able to put the pain behind her for family."

Throughout her cancer journey, mom's attitude was genuinely positive. As her vulnerability increased, her capacity grew to gift us with the privilege of giving to her what she needed. As a caregiver this was not always easy, but she graciously received many of us here today with our offers of care, help and concern. Remarkable to me is that no matter how she was feeling she always asked, "How are you doing?"

Mom knew her fate, and made the best of a difficult situation. She'd  say, "I take one day at a time" or "I'm living in the moment." She was destined to have as much fun as she could until her life was over, despite all our prodding about her needing to rest. Grandson Brian summarized mom best: "Fiesty. Energetic. Never sat still, always pushed forward. Valued family and friends. Lived the way she wanted to. Loved." Mom, you inspired all of us and left us with a legacy about how to live and love, especially when the going gets tough.

I can't end without speaking about mom's faith and spirituality. She had many spiritual and religious practices- daily prayer and meditation, scripture reading, weekly mass attendance, and involvements in Why Catholic? and other faith sharing groups. When I'd tell her my troubles, she'd often say me, "When I don't know what to do I pray to the Holy Spirit."

In her final weeks, days, and hours, the fruits of mom's long life in the Spirit became powerfully evident. There were many sacred moments that I was privileged to witness and to participate in, each too intimate and within mom's God relationship to share publicly. A couple weeks before she died, Mom said, "I don't know how people live without God in their lives. Who will bail them out?" Thank you, Creator God for bailing Mom out!

Mom was unconscious most of those last couple of days. Many of you came to pray, cry, share stories, talk with mom, and to touch her. We created an altar space on top of the prayer quilt given to her at the beginning of her cancer diagnosis. Over the 2 years about a hundred people tied a knot and said a prayer for mom.

Mom told me she wasn't afraid to die, and as expected she worried about burdening us or letting us all down, especially concerned about how dad would fare. She often spoke in gratitude, "I've had a good life: a wonderful husband, family and friends."

Two weeks ago we were in her kitchen each coloring an image from an adult coloring book. More and more confined to her home, Mom found this quieting and we enjoyed the creative connection. Sitting across from her and felt an overwhelming love that led me to hold her hands. With tears I looked into her eyes, "I love you so much, Mom." Her response, "I will not abandon you."

I was alone with mom in the final two hours of her life. As I lay beside her listening to changes in her breathing, the softening light  danced on the leaves of a tree that adorned her window - peace and quiet pervaded the entire space.

At around 8:30 pm, I stood at the end of her bed, closed my eyes and spoke these words with my hands in prayer: "Come Holy Spirit. Go to God now, Mom. Jesus, Mary and all your loved ones are waiting for you." I opened my eyes and mom was no longer breathing. I felt ecstatic joy, kissed her and whispered, "Mom you did it. You went to God!" This was the most extraordinary moment of my life. Mom had been received in God's peace, love and endless light.

"I am the river and the river is me." In her later years, mom could often be found walking along the river with her friend Jane or riding her bike. Many of my best moments with her were sitting on a bench by the river.

Thank you, on behalf of my dad and family for being a companion on mom's journey, midwives all as mom was drawn toward the vast ocean of God. I feel her beautiful Spirit within me. She is in the Communion of Saints now, one with the Risen Christ, forever in our memory and in our loving. Pray to mom often for guidance and wisdom, and when you go to the river, please remember her.

https://www.arbormemorial.ca/janisse/obituaries/joann-cecile-wells-nee-gignac/21041

Wells, JoAnn Cecile (Nee Gignac) 

JoAnn was received into the fullness of God’s endless love and light on July 1, 2018 at the age of 82. Beloved wife of Robert Wells, married 60 years. Devoted mom to Barbara Billey (Ken), Mike Wells (Sandy), and Karen Small (Robert). Loving grandmother of John Wells (Bethany), Brooke Wells, Brian Small (Brittany) and Stephanie Small, and great-grandmother of Hailey. Cherished sister of Geraldine Gignac-Moody, Noble Gignac Jr., and Annette Kusluski.  JoAnn valued her faith, family and friends. A nurse for over 30 years, her exuberance for life and positive attitude inspired many. Gratitude to dear friend, Jane, Fr. Maurice Restivo, St. Elizabeth Nurses, Sylvia and Linda and the health care professionals who gave compassionate care during JoAnn’s cancer journey. We will miss her profoundly, and hold her spirit with us forever in our memory and in our loving. 

Visitation will be held at Janisse Funeral Home, 1139 Ouellette Ave, 519-253-5225, on Thursday, July 5, 2018 from 6-9pm, Prayers at 7:30pm. Mass of the Resurrection at Our Lady of Assumption Church - McEwan Campus (711 McEwan Ave) on Fri, July 6 at 11am.  In lieu of flowers, donations for JoAnn’s great grandchild, Hailey are greatly appreciated in care of Sandy Wells or to your charity of choice.

Barbara J. Billey, M.A. (Counselling)
Registered Psychotherapist
Canadian Certified Counsellor
Registered Canadian Art Therapist
1978 Katella Ave, Windsor, ON N8P 0A4
(519) 735-3943

Dublin Priest Reacts Strongly On Twitter To Marriage Statement By Irish Vatican Cardinal "This statement is preposterous, juvenile, and destructive." My Response

https://lovindublin.com/news/dublin-priest-marriage

My Response: While it is true celibates do not have experience in marriage, they do walk as companions on the journey of life with their married sisters and brothers, sharing their struggles, faith, and joys. This is why I believe that in sacramental preparation, the best work is done by married couples sharing their life-experiences as well as by a priest who offers his/her hand in supportive friendship and prayerful solidarity.  A marriage ministry team that is inclusive and respectful of differing experiences of life's gifts and struggles is a wise and helpful approach.  If we are humble, we recognize, that we do not often have the answers, but we can always walk in love and faith with one another, no matter what our sexual orientation is  or where out life path leads us.  The older I get, the less I think I know the answers. I just pray that I may see more with the eyes of love. Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP, #womenpriestsnow
https://arcwp.org

A senior priest in Dublin has called a statement regarding marriage by Cardinal Kevin Farrell as "preposterous, juvenile and destructive."

Cardinal Farrell - who is the most senior Irishman in the Vatican - said that priests have no credibility when it comes to training people for marriage.

The comments angered, Fr. William Dailey who took to Twitter to vent his frustration at the comments which led to him to call for Farrell's resignation.

Fr. Dailey said that:

"This statement is preposterous, juvenile, and destructive. It seems to me to merit his resignation from a post he’s perhaps not insightful enough to hold.

"Of course a priest, as celibate, cannot offer first-hand experience as marriage preparation. That’s hardly news.

"A priest will have the human experience of friendship with married people, of a walking with many in ministry through their struggles and triumphs, of listening to their experiences and insights.

"He can weigh, combine, and learn from them in a way unencumbered by his own choices and biases. He knows what married people can give by living their vocation well that he cannot. He knows this because he needs it, because the world needs it.

"Of course, marriage prep should include more than celibate voices. But the priest can offer pastoral wisdom from his experience, spiritual guidance about, e.g., the life of prayer and how to incorporate it into a relationship, and, yes, the Church’s theology of marriage. I am flabbergasted that a Cardinal in his post would say something that is so false and destructive. Many couples have reported to me that our conversations were fruitful, and have returned to keep them going long after the wedding reception was a distant memory.

"I learn from them, we learn together. Priestly ministry must always be humble. But we learned that at the washing of the feet. It also can be confident that it hands on a spiritual treasury and offers leaven to those who will be the first teachers of the faith to the young. It’s possible the cardinal lacks credibility to talk to married people; far be it from me to challenge his self-indictment. But his undermining of the work of many is manifestly false, unjust, and counterproductive."

You can read Farrell's comments in full here.

Ireland: The Road Not Taken

Catholic and priest out of obedience by Christina Moreira Vázquez ARCWP (English translation by Rebel Girl) Iglesia Viva

Iglesia Viva
No. 274, April-June 2018, pp.101-105

Signs of identity

On June 29, 2002, aboard a boat on the Danube, seven Roman Catholic women were ordained priests according to the Catholic rite by a Catholic bishop who, one year later, would transmit the apostolic succession by consecrating the first women bishops. Since then, the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, ARCWP-RCWP ¹ has not stopped growing until reaching 250 women in  2017, scattered across various continents. From the hands of a woman bishop I received diaconal ordination (2013) and priestly ordination in March 2015. In both cases, I devoted my ministry first to my Christian community Home Novo in A Coruña.

We know that the institutional Roman Catholic Church does not welcome our ordinations since its Code of Canon Law (Can. 1024) stipulates that "A baptized male alone receives sacred ordination validly." Therefore it did not take long to respond with the corresponding excommunications. We have not been asked about our motives, nor heard in defense, nor have we felt on ourselves the caring shadow of an arm that rests on your shoulder and seeks to love and understand you. Before such a legal display, the commandment to love is a poor and homeless relative.

1. Obedience from spirituality and the gospel: prophetic obedience

These and other displays of little or no empathy towards us make us often wonder what is lost to a woman in this Church.

A vocation is not chosen. It comes where and when it is least expected with its own forms and manners. The Bible gives a good account of some of them. It breaks in in the midst of daily life, it catches you working, studying, caring for sheep. Many will understand me. With a bit of luck it goes on insinuating itself until it becomes obvious; for others it manifests itself with an unbearable glare like an "event." ². Sometimes this bears a certain similarity to those occasions when Jesus, passing along the seashore, challenged some who "at once left their nets and followed him."(Mt 4:20). That was my case. Without going into detail, I can say, like Jacob at Bethel, "The Lord is here, and I did not know it." No one who has experienced this type of encounter can remain indifferent to so much effort of seduction, much less resist obeying. When Grace enters life, the sacred duty exists to care for it, be grateful for it and share it. I would also add that it is a legitimate aspiration that it be welcomed into your family of faith as a gift for the community and not as a curse. What to say when that encounter results in deep healing-metanoia, as happened with Zacchaeus? After the "get up" comes the "walk." Staying standing and quiet like a statue is the fate dictated for countless women since the first was spoken. Honor to them. When the Church invites us to "pray for vocations," I suggest that it also ask God to limit Himself to fulfilling the Code so that nobody ever again has to die with empty hands and without hope.

And I would add, stop baptizing women now if God cannot freely address them, if they cannot freely answer Him. At some point in history, those who disregard the third petition of the "Our Father" will have to be held to account for this sin against the divine.

I suggest the same to well-meaning people who assess and judge my discernment and condemn me without even knowing who I am. I emphasize that obeying love is the first commandment. It is in force and no theologian able to refute it has been born yet.

2. Obedience from personal conscience and mind

My colleagues and I usually repeat the phrase of Peter and the other apostles -- among whom were women apostles ³ -- "We must obey God rather than men" (Acts 5:29), without forgetting the martyrial context in which many righteous people have had to speak it since their Master. When a person risks their life for a vocational commitment, it imposes respect. No one in their sound mind takes on the penalties of the caliber that the Holy See reserves for us women priests if they haven't put their lives in the key of radical following. ⁴

"Conscience is the most secret core and sanctuary of the human being⁵. There he is alone with God, whose voice echoes in his depths...," says Vatican II (GS 16). To this conscience we appeal, those of us who decide to step forward and say, as Abraham responded to God even before knowing what would be asked of him, "Hineni, here I am." Twice I answered Him, first in Galician before my community, second in English in my global community. I do not know what the theological discipline has ascertained about human perception in the face of transcendence made manifest Presence, but I could write treatises about it.

The moment in which the mind is setting the steps to build the action, it produces a deep humanization rooted in ancestral generations; it produces a person on their feet and ready to go out to be who they are and offer themselves to the world. It produces a joy known only to those who have tasted it. No one should be deprived of experiencing the Grace that God has reserved for them under its own non-transferable form, for their sake and that of the whole community.

Being allowed to take the step on your own path should be a human right; that each person can get to say "I am ..." in freedom and without obstacles, is essential. If you are not you, who is breathing within you? Being fully human and enjoying that which we call dignity depends on it. Hence the special effort Jesus put into raising people up. The recovered vertical position was equivalent to forgiveness and healing. Various scenes in the gospels bear witness to this. Being fully individual seemed to be his motto first of all.

Promising to go forward without looking back and promising to accompany those who are traveling in step with me with the testimony of the gospel and the table set, is nothing but what every conscious baptized person promises. Obeying the Lord's charge to "remember him" should not depend on the permission of an excluding structure that does not take into account the totality of the people of God and allows itself to put obstacles to their choice. They should not be punished just because of the gender or sexual preferences of the baptized person. Our human nature has already been assumed in Christ and not partially, but in its totality. There is no small print at the foot of the Cross.

I did not allow myself to disobey any longer; 30 years had already been a long time. No man I know had to discern so much to be ordained a priest. I was not moved by "fads" or "principles of the social order of any historical period" ⁶ but by the Holy Spirit herself. Equality is not a fad, it will not pass. It is not a worldly whim, it is the will of the Creator.

When we hear that they want to make pass for infallible doctrine the assertion that the Church cannot ordain women, I postulate as an infallible doctrine that injustice and discrimination is a sin in the category of serious violence. They will end, God willing, just as slavery ended despite Church support in its time.

3. Obeying the Church

The Church should have the sacred mission of promoting the personal and community path towards the fulfillment of the will of God. We are daughters of the Church. It could be that we love her more than is reasonable since, although mistreated, we remain because she is ours and of our communities, because our baptism made us hers and we await a warm and respectful welcome from her. She is "the people of God," the Council said. We know she can change, that sometimes there are surprises, that someday she will listen to her old married priests, to the exhausted communities that no longer even know how to answer at Mass, as it once heard the voice of the indigenous people and slaves in songs of the human soul.

When the urban communities of the first world -- and not just them -- are already self-sufficient with Eucharists without priests. When the dominant idea in many environments is that the clergy get in the way, perhaps it is urgent to listen to those who describe other ways to be Church. Communities now exist where we can perform different roles and tasks without creating submission or abuse. They will not have to step down from the altar nor will we have to go up if it is at floor level; all the people will be equidistant.

And the people will not be starved for the Eucharist. This is, first and finally, what most propels me and comforts me in my decision. Having personally witnessed countless situations of communities separated for years from the Lord's table, I swore that that would not occur while I had these hands. These are my vows, this is my obedience, not celibacy since I have chosen to love and under all forms within my reach.

Women deacons -- this fully current theme -- were a thoroughly proven reality, as other evidence shows that women had leadership in the early days. Archaeology, epigraphy, and the texts support both common sense and the sensus fidei. Christian women give equal faith testimony, their blood flows red in martyrdom just like a man's, and always has. And we haven't waited for any commission or ordinations for that. And if our ministries are to be legalized in the end, I would ask that rose-colored formulas with bows not be invented, non-sacramental forms that set us apart from the holy orders, because the Ruah blows just as holy when she encourages us. Today many underground forms of women's ministries are taking place that require light and knowledge. God willing, we will free ourselves from fear and our light will be put on the mountaintop like a beacon.

When it comes to naming things, we must attend to the absolute criteria of justice proclaimed by Jesus for his Kingdom. Obedience is first to him, to the commandments of the Holy Spirit, to conscience. Service is not blind servitude to laws and mandates but collaboration of adult human beings on an equal footing, with audible and heard voices. Serving at the altar can not be for some coming with the table set and speaking the holy words, keeping for themselves the priceless gift of collaborating with the Savior in his saving task that I now know and value more than life, and, for others, changing the altar cloths, scrubbing the stones, replacing the vessels and cloths...and vanishing to the back pew.

Conclusion

If we are to give witness to the world about the dignity of women, and I do not doubt that both Pope Francis and most of my brothers and sisters have this intention, the times we are experiencing in our world are decisive. Feminism is not a fad of these times, it will not pass nor should it pass as long as our full humanity is not acknowledged in words and in action. We don't want to break with anything but to enter into what exists, slowly and carefully, to bring our charisms, our voice specialized in weakness and pain, our arms sculpted by years of care and our capacity to sleep with one eye open. Everything shared in the common heritage where we, in turn, will take the symbols, clothes, rites, and words accumulated for centuries and finally everything will be fully of the multitudes. Yes, we even take responsibility for the rabid anticlericalism that we are already bearing without deserving it ... we have endured too much and in the end it's time to raise our heads, balance the forces and, for the wounds that have been caused, band aids are not enough. We're all needed.

I ask the authority structures what is creating "the inability of the Church to ordain women." Because you and I know that there is not a single serious biblical or theological argument against laying hands on us. Let's seek dialogue, let's seek the holy exercise of compassion rather than coercive medieval mechanisms. With all due respect, saying to an adult person that what she wishes cannot be "because I who am your father says so," does no good now.

It damages ecclesial communion and, moreover, it harms the image of the Church. It damages an urgent witness we must give to the world at a time when we are being killed, raped, and denigrated everywhere. It's urgent. As the Kingdom is urgent when the Word burns within you. Meanwhile there is one single enemy, a murderer: sexism. I don't want to think we have it in the house. God doesn't want it.

Footnotes:

1. http://arcwp.org/en/

2. María Elena Garmendia, Porque soy hija de Abrahán. Sacerdocio femenino ¿un clamor del espíritu? Desclée de Brouwer, Bilbao, 2017.

3. M. Perroni-Cristina Simonelli, María de Magdala, una genealogía apostólica, San Pablo, Madrid, 2017.

4. Cf. Normae de gravioribus delictis Decree

5. The inclusive language is my contribution; the original says "man."

6. http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_19951028_commento-dubium-ordinatio-sac_en.html

Posted by Rebel Girl at 3:39 PM