Bridget Mary's Blog: 2/16/20

Friday, February 21, 2020

The Cult of the Clerical Collar by Catherine Pepinster

Published by Association for the Rights of Catholics in the Church

Querida Amazonia

Little will change while sentimental notions of nurture dominate Pope Francis' idea of women

There's a picture I have in my mind of Pope Francis. I imagine a little Jorge Mario Bergoglio on tiptoe at his grandmother Rosa's side, as she bakes a cake. Maybe he dips a finger in the mixture and she gives him a humorous slap on the wrist. The warmth and stability of his family relationships made Bergoglio the Pope who can connect with people so effectively. But his early relationships also made him deeply sentimental about women. He has described them as "the strawberries on the cake".

I too, like almost all children, made cakes with my mother and grandmother. But my convent school headmistress was adamant that girls were much more than some decorative addition. "We leave matters like needlework and cookery for the home," she once said. "It means there is more space in the timetable for Latin and mathematics." But I wasn't just taught Latin and maths. I was introduced to theological discourse, to authors such as Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. Above all, I was taught that women were men's intellectual equals and we girls were to go out into the world via university to serve God and his world.

That experience stood me in good stead for life, yet not for the Church that those nuns loved so much. Despite the Second Vatican Council's reforms, the laity have still not been given their rightful place in the Catholic Church. We are still so often treated as second best to the male clerics who still dominate it. At every level, it is priests who pull the levers.. Take a look at the staff employed by the bishops' conference or by your local diocese and you will find most of the leadership positions - heading liturgy, finance, chancery - are held by priests. Fifty-five years on from the end of the council and the cult of the collar still reigns. For women in particular, this male-dominated, clerical Church can be deeply alienating.

Pope Francis is trying to shift the Church so that the council's reforms are embraced. In his apostolic exhortation Querida Amazonia, he advocates a greater role for laity in the Church. He recognises the importance of lay people helping to run parishes in the Amazon basin. But is that really enough? The bishops of the Amazon basin made it plain that there is a need for more priests. Francis did not sanction married deacons being ordained, and, as for women, that sentimental strand in his thinking emerged again. He sees women as maternal and nurturing - and that is all. They cannot be given a central, sacramental role.

It would be easy to walk away if the Catholic Church were entirely misogynist. But its messages are mixed and confusing. An increasing number of theologians are women, taking on the mantle of the nuns who educated so many of us so well as a formidable intellectual force in the Church. And yet other women are still treated like maidservants: I always cringed when, as editor of The Tablet, I visited successive Archbishops of Westminster and the only other woman in the drawing room would be a nun serving the tea and crumpets. This is also a Church that has women teaching deacons how to give a homily and others writing homily cribsheets for priests who can't manage to write their own. Yet those very women producing these texts are forbidden from venturing into the pulpit to preach or even read the Gospel - let alone preside at the Eucharist.

There is a similar confusion in Francis' recent announcements regarding women. I was in Rome a few weeks ago when news emerged of the appointment of Dr Francesca Di Giovanni to a senior position in the Secretariat of State - a role closed off to women in the past because top diplomatic Vatican roles were always held by priests. Other women working in Rome, including the 14 serving as ambassadors to the Holy See, were delighted. But just when it seemed that Francis had finally realised how women's experience, talent and skills can be put to better use to serve the Church, we get Querida Amazonia, with its dismissal of women's ordination because it would make them more clerical. So the way to deal with clericalism among the male priesthood is not to combat it but to see women as a problem instead.

That is such confusing, exasperating thinking that it needs to be called out - just as one woman once called out what she believed was utterly wrong from the pulpit, where women shouldn't go. That was Francis' grandmother, Rosa, who once bravely deplored Mussolini from a Turin pulpit. See, your holiness - women can be a lot more than strawberries on the cake.

URL

Catherine Pepinster is a former Editor of the Tablet

Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community 10th Anniversary of Ordination of Katy Zatsick ARCWP Jack Duffy: co-founder of MMOJ, Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP, Bishop Music Minister: Linda Lee Miska, Cantor: Cheri McDonough

Feb. 22, 2020: Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community and visitors from our Sister-Community in the Upper Room, Albany, New York celebrated Katy Zatsick's 10th Anniversary of Ordination and the Priestly Ministry of each individual and the entire community in a discipleship of equals!
See Bridget Mary's Reflection, Jack Duffy's questions for ongoing prayerful reflection and Katy Zatsick's homily about her call to ministry in liturgy and links below

left to right Lee Breyer is a priest who was with our MMOJ community from our early days. He and his wife Carol Ann ministered as a married couple as did Michael and Imogene Rigdon, a married priest couple. Both Carol Ann and Imogene are deceased and listed in our Communion of Saints, Bridget Mary Meehan ARCWP (ordaining bishop and co-founcer of MMOJ community, Katy Zatsick ARCWP and Jack Duffy, co founder of MMOJ Community.

Feb. 22, 2020: Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community and visitors from Sister-Community in the Upper Room in Albany, New York celebrate Katy Zatsick's 10th Anniversary of Ordination and the Priestly Ministry of each individual and the entire community in a discipleship of equals! See Bridget Mary's Reflection, Jack Duffy's questions for ongoing reflection and Katy Zatsick's homily about her call to ministry in liturgy and links below

Photos below are from Katy Zatsick's Ordination on Feb. 6, 2010: Katy Zatsick and Dena O'Callaghan were ordained priests, Mary Ellen Sheehan was ordained a deacon by Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan in St. Andrew Church in Sarasota, Florida

From left to right; newly ordained priests: Dena O'Callaghan, Katy Zatsick, and deacon Mary Ellen Sheehan on Feb. 6, 2010 in St. Andrew UCC, Sarasota, Florida

MMOJ Community celebrates ordination of Sally Brochu ARCWP and Janet Blakely ARCWP as deacons

LITURGY- Feb. 22, 2020

Celebration of 10th Anniversary of Ordination and the MMOJ Community's Call to Ministry

Welcome:

Presider: Today we celebrate the 10^th anniversary of the ordination of Katy Zatsick to the priesthood of ARCWP. The theme of today’s liturgy is “Only by the Mercy, Grace and Providence of the Holy One am I able to say, “Here I am Loving God, I am ready.” Following Jesus and his disciples, we and the community of Mary Mother of Jesus itself are all called, consecrated, and gifted with many talents to be shared as we co-create a just and peaceful world through our ministries.

Opening Song: #384, The Summons,

1. Will you come and follow me if I but call your name? Will you go where you don’t know and never be the same? Will you let my love be shown, Will you let my name be known, Will you let my life be grown in your and you in me?

2. Will you love the ‘you’ you hide if I but call your name? Will you quell the fear in side and never be the same? Will you use the faith you’ve found to re-shape the world a-round, Through my sight and touch and sound in you and you in me?

3. Love, you sum-mons ech-oes true When you but call my name. Let me turn and fol-low you and never be the same. In your com-pa-ny I’ll go Where your love and foot-steps show. Thus, I’ll move and live and grow in you and you in me.

Presider Let us begin our liturgy today in the name of Holy Mystery Source of All Being, Jesus Christ our Eternal Word and Compassion of God, and Sophia Holy Spirit Wisdom guiding the community of Mary Mother of Jesus and the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests and all of our members. All: Amen

Presider: God lives within us all. All: And also, within you.

Opening Prayer.*

All: Awaken us, O Holy One! Help us to wait in Silence listening for your gentle call. Have mercy on your Pilgrim People of God! Strengthen us with courage to face any fear within us. Let the grace and gentleness of Sophia, Holy Spirit be upon us, guiding our feet as we follow the Way of Jesus our wise Elder Brother. May we walk together in peace and harmony. May you increase your Light within us. Amen.

Seeking Healing and Wholeness All: Veni Sancte Spiritus! (Sung at end of each line)

P: Spirit of Love, come upon our Mary Mother Of Jesus community and dwell among us.

P: Spirit of Joy and hospitality, teach us individually and as Your community to be open, welcoming, loving and kind.

P: Spirit of Compassion, instill in us Your respect for all life and loving care for all creation.

P: Spirit of Hope, help us to detach ourselves from any hindrance on our journey towards healing and wholeness.

Glory to God

Presider: Let us give glory to our Loving Holy One in whom we live, move and have our being. All: Glory to God, Glory, O praise God Alleluia. Glory to God, Glory, O praise the name of our God! (2 times)

Liturgy of The Word

First Reading: 1 Samuel 3: 1-10 (Read at ordination Feb 6, 2010)

Now young Samuel was in the service of YHWH under Eli… One night Eli, whose eyes had grown so weak that he could no longer see, was sleeping in his bed. The lamp of God had not gone out and Samuel was sleeping in the Tent of Meeting, near the Ark of the Covenant.

Then YHWH called to Samuel, “Samuel answered, “Here I am!” and ran to Eli saying, “You called. Here I am.” Elli responded, “I didn’t call you. Now go back to sleep.” Eli went back to sleep.

A second time, YHWH called Samuel, and he got up and went to Eli. “Here I am! You called me.” Eli replied, “I did not call you. Go back to sleep.” At that time Samuel had not yet encountered YHWH and word of God had not yet been revealed to him. YHWH called Samuel a third time, and Samuel got up, went to Elie and said once more, “Here I am. You called me.”

Then Eli realized that YHWH was calling to the boy. So he said to “Samuel, go back to sleep and if you are called, say, “Speak, YHWH, for your servant is listening.” So, Samuel went back to sleep. Samuel went back to sleep. YHWH called, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel replied, “Yes, YHWH, I am listening.” …Then Samuel told Eli everything, concealing nothing. Eli said, “YHWH reigns. YHWH will do what must be done. These are the inspired words of the Hebrew Testament and we affirm them by saying, All: Amen.

Bridget Mary

Reflection: Bridget Mary Community: Our Call to Ministry

Today in our first reading we hear the story of God’s call to Samuel to be a prophet for Israel. Let us reflect on Eli’s role as he accompanied Samuel, and guided him to truly listen and recognize the gentle divine voice speaking powerfully and passionately within the quiet of his soul.

Today we celebrate Katy’s 10^th anniversary of ordination in the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests. Katy’s preparation for this life-changing step began long before she met us in her years of pastoral ministry and courageous witness for justice and equality. Our program affirmed her life experiences and pastoral skills as valid preparation and focused on units of reflection on sacramental ministry in a non-clerical, inclusive model of priestly ministry. Ten years ago Katy stood before us here in St. Andrew Church and said, “here I am, I am ready.” We rejoice in your ministry, dear Katy, to serve us as our sister and priest in a discipleship of equals. May you be blessed with many more years of generous service.

Like Eli and Samuel, let us rejoice that each of us is called to support one another in discerning our ongoing call to be prophets of justice in the 21^st century. Like Jesus and his disciples, all of us are called, consecrated, and gifted with a rich variety of talents to live the Gospel of love and integrity today.

Today we renew our commitment to our communal ministry to stand together on the inside edge of the Roman Catholic Church. We affirm that we are Church, called and gifted to be the compassionate face of the Holy One both in our individual and communal ministries as God’s beloved people.

As we embrace each other today in a circle of peace and love, let us celebrate our call to be a holy shakeup, rocking the boat of Peter with the courage of Mary, Mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene and all holy women and men throughout the ages! Amen, Alleluia!

Psalm Response: from Psalm 40 (adapted from Psalms for Praying, Nan C Merrill)