We celebrate Janice Sevre Duszynska ARCWP- a prophetic witness to justice and peace and to the full equality of women in ordained ministries for over 30 years!
In March of 2022, Diane Dougherty ARCWP created a powerpoint to honor Janice and the work she put into pushing the Women's Ordination Movement. Technically the PPT begins after 11 min
Celebrating -Janice Sevre Duszynska ARCWP
1-2 DD Today is a surprise celebration for a Woman of Grand Proportion...Janice Sevre-Duszynska. She is one who has shaken up an International global institution-one crying out in the wilderness as the voice of God for gender equity and justice. Her unwelcomed and persistent presence and voice is slowly joined by many as women rise.
Janice presence in the media has been striking, a beautiful depiction of a woman of grace and substance, but her voice-avoice that brings with it a two edged sword, causing chaos and insecurity to many who are forced to listen. To say nothing of that body-those signs-and a cadre of people joining in as a vocal and oftentimes visual chorus, elites wish to diminish and silence.
Giulia Bianchi brought to us an image of the real Janice, the one who prays, plans and prepares. The Janice that rises early to read, answer phone calls (from Bridget Mary working on an assignment to write the latest press release or statement)...... The pic is one she does not like to see-but one depicting the power that readies her to join others in the next action.
3-DD Joining us today are those with whom she was first nurtured and who wrap her tight with love. Her sister Joyce and son Joshua and her precious nieces and nephews...
4 DD Guilia Bianchi also captured this image that she uses in her Woman Priest Project that best describes her passion and steely focus when she says, “Before I die, I want to be a priest.” And in the documentary Pink Smoke she said, “I knew there was a place for women on the altar more than just in a coffin or as a bride.”
5 Shellley Gilchrist SO..her Saga to be who she is todaybegan-long before Women’s Ordination Movement of 2002. In 1998 she carried out her vision with Holy Abandon.
Donna Panera wrote down this memory:
One day I wrote down some things Janice said about the action along with the words she said to Bishop Williams. Prior to the action Janice said she had dreams about the church where she would do the action. She said, "I knew it was part of my destiny. It was a knowing.” She said that her hands shook for three hours when the idea of the action came to her. These are the words she said to Bishop Williams when she talked to him during the ordination of the male priests:
“Bishop Williams, Bishop Williams, I am called by the Holy Spirit to ask for ordination. My name is Janice and I ask this for myself and all women. “(She prostrated herself of the altar) The bishop said, “Get up, you are disrupting the service.” Janice stood up and said, “ I am all of the oppressed women of the Bible. I am Sarah, I am Hanna, I am Veronica, I am the woman who touched the hem of Jesus’s garment. I am the woman who pore oil over Jesus head. I am here today with the help of my patron saint, Saint Joan of Arc, hoping you world ordain me for all women. Will you ordain me?”
6 Wanda Years later, she took the call to higher levels as those who have the power to change-the US Conference of Bishops-but like Charlie Brown characters covering their ears as she spoke...she got no hearing from this crowd.
Sevre-Duszynska crashed the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops meeting in Washington in 2000, taking over the mike to read her "Statement for Justice for Women in the Church" until her power was cut off.
7-8 DDONeal Billboard Campaign
Seven Chicago Women's Ordination Conference (WOC) women originated the billboard idea in the spring of 2000 when they put up their billboard: "You're waiting for a sign from God? This is it: "Ordain Women" in response to the Archdiocese of Chicago's million dollar campaign for male priests. A couple of us then brought the "Ordain Women" billboard to Milwaukee (my hometown) for the November, 2000 CTA Conference. Then we moved it to Lexington from December through early February,2001, where it was featured in the Lexington Herald-Leader newspaper three times. Then the Southeastern Pennsylvania WOC women took it to Philadelphia. Other billboards appeared in LaCrosse, WI, and Detroit, MI as well as in Minnesota and Iowa. For the WOW Conference, BASIC put up six billboards across Ireland of their commissoned New Last Supper painting, showing Jesus sharing at a Jewish Passover meal with women, men, and children. The billboard was a useful method of promoting women's ordination to the public.
9-10 Miriam Women’s Ordination Worldwide 2001-Shadow Synod of the People of God
The banner hung during the Synod of Bishops in October, 2001 on the edge of Rome and the Vatican. It called for the ordination of women in seven languages: Italian, English, Polish, German, Spanish, French and Latin. Janice says, “I brought along three Kentucky Derby pies and three fifths of Kentucky Maker's Mark Bourbon as gifts for the three Italian men in Rome who helped get the banner displayed.” Over one hundred members of Catholic reform groups from all over the world gathered nearby --at the Waldesian Theological Seminary (a Protestant seminary) -- to discuss reform measures for our Church as the bishops were meeting. This week-long gathering of worldwide Catholic reformers was sponsored by the Europeans' We Are Church.
11. KATY 2002 Preparing for prison -sacrifice and loss
Upon returning her superintendent terminated her employment effective immediately stating “insubordinate and conduct unbecoming a teacher as well as violating of professional conduct of Kentucky School Certified personnel,” which he said was a breach of contract. In August of 2005, the Court of Appeals of Kentucky reinstated her, with full backpay because she was denied a leave of absence.
KATY Letter from Bill Quigley
In 2002, I met Janice Sevre-Duszynska. She was one of 43 people going to trial in federal court in Columbus GA for trespassing on the grounds of Fort Benning to challenge the human rights abuses committed by graduates of the School of the Americas there on the base.
When it came time for Janice to speak to the court and explain why she took her brave action, she approached the bench in a long white robe and a colorful stole carrying a chalice and bread. The judge's eyes opened up wide. She took the stand and explained how her fight for human rights and equal dignity in the church complemented her fight for human rights and equal dignity in the actions of the US. She was a powerful speaker and everyone in the courtroom was riveted.
Despite her beautiful testimony the judge found her guilty and sentenced her to federal prison. She served her time with dignity and grace. As a result of her protest she also lost her job as a school teacher.
Years later, my partner Debbie and I were fortunate enough to attend the ordination of Janice. She dressed much the same and carried herself with the same dignity and grace as when she addressed the court. It was a beautiful ceremony in which Janice took another step for human rights and equal dignity.
Janice has taught me a lot. Most important of all, Janice models the interconnectedness of all our struggles for human rights and carrying on despite the odds with dignity and grace.
Love you Janice! Bill Quigley
12 2006 Bridget Mary
Ordination as Deacon in Pittsburgh
13 08/08/08 ROY
Ordination as Priest in Lexington KY
DD Rule of Unintended Consequences-For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction
14 Kathy Boylan 2008 Catholic Worker House Washington DC
15 DD Backlash for men who cross these lines.....Three Amigo’s 12, 11, 12
16 -17 2011 Kate Women’s Ordination Conference 10/17/2011
From right, Janice Sevre, Reverend Roy Bourgeois, ReeHudson, Donna Rougeux and Erin Saiz Hanna, members of the Women's Ordination Conference group, stage a protest in front of St. Peter's basilica in Rome on Monday, Oct. 17,2011.
Janice Sevre-Duszynska was engaged by Italian police as she approaches the Vatican during a demonstration for women's ordination in 2011. (CNS/Paul Haring)
18-20 2012 Bob Watkins Trouble to Atlanta
Atlanta-Bishop’s Conference
Janice Sevre-Duskynska of Lexington, KY, displayed a poster of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper” altered to include women. Sevre-Duszynska of Lexington, KY who was arrested for trespassing at the Cathedral of Christ the King n Atlanta during a February ordination service, said she was trying to keep alive the issue of Women’s Ordination. https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.rna.org/resource/resmgr/contest_docs/2003templetonfinalist1stplac.pdf
21-22 2013 Kate Election of Pope Francis Women’s Ordination Movement
Janice Sevre-Duszynska
In this photo taken on Thursday, March 7, 2013 Janice Sevre-Duszynska poses with a banner at the Vatican. The election of a new pope always brings with it hopes for change from across the Catholic ideological and theological spectrum. Advocacy groups from around the world have descended on Rome to try to publicize their causes while media attention on the Vatican is high. Roman Catholic Womenpriests was founded in Germany in 2002 after seven women said they were ordained as priests on the Danube River in violation of church law. The Vatican excommunicated them a few weeks later. Since then, hundreds of women say they have been validly ordained as deacons, priests and a handful of bishops. Since then as well, the Vatican has made the illicit ordination of women one of the "gravest" canonical crimes, dealt with exclusively by Benedict XVI's old office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
23-24 2015 Kate Pope and Philadelphia
25-26 2016 Kate then CHRISTINA Jubilee for WOMEN PRIESTS JUNE 1-3
WOMEN’S ORDINATION WORLEWIDE
27 Kate Quote from Giulia “Inspired by prophets and mystics, against clericalism and power, women priests open their communities to divorced, gay, and all those whom the Church does not invite to their Eucharistic table. I was shown a model of world where if there is no justice for the smallest and the weakest, then there’s no justice at all. To me those women are a symbol. They are showing us the primacy of conscience and how to renew our own tradition.”
28 JANICE Joan of Arc Patron Saint INTERNAL MENTOR AN GUIDE
29 WOMEN PRIESTS WOC, WOW, Peace and Justice community, your family and friends- women and the men who support you, doing what we have the power to do, facing the people of God in mission and ministry.
30 MAX-Most especially Max, your closest partner and support
31 ROY- Your companion on this long journey who tells us often that
You give him hope in the struggle for gender equality in the Catholic Church.
32 JERRY-Your brother Jerry, our heavenly advocate, that says “Until we meet again, walk with God.”
33 Your BROTHER PRIESTS- Jesuit Bill (Bix) Bischel, Oblate of Mary Immaculate Carl Kabat, ARCWP Janice Sevre -Duszynska, Franciscans Jerry Zawada and Louis Vitale
34 DD Janice, When I hear the words Ministry of Irritation, I think of tools weakening strong structures, yours being outrageous words and actions loosening hard hearts and closed minds, tools loosening fertile ground for the spring planting of seeds spread worldwide that end the opposition to women being ordained, seeding the need to work with multitudes toward gender equity worldwide.
Perhaps a significant sign of that hope is the news in January of 2022, that the Vatican includes a group backing women's ordination on the Vatican website as reported by the National Catholic Reporter...
That group would be the Women’s Ordination Conference that launched, “Let Her Voice Carry” allowing women’s marginalized voices to be recorded during the years of preparation for the Synod of 2023.
35 DD Let us raise a toast to Janice who participated in this good fight with many to bring justice and equality for womenthat will roll down like a river-and to all who are running the long road with her and each other in support. To Janice WeLove You Unmute all
Close power point.
Mute everyone again:
Thanks to all who are participating,,,,
Janice speaks
We will hear now from some who want to give you a short message or memory.
We will be systematic to make sure everyone is heard starting with Family-Friends from WOC Peace movement-Priests
Name yourself and tell how you are related to Janice....you can also use the chat at the bottom also if you would like to say something
Family members unmute I will see that you are unmuted and call your name
....
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