A Fear-Based Church?: Why So Many Catholics Are Afraid to Speak Out

Rev. James Martin, S.J.

Catholic priest and author of 'The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything'

A Fear-Based Church?: Why So Many Catholics Are Afraid to Speak Out

"Bishop Dowling's blunt address was not only about what he called the "dismantling" of the Second Vatican Council, which reformed the church in the 1960s, but something else: the overwhelming "pressure to conform." Here's an irony: the one speaking out about speaking out apparently did not feel that he could speak out, at least not broadly, or at least not to everyone, or at least not publicly. His desire not to speak more publicly on the topic may have proved his point. "

"None of this is meant to be a slight against Bishop Dowling, whom I've greatly admired for some time. He is a terrific leader, a wonderful teacher and, in many ways, a real prophet. What a bishop should and could be."

"But neither is this surprising. Today in the Catholic Church almost any disagreement to almost any degree with almost any church leader on almost any topic is seen as dissent. And I'm not speaking about the essentials of the faith -- those elements contained in the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed -- but about less essential topics. Even on those topics -- for example, the proper strategy for bishops to deal with Catholic politicians at odds with church teaching, the new translations of the Mass, the best way for priests to address complicated moral issues, and so on -- the slightest whiff of disagreement is confused with disloyalty."

How are we going to grow as a faith community without dissent? Roman Catholic Womenpriests are a gift to an instiutional church that is deeply sexist and fearful of women priests. Needed are courageous prophets, ordinary Catholics to speak truth to power, including to Pope Benedict. Jesus said, "fear not" and this is exactly what we must do. Speaking the truth boldly and in love to our institutional Roman Catholic leaders is not disloyal, it is is faithfulness to the Gospel.

Women, by our baptism, are images of Christ. No natural resemblance to a male Jesus is necessary to serve God's people as servant priests. Let's shout it from the mountain tops. Sexism is wrong. The full equality of women in our church is the call of the Spirit in our times! Let us follow Jesus example of Gospel equality and reclaim the church's twelve hundred year tradition of women in ordained leadership. Bridget Mary Meehan, sofiabmm@aol.com, 703-505-0004

Belgian cardinal urged victim to delay sex abuse statement

http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre67r1en-us-belgium-church-abuse/

BRUSSELS, Aug. 28, 2010 (Reuters) —

"The former head of Belgium's Catholic Church suggested to a sexual abuse victim it would be better to delay a public statement on the case until the bishop involved resigned in 2011, a Church spokesman said on Saturday."

"Jurgen Mettepenningen confirmed transcripts in Belgium's De Standaard newspaper of a meeting Roman Catholic Cardinal Godfried Danneels held with Bishop Roger Vangheluwe and a sexual abuse victim of the bishop in April 2010."

"It is true this meeting and conversation took place, and that the transcript is correct," Mettepenningen told Reuters.

"Parish community refuses to be suppressed"-- NCR Online

Aug. 27, 2010

By Robert McClory

"Saying the diocese can take away a parish’s building but not its community, about 350 members of a suppressed Cleveland parish defied their bishop’s orders and celebrated Mass Aug. 15 in a rented space as the legally incorporated Community of St. Peter"...

"The St. Peter situation is somewhat unique among closed-down parishes in the country. In many cases, parishioners have struggled to keep their churches open in defiance of the local bishop, some even occupying the church buildings 24 hours a day. That is not the case here"...

“As the bishop went around the diocese closing parishes,” said Bob Zack, a community leader, “he kept saying a parish is not a piece of real estate. It’s a community of people. We understood that, we got it. If he wants the building, fine, take it. But we refuse to be suppressed as a community.”

This could be a model for parishes facing closing in the future. The community could choose to continue as a community because the people of God are the church. The sacred space is a secondary concern for the Body of Christ. These communities could call forth women and men as servant leaders and as priests. This is an early church model. I bet this is just around the corner for other Catholic communities in this priest-short, parish closing times. Congratulations, St. Peter's Community for this courageous step . Other Catholic parishes may follow your example sooner than later. May the Spirit guide one and all as we work to share our faith in caring, worshiping communities. Bridget Mary Meehan

Homily for 22nd Sunday/Cycle C by Roberta Meehan, RCWP

Homily for the 22nd Sunday –

Cycle C –

29 August 2010

Sirach 3:17-18, 20, 28-29

Psalms 68:4-7, 10-11

Hebrews 12:18-19, 22-24

Luke 14:1, 7-14

(NB: In some versions of the Bible, the Book of Sirach – also known as Ecclesiasticus [not to be confused with Ecclesiastes] – is found in the Apocryphal section between the Old Testament and the New Testament.)

Humility – what is it about that word? Does it make you cringe sometimes? It does me! Do you hate it when someone says, “In my humble opinion….” I do. I suspect that is because we all know that person’s opinion is anything but humble. Or at least so we judge! Do you know people who use pseudo-humility as a means of fishing for compliments? I do. And, most of us have probably done it ourselves to a greater or lesser extent. It seems to be rather human. OK – We have all been there. We have all felt those feelings of “humble frustration” – which is certainly not humble! We all also know that to strive for humility is probably the best way in the world to achieve anything but humility. It comes down to strutting around saying, “I’m so proud of how humble I am today!” But, today’s Scripture readings almost give us a mixed message here! In Sirach the author (Ben Sira) states clearly, “…conduct your affairs with humility, and you will be loved more than a giver of gifts. Humble yourself the more, the greater you are, and you will find favor with God.” In other words, if we are really anxious to be loved (rather than to love) and if we are really interested in finding great favor with God, we should be humble. So, are we actually striving to be great by being non-great? And, in Luke we hear the instructions on how we should always approach the lowest place at the banquet table so we will not be embarrassed and so that we will be asked to move up – and then everyone will notice our importance! This sounds again like we are striving for greatness by our non-greatness. All of this brings us to two questions: What is humility? And, how do we achieve true humility without falling into the trap of pseudo-humility or false humility (that is, ulterior motives under the guise of apparent humility)? It is easier to state first what humility is not. Humility is not pretending to be the slime of the earth. Humility is not beating our breasts and impressing people with our “woe is me, a wretched sinner” attitude. Humility is not denying our achievements in the hopes that someone will contradict us and tell us how great we really are. Humility is not wearing a sign on the seat of our pants that says, “kick me” nor is it listing our occupation as “professional doormat.” Not one of those things above is true humility. Also, humility is not giving with the expectation of receiving – whether goods, or recognition, or praise, or anything else. Oh, wait a minute! In Sirach we hear that if we do things humbly we will be recognized. In Luke we hear the same thing. Ah, but there is a difference! Notice that in both Sirach and Luke, the statement is based on knowledge and not on expectation. It is not that we do something humbly expecting to receive recognition. It is doing that same something with the knowledge that we will be recognized. At the same time, we cannot have recognition as our motive. It may not come. This becomes very confusing. Perhaps we ought to use a definition of humility and see how this plays out. One definition of humility that I really like is “the total acceptance of things exactly the way they are.” Now, that is an interesting definition! Acceptance – this is God’s ordained world. Things are the way they are. If you are an inventor, you are an inventor. If you are a dishwasher, you are a dishwasher. If you are an artist and you do not create great art because you are humble, you are not humble at all! You have not accepted God’s gift. (Sounds like those various parables about the talents, doesn’t it?) If you are the greatest sailor on the lake but you do not enter the race because you are too humble to win, you are not humble at all. Of course you are not required to enter the race, but what are your motives for not doing so – because you are “too humble” or because you just don’t want to? The first reason (because you are “too humble”) is false pride and not humility at all (and a completely invalid reason for doing or not doing anything); the second reason (because you don’t want to) is an honest exercise of free will (and a totally valid reason for not entering the race). The Olympic athletes accept the fact that they are good. If they didn’t, they certainly would not be able to go forth. We are required to accept our gifts and to recognize our gifts. Humble acceptance does not mean that we cannot strive for more. Again, look at our athletes. Not one of them started out with a gold medal around his or her neck. But they did start out with an acceptance of their talent. Humility requires that we do the same. That is an acceptance of things exactly the way they are. Paul said, “By the grace of God, I am what I am.” And he accepted the fact that he could do great things. And he did them. He did not do great things for his own recognition – but rather for the honor and glory of God. Nevertheless, he accepted things as they were. Can we be like Paul? Can we totally accept things (God’s gifts) exactly the way they are? When complimented for an achievement, do we say, “It was nothing” (a lie!) or do we say, “Thank you!” (a humble recognition of acceptance). Will we receive recognition for our acceptance of things the way they are? Maybe in this world; maybe not until the next. But, at the same time, if our goal is recognition, we have defeated the purpose of our acceptance! It does not work that way. We accept things, we do what is right, and as Sirach says, we will find favor with God. That is our end point. The 12-Steppers are all familiar with the concept of doing the next right thing. This is humility. What is the next right thing? Composing a great musical piece? Cleaning the bathroom? Going to the store? Stopping at the scene of an accident and calling for help? Whatever it is, that next right thing is an acceptance of things exactly the way they are and is an example of true humility. The task is done – not for personal gain but because it is in front of us and because we have the talent to do something about it. Before she died writer Erma Bombeck said that when she got to the Pearly Gates and God asked her what she had brought with her, she wanted to be able to say, “Absolutely nothing! I used every talent you gave me!” We should strive to be able to say the same. How are we going to achieve this humility? Well, not one of us is going to achieve perfect humility – and even accepting that is in itself humility! But, we will move along this pathway toward humility by being aware of who and what we are, by accepting who and what we are, by accepting the challenges of life, by striving to remove our ulterior motives from our words and our deeds, by seeking always to do the next right thing in front of us, by acting and thinking without a primary motive of personal gain but with the motive that we are doing the next right thing, and finally by thinking and acting with the full knowledge that God knows us completely and God does indeed recognize exactly what we are doing and how and why we are doing it. --

Roberta M Meehan,RCWP

Needed Ireland's Daughters to Serve as Priests and Save the Church

There is no vocation shortage in Ireland or anywhere else if the institutional church was to affirm women's vocation to the priesthood.

Now is the time for courageous Irish women to step up to serve the Roman Catholic Church in a renewed priestly ministry in a community of equals! Let's get rid of the clericalism and share our beloved faith in Jesus who led the way by calling women and men as disciples and equals. St. Brigit of Kildare would be proud. She was ordained a bishop in Kildare where women and men served the Christian community in the double monastery there.

Like our foremothers who passed on our mystical, Celtic spirituality, Irish women today can lead the way toward justice and equality for women in the Church. After the boycott called by Jennifer Sleeman on Sept. 26th, I hope women in Ireland and around the world, will answer their God-given call to serve their communities as priests!

We owe a depth of gratitude to Jennifer Sleeman, the gutsy Irish grandmother who has called for a boycott of Mass attendance on Sept. 26th. Hopefully, many places, not just in Ireland, will catch the spirit and join Roman Catholic Womenpriests as we serve in inclusive communities where all are welcome in the U.S. , Canada, and Europe.

Women of the world, unite in solidarity to live Jesus call of Gospel equality now. Your faithful protest will not only shake up the boys in Rome, but may even change the institutional church in ways yet to be imagined!!
Bridget Mary Meehan, RCWP/USA Southern Region.
Contact: sofiabmm@aol.com
http://www.romancatholicwomenpriests.org/

BACKGROUND:
"On August 11th, 80 year old Jennifer Sleeman of Ireland called all women in Ireland to stay home from Mass on September 26th (her 81st birthday) to raise awareness of the unjust treatment of women in the Catholic Church. This was prompted by the Vatican’s declaration that ordination of women is a sin as grave as pedophilia. She said, “I think this might give people who perhaps feel voiceless in the church a voice. There are lots of women who feel very strongly about being able to do more within the church but are simply not allowed to do so.”
Many women of St. Andrew Parish in Portland, Oregon have been moved by Mrs. Sleeman’s call to witness to the injustices to women in the Church. We have been inspired to invite others across the Northwest to join us in promoting awareness of the Church’s treating women as second class citizens by staging a public event on September 26 to pray, sing, and give testimony to the need for change in the Church. Our intentions are not to be divisive or disrespectful; rather, with great hope, peace and prayerfulness, we desire to make a strong statement for justice for women, and the need for change in the Catholic Church. "
LINKS:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0820/1224277229226.html
http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Women-of-Ireland-asked-to-boycott-Sunday-Mass-100681334.htmlhttp://www.independent.ie/national-news/mass-boycott-woman-says-shes-stunned-by-support-2297963.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/16/world/europe/16vatican.html
http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/dont-know-whether-laugh-cry-or-scream

Ireland's sons turn their backs on the priesthood
By Jerome Taylor, Religious Affairs Correspondent
Friday, 27 August 2010 - THE INDPENDENT UK
"The number of priestly ordinations in Ireland has dipped below England and Wales for the first time in living memory, new figures reveal. The recruitment crisis is a clear indication of how low the church has sunk in a country that once used to export Catholic missionaries to all corners of the globe and often provided Britain with a significant proportion of its priests. "
"According to new figures released by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Ireland, just 16 men are due to start training for the priesthood this autumn, less than half the 39 that signed up for the priesthood last year. In the 1980s Ireland would regularly draw more than 150 new recruits to the priesthood every year. "

News Stories: Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan Calls For Justice and Equality for Sexual Abuse Survivors and for Women Priests in Ireland

Bridget Mary speaks at Humbert Summer School Aug. 20,1010 in Castlebar, Ireland

Bridget Mary Outside Cottage where family lived Coolkerry, County Laois, Ireland

http://www.laois-nationalist.ie/tabId/153/itemId/4221/Female-bishop-calls-for-Popes-resignation.aspx

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0821/1224277318879.html

Catholic Church is a 'toxic place' for women
Mayo News
Laois native, Bridget Mary Meehan, an ordained Bishop of the Roman Catholic Women Priests organisation in the US was speaking at the Humbert Summer School ...

Humbert Summer School 2010
Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan, who appeared last year on Joe Duffy's Spirit Level programme on RTE, is to speak at the Humbert Summer School in Castlebar this ...

http://www.google.com/url?sa=X&q=http://www.iol.ie/~duacon/hss2010.htm&ct=ga&cad=:s7:f2:v0:d1:i1:ld:e0:p0:t1282509391:&cd=nbXV5XLv5iI&usg=AFQjCNGQ-jguMWsn2PwqanIosCQv3nOPmg

The Irish Times - Friday, August 20, 2010
Call to boycott Mass may be start of 'revolution in Catholic Church'
PATSY McGARRY Religious Affairs Correspondent
A REVOLUTION “may already have started” in the Catholic Church in Ireland, the Humbert Summer School was told in Castlebar, Co Mayo, last night.
US religion commentator Robert Blair Kaiser said in the keynote address that news reports last week of 80-year-old Jennifer Sleeman’s call for a boycott of Sunday Mass on September 26th in protest at the Vatican’s treatment of women suggested that “this grandmother from Cork” may “already have started a revolution”.
“She obviously believes what I believe, that you can have a voice and a vote in your own church, and still be Catholic and, at the same time, Irish,” he said.
Author of 13 books, many on Catholic Church reform, as correspondent for Time magazine, Kaiser was awarded an Overseas Press Club award for his coverage of the Second Vatican Council.
Speaking last night on the topic Catholic Church Reform: No More Thrones, he said that “until the Copernican revolution, monarchs exercised absolute control over their subjects by divine right. But when the peoples of the world, informed by a new cosmology, put the divine right of kings into history’s dust bin, they forgot to toss the divine right of popes into the garbage, too.
He emphasised: “I am not attacking our Catholic faith. I am talking about the special and corrosive tyranny that popes have been exercising over Catholics everywhere . . .”
He said that “for a thousand years, popes have promoted a clerical church instead of a Jesus church, that the fathers of Vatican II worked for four serious years to give the church back to the people, and that popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI spent the next 30 years repealing their labour, and allowing corruption to reign, a move that has left our church, which is Christ’s body on earth, broken”....“Can you help create a people’s church?” he asked. “Yes! You can if you want to. In this context, I like to quote Pope John Paul II. In 1978, he travelled to Warsaw and told millions of Poles: ‘You can take back your country if you demand it.’ You could be saying the same thing: ‘We can take back our church if we demand it.’
“The Poles were fighting against long odds – the military might of the Soviet Union itself. But they won their battle.”
He said that “news over the past decade about our crumbling, abuse-of-authority church may tell us that change is already happening, happening faster than anyone thinks”.
Responding, Irish Catholic deputy editor Michael Kelly said that clericalism in the church “was at the heart of the sex abuse scandal”. By “clericalist” he meant “an elitist mind-set, together with structures and patterns of behaviour corresponding to it, that take it for granted that clerics are intrinsically superior to the other members of the church and deserve automatic deference. Passivity and dependency are the laity’s lot.”

The Irish Times - Saturday, July 31, 2010
'Being a woman priest is what I feel I am called to do'
PATSY McGARRY Religious Affairs Correspondent
The Vatican’s directive confirming its policy of excommunication for those involved in the ordination of women has been greeted with defiance by dissidents in the US and dismay by Irish campaigners
‘SHOCKING.” “A travesty.” “A slap in the face.” “The action of a paranoid, scared, running-for-cover Vatican.” Those are just some of the phrases used by Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan to describe the latest directive from Rome on the ordination of women.
The Vatican’s Normae de Gravioribus Delictis , published two weeks ago, concerns sanctions in canon law for clerical child sex abuse, concelebration of the Eucharist with Protestant ministers, heresy, apostasy, schism – and the ordination of women. It reaffirmed the sanction of excommunication for anyone involved with the ordination of women in the Catholic Church.
Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan is a leader of an ever-growing band of dissidents from this policy. She is “happy to be excommunicated. If they keep going like this there’ll soon be more ‘out’ than ‘in’. We’re at the heart of the church, renewing it. We’re not going to put up with second-class membership any more. We are an empowered community of Catholics. Mysticism and social justice are in my DNA as an Irish Catholic. I love the faith, but this corrupt church has to be reformed. Where are the excommunicated paedophiles or bishops who covered up the abuse of children?”...
Publication of Normae de Gravioribus Delictis has been “a watershed moment” for the Roman Catholic Women Priests (RCWP) group, to which she belongs. It has attracted huge media attention to the RCWP in the US.
Meehan is based in Florida, where, she says, “the publicity is unbelievable”. Members of the movement in Europe have said to her that if the group can make headway in the US, the Vatican will take heed.
Rome just has to “get over the sexism and misogyny”, says Meehan. “To say women are not worthy is so over the top. It is very hateful to women. Very, very hostile to women.”
It has got to the stage, she claims, where people are now seeking out the RCWP as “the Catholic Church has become too toxic now”. Besides, “there were women deacons, priests, and bishops for the first 1,200 years of Christianity, in the Celtic Church too. There is a letter from Rome condemning women priests in the Irish church back then.”
Meehan was ordained bishop last year, having become a priest in 2006, and serves communities in Virginia and Florida.
The first women Catholic priests, the so-called “Danube" Seven”, were ordained on that river in Germany in 2002. Five were German, one was Austrian and one was American. The following year saw the ordination of two women Catholic bishops, one German, one Austrian.
As explained on the RCWP website, the ordinations “are valid because of our unbroken line of apostolic succession within the Roman Catholic Church. The principal consecrating Roman Catholic male bishop who ordained our first women bishops is a bishop with a line of unbroken apostolic succession within the Roman Catholic Church in full communion with the Pope.”
The Vatican does not agree. On May 29th 2008 its Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith (CDF) stated that the women priests and the bishops who ordained them would be excommunicated latae sententiae (automatically)..."

Vatican rejects resignations of 2 Dublin bishops
By SHAWN POGATCHNIK Associated Press Writer
EXCERPTS: DUBLIN (AP) -- Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has told priests that the Vatican has rejected the resignations of his two auxiliary bishops following their reported involvement in the Roman Catholic Church's cover-up of child abuse.


"Posters Advocating Womenpriests Will be on London's Buses When Pope Visists"

LONDON (Reuters Life!) -
"Pope Benedict will be confronted by posters on London's famous red buses during his trip to the British capital next month which will call for the ordination of women priests.
Protests are planned throughout his four-day trip to England and Scotland, the first papal visit since John Paul II's pastoral visit in 1982 and the first-ever official papal visit to Britain.
One group of women, Catholic Women's Ordination (CWO), will have its message plastered on the side of the buses as they travel along key routes, including past Westminster Hall, at the Palace of Westminster, where the pope is set to deliver a speech to Britain's civic society on September 17."

Bridget Mary Meehan will speak on Roman Catholic Womenpriests Movement in Ireland on Aug.20,2010

Humbert Summer School
News Release

August 13, 2010

A gathering of “democratic republicans” will assemble next week to discuss a radical blueprint for reforming the relations of the Irish and American Catholic Churches with the Pope and the Vatican.

The gathering will bring together leading progressive Catholics from Ireland and the United States, including survivors of child clerical abuse, a senior attorney specialising in litigation against paedophile clerics, a psychiatrist dealing with paedophile priests and a woman Catholic bishop.

The assembly will open in Castlebar, Co Mayo, on Thursday August 19 under the banner of the Humbert Summer School dedicated to the republican ideals of General Jean Humbert, the French Revolutionary General, who landed in Killala Bay during the 1978 Rebellion to liberate Ireland from British rule.

The independent forum will provide a platform for reform-minded Catholics to express their outrage at the unaccountability of the Vatican and continuing clericalist control of church affairs.

“It will discuss ways of liberating the Irish and American Churches from the diktat of of the papacy and the Roman Curia, as well as iniating new forms of ministry such as married male clergy and women priests,” said Humbert School Director, John Cooney.

“It will be the biggest public focus for establishing structures for innovative people-based church governance since the publication last year of the damning Murphy Report into six decades of cover-ups in the archdiocese of Dublin from the reigns of Archbishop John Charles McQuaid to Cardinal Desmond Connell,” added Mr Cooney, the Religion Correspondent of the Irish Independent.

Announcing details yesterday (FRIDAY) of the four day School from August 19 to 22, Mr Cooney, said that the reform blueprint would be unveiled in the opening-keynote address by the veteran American journalist and author, Robert Blair Kaiser.

Mr Kaiser, who reported the Second Vatican Council, 1962-65, will talk on “Reforming the Catholic Church- No more thrones.”

Responding to Mr Kaiser’s scheme for decentralising local churches from the power of the Roman Curia while retaining communion with the papacy will be Michael Kelly, deputy editor of the Irish Catholic and Augustinian monk, Fr Iggy O’Donovan.

The case for the ordination of women priests will be put on Friday August 19 by Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan, who belongs to the fast-growing Women Priests Movement in America and Europe.

The Movements insists that its women bishops and priests have been validly ordained in line with the Catholic Church’s apostolic traditions and have ignored Vatican warnings that they incur automatic excommunication from Rome.

Irish survivors, Marie Collins and Andrew Madden, will receive their first public honours next Friday with the presentation of the Humbert School’s “Outstanding Courage Awards.”

Other prominent speakers will be One in Four Chief Executive Maeve Lewis, Californian Attorney Patrick Wall, who is currently investigating abuse claims in Germany, Boston survivor, Bernie McDaid, and Washington-based psychiatrist, Tom Drummond.

Taking part in debates will be religious affairs correspondents, Patsy McGarry of the Irish Times and Joe Little of RTE.

Speakers in debates on “A New Constitution for 20th Century Ireland” and “Can the European Union survive the euro crisis?” will include Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach, Dara Calleary, Labour Party Deputy leader and Finance spokesperson, Joan Burton, and Fine Gael Senator Eugene Regan and MEP Jim Higgins.

The School’s annual peace address on Sunday August 22 will be given by Church of Ireland Bishop of Tuam, Achonry and Killala, Bishop Richard Henderson.

For details www.humbertschool.ie and for registration humbertschool@gmail.com

MEDIA CONTACT – JOHN COONEY
087 2418461

Women Challenge Gender Apartheid in the Catholic Church by Angela Bonavoglia

http://www.ontheissuesmagazine.com/2010summer/2010summer_Bonavoglia.php

If ever there were doubt about the relationship between the Catholic Church's spectacular failure to address the clerical child sex abuse crisis and the church's glaring system of gender apartheid, the Vatican put it to rest in July. Engendering a firestorm of criticism, their new canonical guidelines for handling and punishing the most "grave crimes" in church law revealed just how enraged the hierarchy is at women who dare to challenge them. Along with the crimes of sexually molesting children and developmentally disabled adults, and of using and distributing pornography, the Vatican listed: "the attempted sacred ordination of a woman."

In other words, the two greatest problems the Catholic hierarchy faces are women and children..."

"So threatening was the Danube event that one month after, Pope Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, publicly denounced and excommunicated all seven women. That is a sanction he has never issued— even now, in the new canonical guidelines — against a single cleric who raped or sodomized a child or a single bishop who aided and abetted such crimes..."

"Benedict's actions have not stemmed the tide. Nearly 100 women have been ordained or are in training to be ordained through the Roman Catholic Women Priests movement, vividly documented in Jules Hart's just-released film, Pink Smoke Over the Vatican. The new canonical guidelines call for excommunication of the ordained woman and the priest who ordains her, which is redundant, since the Vatican did that in 2007. But it also authorizes speedy recourse to the ultimate punishment for a priest: laicization, or the end of his priesthood."

"That laicization threat shows just how dangerous the hierarchy sees the passionate, public expressions of support from high-profile Catholic priests, like beloved peace activist Father Roy Bourgeois, founder of the School of Americas Watch. Under threat of excommunication for co-presiding at one of the ordinations, Bourgeois remains an outspoken advocate, insisting that "there will never be justice in the Catholic Church until women can be ordained."...

Without women priests, Catholics miss out on ministry/Article in NCR Online

http://ncronline.org/blogs/small-c-catholic/without-women-priests-catholics-miss-out-ministry

by Bill Tammeus on Aug. 11, 2010 NCR Online

For decades now I’ve watched Catholics debate whether to ordain women as priests, an issue that flared again recently when the Vatican named “attempted women’s ordination” among “grave crimes.”...

But sometimes I wonder if Catholics know what they’re missing by not having female priests. Yes, Catholics get a sense of ministry by women through the often remarkable work of women religious. But even that is different from authorizing women to engage in the full range of ministry, including administering the sacraments...

But Catherine’s real skill was being a feminine ministerial presence in the midst of pain. When my 31-year-old nephew died in the 9/11 terrorist attacks as a passenger on the first plane to hit the World Trade Center, she dropped whatever else was on her agenda and came to our house to mourn with us -- several times.

She didn’t come with clear and headstrong theological answers for us, though of course she was willing to struggle with our questions. Rather, she brought her presence, an absorbing warmth and understanding that I’ve never felt from a male member of the clergy. To survive in ministry as a female, she knew she needed both head and heart, and she had managed not to abandon her nurturing heart as she lived her life on a playing field dominated by men...

"I wish all Christians could experience this kind of ministry."

* * *

Bill Tammeus, a Presbyterian elder and former award-winning faith columnist for The Kansas City Star, writes the daily "Faith Matters" blog for The Star’s website and a monthly column for The Presbyterian Outlook. His latest book, co-authored with Rabbi Jacques Cukierkorn, is They Were Just People: Stories of Rescue in Poland During the Holocaust. His e-mail address is wtammeus@kc.rr.com.

Janice Sevre-Duszynska: Witnesses for Justice and Peace (Resistance for a Nuclear-Free Future)

Janice Sevre-Duszynska,RCWP above in stole and in the middle in of social justice advocates at Maryille College and the Nuclear Weapons Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. It is the front page story in Streetvibes, Cincinnati's activist newspaper advocating justice and building community. The title of the conference was Resistance for a Nuclear-Free Future. We also commemorated the 30th anniversary of the Plowshares Movement, The Nuclear Resister and Nukewatch.
http://streetvibes.wordpress.com/2010/08/02/a-joyous-hammer-strikes-again-at-y-12/

Excommunicate me, please by Sheila O'Brien/Chicago Tribune/Aug. 4, 2010

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2010-08-04/news/ct-oped-0804-excommunicate-20100804_1_excommunication-bishops-hierarchy

Excommunicate me, please

August 04, 2010|By Sheila O'Brien

"Would someone in Rome formally excommunicate me, please? I want to be excommunicated by the Roman Catholic Church because walking away will break my heart.

My grandparents left Ireland with nothing but their vibrant faith. They and my parents brought my siblings and me to a baptismal font and promised to guide us to Christ. And, they did that by word and deed. They taught us to love the Gospel and challenged us to live that Gospel at all costs. I love the Mass, Catholic social teaching, the scores of nuns who built the church around the world, the dedicated priests and people who love God with all their hearts and bring that love to the world. It is my life, the center of every experience, the filter for reality.

But, the headlines continue — more pedophilia, more stonewalling by the bishops, more "norms" from Rome protecting perpetrators. Now, it is a "crime" of the church to attempt to ordain people like Mother Teresa or St. Teresa of Avila — women. And, the hierarchy, who have arguably hidden crimes and criminals, who will not open the books so we can see where our money has gone and who always claim the moral high ground, have grouped ordaining women with pedophilia.

Our heads swirl. How can we stay in a church whose leaders protect pedophiles? Yet, how can we leave and relinquish our church to those very leaders?..."


Sheila O'Brien is a wife, mother, daughter, sister, a product of 22 years of Catholic education and active in her parish. She is a justice of the Illinois Appellate Court, Chicago.

Judge Sheila O'Brien's earnest plea for excommunication reflects the pain at the heart of many Catholics. Indeed, how can the Vatican protect pedophiles and excommunicate women priests?
Since this news, Roman Catholic Womenpriests have heard from many people, especially women, who are fed up with the church's discrimination against women. The good news is that some qualified women are discerning a vocation to the priesthood!
Bridget Mary Meehan, RCWP
703-505-0004
sofiabmm@aol.com





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Mary Magdalene Apostle Catholic Community Ordains Female Pastoral Assistant to the Roman Catholic Priesthood

left Pastor Jane Via and Pastoral Assistant
Nancy Corran

Mary Magdalene Apostle Catholic Community

“A new way to be Roman Catholic”

•Making Catholicism relevant •Restoring women’s ordination •Living the change we envision

**NEWS RELEASE**

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Phillip Faker

July 31, 2010 619-987-9288 or philf@cox.net

Mary Magdalene Apostle Catholic Community Ordains

Female Pastoral Assistant to the Roman Catholic Priesthood

San Diego, CA – Mary Magdalene Apostle Catholic Community (MMACC) joyfully announced today the ordination of community member and new Assistant Pastor Nancy Corran. The ordination ceremony was held on Saturday, July 31 at 7:00 p.m. at Gethsemane Lutheran Church and was attended by over 150 community members and guests.

MMACC is a Roman Catholic parish trying to lead the way in bringing reform and much needed changes to the Church. Led by Pastor Rev. Dr. Jane Via and Associate Pastor Rev. Rod Stephens, the community strives to be an inclusive Catholic community whose mission is to: reach out to those who feel marginalized by the traditional Roman Catholic Church; live Gospel values, especially those of compassion, peace, and social justice, as taught and exemplified by Jesus the Christ; commit to the full equality of women and men in a transformed Roman Catholic Church and world; and create a new model of church community as a discipleship of equals through radical inclusivity in language, worship and ministry.

Currently, the Vatican does not permit women to be priests or allow its local catholic communities to ordain priests (male or female). The Vatican has recently declared the ordination of women to be an offense in the same category as pedophilia. However, in the early Church, women served as priests and deacons and were selected from among their respective local church communities. Local communities were involved in the selection of their clergy at least until the 11th century and women were ordained as deacons until the 12th century. There has not been an ordination by a Roman Catholic community for at least a millennium.

MMACC has not gone unnoticed by the Vatican. In its public statements on excommunication, the Vatican has implied excommunication of all members of MMACC and any Roman Catholics who assist in the ordination of women.

“I believe that we live in a time of radical cultural transition. The Mary Magdalene Apostle Catholic Community is our effort to renew and transform the Church from within in a positive, constructive manner and with a compelling vision of the future church,” said Rev. Dr. Jane Via. “Today, in prophetic obedience to the earliest traditions of the Catholic church, we celebrated the ordination of and the extraordinary gifts of Nancy Corran. Nancy’s education, talent for ministry, and amazing faith led our community to call her to serve as priest as we work toward a larger structure of accountability in a Church that has integrity. Our community is blessed to have her as a member of our pastoral team and we are excited to share our faith journey with her.”

A San Diego native, Nancy holds a Diploma in Theology from Oxford, and a Master of Divinity from San Francisco Theological Seminary in San Anselmo, California which is part of the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley. She also completed post master’s studies in theology and Biblical languages in Switzerland. While raised primarily in the Presbyterian Church, Nancy had been drawn to many aspects of the Catholic tradition as a young adult. Ultimately, she decided against conversion to the Roman Catholic Church because of its hierarchy, patriarchy and refusal to ordain women. Searching for a more inclusive vision of church, Nancy joined the Mary Magdalene Apostle Catholic Community in 2005. Given her vast experience in spiritual, academic, and religious formation, Nancy was asked to serve as Pastoral Assistant. She was formally called to ordination by the community this year. Her current responsibilities there include adult education, serving as presider and homilist, religious education for the children, and many other tasks supportive of parish life.

For more information about Mary Magdalene Apostle Catholic Community, please visit our website www.mmacc.org.

Vatican Inner Workings- Hierarchy-Sex Offender Mentaility/Real Crime Refusing to Allow Women's Ordination? National Catholic Reporter

http://ncronline.org/news/vatican/inner-workings-hierarchy-sex-offender-mentality

By Fran Ferder and John Heagle

"Rome has now connected the sexual abuse of minors and a ban on the ordination of women in one of its own documents. Perhaps those who crafted the document are on to something: The refusal to allow women into the inner sanctum of ecclesial power may well be related to clergy sexual abuse, and to the Vatican’s impotence in addressing this crime in a truly pastoral way. Is the attempted ordination of women a crime, or is the real crime the refusal to allow it?"

Mary Magdalene Apostle Catholic Community: "Congregation Ordains Catholic Female Pastor" San Diego Union Tribune

Husband Russ witnesses to Nancy's being qualified to serve as priest.

Community blesses as Nancy is prostrate

Children are the first to ordain and lay hands on Nancy

Community member lays hands on Nancy

MMACC's new woman priest continues the Eucharistic celebration

Jane Via on left and NancyCorran on right
( Photos courtesy of Victoria Rue)

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/aug/01/congregation-ordains-catholic-female-pastor/

By Christopher Cadelago

"Mary Magdalene Apostle Catholic Community ordained a female pastor Saturday, risking excommunication despite assertions that it represents the true roots of Roman Catholicism.

Nancy Corran was ordained by roughly 150 parishioners rather than a bishop. The ceremony at a rented church in Serra Mesa hearkened back to ancient communities that called forth and ordained women, some religious scholars said"....

Video Link: Nancy Corran, ordained by the MMACC community in San Diego, was interviewed an hourbefore her Mass of Thanksgiving on Sunday. Here is the link:

http://www.10news.com/video/24480406/index.html

Vatican Mandates Excommunication for Ordained Women, But Not For Pedophiles

Quote from homily given by Roberta Meehan,RCWP

"Women's ordination is a crime worthy of excommunication because it defiles a sacrament. This is a new ruling. Pedophilia, which destroys the lives and souls of the victims, is a moral sin but it is not serious enough to warrant excommunication. But, women's ordination is not simple disobedience but is a sacrilege because the female body (being a second class creation) defiles the sacrament."