Transforming My Anger by John Chuchman

I find that the best way

to transform my outrage


at what the hierarchs are doing


to our beloved Church


into fierce, compassionate


Wisdom Energy


is to work with the Force


that is Herself


both Loving and Fierce,


Tender and Ferocious,


The Holy Spirit.


I believe that the sacred roots


of my outrage


are part of


Her Protective and Passionate Love


for all beings and creation.


I believe that Her fierce Love


is pure and tied to


Ultimate Wisdom,


but that it is muddied by


my own deficiencies,


including imperfect knowledge and impatience.


I believe that the Golden Flame of the Holy Spirit


has ignited my outrage


inspired by


Her Wild Love of All beings


and for Justice.


I try to take Her pure golden passion-energy


into my center,


suffusing my mind, heart, and body


with Her brilliant power


by praying


Holy Spirit, keep me always in the balance


between fierceness and tenderness and


judgment and compassion,


filling me always through Your Grace


with Your purified passionate


Energy of Wisdom


and Love.

"The Plight of Women in sub-Saharan Africa" by Bill Schuch/ Catholic Church Needs Women's Voices to Inform Official Teaching, Primacy of Conscience/Bridget Mary

Following is an excerpt from the National Catholic Reporter’s coverage of Benedict XVI’s visit to Benin, Africa from November 18 thru 20 the purpose of which was to present the conclusions from a 2009 Synod of Bishops for Africa, which Benedict did in the form of a 138-page document titled Africae Munus, or "Africa's Commitment. The Synod was the latest of several Vatican initiatives during the past decade which Catholics concerned with the plight of monogamous African women at the mercy of their HIV-positive spouses/partners had been given to understand and hope that would result in a more Christ-like pastoral approach on the part of the Vatican to that tragic problem. Unfortunately, as with such past fire drills, the Vatican has not backed off its hard line against the use of condoms to protect these innocent women from being infected with HIV --- this in spite of the fact that a number of national conferences of Roman Catholic bishops as well as individual cardinals, including the cardinal theologian of the pontifical household and bishops have, in effect, publicly disagreed with the Vatican’s unconscionable lack of real compassion for these women. Their plight is ultimately the bitter harvest of the promulgation of the so-called birth control encyclical Humane Vitae over the objections of ninety percent of the cardinals, bishops, theologians, medical experts and laypersons appointed to papal commission who did not consider artificial birth control to be intrinsically evil – an encyclical that has never been “received” (church lingo for accepted) by the People of God. " Bill Schuch


Hard questions about Pope Benedict in Africa
by John L Allen Jr on Nov. 23, 2011 NCR Online
1. Did Benedict avoid the condoms trap?
"The pope's last outing to Africa in 2009 was utterly dominated by debate over his suggestion, made to reporters aboard the papal plane, that condoms make the problem of HIV/AIDS worse. That triggered round one of "condom-gate." Round two came last year, when Benedict seemed to suggest in a book-length interview that condoms, while far from ideal, may nevertheless be a "first step" toward morality if they express a desire to save someone's life. ...."There was no repeat of "condom-gate," for the simple reason that Benedict avoided the subject altogether. He briefly touched on AIDS in Africae Munus, stressing abstinence outside marriage and fidelity inside it as the best approach to prevention, and also called for aggressive research and wider availability of anti-AIDS medicines at lower costs.
===================================================================================
In 2009, after personal research revealed that the Vatican sycophants in the U.S. Catholic Conference Administrative Board, ignoring the special plight of sero-discordant couples, had in 1989, issued a "corrective" statement ironically titled “Called to Compassion and Responsibility: A Response to the HIV/AIDS Crisis” in which the bishops retracted their 1987 approval of providing factual information about condoms, and stated that, "The use of prophylactics to prevent the spread of HIV is technically unreliable . . . [and] advocating this approach means in effect promoting behavior which is morally unacceptable”, I put together the attached flyer to make my fellow Catholics in the Diocese of Venice, Florida aware of the plight of women in sub-Saharan Africa and the lack of compassion of our church leaders for these women.
(In personally distributing that flyer at a number of parishes in Naples, several pastors, including the pastor of my own parish, actually threatened to have me arrested for “trespassing on “his” parish property.)
Given the ongoing lack of compassion on part of the present Pontiff and his sycophants in the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops who, as a body, have lacked the moral courage to join those other national conferences of bishops and individual prelates who have publicly challenged the Vatican’s morally-indefensible failure to abide by long-established principles of Catholic moral theology, I invite my fellow Catholics in dioceses throughout the 50 United States to distribute the attached flyer urging their respective diocesan Ordinaries to publicly commit to urging their fellow prelates in the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to, in turn, prevail on the Vatican to behave more Christ-like towards our African sisters.
It is time for some leadership from the bottom up. The leadership from the top down has been less than inspiring on this issue as well as others.
Bill Schuch
East Aurora NY
Naples, FL
Bridget Mary's Reflection
Kudos to Bill Schuch for reporting on this important issue. Once again, the Vatican is failing in reflecting Christ's compassion to women and this is more one reason why we need women priests to reflect women's experiences and to listen to women's voices from around the world. Our sisters in sub-Saharan Africa need to be heard loud and clear, they are free moral agents who can make ethical decisions for themselves. Condoms are life-savers in their situation, nothing less! Pope Benedict, started a firestorm when he indicated that it was morally permissable for male prostitutes to use condoms as the lesser of two evils. He did not say, then or now, that women who are faithful wives in sub-Saharan Africa could use condoms in situations where HIV-Aids was a major threat to their lives. How does Pope Benedict's attitude reflect Christ's compassion? 
Something is radically wrong with official church teaching on this issue. The Roman Catholic Church should be both pro-women and pro-life, and in all situations affirm that Catholics should follow well-formed and well-informed consciences in all moral choices.  Primacy of conscience is the teaching of the church and  that is the bottom line. When was the last time that you heard a homily on this topic in your local parish?
Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP
Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests
http://www.associationofromancatholicwomenpriest.org/

"Giving Eucharist to the Needy" A Meditation by Sr. Anne Brooks, D.O.

Our focus tonite is to explore the relationship of St Elizabeth and the poor, and what it means to bring bread to the poor.


And I would just warn you , that the medical students I have in our office warn others -


She is a woman of a thousand questions!

Let's start by relaxing, getting into our minds and


IMAGE "the poor" what do they look like?


city / live / get food Delta / live / get food


They are shiftless, mentally ill, alcoholics - we're afraid of them-we won't waste our $ money on them.


BUT WE KNOW --


THE POOR ARE NOT LIKE US!

* THEY ARE "OUT THERE"


* WE TEND TO AVOID THEM


* WE DON'T WANT OUR KIDS


TO PLAY WITH THEIR KIDS

I CHALLENGE YOU NOW TO CHANGE


THE WORD POOR TO NEEDY


________________________________


AHA...


DO WE KNOW ANYONE WHO IS NEEDY??


SUDDENLY, THE NEEDY


ARE NO LONGER "OUT THERE"

We might not think of them as poor but for sure they are because that's what someone is, who is poor --they are needy.

HOW ABOUT the hyperactive kid in my classroom?

the waitress in my favorite restaurant ?


the elder who talks on and on ?


the guy who fixes my car ?


the lady in line at the Care Station ?


great aunt Susie who has lost her brain ?


Are these folks needy?

(AND YOU CAN ADD TO THIS LIST)

What does each one need?


How can I show them I care?


THAT'S HOW I GIVE THEM EUCHARIST

As you know from reading the Gospels, Jesus was all over the place, in sometimes unbelievable situations that needed correcting.


Let's walk with Jesus this evening and look --


and consider-


in regard to the poor and needy,


Is there a social justice issue here?
An injustice because of the "system"?


Because we've always done it this way? for example,
.. there may not be tutoring help available for the kid in school who takes longer to learn, because the state doesn't fund it (why not?)


and could I volunteer to tutor??


Is that how I can bring Eucharist?
...the hourly wage of a waitress is often way below minimum wage because they are expected to get tips.


(so how much do I tip?)


Is that how I can bring Eucharist?


 ...There is a constant need for affordable housing - so could I volunteer with Habitat?


Is that how I can bring Eucharist?
ALSO Lets look at


MEMBERS OF OUR OWN FAMILIES

IF WE LOOK CLOSELY AND CAREFULLY


WE CAN IDENTIFY WHO IS NEEDY -
Who in our family needs someone to care about them?
Let's go inside our family members' hearts and minds...

Who in our family may


feel unloved


OR


feel ignored


OR


who is the one who I yelled at last night (Did I make up?)


OR


perhaps our family a fractured family with many needs . . .


OR


AM I A NEEDY PERSON IN MY OWN FAMILY ?


Am I the one who feels unloved?


then maybe we need to be brave enough to talk about it!






Am I the one who feels rejected?


then maybe we need to be brave enough to talk about it!






Am I the one who always picks up the mess in the house?


when no one else bothers?


then maybe we need to be brave enough to talk about it!














Think now about the needy around us, OUR needy. the ones in our neighborhood or workplace,


the ones in our town or area:


To help you picture them, come in your mind with me


on a quick visit to the Tutwiler Clinic in the past couple of weeks.






As an introduction,


(You may not be aware that 69% of those coming to our office have no insurance, no way of paying for their care.


Our ability to cover their care and still pay our staff comes from donations of people who are aware of the situation and give us Eucharist -


they send funds that allow us to be their heart, and their hands, and their voices


to give CARE-- to give Eucharist --


They help our patients experience the presence of God in their lives)






So come with me - here, I'll hold the door ---






So here is a lady who the staff didn't put in a treatment room, but in my ofc. She has on her Sunday outfit today. She came to bring me Eucharist - she is now in treatment for breast cancer and came to give me a thank-you hug for pushing her to get a mammogram in spite of her fright - and I was filled with the presence of God.


~~~~~~~~~~


Here is a new patient, a 20 yr old girl who has a deformed ring finger that's only an inch long, and there are only 2 big toes on her left foot -- She has no income, and is applying for disability. "I'm not going to get pregnant just so I can get on Medicaid," Her real problem? keratoconus -- her cornea is cone-shaped. She is legally blind. We did her physical,


gave her Eucharist by showing her how much we cared.


~~~~~~~~~


Here is a 37 year old guy who repairs cars. I found him sitting on the treatment table in tears. What he needed was a long hug,


so I gave him Eucharist -


He loved his stepfather who had died; I listened, and he told me how much he appreciated my prayer visits to ICU


And he gave me Eucharist


~~~~~~~~~~


Here is a 47 yr old man, here to help with the cotton harvest He had shortness of breath, ankle swelling. We did a chest XR, it showed that his heart was 2 1/2 times normal size. We used some donation money, got an echocardiogram at the hospital - it showed his heart was pumping only 8% of the blood in his heart. It was working as well as a wet paper towel. I did an emergency hospital admission, cared for him in the hosp, used more donations and paid for all 8 of his new discharge meds -


and gave him Eucharist.


He said to me, "What if you hadn't been here?"


And he gave me Eucharist.
~~~~~~~~~


Here is a tall skinny guy with a cough...he feels too sick to work, so he has no income. Our chest XR showed pneumonia. He comes every day for IV antibiotics and for breathing treatments. He comes for care


And we give him Eucharist.


- and when he says he is feeling better now


he gives us Eucharist


~~~~~~~~~~


Now it's the end of the day, I'm sealing all the charts on the computer. While the computer gathers all the data, there's a little pause before the correct screen comes up. So I pray for that patient while I wait,
sending them Eucharist

Consider this:
We, baptized members of the Catholic Church,


are, all of us, the Body of Christ


And as members of that Body,


when we receive Holy Communion Jesus is within us.


It's like we should have a sanctuary lamp in front of us!


we speak Christ's words to others


we pray with our Abba, our Father


we use the actions of Jesus as a guide to our behavior


when we respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit


So really, when we communicate with others,


when we do something for someone else,


WHEN WE SHOW WE CARE


we put them in contact with Jesus -


which is bringing them Eucharist.

I CHALLENGE YOU!

Find someone needy - care about them


care for them


WHAT KIND OF NOURISHMENT


DO THEY NEED?

Is it perhaps a hug?


A gift of our time?


the gift of listening to them?


of sitting with grandma so the sitter can have a break?


Is it a ride to the store or to that person's church?


Can we keep their kids for a couple of hours?

What do they really need that I can help with?


And I close with a prayer~


O God, place me where You want me to be


Challenge me to be aware of injustices.


Help me to right wrongs I see


Teach me to care,


and flood my heart and my soul with Your Divine Presence


that I may carry You to everyone who needs You. amen.

Catholics Should Use Inclusive Language Now/Not "Make Do with Faulty Translation" of Roman Missal

http://ncronline.org/news/faith-parish/making-do-faulty-translation
"Yet this Sunday, Nov. 27, the first Sunday in Advent, when we are gathered around the eucharistic table -- what should be the greatest sign of our unity -- many of us will feel depressed. We will feel like losers when we hear not the words that Jesus’ blood “will be shed for you and for all” but that Jesus’ blood “will be shed for you and for many...No words of any language can ever fully express this mystery. That is some consolation. Until we have better words, we can make do with this faulty translation."
Bridget Mary's Reflection:
What a cop out! Why should Catholics settle for the crumbs from the Eucharistic Table which this new Roman Missal represents. Why be depressed? Take action. Use inclusive language now. Gather in small faith groups and celebrate liturgy with inclusive language. Withhold money from the local parish until they get it! Educate yourself, invite Benedictine priest Anthony Ruff, a leading U.S. professor of Liturgy, who refused to promote the New Roman Missal to address your parish community. (Visit Call to Action website) Read Fr. Ruff's letter. http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=12688
As Catherine of Siena once said, "cry out as if you had a million voices, it is silence that kills the soul." Instead of a defeatist attitude, the leading Catholic newspaper, the National Catholic Reporter should report on some positive resources including the following alternatives for inclusive worship now:
1.The Priests for Equality Inclusive Lectionary, they also have an Inclusive Bible.
Miriam Teresa Winter has written three books that feature feminist interpretation of women's stories in Scripture
2. Sheila Dierks and I have edited two books of Inclusive Eucharistic Prayers that feature prayers from the Ecumenical Catholic Community and Women Priests.
 3. The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests offer 11 inclusive liturgies appropriate for different seasons and occasions.
Inclusive Worship Aids
A CD providing worship aids written by Bridget Mary Meehan, Judy Lee and Dorothy Shugrue. It is a resource created by priests in the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, containing a variety of Eucharistic liturgies.
It is our hope that this resource will be a blessing for all inclusive communities who worship in spirit and truth. The prayers and rituals can easily be adapted to the specific needs of any group.
Here is a list of included liturgies: ~ Liturgy for Advent/Christmas ~ Liturgy for Lent ~ Liturgy for Water, Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, Third Sunday of Lent, Easter Season, Baptismal Celebration Liturgy, Earth or Renewal Themes ~ Liturgy for Fire, Easter Season, Pentecost, Earth Day, Social Justice ~ Liturgy for Ordinary Time ~ Liturgy to Celebrate Creation, New Life, Creativity, New Beginnings, Spring or Summer ~ Liturgy for Marian Feast ~ Liturgy to Celebrate Justice, Partnership and Equality for Women in Church and Society ~ Liturgy of Good News to the Poor, For Anytime ~ Liturgy for All Saints’ and/or All Souls’ Day, Funerals/ Memorials.Worship Aids are provided on a CD in Word Doc and PDF formats.
If you are able, a suggested donation of $25.00 will defray our cost and help to support the growth of ARCWP and our ministry. Please click the DONATION button above. If you prefer, you may write a check to: ARCWP, 18520 Eastshore Drive, Ft. Myers, Florida 33967
http://www.associationofromancatholicwomenpriests.org/

Listen to the "Ballad of Roy Bourgeois", Interview with Steve Jacobs on Social Justice Witness

http://thefightback.org/2011/11/soa-watch-the-ballad-of-roy-bourgeois/
"Oppression needs complicity of silence to go on,” activist and singer/songwriter Steve Jacobs sang for TheFightBack outside the U.S. Army base at Fort Benning, Georgia, home of the School of the Americas (SOA). Renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) in 2000, over the years SOA has trained tens of thousands of Latin American soldiers, many of whom have gone on to commit human rights abuses."

Support Women Priests this Christmas- Put Books Written by Women Priests and About Women Priests on Christmas List

The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, Inc. is a 501(C)(3) tax-exempt charitable organization. Donations are tax-deductable to the extent permitted by law. If you would like to support our ministry, please press the Donate button on our website. http://www.associationofromancatholicwomenpriests.org/
 If you prefer, you may write a check to: ARCWP, 18520 East Shore Drive, Ft. Myers, Florida 33967
We thank you for your support and pray God's blessings return to you ten-fold.

Books written by Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests:

Come By Here by Dr. Judy Lee, inspiring book about Pastor Judy's ministry to the homeless in the Ft. Myers, Florida area. The good news is that people are moving from homelessness and poverty to shelter and resources. Find out why? Hint: Communities of Faith are helping. So can you. (available online retailers including amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Come-Here-Judith-B-Lee/dp/1451274866/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1291426558&sr=1-1-fkmr0

The Life of the Spirit in the Convergent Points of Dreams, Spirituality and Psychology by Dr. Eleonora V. Marinaro whose work in psychology and in spirituality shows her how both subjects interface in the human psyche. Each discipline provides a method and a path for healing, wholeness and transformation. Her working model and theories are based on her own dream experiences and those of her private clients and dream groups. Her research reveals that dreams can describe and contribute to understanding the growth and healing process. Influenced by her study of Carl Jung, Dr. Marinaro says: “For Jung, it was not about religion, but about a personal spirituality and relationship with God. Jung saw dreams as the vehicle for spiritual experience and transformation.” Much like Dr. Marinaro herself does. Published by Outskirts Press. Purchase on Amazon.com or Barnes&Noble.com.
 http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=The+Life+of+the+Spirit+by+Dr.+Eleonora+Marinaro

Living Gospel Equality Now: Loving in the Heart of God- A Roman Catholic Woman Priest Story by Dr. Bridget Mary Meehan, a woman priest's story, spirituality, and journey to partnership in a Christ-centered, Spirit- empowered community of equals. Roman Catholic Women Priests are rocking the Catholic Church to its foundations as they share women's experiences and claim women's spiritual power as spiritual equals. For some, like the Catholic hierarchy, women priests are a revolution. For millions of people, the time has come for a holy shakeup that will bring new life, creativity and justice to the church and beyond. Available at http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Living+Gospel+Equality+Now
http://www.virtualbookworm.com/bookstore/product/woman_priest.html
 
Book About Women's Ordination written by Dr. Ida Raming/Germany
A History of Women's Ordination
For decades, Professor Ida Raming has been one of the leaders in the forefront of the argument in favor of the ordination of women. First published by Scarecrow Press in 1976, Dr. Raming has recently republished her classic German study accompanied by an invaluable updated international bibliography as well as three recent articles that provide scholarly responses to the Vatican's position. This second edition provides an English translation of the new updated German edition. Also provided is an English translation of all the canonical sources quoted by Raming and a chronological bibliography on women's ordination from 1973 to the present.
http://www.amazon.com/History-Women-Ordination-Vol-Priestly/dp/0810848503/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322249453&sr=8-1

Book - Early History of Women Priests Movement:
Women Find A Way: The Movement and Stories of Roman Catholic Womenpriests edited by
Elsie McGrath, Bridget Mary Meehan, and Ida Raming
Meet Roman Catholic Womenpriests who are shaping a more inclusive, Christ-centered, Spirit-empowered Church of equals in the twenty-first century. All are welcome at the sacred Eucharistic table. Meet women bishops ordained in full apostolic succession who continue to carry on the work of ordaining others in the Roman Catholic Church. Meet women who are serving the People of God in many ways including house churches and parish communities, hospital and hospice chaplaincy, anointing of the sick and elderly, and ministering with the homeless. Roman Catholic Womenpriests are leading the Catholic Church into a new age in which the identity of priest reflects the experiences of women.
 http://www.amazon.com/Women-Find-Way-Movement-Womenpriests/dp/1602642230/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322249883&sr=1-4

New Books with Chapters on Women Priests:

Changing Church, Stories of liberating Ministers by Jann Aldredge-Clanton
Through the fascinating stories of pioneering ministers, this book reveals a unique picture of progressive changes occurring in the Christian tradition. Meeting challenges and overcoming obstacles, these twelve diverse ministers are changing the church as they take prophetic stands on gender, race, interfaith cooperation, ecology, sexual orientation, economic opportunity, and other social justice issues. Believing in the power of sacred symbolism to shape social reality and to provide a foundation for justice and freedom for all people, these ministers lead worship with inclusive language and imagery for humanity and divinity. They include multicultural female and male images of the Divine.  Meeting challenges and overcoming obstacles, these twelve diverse ministers are changing the church as they take prophetic stands on gender, race, interfaith cooperation, ecology, sexual orientation, economic opportunity and social justice isues.
https://wipfandstock.com/store/Changing_Church_Stories_of_Liberating_Ministers;
http://www.amazon.com/Changing-Church-Stories-Liberating-Ministers/dp/1610974514/ref=sr_1_1_title_2_pap?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1322615974&sr=1-1Called -Women Hear the Voice of the Divine by Gretchen Kloten Minney
(WNN) U.S.: “Abundant evidence exists that many women were ordained and served as deacons and priests in the early church,” says practicing Roman Catholic Gretchen Kloten Minney, who is also a humanitarian and North American author of the new book, “Called – Women Hear the Voice of the Divine.”As the revolutions of the Arab Spring change the political landscape of the Middle East, another important transformative revolution is building inside one of our major world religions.What’s at stake? Modern day Roman Catholicism and its identity in priesthood.


http://www.amazon.com/Called-Women-Divine-Gretchen-Kloten-Minney/dp/1450721265






http://womennewsnetwork.net/2011/11/24/book-women-priests-rights-religion/

Mosaic of Holy Mother Mary, as Archbishop in Basilica Usana in Ravenna, Italy

An iconic mosaic of 'Holy Mother' Mary at the 6th century Archiepiscopal Chapel, Ravenna, Italy, shows Mary wearing dark vestments with a white pallium with the Christian symbol of crosses. Historical reference to the pallium links it to a portion of dress reserved only for Archbishops. Image: Christa Belting-Ihm, Carl Winter, Heidelberg 1976

Thanksgiving Day Blessings from Bridget Mary Meehan

View SOA Watch Vigil of Photos including Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests Standing in Solidarity with Thousands for Justice to Close School of Americas/Ft. Benning,GA.

https://picasaweb.google.com/106597675897561083714/SOAWatch2011#

Letter in Response to Rev. Michael Taylor on Altar Girls in Arlington Diocese/ Marianne Smyth

Recently the Metro section of the Wash. Post carried a long article about a woman's grief when her pastor announced there would not be any altar girls. Those who were already altar servers could remain but would wear a white vestment while boys would wear black. After all, these altar boys might want to grow up and be priests!!!

This is the letter I mailed to the pastor.
Rev Michael Taylor, Corpus Christi C Church
Corpus Christi, Body of Christ for men only. Your arrogant and hypocritical decision re: altar girls has caused the church to suffer and Jesus to weep.
I could type all day and probably all night about the totally inclusive Jesus, but neither you nor your superiors would pay any heed. Nor is there a way to convince you and others that these power based decisions that are done in the name of Jesus are really done for selfish control. You perceive that you represent Christ on earth when, in fact, you merely represent the Pharisees and Saduducees of Jesus' time. Same arrogance, same fear of losing power...same unwillingness to love as God loves. same exclusivity, same, same, same.
Jesus isn't finished talking, isn't finished teaching, but those who claim to "understand", those who claim to represent him on earth, stopped listening.
Am sure that at heart you are a good and caring priest. Am also relatively sure you did not consider the decision as hurtful or harmful, but as something within your right to do.
As Jesus weeps and wonders if we have ever learned anything from him, would you please just open your heart and listen?
Do not want, need or require any reply. Was moved to write this and all I'm asking for is for you to truly be God's priest and listen.
In Gospel Love,
Marianne Smyth

"Erasure of Vatican II Extends to New Missal—affecting 400 Million!" by Bill Slavick/ Compare New Roman Missal Advent Opening Prayer with Advent/Christmas Opening Prayer in Inclusive Worship Aids from ARCWP

william.slavick@maine.edu
Article by William H. Slavick

A retired English professor, Bill Slavick studied liturgy under scholars who contributed to the Second Vatican Council liturgical constitution and at St. Bernard Abbey. He recently attended a seminar with Anthony Rupp, OSB, on the Missal translations.
The three foremost developments in the Roman Catholic Church since the Second Vatican Council committed it to engage the modern world are the largest exodus in 2000 years for lack of such engagement, the sex abuse scandal’s betrayal of children, and the relentless Vatican campaign to erase the Council. By 1997 this infidelity to Vatican II had led dozens of European theologians to judge the Vatican in schism in its rejection of collegiality: the Holy Spirit speaks to only one person.
Emblematic of this rejection of the highest Church authority was the Congregation of Divine Worship’s presumption to delay approval of the English-speaking Bishops’ Conferences’ (ICEL’s) excellent new Missal translation, l5 years in the making (available at misguidedmissal.com), to replace the hurried 1973 post-Council translations, and then, in 2001, to reject it. These translations had been approved in 1998 by all eleven English-speaking conferences, exercising authority the Council granted solely to the bishops’ conferences, by a 99.9 per cent Council vote. The CDW’s role was to check adherence to procedures.
The Council’ liturgical constitution calls for translations of “noble simplicity . . . short, clear [sentences] . . .within the people’s powers of comprehension,” that lead to “full conscious, and active participation in the liturgical celebrations” by “all the faithful.” The norms had emerged from over 50 years of liturgical scholarship.
The CDW’s Liturgiam Authenticam dumped Council norms and abandoned the universal use of dynamic equivalence in quality translation. For English prayers it required literal word for word translations from the New Latin Vulgate, even to grammar, syntax, punctuation, and capitalization, and through sacred vocabulary to evoke transcendence and mystery. One moment’s Latin vernacular translation, falsely claimed to have been endorsed by the Council of Trent (which occurred before it), with its now archaic sexist language, should now be the sole basis for 21st century translations in all languages!
The CDW then claimed right of approval of an all-new team of translators to work in secrecy and called an end to decades of ecumenical collaboration to produce common texts. Notre Dame theologian-historian-chant scholar Peter Jeffery calls LA “the most ignorant statement on liturgy ever issued by a modern Vatican congregation.”
The norms promised failure. Secrecy limited consultation; the substitute team lacked expertise. The result is a big step backward. The texts occasioned 10,000 proposed amendments and a new Vatican review group, Vox Clara, continued to make numerous changes even after bishops’ conferences, if reluctantly and under pressure, had given approval. Glaring errors remain—sentence fragments, redundancies, a cue treated as a prayer. The first Eucharistic prayer ends with “we offer you firstly” without a “secondly.” Profusis,, meaning “overflowing,” is translated as “overcome,” beclouding a joyous scene.
Style failures abound. One Eucharistic prayer sentence has 82 words. One Easter Vigil prayer cannot be readily understood. “When supper was ended, he took the cup” becomes “”He took the precious chalice in his holy and venerable hands,” three needless adjectives too many. Is anything gained by saying “incarnate of the Virgin Mary” and “begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father” that warrants sacrifice of clarity and availaility to all? Bishop Donald Trautmann, a former U.S. ICEL chair, views “consubstantial,” “chalice,” “born ineffably of the inviolate Virgin,” etc., as reducing understanding rather than bringing Catholics closer to God. Apparently, no one remembered that these texts are to be heard, not read.
Ideology deep-sixed this fine 1997 Collect for the 27th Sunday of Ordinary Time: “Almighty and eternal God, Whose bounty is greater than we deserve or desire. Pour out upon us your abundant mercy; Forgive the things that weigh upon our consciences. And enrich us with blessings for which our prayers dare not hope.” All new ECEL prayers were discarded.
Why a wooden loyalty to a single undistinguished Latin translation at the price of clarity and intelligibility? Liturgists see traditionalist resistance to clear, simple prose in liturgy; hostility to inclusive language, and an imperious rejection of Council collegiality. Forget prayability and those for whom English is a second language, accented speakers, and children.
Bishop Arfthur Serratelli, current US Bishops’ CDW chair, identifies dissatisfaction with these translations as rising from contemporary individualism which rejects institutional authority in favor of freedom--do-it -yourself liturgical originality, creativity. and diversity. But innovative excesses and efforts to curb them have not been associated with the 1997 translations nor these. Complaints have focused on the illicit imposition of translations at odds with spoken English prayer.
Writing in the July 15 Commonweal, Rita Ferrone sees the thrust of the CDW and Liturgiam Authenticam as the basis for disapproval. Vatican II reforms “that invited aggiornamento and engagement with the world” are sacrificed for a “liturgy reimagined as an event taking place in some sacral space outside of our world, rather than the beating heart of a world made new.” The shadows of John Paul II, who extended the old Latin rite over near-unanimous episcopal objection, and Prof Joseph Ratzinger, who faulted lack of doctrinal precision in the first vernacular translations, figure in answering why.
When Anthony Rupp, a conservative Benedictine liturgy scholar realized that an unsatisfactory translation was being imposed in violation of the English-speaking bishops’ authority and tempered his promotion, he was dismissed. He now observes that when he thinks of that process and “then of Our Lord’s teachings on service and love and unity. . .I weep.”
The Irish Association of Catholic Priests reject the translation as “archaic, elitist, and obscure, and not in keeping with the natural rhythm, cadence, and syntax of the English language,” a style so convoluted “that it will be difficult to read the prayers in public.” LA actually declares linguistic norms detrimental to the Church’s mission!
Others fault abandonment of the first principle of effective translation into English, to use Anglo-Saxon rather than Latinate words whenever possible and the straitjacket of literal translation in obscuring meaning . The most criticized literal Vatican translation, “Christ died for many,” illustrates; the Latin “the many” is a nuanced way to say “all”!
Prof. Jeffery faults the apparently unqualified translators as “not familiar with the treatment of Greek and Semitic words in the Latin scriptures and liturgies,” “unacquainted with the history of the Credo and the Kyrie,” “use Aquinas as a source of proof texts without regard for what he was actually saying,” “do not understand the relationship between the New Vulgate and the traditional Vulgate,” “seem unaware of the other Latin Bible texts used in the Roman tradition,” and “show no sign of ever having read any patristic exegesis” etc. “The tradition is bursting with vitality,” he observes, “LA is rigid with prohibitions.” “Why would anyone choose the thorns over the roses?” he asks. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


New First Sunday of Advent Collect Roman Missal
Opening Prayer
Grant your faithful, we pray, almighty God,
the resolve to run forth to meet your Christ
with righteous deeds at his coming,
so that, gathered at his right hand,
they may be worthy to possess the heavenly kingdom.
Through the Lord Jesus Christ your Son . . .
Advent/Christmas Season Liturgy:
New Inclusive Worship Aids from Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests
OPENING PRAYER
Birther God, you became human in Jesus and showed us how to live life fully. You know what it means to laugh and cry, to walk and talk, to love and be loved. There is nothing we could experience that you do not understand. We know that your mothering presence is always with us. May we, like Mary, rejoice as we give birth to God within us, and may we give birth to God in everything we say and do. ALL: Amen.

Bridget Mary's Reflection:
If you are fed up with New Roman Missal, then try the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests' New Inclusive Worship Aids. (11 liturgies for liturgical year with inclusive language in .docx and pdf on cd, see yesterday's post for description or visit website below)
For more information, visit: 
http://www.associationofromancatholicwomenpriests.org/
Contact me at sofiabmm@aol.com

New Inclusive Eucharistic Liturgies Provide Alternative to the New Roman Missal

http://www.associationofromancatholicwomenpriests.org/
Inclusive Worship Aids
A CD providing worship aids written by Bridget Mary Meehan, Judy Lee and Dorothy Shugrue. It is a resource created by priests in the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, containing a variety of Eucharistic liturgies.
It is our hope that this resource will be a blessing for all inclusive communities who worship in spirit and truth. The prayers and rituals can easily be adapted to the specific needs of any group.
Here is a list of included liturgies: ~ Liturgy for Advent/Christmas ~ Liturgy for Lent ~ Liturgy for Water, Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, Third Sunday of Lent, Easter Season, Baptismal Celebration Liturgy, Earth or Renewal Themes ~ Liturgy for Fire, Easter Season, Pentecost, Earth Day, Social Justice ~ Liturgy for Ordinary Time ~ Liturgy to Celebrate Creation, New Life, Creativity, New Beginnings, Spring or Summer ~ Liturgy for Marian Feast ~ Liturgy to Celebrate Justice, Partnership and Equality for Women in Church and Society ~ Liturgy of Good News to the Poor, For Anytime ~ Liturgy for All Saints’ and/or All Souls’ Day, Funerals/ Memorials.
Worship Aids are provided on a CD in Word Doc and PDF formats.
If you are able, a suggested donation of $25.00 will defray our cost and help to support the growth of ARCWP and our ministry.
Please click the DONATION button above. If you prefer, you may write a check to: ARCWP, 18520 Eastshore Drive, Ft. Myers, Florida 33967

"Spinning the New Roman Missal" by Bryan Cones/US Catholic/Try Inclusive Eucharistic Liturgies Available from Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests

By Bryan Cones From the US CatholIc/www.USCatholic.org "And with your spirit" is finally upon us: Next Sunday, the First Sunday of Advent, 40 years of renewed Sunday Masses in the vernacular go out the door for something described ,,, “a part of a larger pattern of top-down impositions by a central authority that does not consider itself accountable to the larger church” (Benedictine Anthony Ruff of St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville).
. ..."The history of this translation is marred by well-documented interventions from Rome, the creation of a special body (Vox Clara) to circumvent the explicit will of the Second Vatican Council on liturgical translations, and, finally, secretive revisions to the final text that were never sent to the English-speaking bishops conferences for approval. There is no dispute that thousands of changes were added in the final moments by a single American priest in a Roman office—who introduced errors to the final text. This story is well-documented, with the best journalistic work done by the U.K. Tablet."
Bridget Mary's Reflection:
The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests has a new resource for inclusive Catholic communities available now in docx and pdf on a CD. http://www.associationofromancatholicwomenpriests.org/

How Do You Welcome Strangers? Homily by Janice Sevre-Duszynska on NCR Online

How do you welcome strangers?

Janice Sevre-Duszynska and Fr. Jerry Zawada at SOA Vigil liturgy

"Disgraced ex-Boston Archbishop Leaves Rome Job" /Associated Press

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_VATICAN_CARDINAL_LAW?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-11-21-08-39-51
By NICOLE WINFIELD
VATICAN CITY (AP) -- "Cardinal Bernard Law, who resigned in disgrace as Boston's archbishop in 2002 after the priest sex abuse scandal exploded in the United States, has retired from his subsequent job as head of a major Roman basilica.The Vatican said Monday that Pope Benedict XVI had accepted the 80-year-old Law's resignation as archpriest of St. Mary Major basilica and had named Spanish Monsignor Santos Abril y Castello to replace him.Law's 2004 appointment as the archpriest of one of Rome's most important basilicas had been harshly criticized by victims of priestly sex abuse, who charged that bishops who covered up for pedophile priests should be punished, not rewarded..."

Enjoy this Funny Video with Sister Geritola of Rock of Ages Convent/Your Nun on the Run

http://youtu.be/34Ub6WT-eWs
Enjoy this wonderful nun with a message/ordain women!
Share it with everyone you know!
Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP
http://www.associationofromancatholicwomenpriests.org/

"God 's Kindom Today Means Living Compassion and Doing Justice" Meditation on Feast of Christ the King/by Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP

Let us begin our prayerful meditation by being grateful for the gift of God’s kindom, as Jesus passion for living compassion and doing justice now…


Take a few deep breaths and journey to the center of your being... dwell in the Heart of God, the Heart of Love, where you receive infinite boundless love....and where love flows out from you to others....

 As a resister to religious and political domination, Jesus was accused of planning to destroy the Temple and to make himself King….But, Jesus stood on the margins with the poor, rejected and oppressed. Jesus spoke truth to power. He did not back down even though he knew he would be in big trouble with both religious and civil authorities… This led to his death...

Jesus proclaimed the Kindom of God is about living compassion and doing justice for all especially to the poor, oppressed and marginalized. In Matthew 25, we read that whatsoever we do to the least of our sisters and brothers, that we do unto Jesus… Jesus’ kindom is about nurturing and loving relationships, not about domination, power and control…

Give thanks for the ways that you are living compassion and justice in your life now. Ask for healing of negative patterns of domination, power and control in your life...and in our church... and world.


Open yourself to God’s call to you to live compassion and do justice in deeper and even new ways….


One interpretation of Matt. 25 is that heaven and hell are not a geographical places, they are states of being that we all have experienced. In Understanding Difficult Scriptures in a Healing Way, (p.17) the Linns- Matthew, Dennis and Sheila, present this interpretation. Whenever we feel alienated, fail to give love, we pass by a sister or brother in need, we experience hell, whenever we have been loved, seen our goodness reflected in the loving appreciation of another, share our food, nurture another, live compassion, do justice, we have experienced heaven. As Dennis Linn concludes, the kindom of God is within us and we’re all good goats or one could say- saints in the making!...


Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP
Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests
sofiabmm@aol.com

"Protests of Va. Parish’s Move Away From Altar Girls Reflects Wider Catholic Debate/Washington Post/ Message to Girls and Women- Not Wanted on Altar

by Michele Boorstein
"...After Taylor’s announcement, Zickel and her husband and two daughters, ages 4 and 7, stopped attending Corpus Christi. Zickel continued to teach at the Sunday school through June before the family started “floating around,” driving up to 45 minutes in an effort to find a parish with altar girls.Mary Barnes choked up as she described watching her seventh-grade daughter serve during Mass in a white robe while the boys were switched to black ones. Barnes has attended Corpus Christi, in a booming area of eastern Loudoun County, for 13 years.“It’s really hard to sit in church every weekend looking at that,” said Barnes, a manager at AOL. “It’s demoralizing, understanding you’re not really wanted.”The Vatican in 1994 approved the participation of girls in altar serving, and the official Vatican newspaper has run pieces characterizing the acceptance of girls as correcting a “profound inequality...”
Bridget Mary's Reflection:
How much more can girls or women take of this blatent sexism in our institutional church?  The Vatican cannot continue to discriminate against women and blame God for it. Women are created equal by divine design and are desperately needed to take their rightful place as equals in all areas of church life including service at the altar as servers, deacons, priests and bishops. The good news is that more and more women are becoming Roman Catholic Women Priests and girls are welcome to serve at our altars everywhere. One day, we will be ordaining you too!
http://associationofromancatholicwomenpriests.org/
Bridget Mary Meehan, Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests

Catholics Reject New Roman Missal/ Try New Inclusive Worship Aides from Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests

http://liturgyforum.wordpress.com/2011/05/01/statement-of-convictions/#respond
Bridget Mary's Reflection
Catholics, stop complaining about new Roman Missal. Take action. One recommendation-try on some creative, joyous, inclusive liturgies.  The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests just published our Inclusive Worship Aides which feature 11 Eucharistic Prayers utilizing inclusive prayers, and poetic language that people understand and can easily pray together. Some of the liturgies are the following: Advent, Lent, Ordinary Time, Easter/Pentecost, All Saints/Funerals/Memorials. Our first order came from a male priest in a parish community!
We offer them on cd and em in pdf or .docx so you can adapt for your community.
You can order on our web site:
http://associationofromancatholicwomenpriests.org/

Pope to Boehner- "Tax Wall Street"/Catholics United

http://www.catholics-united.org/civicrm/petition/sign?sid=2&reset=1&cid=40276

"Progressive Religion to the Rescue" Huffington Post, Chaplain Paul Dodd/Advocate for Gay Marrage in the Military

http://progressive%20religion%20to%20the%20rescue/

Evaluation of 30 Years of Joseph Ratzinger on the Catholic Church/"We Are Church" Press Release

For 30 years, Joseph Ratzinger, has largely determined the course of the Universal Church
On 25 November 1981, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the current Pope Benedict XVI, was appointed by John Paul II as prefect of the Roman Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In the last 30 years, this German theologian has influenced the worldwide Roman Catholic Church for much longer, and in many more profound ways, than most others in the Vatican have been able to do in all of Church history. He is responsible for more than 23 years of administering the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF—the successor to the “Congregation of the Roman and General Inquisition,” founded in 1542) and for six and a half years as Pope.


We cannot forget, given how clearly the effects are still noticeable, how Ratzinger, between 1981 and 2005, in his capacity as Prefect of the CDF: imposed teaching bans, condemned the Theology of Liberation, marginalized women in the Church, put the brakes on Ecumenism with various churches of the Reformation, and has long contributed to the cover-up of sexual abuse. This is in line with numerous other decisions that were influenced by him, such as the Synodal Instruction of 1997, the Instruction to the Laity (1997), the “Dominus Iesus” declaration (2000), the Vatican paper against homosexual unions (2003) and also the approach to laity-based reform movements like We are Church. The German church was faced with a difficult ordeal by his teachings against the counseling of women with distressed pregnancies. The list of theologians (male and female) throughout the world who have been reprimanded and intimidated by him is long (see Appendix) and has led to a permanent climate of fear and paralysis within the church.
After his election as Pope, on 19 April 2005, there was a change in his public face, partly also due to the mass media’s influence. Yet the hope that Joseph Ratzinger, as Pope, would — in deference to his new title of “Pontifex Maximus” (“bridge builder-in-chief”) — change his behavior has not been fulfilled. The opposite has occurred.
Ratzinger, who is always complaining about the “dictatorship of relativism,” has himself been responsible for a long time for the relativization of the Second Vatican Council, mainly by his complete release of the pre-Vatican-II Tridentine rite (2007, contrary to the recommendations of the worldwide Synod of Bishops in 2005), through his reformulation of the Good Friday prayers for the conversion of the Jews (2008), and finally by the extremely problematic rehabilitation of the Confraternity of Pius X, in January 2009. The decades-long altercation with this confraternity might also be a personal trauma for Ratzinger. If only he had tried harder, on behalf of Pope John Paul II in 1988, to reintegrate its founder, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre! This has not yet occurred, despite all manner of extremely questionable concessions by the Vatican up to now.
The Roman Catholic Church now finds itself in the deepest crisis since the Reformation. The disclosure of the decades-long coverup of abuse scandals worldwide is certainly not the only reason for this is, but it has thrown open the crisis of the clerical system. The tragedy of Ratzinger is that he started too late and too hesitantly to deal directly with the abuse scandals, and that he is not fully supported by either the Roman Curia or the cardinals and bishops. This is not least because he had, as prefect of the CDF in 2001, ordered all the bishops under threat of punishment to keep sexual crimes against minors by clerics as secret as possible, and only to let the CDF know about them.
It is not secularism, but Joseph Ratzinger himself, who is largely responsible for the Church's failure in many areas to meet the challenges of our time. Again and again he proved to be deaf to the concerns brought to him by bishops, theologians, and numerous “lay” people from around the world. Liberation Theology, in particular, was treated by him with suspicion and hostility. The years of his pontificate are increasingly laying bare the fundamental weaknesses of the whole system of the Roman Catholic Church: its autocratic, monarchical governance, its “two-tier society” of priests and “lay,” as well as the rapidly growing Roman centralization in recent years, which concedes scarcely any responsibility to the local churches.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1993), which he substantially authored and edited, and the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (2005), which he approved and promulgated as Pope (i.e. formally approved and published), in no ways meet the demands of modern theology. The Vatican “Instruction on Homosexuality and ordained ministry” of 2005 (whose full title is Instruction Concerning the Criteria for the Discernment of Vocations with regard to Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in view of their Admission to the Seminary and to Holy Orders) was one of the first documents approved by him as pope to exclude homosexual men from the priesthood. Neither the widespread distribution of the catechism for youth, YouCat (2011), nor the commercial success of his many books, can obscure the fact that today only a small number of people accept and observe the teaching of the Catholic Church, as studies and surveys repeatedly show.
Pope Benedict should understand the increasingly loud and worldwide criticism of his pontificate as an expression of deep concern for the welfare of the faithful throughout the church. For as canon law states in Can. CIC 212 § 3: “According to their knowledge, competence and preeminent position they (i.e. the faithful) have the right and even at times the duty to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the church (. . .).
Meanwhile, humanity has developed a keen awareness of the countless injustices in the world. The Catholic Church, with its worldwide reach, could and must exert a positive influence on how we will all live in the future. The task for today should be to bid farewell to leadership structures that have been handed down but are no longer life-serving, rather than to cling anxiously to the hierarchical governance allegedly instituted by Jesus: “Do not call anyone on earth your father; only one is your Father, the One in heaven. Avoid being called teachers. Only one is your teacher, the Christ” (Matthew 23.9 ff.)
 A list of all persons who, directly or indirectly, have been investigated in any way, disciplined, or excommunicated by the CDF under Joseph Ratzinger (a compilation by “Catholics for Choice,” 2006) is available at www.wirsindkirche.de/files/212_2006movingforwardbylookingback_31-38.pdf.
 A list of 99 theologians and spiritual leaders who were banned, expelled, or silenced under Ratzinger is included in the 2011 book by Matthew Fox, The Pope’s War: Why Ratzinger’s Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved?www.wir-sind-kirche.de/files/1567_Fox_Liste%20der%2099.pdf
 An in-depth analysis of the theology of Joseph Ratzinger is available (in German) in Hermann Haring's “Im Namen des Herrn. Wohin der Papst die Kirche führt” (Gütersloh, 2009).
English translation by Anne Goodrich Heck

"Austrian Dissident Catholics Urged -Maintain Church Unity"/Christian Century

http://www.christiancentury.org/article/2011-11/austrias-dissident-catholics-urged-maintain-church-unity
Nov 17, 2011 by Jonathan Luxmoore

..." In their 10 November declaration, the bishops rejected a 5 November call by Austria's We Are Church movement for laypeople to preside at Mass and celebrate the Eucharist. The bishops were also reacting to a July "Call to Disobedience" signed by 250 of Austria's 4,200 Roman Catholic priests, urging the ordination of women priests and distribution of Communion to non-Catholics and remarried divorcees...Hans Peter Hurka, We Are Church's chairman, told ENInews that Austria's bishops had pledged to hold a dialogue with Catholic clergy, but had rejected calls for a discussion of New Testament guidelines. He added that 505,000 Austrians had signed the movement's founding petition in 1995, adding that recent opinion surveys suggested 80 percent now backed its demands."All of this is seen as irrelevant by the bishops -- they don't seem to realize the train has already left and they're still standing on the platform," the lay Catholic said. "The situation is now beyond church control and the dangers of a schism are very real..."

Bridget Mary's Reflection
The "holy shakeup" continues to grow and Catholics worldwide are joining the movement for ality for gender justice in the church. Obviously, the priests of Austria and Ireland are leading the way toward a renewed priestly ministry in union with the people of God, not the backward slide to the clerical culture of the Medieval world that promotes a "magical" approach that focuses on the special powers of the priest to "confect" the sacraments, and the indulgences that the laity gain by attending  certain  churches and saying specfic prayers. These devotions indicate that the Catholic believers in the pew's primary responsibility was to pray, obey and pay ( as in make an offering for candles lit etc). Note that Pope Benedict promotes indulgenes today for certain devotional practices including pilgrimages to sacred sites.
The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests  focus on being living witnesses of the Gospel of compassion in serving our sisters and brothers, especially those in most need and in challenging structures that keep people on the margins and impoverished- we are called to speak truth to power, like Jesus did, so that justice will be a reality for God's people. Ordination is not about us, it is about being catalysts for justice in church and world!
Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP
Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests
http://www.associationofromancatholicwomenpriests.org/
sofiabmm@aol.com

Meet Our New Deacon in Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests: Judy Beaumont

Ordination of Judy Beaumont to the Diaconate on November 15, 2011.

The Ordination of Judy Beaumont as Deacon on Nov. 15, 2011/Sarasota, Florida

A Celebration of Ordination with the Community of the Good Shepherd.
Judy Beaumont was ordained a deacon of ARCWP in the home of Bishop Bridget Mary on November 15, 2011. Twelve members of the community gathered in the mid-afternoon with Jack Meehan, Bridget Mary’s father, providing music on the sax and trumpet for the ordination liturgy. The music for Judy’s ordination came from the chants and melodies used by her Good Shepherd Community in Ft. Myers. These included “This is the Day our God has Made and This is Holy Ground” and we closed with “I Have Decided to Follow Jesus” sung with great enthusiasm by all present.
Judy is co-pastor with Judy Lee, ARCWP of the Good Shepherd Community in Ft. Myers FL. Four of the elders represented her full community and Lauretta Rasmussen presented Judy for ordination to the deaconate with these words:
“I believe she has many good qualities for service as a priest…She serves our church with energy which is always inspiring…She enriches our lives with her kindness and gentleness…Judy is paramount in life-altering events in the lives of the poor, homeless and disabled…Her unselfish acts give inspiration for all…The Joshua House mission has given back to the poor their dignity and more, their hope. Ms. Beaumont has fed me, clothed me and provided shelter for me…When Judy smiles; you can see the Holy Spirit light up her face. The love she has for us is a gift from God. It shows in everything she does.”
Bishop Bridget Mary gave the homily, “…Today we are celebrating the ordination to the diaconate of Judy Beaumont, a woman who has spent her life on the margins living Jesus’ passion for justice and equality…your affirmation of your woman deacon and priest speaks loudly to all that the full equality of women and justice for all God’s people especially those who suffer poverty, joblessness and homelessness, is the voice of God in our time. Today Judy joins Judy Lee in ministry with you, the beloved community, as ordained women in Good Shepherd Community. Together they serve the Body of Christ at the table and around the table standing on the margins with you, living God’s compassion and doing justice.”
Then Bishop Bridget Mary called us into silence for the laying on of hands, the act of ordination of Judy as ARCWP deacon. The Spirit’s presence filled the room as each person came forward to lay their hands on Judy’s head offering prayers for her ministry. Jack Meehan could not come forward so immediately after Judy presented herself to Jack for his blessing. Such a tender Spirit filled moment for them and for us.
After the service we moved our celebration to a local restaurant for a wonderful Oriental buffet. May God’s Spirit Sofia pour down blessings on Judy Beaumont’s ministry as deacon with the People of God in Good Shepherd Community.

"Recognizing the Church We Already Are"/ Jamie Manson's Keynote At Call to Action/Link to Address

http://ncronline.org/blogs/grace-margins/recognizing-church-we-already-are
"This story, I think, does all of those things. It is a true story that happened in a place as ordinary as St. Louis and as recently as 2008. The year that stretched from the summer of 2008 to the summer of 2009 was especially bizarre for the Catholic Church in the United States (and, I know there is a lot of competition for that title). It was during this time that Father Roy Bourgeois was given his first notification from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that he had 30 days in which to recant his position in support of women’s ordination or face excommunication.It was during this time that Sister Louise Akers was banned by the archbishop of Cincinnati from teaching catechetics on behalf of the archdiocese because of her public support of women's ordination in the Catholic church."

REMEMBERING THE FEAST DAY OF A CHILD/ by OLGA LUCIA ALVAREZ, ARCWP

A year ago, the child Juan Dieguito Borda:
"He pleased God y God loved him...y he took him away" (Wisdom 4:10)

Gilma and her sisters, aunts of Juan Dieguito.
His family, little friends, neighbors and the neighborhood, have wished to honor his memory with a community Eucharist in the House/Church.

His grandmothers, his aunts, uncles, cousins, friends y neighbors of the family were there.

The aunts set up the altar, in the living room of the house and arranged the seats for everyone. The cousins and little friends of Juan Diego, with whom we saw him playing foot-ball so many times in the block in front of the house, spontaneously, asked to organize the presentation of the gifts and thus they did it:
Cousins and friends of Juan Dieguito, at the Presentation of the Gifts.

The family and members of the Community, had invited a Catholic priest (of Old Catholic) whom we also invited to concelebrate, explaining to the Community, giving the sense of ecumenism which is provided in the sharing of inter-denominational and inter-religious communion, which goes farther than just meetings and signing documents of mutual "closeness", posing for the "ecumenical" album.

Father Miguel Adolfo Figueroa reading the Gospel.

The readings were shared. The sharing of the homily in a community way, is still hard for us, but efforts were made to do it and it's a work in progress which will continue.

At the moment of consecration, we acted as community, women and men extended their hands over the elements reciting the words of the consecration as a sign of promise and solidarity in the service of the community and the church.


One of the grandmothers of Juan Diego, who will give out Communion.

Before Communion, the grandmothers were asked to help with the distribution, explaining to the community why they were going to do so. "They through the years, in their homes, have cared for our lives, providing us with food. Giving us Communion today is caring for the spiritual life of their family, their sons, daughters and grandchildren, protecting them and helping them grow in the faith; therefore they are going to share Communion not only with their family, but also with the Community, recognizing thus their experience and wisdom."

When the church speaks of the importance of the laity, it is referring to the empowerment of the laic in it, causing the laity to assume responsability for the building of the Kingdom of God, in a community way and with a sense of church.

This was a powerful moment, understood and accepted by the community, which afterwards was much remarked about among the people.


"As his life was pleasing to the Lord, the Lord acted quickly to remove him from the midst of evil. The people see, but neither hear nor understand, that God treats his chosen with mercy and goodness, watching over his faithful ones." Wisdom 4:14-15

"Archaeological Sites in Rome and Elsewhere Depict Ordained Women/Interview by Nicole Sotelo/National Catholic Reporter

http://ncronline.org/blogs/young-voices/tomb-unknown-priests
Instead, she (Dorothy Irvin) said, "The really striking thing is that what we have archaeologically is pretty much universal coverage. We have ordained women from places such as Egypt and the southern deserts of Jordan through Jerusalem over to Turkey and the Czech Republic, and back through northern and southern Europe. In other words, the entire geographical area of the early church gives us written and pictorial documentation."
She noted that whatever forms of art are used in a particular region, "we find ordained women in those art forms." She went on to say, "If the art form is hand-woven textiles, then we will find ordained women in hand-woven textiles. If the art form is catacomb frescoes, we will find ordained women in those art forms."
Contact Dr. Irvin for calendars with depictions of ordained women at irvincalendar@hotmail.com

"The Devil and Joe Paterno"/New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/13/opinion/sunday/douthat-the-devil-and-joe-paterno.html

..."It was precisely because Castrillón had served his church heroically, I suspect, that he was so easily blinded to the reality of priestly sex abuse. It was precisely because Joe Paterno had done so much good for so long that he could do the unthinkable, and let an alleged child rapist continue to walk free in Penn State’s Happy Valley. ..
...The best piece about Darío Castrillón Hoyos was written by the Catholic essayist John Zmirak, and his words apply to Joe Paterno as well. Sins committed in the name of a higher good, Zmirak wrote, can “smell and look like lilies. But they flank a coffin. Lying dead and stiff inside that box is natural Justice ... what each of us owes the other in an unconditional debt.”
No higher cause can trump that obligation — not a church, and certainly not a football program. And not even a lifetime of heroism can make up for leaving a single child alone, abandoned to evil, weeping in the dark.

Woman Priest, a Beachwood Native, Sees Her Ordination as Valid; Roman Catholic Church Does Not"/The Plain Dealer

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2011/11/woman_priest_sees_her_ordinati.html

"Women priests are taboo in the eyes of the Roman Catholic Church, and those who participate in ordinations of women automatically excommunicate themselves from the church, according to laws of the Holy See.
But the Rev. Barbara Zeman, a Beachwood native, considers herself both a priest and a devout member of the Catholic faith.
Zeman, who now lives in Chicago, will be in Northeast Ohio this week to say a Mass. She was ordained in 2008 within a movement that believes God calls women as well as men to the sacrament of Holy Orders. She is one of an estimated 125 women in the United States who wear priest vestments and administer the sacraments..."

By Michael O'Malley, The Plain Dealer

"Nuns who Won't Stop Nudging"/New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/13/business/sisters-of-st-francis-the-quiet-shareholder-activists.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1

"NOT long ago, an unusual visitor arrived at the sleek headquarters of Goldman Sachs in Lower Manhattan.
It wasn’t some C.E.O., or a pol from Athens or Washington, or even a sign-waving occupier from Zuccotti Park.
It was Sister Nora Nash of the Sisters of St. Francis of Philadelphia. And the slight, soft-spoken nun had a few not-so-humble suggestions for the world’s most powerful investment bank.
Way up on the 41st floor, in a conference room overlooking the World Trade Center site, Sister Nora and her team from the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility laid out their advice for three Goldman executives. The Wall Street bank, they said, should protect consumers, rein in executive pay, increase its transparency and remember the poor... "