Roman Catholic Women Priests Denounce Pope Benedict XVI's Holy Thursday Message

Roman Catholic Womenpriests-USA, Inc.
Suzanne Avison Thiel, President

Portland, Oregon USA  suzthiel@yahoo.com
romancatholicwomenpriests.org  

Janice Sevre-Duszynska, Media ARCWP

Lexington, KY. rhythmsofthedance@gmail.com

859-684-4247

5 April 2012 

This Holy Thursday, Pope Benedict XVI,  in another heavy-handed move,  denounced all priests who have questioned church teachings on celibacy and the ordination of women but he surely cannot denounce the millions of Catholics who no longer believe that such practices are what Jesus would want.  The Catholic people through the sensus fidelium have already accepted women priests.  We in this prophetic movement continue to experience the support of Catholics throughout the world who are in favor of a married priesthood and of women who are answering their call from God to be their priests.  For the pontiff to so boldly speak against the men and women who have taken the risk to question these teachings is simply a misused tactic and exercise of the sin of arrogance and sexism. His unwillingness to even participate in a dialogue with the so called "dissidents" is nothing but a  punitive, radical, authoritarian attempt to squelch any freedom of conscience and so-called disobedience. We call on all Catholic women to speak out for their equality and justice. Our Church must continue to evolve and be renewed in the signs of the times. Let us not forget that there were married men and women participating in the events of Holy Week- holy women that Jesus knew and loved and trusted with priestly ministry.  

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI has denounced priests who have questioned church teaching on celibacy and ordaining women, saying Thursday they were disobeying his authority to try to impose their own ideas on the church.

Benedict made the rare and explicit criticism from the altar of St. Peter's Basilica in his homily on Holy Thursday, when priests recall the promises they made when ordained.

In 2006, a group of Austrian priests launched the Pfarrer Initiative, or pastor initiative, a call to disobedience aimed at abolishing priestly celibacy and opening the clergy to women to relieve the shortages of priests.

Last June, the group's members essentially threatened a schism, saying the Vatican's refusal to hear their complaints left them no choice but to "follow our conscience and act independently."

They issued a revised call to disobedience in which they said parishes would celebrate Eucharistic services without priests, that they would let women preach, and they pledged to speak out publicly and frequently for female and married priests.

The group now claims more than 300 Austrian priests and deacons as well as supporters in other countries, and its influence has grown to such an extent that top Austrian bishops met with Vatican officials in January to discuss how to handle them, Italian news reports said.

So far, neither the Vatican nor the archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, have imposed any canonical penalties on them.

In his homily, Benedict said the dissidents claim to be motivated by concern for the church. But he suggested that in reality they were just making "a desperate push to do something to change the church in accordance with (their) own preferences and ideas."

"We would like to believe that the authors of this summons are motivated by concern for the church, that they are convinced that the slow pace of institutions has to be overcome by drastic measures, in order to open up new paths and to bring the Church up to date," he said. "But is disobedience really a way to do this?"

He said Jesus always followed true obedience to God's will, not "human caprice."

Benedict's straightforward, "lucid" homily reaffirming mandatory celibacy for priests shows that the pontiff is in solid command at the helm of the Catholic church, said the editor of the Vatican's newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.

The pope, who turns 75 this month, has recently taken to using a cane and other devices to help him move during public ceremonies, and some observers have speculated that the less physically vigorous pontiff's leadership grip of the church might be loosening.

But Benedict's strong call to priests to staunchly embrace church teaching on celibacy "once again erases the stereotype of a weak pope who supposedly isn't governing the church," wrote Vatican editor Gian Maria Vian in an unusually prominent front-page commentary on the papal homily.

Early in the evening, Benedict went to Rome's St. John in Lateran Basilica to preside at the traditional Holy Thursday foot-washing ceremony. There, two aides helped the pope down the few steps from the altar, but otherwise Benedict walked steadily and briskly on his own to the array of priests who sat, each with one foot bare, so the pope could pour water over the foot in a symbol of humility and service. In remarks at the service, Benedict denounced "arrogance" as the "true essence of sin."

In the same spirit of service, the pope earmarked the collection of money offered by faithful during the Mass to help refugees of the violence in Syria.

The head of the Pfarrer Initiative, Rev. Hellmut Schueller, downplayed the severity of Benedict's message and said the pope was merely asking for reflection on whether disobedience can reform the church.

In a telephone interview with The Associated Press, Schueller noted that Benedict didn't forbid what the dissident priests were doing or advocating.

"We are listening with interest to this message," he said. "I cannot see it as a very sharp wording."

The members of the initiative, Schueller said, will reflect on Benedict's words as part of a dialogue he hopes to open with Austrian bishops.

"We have decided to go this way because it's the way of our conscience, as faithful, and we are expressing only the opinion of the people at the base of the church."

He said the initiative did not seek to split the church or create schism, saying the positions articulated in the call for disobedience increasingly reflected the will of ordinary Catholics.

Any divisions that are being created, Schueller said, are between the base of the church and the hierarchy.

Holy Thursday homilies are often unusual in that the pope uses them to issue direct messages to priests. In 2006, for example, Benedict read a letter written by a cleric who was killed as he prayed in Turkey.

And on Holy Thursday in 2002, Pope John Paul II broke his silence over the explosion of the U.S. sex abuse scandal, denouncing the sins of priestly abusers and the "grave scandal" that was casting a "dark shadow of suspicion" over all priests.

___

AP writer Frances D'Emilio contributed to this report from Rome.

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Two Great Presentations on Women Priests at Emory University at Global Humanitarian Summit/Deacon Diane Dougherty, ARCWP

Global Humanitarian Summit  

http://www.imvc.org/

Pink Smoke Over the Vatican

An award winning documentary film about the controversial movement of women seeking to be ordained as priests in the Roman Catholic Church and will be shown oF

PINK SMOKE OVER THE VATICAN-A DOCUMENTARY

April 14, 2012    11:00 AM-12:30 PM  Room A 170  School of Medicine

Join us after the showing for a conversation with Diane Dougherty, ARCWP   dianedoughertysblog@blogspot.com email/phone:     add57@numail.org     770-683-8101

G-1) ENLIGHTENED POWER: THE INFLUENCE OF WOMEN AS GLOBAL CHANGE MAKERS -- SOM P178 & P190 // Sat. 1-3pm

Patricia Shafer: Mini Summit led by Founder / Chief Catalyst of Mothering Across Continents and Co-Author of Enlightened Power: How Women are Transforming the Practice of Leadership

) CREATIVITY, WELLNESS, & INSPIRATION - SOM 110 //                     Sat 11am-6pm

Ellison, Debbie: Laughter for wellness…a fun program harnessing the power of laughter for healing benefits
Simmons, Don: Global Peace through Meditation and Loving Kindness
Sieberg, Daniel: Insights from a seasoned technology/media correspondent into creating a healthy balance in life. Author of The Digital Diet: The four-step plan to break your tech addiction and regain balance in your life  
Dougherty, Diane: Advocating for women's rights within the Catholic Church
Austin, Yewande: Change Rocks Foundation: Music as an alternative tool for socio-economic transformation in the fight against global poverty
Benton, Mallard W.: Journaling as a method of individual reflection, as well as a method of exploring leadership and community action
Canedy, Craig: Music therapy from both a community and individual health perspective
Dunn, Mary: Spirituality in patients and caregivers aiding recovery
Goodloe, Kimberly: A survivor of one open heart and two pace maker surgeries inspires the community to keep moving forward with a positive outlook on life, despite their daily challenges.
Guan, Garry: Creating universally accessible computer fonts for indigenous languages in order to keep tribal cultures alive and to promote literacy amongst these peoples
Mello, Felipe and Ravagnani, Roberto: The clown in the hospital environment as a tool to stimulate citizenship: Citizen Corner (Canto Cidadao), Brazil
Mullins, Stan: Using art as a tool for positive global social change
Nelson, Camille: Witnessing magic…volunteering at a camp for kids whose parents have cancer
Nicole, Dominique: Life and Love Foundation: Building a bridge to the future by helping children reach their highest potential through music, television, film, and the performing arts
O'Brien, Barbara and Marc: Therapeutic horseback riding / storytelling for wounded warriors / children
Stern, Danny: The benefits of drum meditations in the Sufi traditions
Washington, Joseph B.: A unique individual with a severe stuttering problem who overcame his disability shares his secrets to overcoming challenges and breaking one's own belief barriers in his book Breaking The Spirit of Average (7 principles for turning Average into AWESOME)

“What, Exactly, Do They Teach in Catholic Seminaries?” - Catholic Women Priests Part 6 by Diana Milesko

            There’s a saying that, “Power corrupts; and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”  When the Catholic Church becomes insulated and unaccountable to anyone it’s clerics can commit terrible wicked acts with impunity. A recent example of such corruption follows, along with the writer’s simple, yet deeply insightful, question.

      “A German Catholic priest admitted 280 counts of child sexual abuse. He said it never occurred to him that he was doing harm. He was molesting 9 year old boys. He had pornographic pictures of them on his computer. But he did not think what he was doing was wrong. What exactly do they teach in Catholic seminaries? How can anyone grow up in society and be unaware that raping children is wrong?”

            For Catholic clergy to be so oblivious to moral behavior is not just a sexual felony, which is bad enough. It not only contradicts every moral precept our Loving God and Jesus set down, which is worse. But for Catholic clergy to think such behavior is not villainously depraved reflects an institution that has no sense at all of what it is supposed to be doing. Sexual felonies committed by Catholic Church clergy--and worse, the apparent ignorance of morality that attends them--are a manifestation of deep decay.

            To prevent collapse of the Catholic Church, clergy on all levels must be taught that everything everyone does counts; they must be taught specifically and unambiguously that abuse of children and women is intolerable. Priests and bishops are in a position of monumental trust; it is critical for them to show, in every way, that all people are worthy of respect--especially children and the marginalized. The Catholic clergy must uphold the values Jesus taught and set an example for others.

            “By daily acts that often surprised his contemporaries, Jesus made God’s love for every human person clear. He made a special effort in the case of the poor, the vulnerable, the sick, the young and those publicly regarded as sinners. He showed they were invited into the communion of God’s love. For this reason the Church also, in all of its actions, [must] make clear the dignity and value of every human person, especially those most vulnerable.” [Integrity in the Service of the Church. 2011. Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.]

            It is essential that clergy be reminded again and again that every person has value; that they are loved unconditionally by God and must be respected; that raping children is wrong!

            En route to Mexico on March 22, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI spoke of the drug trade: “It is the responsibility of the Church to educate consciences, to teach moral responsibility and to unmask evil idolatry....”

            Women priests can add what the Pope omitted: We must not only TEACH moral responsibility, but PRACTICE it as well. The Pope further observed, “Marxist ideology no longer responds to reality. We have to find new models.” The Pope is right about communism. Now replace, ‘Marxist Ideology’ with ‘Church Hierarchy’ and paraphrase the Pope’s words, “The Church Hierarchy no longer responds to reality. We have to find new models.” 

            April is Child Abuse Prevention Month. This is a good month for the Church to reflect on the terrible abuses it’s clergy has committed against children.  It is a good month to begin to find new models, to create special programs that find and stop such sociopaths. 

            It is a good month to put aside all the fatuous posturing and excommunicating and balking about women priests--women ARE priests--and welcome the outreached hand they offer to help solve the problems in the Church today.  It is time for the Church, with both women and men clergy, to get on with the important business of honoring and practicing decency and justice within its ranks and throughout the world.

Good Shepherd Community Celebration of Palm Sunday: Letter of Appreciation

left to right
Co-Pastors: Judy Beaumont and Judy Lee
with Good Shepherd Community on Palm Sunday

Co-Pastor: Judy Beaumont

"Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna Has Permitted a Homosexual in a Registered Domestic Partnership to Serve on a Parish Council"

http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=13870

Overruling one of his parish priests, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna has permitted a homosexual in a registered domestic partnership to serve on a parish council.
Father Gerhard Swierzek, the parish priest of a small parish in the archdiocese, had refused to allow Florian Stangl, 26, to serve on the council. Stangl, who is disabled, had obtained 96 out of 142 votes in a recent parish council election.
The archdiocese had initially backed Father Swierzek, releasing a statement that living in a domestic partnership precludes one from serving on a parish council.
Cardinal Schönborn said that he had initially intended to uphold the priest’s decision--but then, he said, “I ask myself in these situations: How did Jesus act? He first saw the human being.”
Calling his decision “a decision for human beings,” the cardinal recounted that he invited Stangl and his partner to lunch and understood “why the community had given him the most votes, because he is really impressive.”
“This man is at the right place,” the cardinal said of Stangl. 

“Ordained Women in the Early Church” - Catholic Women Priests Part 5 Diana Milesko

            The theory that women are inferior because of their sex and thus unworthy to say Mass reflects an ancient Mid-Eastern culture--Greek, Roman and Arab--and not that of a loving God who embraces all humanity.  Propaganda about women’s inferiority has been exacerbated over centuries by a Catholic Church which indoctrinated followers in a false dogma. Worse, such doctrine was contrary to precepts of God and Jesus--of love, mercy, and charity.

            Giogio Otranto, a 21st C Italian professor of Church history, shows through papal letters and inscriptions that women participated in the Catholic priesthood for the first thousand years of Church’s history.  Recent American scholarship has produced an amazing range of evidence for women’s roles as deacons, priests (presbyters), and bishops in the Christian Churches from the first through the 13th centuries. [Gary Macy, The Hidden History of Women’s Ordination.]

            Women priests clearly existed in the early church.  But when the Church became a monarchial system by the third century it’s ambivalence about women priests increased. Women priests were resented; but they were necessary due to the cultural mores of the time. Strict separation of sexes and seclusion of women made it improper for males to instruct or visit women. So ordained women provided baptismal instruction; they baptized women at a time when adult baptism was by naked immersion; they made pastoral visits to sick women and accompanied women in dealings with bishops--all priestly functions. When adult baptism by naked immersion ceased and infant baptism became the norm, it was no longer necessary to have women baptize women.

            Opponents of women priests appealed to an ideology that divided society into the city, a male domain, and the household, (oikos), a female domain.  As the Church became increasingly institutionalized, these arguments that only men belonged in public life and women belonged in the home, carried greater weight. For example, in the fourth century, the Church resisted the practice of independent female asceticism because it threatened to emancipate women from men. Nonetheless, women priests continued into the Middle Ages. The sacramental symbols and powers of the priesthood are seen in medieval abbesses who wore elements of priestly vesture in procession, gave blessings, and received confessions of their nuns.

            As the Church organized itself along the lines of existing Middle Eastern political structures, Jesus’ teachings of love, equality and justice were altered; and the Church view of women became increasingly odious and pervasive. Part of this attitude was due to culture, and part to a growing Church bureaucracy that struggled for increased control in a tumultuous time. 

            The Church campaign for dominion was successful but resulted, among other evils, in terrible denigration of women.  As a result, until the mid-1960’s, the belief that women were never and cannot ever be priests due to their sexual inferiority was taken for granted.

Act for Justice Now: Challenge Publix to do Justice for Farm Workers/ Modern Day Passion of Jesus in Florida's Fields

http://www.ciw-online.org/not_1996_anymore.html

The more things change?...

November, 1996

March, 2012

No, actually. The more things change, the more the old guard fights to keep things the same. But it isn't 1996 anymore...

The two bloody shirts pictured above trace the trajectory of the CIW's two-decade old fight for fundamental human rights in Florida's fields, a fight to eliminate the constant undercurrent of violence which has haunted the fields for far too long.

The shirt on the left belonged to a young man who walked into the CIW's office in November, 1996. He had been picking tomatoes in a field near Immokalee when he stopped to take a drink of water. A field supervisor accosted him, shouted "Are you here to work, or to drink water?", and launched into him, leaving him badly bruised and bloodied -- and determined to find justice. The young worker walked back to Immokalee, headed straight to the CIW office, and sparked a nighttime march of nearly 500 workers on the crewleader's house. The marchers brandished his shirt as a banner, declaring "If you beat one of us, you beat us all!", and helped launch a movement that changed Immokalee forever.

The shirt on the right belonged to a young man who walked into the CIW's office last week. He had been working at a vegetable packing house, packing eggplants, about 10 miles from Immokalee when a supervisor approached him. According to the worker, the supervisor criticized his work, and he, thinking the criticism unjustified, answered back. A discussion ensued when, according to the worker and a witness, the supervisor hauled off and punched him in the face. Staggered, he swung back, but was knocked to the ground by the supervisor before others in the area stepped in to pull them apart. The worker was told to go home, clean up, and return the next day. Instead, he went to the CIW's office, and filed a police report. He then went to the hospital, where he learned that the supervisor's punch had broken his nose.

One might see the two shirts -- these two incidents of inexcusable violence against workers that they symbolize -- and conclude that little has changed for farmworkers in Florida. But that would be wrong.

In fact, the punching of the worker at an eggplant packing house last week -- like the incident, also just last week, in a Plant City strawberry field where a farmer was caught on video screaming violently at workers for picking his berries poorly, calling them "damn animals" that "ain't worth a sh*t" (the original video has been removed, but a short audio recording remains) -- only underscores just how much has changed in the tomato fields where the Fair Food Program is in effect.

"A man can't ride your back unless it is bent"...

Those words were spoken by Dr. Martin Luther King on the eve of his assassination, in his ever powerful "Mountaintop" speech in Memphis, Tennessee, April 3, 1968. Speaking about the Civil Rights movement in Albany, Georgia, he said, "Whenever men and women straighten their backs up, they are going somewhere, because a man can't ride your back unless it is bent."

Today, in tomato fields across the state of Florida, the men and women who pick this country's tomatoes are indeed going somewhere, through the Fair Food Program. Not only have they won new rights and protections against exploitation and abuse (verbal and physical), but they are learning about those rights, on the farm and on the clock, through the CIW's educational efforts, and are enforcing those rights through the Fair Food Program's protected complaint mechanism.

They are straightening their backs up, and -- in a true partnership with those growers who have made a real commitment to the Fair Food Program -- taking steps to eliminate violence and humiliation in Florida's tomato fields, to end the long nightmare of the state's Harvest of Shame.

That is not to say that all is right in the fields where the Fair Food Program is in effect. But it does mean that workers and employers determined to improve conditions in the tomato industry now have real, effective tools with which to identify and eliminate the abusive bosses and exploitative structures that have plagued the industry for decades. And they have done so this season, time and time again, on participating farms from Homestead to Ruskin.

But what's even more interesting is what's happening at farms outside of the Fair Food Program -- whether they are vegetable fields outside the tomato industry, or tomato fields where growers have refused to join the Program. With increasing frequency, the CIW and Program auditors are receiving complaints from workers who, having picked tomatoes on participating growers' farms earlier in the season, now find themselves working for companies beyond the reach of the Program, where conditions are every bit as harsh and demeaning as they ever were.

These workers, who received the orientation on workers' rights under the Fair Food Code of Conduct at a participating farm, confirm the positive impact of the Program every time they call with complaints ranging from verbal and physical harassment to forced overfilling of buckets and systemic minimum wage violations on non-participating farms.

Having seen the New Day taking shape in participating growers' fields, they are shocked anew at the conditions as they used to be, and continue to be, in fields outside the Fair Food Program. And while the distinction is good news for workers on the participating farms, it is also good news for the participating growers themselves, who, thanks to the more humane workplace environment they are creating this season, are better able to attract and retain workers, leading to lower turnover, reduced training costs, and higher productivity.

But not everyone is pleased with these unprecedented changes.

It takes two to exploit farmworkers...

Without an outlet for produce brought to market in violation of workers' fundamental human rights, growers who have turned their backs on the Fair Food Program would have to raise their standards or go out of business. So, where does an old school grower turn to sell his tomatoes, eggplants, or strawberries with no questions asked?

"If there are some atrocities going on, it’s not our business."

"We do not intervene in labor disputes between suppliers and their employees."

"If productivity standards are too strenuous, farmworkers should work for another employer."

Yes, Publix, for one, is happy to buy tomatoes produced where workers do not enjoy the protections and oversight provided by the Fair Food Program. Publix sells several brands of Florida tomatoes from farms that have not agreed to the new human rights standards, like the Red Diamond tomatoes pictured above, purchased recently at a Naples area store. And Publix is all too happy to provide the public support necessary to encourage recalcitrant growers to continue resisting change, as it has done time and time again in response to the Campaign for Fair Food.

Dehumanization makes it all possible...

Why, when the option to support a more modern, more humane agricultural industry exists, does Publix insist on doing things the old way?

Because, in the final analysis, Publix, like the growers who would turn back the clock on any gains made by farmworkers, simply refuses to recognize the fundamental humanity of those who harvest their bounty. Instead, Publix desperately clings to the old days, when farmworkers were invisible and consumers were silent, leaving Publix totally unaccountable for generations of farm labor poverty and degradation.

You can't break another human being's nose just because he had the temerity to speak back to you, unless you don't see him as a fellow human being. You can't sexually assault a woman who works for you if, in her, you see your mother, your sister, or your daughter. You can't steal another person's freedom and force them to work at the barrel of a gun if you see that person as fundamentally equal to you. It's just not possible. And you can't turn your back on those conditions when deciding where to buy the produce you sell unless you share the perspective that farmworkers are, in some defining measure, less fully human than you.

Think about the worker you saw at the top of this post who was beaten at the packing house last week. As long as he is defined as "a worker" and the details are about the facts of the assault, you may see him one way. But what if we were to tell you that he has lived and worked in Immokalee with his family for eleven years, teaching himself how to drive a forklift to try to get ahead, to be a better provider for his family. That he is a husband and the father of two beautiful young boys, 8 and 3, and that his youngest, whom he loves dearly, is severely disabled and can't walk, eat, or breathe on his own? You might begin to see him differently, as your neighbor, a member of your community, a human being.

But for Publix and for still too many growers in Florida, farmworkers remain faceless, nameless, "hands" -- tools needed to bring in the harvest. Tools that, when they wear out, or are damaged, are simply replaced with other tools without a moment's hesitation or regret.
But it's 2012, not 1996, and that attitude no longer puts a company in the mainstream of Florida agriculture, not to mention the retail food industry. Today, the vast majority of Florida's tomato growers have recognized the mistakes of the past and are making, through significant investments of time and resources dedicated to meeting the higher standards of the Fair Food Program, a true commitment to a more socially responsible, more humane work environment.
And today, more and more consumers are no longer happy to buy the food they eat, the food they put on their families' tables, no questions asked, even if Publix still is. Consumers are demanding to know the story behind their food, but violence, sexual harassment, and grinding poverty are not the story they want to hear.
It is not 1996 anymore, where the only people outraged when a young worker comes back from work bloodied and beaten are his fellow workers in Immokalee. And until Publix realizes that simple fact, they will get more and more letters like this one, with which we will close today's post, from Brendan and Alison Conley of Temple Terrace, Florida. Mr. and Mrs. Conley, you have the final word:

Dear Friends at Publix: We love Publix. But we can't shop there. We grew up shopping at Publix. Until recently, we bought nearly all of our groceries there. But we won't be back, not until one thing changes. The people who pick our tomatoes, represented by the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, haven't had a raise in 30 years. They're asking you to pay a penny per pound more, and you have refused to even meet with them. We've heard your response already: this has nothing to do with Publix; it's between the growers and the workers. We see through that. If Publix told the growers that they had to pay the workers a penny per pound more, would they really refuse? Who's really calling the shots? Does that mean Publix is the boss? No. We the consumers are. So we're sorry, Publix, but we're going to have to let you go. Come back to us when you've cleaned up your act. Sincerely, Brendan Conley Alison Conley

"Matthew Fox Talks Obedience and Courage, Young Adults and the Church" Interview with Jamie l. Manson in National Catholic Reporter

http://ncronline.org/blogs/grace-margins/matthew-fox-talks-obedience-and-courage-young-adults-and-church


...Bishops who do not agree with the Vatican on some issues and who see how some of the Vatican's positions do harm to people, but they obey and cooperate with the Vatican anyway. Do you see parallels to fascism there?
So often it comes down to preferring one's job security or career advancement to the truth or to Jesus. Susan Sontag defines fascism as institutionalized violence: violence in the name of institution and the act of hiding behind an institution. A good example of this, of course, is the pedophilia crisis. I use the word fascism in the book because all fundamentalisms, not just the Catholic kind, are about freezing power.
John Paul II and Cardinal [Joseph] Ratzinger thoroughly opposed liberation theology and instead snuggled up to those who believed in absolute obedience. Fr. Marcial Maciel, the founder of the Legionaries of Christ, was very close to the Chilean dictator [Augusto] Pinochet. Cardinal Angelo Sodano, papal nuncio to John Paul II and now dean of the College of Cardinals, appeared on TV to support Pinochet, even as he was torturing and abducting people. Members of Opus Dei served as ministers in Franco's fascist government. The movements that were so attractive to John Paul and Ratzinger were authoritarian, rigid, patriarchal and fundamentalist. It's a pity because Vatican II was an attempt to learn from the sins of fascism and to override the history of extreme obedience.
What do you think is driving this fundamentalist strand in our church and our political discourse?
Part of it is fear. When people are fearful, they want some kind of support, some kind of clarity if at all possible. They are afraid of chaos, so law and order take precedence. But I think an even deeper strand to this fascism is misogyny. There is an anti-feminine bias to all of this. There is a dreaded fear of the feminine. I think it goes back thousands of years when the goddess was revered and integrated into the culture. When patriarchy took over around 500 BC, our myths changed. In the Babylonian myth, the feminine goddess, Tiamat, was also the goddess of chaos. And the god Marduk killed her. The feminine was evil and chaos was evil. And the goal became to enslave or even kill the feminine and chaos. I think this has been played out for a long time, often in the name of religion or science. ..."

Bridget Mary's Reflection:
I think that Jamie Manson's interview with Matthew Fox is insightful. The deep hostility by the hierarchy to the Roman Catholic Women Priests Movement speaks volumes about their fear of the feminine which is rooted in misogyny. They have tried every punishment possible, including excommunication, to intimidate our supporters and have come up empty. The Spirit of God blows where She wills. Let us rejoice that the Spirit of God is working in the women priests' movement to renew the church.

Toledo Woman Attempts to Heed Call to be Priest/ Group Defies Canon Law of Catholicism BY DAVID YONKE/Toledo Blade

http://m2.toledoblade.com/Religion/2012/04/01/Toledo-woman-attempts-to-heed-call-to-be-priest.html
Beverly Bingle is on a mission impossible.
A "cradle Catholic" who retired from the Toledo Catholic Diocese after serving as a pastoral associate at Blessed Sacrament Parish, Ms. Bingle feels that God is calling her to be a priest — a Roman Catholic priest.
She knows the rules, of course, stated clearly and concisely in Canon Law 1024: "Only a baptized male validly receives sacred ordination."
And she knows church tradition.
http://m2.toledoblade.com/Religion/2012/04/01/Toledo-woman-attempts-to-heed-call-to-be-priest.html
"We were trained from an early age that it's not possible, that men are superior," Ms. Bingle said in an interview. But the deeply spiritual Toledoan with a doctorate in ministry from Ecumenical Theological Seminary in Detroit has been unable to shake the feeling that God wants her to be a priest in the Roman Catholic Church, to which she has belonged for all of her 68 years.
A no-frills type who shuns makeup, Ms. Bingle lives in a scruffy part of North Toledo where she plants a huge garden in her backyard and gives the harvest away to anyone in need...
‘Badges of honor'
Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan of Sarasota, Fla., said she has received several letters of excommunication.
She said she considers them "badges of honor" because Pope Benedict XVI has canonized two excommunicated nuns, Mother Theodore Guerin and Mary MacKillop. "He is making excommunication the fast track to sainthood," Bishop Meehan said in an interview...
Sydney Condray, 72, a Toledo author who has a doctorate in education administration, is weighing whether to seek ordination as a priest.
A widow, Ms. Condray said she feels "a call to a leadership role, and the priesthood is a call to leadership within a community."
...Father Bourgeois remains a Roman Catholic priest in good standing.
Shortly after participating in Ms. Sevre-Duszynska's ordination, "I received a very serious letter from the Vatican stating that I would be excommunicated automatically if I did not recant my support of women's ordination as priests," Father Bourgeois said. "I responded by saying that I cannot recant. Sexism, like racism, is a sin, and no matter how hard we may try to justify discrimination against women it is not the way of God but of men in their quest for power."
He has not heard further from Rome, he said. His Maryknoll superiors, meanwhile, sent him two warning letters last year demanding that he recant, which he has refused to do. The order took a vote earlier this year to dismiss him, Father Bourgeois said, but the motion did not have enough votes to pass.
‘A grave injustice'
For Father Bourgeois, 73, a Roman Catholic priest for 40 years, the ban on women's ordination is "a grave injustice."
"The question I had to ask myself and my fellow priests is an all-important question that they refuse to answer, and it's who are we, as men, to say that our call from God is authentic but your call as women is not. Who are we to reject God's call of women to the priesthood?
"What I discovered after a lot of study and reflection is that the root of our church's teaching is sexism. A grave injustice is being done against women and against God, who I believe without any doubt calls both men and women to the priesthood."
....Bishop Joan Houk of Pittsburgh, who heads the Great Waters Region of Roman Catholic Womenpriests, which includes Ohio, was a Roman pastoral director and pastoral associate in Kentucky, where for 5½ years she ran two Roman Catholic parishes that had no pastors.
"I preached. I did funerals that did not have Eucharistic liturgies. I took my turn doing hospital chaplaincy, but I was not able to use holy oils. I was not able to hear confessions or preside at Eucharist. I did a couple of baptisms, but I could not do weddings."
Bishop Houk, a graduate of the University of Notre Dame with a master of divinity degree, said the ministry restrictions placed on her because of her gender became increasingly difficult to bear.
"It was extremely painful," Bishop Houk, 71, said. "I never realized that it would be that painful. … I thought, ‘If I was ordained I could give them the sacraments.'"
In March, 2005, she was inspired to pursue ordination after hearing Bishop Patricia Fresen, a bishop and a native of South Africa, talk about apartheid.
"I had believed that someday the Catholic Church would ordain women," Bishop Houk said. "I had been waiting, and then I saw that things were getting more rigid against any possibility of us getting ordained. And then I heard Patricia say that when you try everything and it doesn't work, then sometimes what you have to do is break the law. It became very clear to me right then that that was something I needed to do. I needed to break the law."
Bishop Meehan, 64, of Sarasota, Fla., was one of the first eight women ordained in the United States, in a July, 2006, ceremony on a boat at the confluence of three rivers in Pittsburgh. She was ordained a bishop three years later...."We don't have to wait for permission anymore, Bishop Meehan said. "We're not putting up with second-class citizenship. We are refusing to sit in the back of the bus. We are taking our rightful role. We are not leaving the church. No, we are leading the church."

Palm Sunday/ Homily Reflection by Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP

Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community blesses Palms 

Procession into Church on Palm Sunday

Priest Michael Rigdon holds Palms as Procession enters Sanctuary

Priest Partners and Presiders of MMOJ are:
Left to right
Michael Rigdon, Lee Breyer, Bridget Mary Meehan,
Katy Zatsick

MMOJ Community Gathers Around Altar to  Pray Eucharistic Prayer on Palm Sunday Liturgy/2012

"The Secret of Our Baptism" by Heather Murray Elkins

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0XQ6p_Y7Qc&sns=fb

“Women and Men are Biologically 99.5% the Same” - Catholic Women Priests Part 4 by Diana Milesko

             In the past few decades there have been breathtaking advances in science.  Perhaps one of the most astonishing is the mapping of the human genome, which contains all of a person’s genetic information. This work has shown that every single difference in our physical bodies--our sex, skin color, eyes, teeth, height, bone density, etc. comprise less than one-half-of-one-percent of the human genome. That means all humans on earth, all women, all men and all races, are biologically 99.5 % the same.

            One justly asks, then, what it is about women that so frightens the male Catholic hierarchy; why the Church, for millennia, has gone to such great lengths to diminish and denigrate women. The answer is part culture and part quest for control.  Wise individuals both within the Church and without (in more ways than one,) are trying to change this situation; but inequality between women and men is still pervasive.

            In refusing to recognize women priests today the best argument the Vatican can come up with is it’s 1976 Declaration on the Question of Admitting Women to the Priesthood, which justifies exclusion of women on the grounds that the female body does not resemble the male body of Christ. This is sadly risible.

            Taken literally, it creates an Alice in Wonderland spiral that descends into nonsense.  It says that in Catholicism, one’s physical body is more important to God than one’s spiritual soul. 

            If that is correct, then the 1976 Declaration on the Question of Admitting Women to the Priesthood must be read in one of two ways. First, to channel Christ’s energy, the male body of every priest must resemble the presumably healthy (according to artwork,) body of Jesus.  Thus disabled or impotent men are excluded from the priesthood because their bodies do not resemble the male body of Christ. Further, a blonde man with blue eyes, a Hispanic, Asian, or Black man is excluded from the priesthood because his body does not resemble the male body of Christ, as depicted in artwork. But what if Jesus was Black, being of Middle Eastern descent? If so, then all White men must be excluded from the priesthood because their bodies don’t resemble the male body of Christ.

            Since it is impossible to determine exactly if Jesus was a Black man or a White man, a sexually potent or impotent man, then just to be safe--because the Vatican doesn’t want to include anyone whose body does not resemble the male body of Christ--all men must be excluded from the priesthood.

            But maybe the Church is talking here about genital organs. It has been said that at times men think with them, but that usually refers to concupiscence, not reason or faith. The teachings of Jesus are based on spiritual qualities of compassion, equality, forgiveness, peace and justice. Given these, one’s sex has nothing to do with the priesthood. (We’re not talking about clerical sexual abuse here. Or are we?)

            According to Catholic dogma,“...a priest, by ordination, receives the power to celebrate the Eucharist, to forgive sins, to bless, to preach, to sanctify.” One does not need a male sex organ to perform any of these functions. If truth be told, a male sex organ often gets in the way of the proper performance of priestly tasks. Furthermore, women priests (presbyters), deaconesses, bishops, prophets and abbesses in earlier centuries and today have performed all of these duties.

            In the 1970‘s during communist rule in Czechoslovakia, Ludmila Javorová was one of several Czech women priests ordained by a bishop because the Communists would not suspect a woman of saying mass.  As Javorová says, “A principal reason for our ordination was that in women’s prisons, nuns and other inmates died without priestly support or the sacraments.”

            All humans are 99.5% the same biologically.  But much more importantly, there is no difference in the spiritual relationship of women and men to our loving God. The word, “catholic”, from which the Church took its name, means “all-embracing.”  To live up to it’s name, the Catholic Church must work for common humanity.  A huge step in this direction would be to welcome women priests on all levels of Church Clergy.

“Women Become the Scapegoat” - Catholic Women Priests Part 3 by Diana Milesko

            The meanings of words change over time. For example, the meaning of awful went from ‘amazing’, to ‘terrible’; decimate, from ‘reduce by one-tenth,’ to ‘destroy’; and, cell from ‘a small unit’ to ‘mobile phone’.

            So too has the word, “ordination” changed over centuries. Jesus never ordained anyone. In the early Church, “ordination” meant ‘to confer a role in a community.’ Records exist of ‘ordinations’ of doorkeepers, people committed to the care of books, sacristans, abbesses, etc. While women and men served at the altar as priests and deacons, they were not necessarily ‘ordained’ to do so.

            Not until the 12th century did ‘ordination’ acquire it’s present meaning of ‘bestowing authority.’ Thus, to talk about early Church ‘ordination’ as we think of it today, is to impose a definition developed in the 12th century onto an earlier period. [Gary Macy, The Hidden History of Women’s Ordination.]

            So what, really, was going on in the Church all those hundreds of years?

            The 9th to 14th centuries were a time of great upheaval, and women became a scapegoat for Church troubles. Papal wars with the Italian States created threats to papal authority as the Church became bolder in its claims for power. Other events that expanded the Church’s cruel and misogynistic practices include:

---The Church had become immensely corrupt. Parish priests were illiterate and immoral; high ranking clergy were appointed by and served, powerful lords

---Married priests gave away Church land as inheritances. To end this practice, clerical celibacy was demanded; to ensure celibacy, women were villified  

---In its attempt at reform, the Church worked to remove women from service at the altar

---Crusades put the Church in contact with Aristotle’s faulty reasoning about women

---The Church became centralized and asserted Papal supremacy

---Witches (benevolent healers,) once denied as ‘real’ by the Church, were used to defame women. The Church depicted witches as the Devil’s consorts

---Pope John XXII authorized the Inquisition to prosecute witchcraft

---Church infighting created two popes who ruled simultaneously: Urban in Rome; Clement at Avignon

---Pope Innocent VIII authorized inquisitors to persecute witches. Their manual was published and reprinted for 200 years.

            Tracts against women reflected the tortured souls of men who mendaciously claimed women had sex with Satan and lustfully tried to corrupt men. Through a deliberate, methodical effort, Church hierarchy erased the memory of women priests.

            Yet archaeological evidence in Rome, Italy and Africa shows women were ordained as deacons, priests and bishops. 

             “Women as well as men functioned as prophets and priests.  Among ancient mosaics paintings, statuary, dedicatory inscriptions and funerary epitaphs, scholars have found evidence for women’s leadership.  In the writings of the New Testament, letters, sermons and the theological treatises of the early Church, women’s leadership is well attested.  Where women leaders played prominent roles, male authors muted their contributions by the way they wrote their stories. [Karen Jo Torjesen. When Women Were Priests.]          

            For example, the Virgin Mary prophesied in “The Magnificat” (Luke 1:47-55) “He has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of low degree; he has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent empty away.” This resounds across centuries as a prophecy, yet Luke does not call the Virgin Mary a prophet.      

            Inscriptional, canonical, literary and epigraphical evidence validate the fact that there were clearly female deacons and priests in the early Church. Well into the 12th century, women were considered as fully ordained as male clergy. [Gary Macy, The Hidden History of Women Priests.] Even condemnations of women priests by the Church (as in the Synod of Nimes, or Letter of Gelasius,) are ironically, testament to women priests. [Kevin Madigan and Carolyn Osiek, Ordained Women in the Early Church.] They show women priests did exist and they were hated by the institutional Church. Thus the claim that women have never functioned as priests in the Church is simply not true.

Women Priests And Advocates for Women's Ordination Hold Vigil Outside Los Angeles Religious Ed. Congress- Youtube Movie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgHh84rv5Sg&feature=email
Los Angeles Religious Ed Congress

Roman Catholic Womenpriests, Call to Action and Women's Ordination Conference witness for women's ordination outside of the Los Angeles Religious Education Conference.  Suzanne Thiel, woman priest from RCWP-USA spokesperson. Film shows support among participants at conference. 

“The Church View of Women is Based on Ancient Greek and Roman Culture” - Catholic Women Priests Part 2 by Diana Milesko

             To solve a problem, one first must approach it with an unbiased mind. This can be difficult when one has been indoctrinated since childhood about an issue.

            Then one needs to figure out where the problem came from. By tracing the Church back to the Ancient World, one learns that, because of the culture that surrounded it, the Church first accepted and then rejected women priests.

PLATO (427-347 BC)

            Greek philosopher Plato, student of Socrates, laid the foundations of Western philosophy. He wrote that in the Greek society, a women’s function was to produce children, especially sons. "Confined in the parental home until a husband was chosen--at which time she was in her mid-teens and he at least fifteen years older--the woman was transferred to his home to fulfill her principal function of bearing and rearing children. Sons were raised in the family but only one daughter, at most, was reared. Other girls were exposed; if they did not die, they might be picked up by slave dealers and prepared for a life of slavery or prostitution."

ARISTOTLE (384-322 BC)

            Plato’s student, Aristotle, who taught Alexander the Great, also accepted the subordination of women without being able to justify it. He posited that woman's inability to produce semen was her deficiency. (Aristotle’s father was a physician.) Women were 'incomplete' men, because semen contained the whole human being. Science has long proven this false. Both female ova and male semen combine to form an embryo.

THOMAS AQUINAS (1225-1274)

            800 years later, Italian Dominican priest Thomas Aquinas propagated Aristotle’s faulty thinking in his immensely influential 13th century arguments. The society of his time was in great upheaval and the Church sought to secure it’s absolute authority. The Church still sees Aquinas as a model for seminarians. He is considered it’s greatest theologian, despite the fact that his melding of Aristotelian thought with Christianity led to misogynist views of women; views prevalent until the 1960s, when they began to be challenged.

ORDAINED WOMEN IN THE EARLY CHURCH

            Most Christians today presume women played little role in the early Church.  But the Church did not spring up suddenly into a well defined organization with buildings, officials and large congregations. In it’s earliest stages it was a social movement. It was informal, often counter cultural, and marked by a fluidity and flexibility that allowed women to assume leadership roles. [Karen Jo Torjesen. When Women Were Priests]

            In the two centuries after Christ’s death, Christians, a hodgepodge of peoples, were disdainfully dismissed as a “third race” by Greeks and Romans. Women priests, (presbyters,) deacons, and abbesses and were persecuted equally with men.  Otherwise, female priests were mostly ignored because they conformed to cultural norms. 

            Christian communities met in “house churches” to avoid persecution. Because women were heads of households, they were pivotal in Christian worship and served as priests (presbyters) and deacons.  As Christianity grew, it’s congregants moved to the public sector and became more visible. When that happened, pressure increased on Christians to follow Middle Eastern practices that decreed women belonged in the home.

            Thus Catholic Church hierarchy was born of politics and culture, not faith; its rules marginalizing women follow those of Middle Eastern and North African cultures in Syria, Egypt, Palestine, Algeria, Armenia, Turkey, Greece, and Italy.

"How It All Started" - Catholic Women Priests Part 1 by Diana Milesko

           Like organizations everywhere, the Catholic Church began with a passion, energy and devotion to a cause--to spread God’s Gospel of love. And like organizations everywhere, it got long in the tooth. As it aged, it became more interested in holding onto what it had than in promoting the goal upon which it was founded in the first place. That is why the Catholic Church needs to be reformed. We stay vital because of our capacity for renewal.  If the Catholic Church does not regenerate itself, it will calcify and die. The Catholic Church must abandon misogynist attitudes it adopted centuries ago to maintain power; it must follow the teaching of Jesus to love one another and see the sacred in our everyday lives; it must accept women priests as it has in the past. The Church’s mission must be reclaimed.  And women priests will help.

            In contrast to past cultures, women today are educated, independent and make significant contributions to humankind in all fields. Furthermore, we live in a world of instantaneous communication. We can get information we used to go to college for, on the internet in two minutes. This, along with research and education, reveal the true history of Catholic Women Priests. The assumption that women were always excluded from the priesthood is not historically accurate. This is based on at least three foundations:

1 -- Women and men are called equal by God and Jesus as revealed in the Old and New Testaments

2 -- Archaeological evidence confirms women have been priests, (presbyters) bishops, prophets,  and abbesses in the early Church

3 -- Catholic Church misogyny has nothing to do with the question of “who” can serve God at the Church altar.  It has everything to do with the fear and cupidity of clerics who strove for absolute authority

JESUS CONFRONTED THE GREEK AND ROMAN CULTURE

            The Bible, written over 3,000 years ago (1450-465 BCE) in a time spanning 1,000 years by over 40 different authors, unveils a Middle Eastern culture with radically different views of women and men than today’s world. Women were considered inferior; could not be educated; go alone in public; or talk with strangers. Yet the Bible affirms the equality of women and men. Genesis 1:27: "...in the image of God, God created him; male and female God created them." Jesus confirmed this equality by defying centuries of laws and consistently treating women and men as equal in God’s love. A few examples:

-- He ignored ritual impurity laws and talked with women: Mark 5:25-34.

-- He talked to foreign women: John 4:7 and Matt. 15:22-28.  

-- He taught women: Luke 10:38-42.

-- He treated women as equal to men when he cured a woman and called her a “Daughter of Abraham,” implying equal status with “Son of Abraham,” which respectfully referred to a Jew: Luke 13:16: 5       

-- He embraced women in his inner circle: Luke 8:1-3: 12

-- He appeared first to women after his resurrection: Matt 28:9-10 (4)

            The teachings of Jesus were “radically egalitarian in their day and constituted a social revolution that likely provoked his crucifixion.” [Karen Jo Torjesen. When Women Were Priests.] Only later, as Christianity became more bureaucratic and muscular, did the Church begin to marginalize the role of its women priests.  

"Pink Smoke Over the Vatican" Stirs Student Debate in Marquette Over Ordained Women---Woman Priest Janice Sevre-Duszynska Leads Discussion

http://marquettetribune.org/2012/03/27/news/pink-smoke-over-the-vatican-stirs-student-debate-over-ordained-women/
by Andrea Anderson
"The 58-minute film and attached academic event was sponsored by Marquette’s Women’s and Gender Studies Program and shared the views of men and women who encourage the ordination of women, along with those who oppose it. Janice Sevre-Duszynska, one of 12 women ordained in 2006 on the waters outside of Pittsburgh, was at the screening and shared her story with the audience and partook in the question-and-answer session after.
“Pink Smoke Over the Vatican” shares the stories of men and women who are working to put an end to the “underlying misogyny and outdated feudal governance that is slowly destroying the Roman Catholic Church,” the video’s website said. The name comes from supporters’ actions on April 17, 2005 when they released pink smoke in front of several U.S. cathedrals in an attempt to call churches to open doors fully to women participation.
At the beginning of the documentary the narrator continuously repeats the question, “Where are the women’s voices?” and then cites the 1024 Canon Law that says only a baptized male can be ordained.
Dr. Dorothy Irvin, a Roman Catholic theologian, explained in the film that the woman’s role in the church was eradicated after the Roman Empire made Catholicism its official religion. Before this, women were ordained and practiced the sacraments, all proven by the discovery of mosaics in South Africa and pictures in catacombs across the world..."


Bridget Mary's Reflection:
Way to go Marquette's Women's and Gender Studies Program Educators- Faculty and Students!
What a great opportunity to share the vision of an inclusive priestly ministry in a community of equals with college students! 
Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP
www.arcwp.org

The Eucharist Dilemma by Joan Chittister

"The major problem of eucharistic theology in our century is not that people do not understand and value the meaning of Eucharist. The problem is that they do.

The Eucharist, every child learns young, is the sign of Christian community, the very heart of it, in fact. And who would deny the bond, the depth, the electrical force that welds us together in it? Here, we know, is the linkage between us and the Christ, between us and the Gospel, between us and the Tradition that links us to Jesus himself and so to the world around us. No, what the Eucharist is meant to be is not what’s in doubt.

What’s in doubt is that the Eucharist is really being allowed to do what it purports to do—to connect us, to unify us, to make us One. The truth is that as much as Eucharist is a sign of community it is also a sign of division. For the sake of some kind of ecclesiastical political fiascos centuries ago between the East and West, we close the table between Orthodox and Uniate—though the faith is the same and the commitments are the same and the vision of life and death are the same.
...."What’s in doubt, too, is that the divisions posited between baptized men and baptized women can possibly witness to what we say is the faith: that men and women are equal; that women are fully human beings; that God’s grace is indivisible; that discipleship is incumbent on us all; that we are all called to follow Christ.

At the end of one presentation after another, women make it a point to continue the discussion with me. ‘I used to be Catholic,’ they begin. ‘I was a Catholic once,’ they say. ‘I’m a recovering Catholic now,’ they announce. It’s a sad litany of disillusionment and abandonment by a Church they once thought promised them fullness of life and then let them know that it is their very persons that deny them that. They are to get out of the pronouns and off the altars of the Church, they read in its latest dictums. They may want to follow Jesus but Jesus, they’re told, does not want to be followed by them.

Call it ‘holy’ communion if you want, they tell me, but it’s not. Not like that. Not under those conditions.

So they go away to where Jesus waits for them, arms open, in someone else’s Christian church. There’s something about it all that simply defies the lesson of Mary Magdalene or the Woman at the Well or Mary of Bethany or Mary of Nazareth. They go where every minister at the altar, every bishop, every lawgiver, every homilist, every member of every Synod on the planet is not male. They go where they can see ‘the image of God’ in themselves in another woman. They go where eucharistic theology, which we’re told makes us one, is palpable.?"
– from “Eucharist” by Joan Chittister, Spirituality Magazine. Volume 18, March-April 2012, No 101. Dominican Publications: Republic of Ireland. 
Bridget Mary's Reflection
Women today are finding a spiritual home in women-priest led communities. Two weeks ago, a woman participated in our inclusive Mary Mother of Jesus Catholic Community liturgy in Sarasota, Florida. Sandy is typical of so many that I have met. She cried tears of joy throughout the liturgy. Afterwards, she told us that all her life she felt that God was calling her to be a priest and she now knew that this was a possibility for her! During our Christmas liturgy this past year, a woman shared how much she felt at home and that she wished that all Catholics could experience our Christmas liturgy. Women priests communities use inclusive language,welcome all to the Eucharist, and are inclusive so both women and men can and do preside at the table. In our community, we have two married priests partners and two women priests. 
So, if you are interested in women priest led liturgies, check out our web sites in the Untied States:
www.arcwp.org
www.romancatholicwomenpriests.org
Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP
sofiabmm@aol.com

"Former Dominican Sees Church's Demise As Blessing in Disguise" Interview of Matthew Fox by Jamie L. Manson/NCR

http://ncronline.org/blogs/grace-margins/decades-after-expulsion-matthew-fox-see-churchs-demise-blessing-disguise

"It has been 20 years since Matthew Fox was expelled from the Dominican order after a 12-year battle with then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In the decades since, Fox has continued writing, teaching and ministering to various communities. In 1994, he was welcomed into the Anglican Communion as an Episcopal priest. Fox has authored 28 books, the most recent being The Pope's War: Why Ratzinger's Secret Crusade Has Imperiled the Church and How It Can Be Saved. "

"In The Pope's War, you have a chapter called "Treasures from the Burning Building: What is Worth Saving?" What from the Catholic tradition do you most want to rescue?
Certainly the mystical and prophetic figures: Hildegard, Aquinas, Eckhart, Julian of Norwich, Francis of Assisi. All these great mystics were really reformers, too. Also, the great 20th century souls, from the whole base community movement South America, Bishop Casigalida, Bishop Camera, Leonardo Boff, Dorothy Day, Bede Griffiths, Teilhard de Chardin, Thomas Merton, Thomas Berry. There is a lot of richness that needs to be taken along, but we have travel so much lighter in the 21st century. We can't carry basilicas on our backs."


So the church should be not only post-denominational, but post-institutional, too?
We have to move away from looking at religion as primarily a sociologically institutional vestment and start seeing it as yeast within society that raises up justice, compassion, healing, celebration, forgiveness and, of course, creativity. Leonardo Boff talks about "ecclesiogenesis," or "birthing church." What kinds of communities are we birthing? And what kinds of nonsense are we standing up to? There are forms of fundamentalism arising throughout Christianity and they are hijacking the real spirit that Jesus unleashed. We have to save Jesus from the church.


Do you think people must begin seeking church outside the walls of the institution?
Definitely. It's so clear that the institutional version of the church is melting before our eyes. I began The Pope's War with a quote from Fr. Bede Griffiths, who said to me at the very end of his life, "Don't even think about the Vatican. Don't look over your shoulder. It'll all come tumbling down one day like the Berlin Wall. Keep using your energy to grow new shoots."
..."We have to stand up to ideology, which is like idolatry. It freezes up hearts, minds and souls. We have to listen to the Holy Spirit. She elects to make things new. The Holy Spirit has always been biased in favor of creativity...


[Jamie L. Manson received her Master of Divinity degree from Yale Divinity School, where she studied Catholic theology and sexual ethics. Her columns for NCR earned her a first prize Catholic Press Association award for Best Column/Regular Commentary in 2010.]

" Sexual Abuse Case Clouds Pope's Visit to Mexico" by Rachel Donadio/ New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/world/americas/abuse-case-clouds-popes-visit.html?_r=1&sq=pope&st=cse&scp=4&pagewanted=print

..."After complaints of sexual abuse were filed against Father Maciel in 1998, Benedict, who was then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, quashed a Vatican investigation. He reopened the case in 2004, ultimately finding that Father Maciel had led a double life and had raped seminarians, fathered several children and abused drugs while leading a charismatic organization known for producing priests. Critics say that he was part of an institutional culture that protected the Legionaries of Christ because of Father Maciel’s close ties to high-ranking officials in John Paul II’s papacy... Father Athié said. “What we are asking of Pope Ratzinger is, recognize your responsibility. It is the root of Christian experience. You can come back from wherever you are, as long as you recognize and want to come back...It is the incompatibility between "Pope Ratzinger" on the one hand, and "recognize your responsibility", also known as "human conscience", which is "the root of Christian experience", on the other. It is for all, not for the many, that Father Athié asks this Pope, "Do you want to come back?". To us, to our Church, not yours!The answer? The guilty silence of one Pope."