Posted on 06/30/2008 12:32:58 PM PDT by veritas2002
She grew up wanting to be a priest - maybe from the time she was just 5 years old, she said.
She served as an altar girl in her home parish, loving to be close to the sacramental action and mystery of the Mass.
But Roman Catholic girls might as well dream of flying to the moon on arm power alone as finding their priestly way into the patriarchal church.
So, Mary Elizabeth Conroy, growing up in western Massachusetts in a strong, devoted and somewhat traditional family, more or less learned to bury her ambition.
She attended Marymount College, a Catholic college in Tarrytown, N.Y., where she earned a master's degree in business. She earned another master's degree in religious education from Jesuit-run Fordham University in New York City. She went to work for the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and served the needy and poor in Phoenix.
"At some point, people asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up. And I told them, just like I did when I was a little girl, that I wanted to be a priest."
Listeners admired her people-serving skills and interests, but dismissed her aim as a flight of fancy.
So, this nice, bright and ambitious Roman Catholic girl from Williamstown, Mass., decided to place herself in an environment where at least the possibility of priesthood could be spoken of as a reality.
She joined the Episcopal Church.
"My family, still strong Catholics, supported me then and now," said the interim pastor of Ascension Episcopal Church, called to that job last February from a much larger church in Boston.
"And no, I'm not the black sheep of my family - they're with me all the way," she said.
She switched churches at the age of 27, not precisely with the aim of becoming a priest, "but to learn about the church, its traditions and culture. And to make sure that I loved the church."
She worked as a youth minister in Phoenix and then took the bold step that would lead to her fulfilling her dream: She entered Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill., and was, yes, ordained a priest in July 1997.
Conroy radiates enthusiasm when she says, "I love what I do - the complicated, the sometimes messy, the many joyous moments, or dealing with the sadness and despair - oh, yes, lots of joyous conflicts."
Conroy, who's served in Episcopal parishes in Houston, Phoenix and Greenville, S.C., honestly admits she misses many aspects of her Massachusetts home and Boston: "I miss the familiarity, the routine I knew and had, my close-by family, but I'm having a good time learning a new culture, and I'm learning to lean heavily on parish leaders to help me learn what is particular to Pueblo and to Ascension."
She said her interim assignment at Ascension has shown her that parishioners are "a bit more moderate than the people in Boston, even as out here you also are more laid-back, relaxed and, frankly, a lot more fun. There's a sense of ‘can-do’ out here, and I admire that," Conroy said.
"One of my biggest transitions here was learning to drive again," the 45-year-old priest joked.
At historic Trinity Church, located in Boston's Back Bay, she had no car and essentially walked everywhere.
The outgoing, personable pastor adopts a laissez-faire attitude to what has become a central and divisive issue within Episcopalianism: The ordination of an openly gay man as bishop and the resultant hassle as some churches and even dioceses abandon the Episcopal Church USA in favor of some sort of affiliation with bishops and dioceses in other parts of the world, principally in Africa.
The U.S. church fights any attempt by parishes and dioceses to carry away churches and/or their property, even as the anti-gay dissenters react as though those who support or accept gay ordination are spawn of the devil.
"The Episcopal Church once passed a resolution stating that gays and lesbians have full rights to pastoral care. Bishop Robinson was totally above board in this matter, never hiding or denying his sexual orientation, and he was chosen by his (New Hampshire) diocese and confirmed by the nationwide convention. So, there's this huge split in the church now."
Conroy turned very serious as she pronounced, "I'm not sure than the unity of churches is the goal of Christianity. In fact, we're all covered by the love of God, and forcing people to be united - to accept this position or its opposite- is not a good idea.
"Nothing in my ministry here or elsewhere has changed over this conflict. People want the basics, their weddings, The Word preached to them, baptism. It's still all the same in my work here or wherever I am.
"As for Ascension, the issue really hasn't really surfaced. I've heard a few comments, but I think that overall, it's not an issue here - certainly not a divisive one."
Conroy, who says she finds relaxation in both needlepoint work and watercolor painting, said, mostly but not totally joking, that her most important book currently is dog trainer Cesar Millan's "Be the Pack Leader: Use Cesar's Way to Transform Your Dog . . . and Your Life."
She reads the book principally, she said, to help her learn to train her 9-month-old Shih Tzu, Oscar, a gift to her when she left the Boston parish.
"It's my first dog, but you know, reading the book and loving my dog both help me with my faith. I don't know if I want to say it's teaching me to be a better pastor," she joked.
One suspects that, even though she's but a temporary at Ascension, her style of ministry will help define what parishioners should look for in a full-time position.
What disturbs me is that this story was provided a link on the Catholic World News website. My hunch is that Catholic World News is trying to stir up dissent instead of promoting Church teaching.
That in fact it was her own blind ambition, not God's call, which led her to be a priest. That's why she doesn't rightly discern the word of God regarding gay priests (or female priests).
Here’s the bottom line. Jesus chose only men as his Apostles. For women to be priets what they are saying is, Jesus was wrong. So, the rest would be academic.
I think it should be of interest.
It shows why girls should ONLY BE USED AS A LAST RESORT in alter servering as the Benedict XVI has suggested.
Does anybody ever call themselves a “priestess”? Seems like in these types of stories it’s always “priest”. Does any Christian denomination use “priestess” to refer to their women pastors?
Freegards
But then again, Jesus only chose Jewish men from Israel to be his Apostles, therefore only Jewish men from Israel can be Catholic priest.
I don’t know what intentions CWN had in providing a link to the story. I will say I’m glad this woman, unlike others, had the honesty to go elsewhere rather than hang around the Church complaining and stamping her feet. Thanks for that!
It’s a shame she’s not a lesbian. She could be an Episcopal Bishop.
Anglican ping
Anyway, I believe JPII settled the matter once and for all back in the early 1990s.
But Jewish women were never respected back then, they were considered inferiors to men (actually all women for that part.
When we say God cannot perform transubstantiation through a woman, God’s power is limited.
I can’t say why the link was there, but the editor, Phil Lawler, is above reproach.
Was the article linked as an example of the divisions within the Episcopal Church or as commentary on women’s ordination? If the former it is certainly ok for the CWN to link to it.
Here’s the link you seem to have left out
Pursuing priesthood
http://www.chieftain.com/articles/2008/06/28/life/local/doc4865ad8a6a6c5952650278.txt
Since this comes from my local paper I can tell you that the author of the piece was attempting to stir up something. Read is an ex-priest himself and in his column the preceding week, he had compared the changes in the church that followed Vat. II to Camelot and lamented the fact that those halycon days and radical changes were beginning to unravel.(Deo gratias)
This story about the priestess was his final shot across the bow, his last feature article before retiring. It was as much about him and his preferences as it was about her.
This story about the priestess was his final shot across the bow, his last feature article before retiring. It was as much about him and his preferences as it was about her.
Thanks for the information.
Fecal logic
Nobody is saying that God cannot perform transubstantiation through women. He just chooses not to.
The maleness of the Apostles is not the primary reason a Catholic priest can only be heterosexual male. The principal reason is that a Catholic priest stands in the person of Christ at Mass. Further, Christ is described as the husband of His Church (see the letter to the Ephesians, “husbands love your wifes as Chirst loves His Church...”, and the parable of the ten virgins).
So why does God hate women?
But we are still limiting the power of God.
We have to remember, God is perfect, humans, while very good are not. God is using an imperfect language to describe a perfect situation.
Climbing aboard a sinking ship isn't really a cause for boasting.
While others abandon it in droves and man the life boats, she jumps on board.
Vanity is blind.
He doesn’t.
Just because he gave one group a different role from another group doesn’t mean he hates one of those groups.
Who said He did?
How long have you been reading Catholic World News? They regularly ridicule women aspiring to be priests in their blog "Off the Record."
As a news service, part of their job is to direct readers to stories of note. The slant of such stories outside their site is beyond their control.
By denying women the right to participate in transubstantiation, God is saying “I don’t want to work with you.”
And in absence of a darned good excuse, we are left with the conclusion there is something about women that offends God.
But men can do all that stuff as well, it’s obvious your God likes men more than He likes women.
There are some screwed up men out there who wish they could have babies. So, according to your reasoning, that would mean that God likes women more than men.
Stop projecting your prejudices onto God, and he’ll be everybody’s God.
Those men don’t have a problem with God, they have a problem with biology.
Or as Einstein said “God does not play dice with the Universe.” And Oppenheimer shot back “Who are you to tell God what to do?”
Who are you to tell God not to work with women?
I'm not telling God not to work with women. He decided to work with Mary by making her the only human being to be conceived without original sin. Gee, he didn't have Joseph conceived without original sin! I'm jealous! Again, giving different people different roles does not mean liking some people better than others. I haven't told God not to have women priests, I'm supporting the decision he made not to have women priests. If Jesus wanted women priests, he would have made some.
How do you know God made that decision? Did he tell you directly?
This whole matter of women wanting to be priests, men wanting to be mothers, etc. boils down to people, for whatever reason, wanting to do something for which they were not created.
Since Christ set up the Church to teach, it needed to be immune from heresy. Therefore, we have Papal infallibility. Papal infallibility means that when a Pope promulgates a teaching relating to faith and/or morals to the entire Church, he is unable to issue a false teaching. John Paul II issued (actually re-issued) the teaching on the impossibility of ordaining women on May 22, 1994 in the encyclical entitled Ordinatio Sacerdotalis.
Women are missing the ability to validly receive holy orders. The Church is not authorized to ordain women.
You are factually wrong.
Are you claiming Bernard Law is a liberal? Come on now.
Ordinatio Sacerdotalis was not issued as ex cathedra.
And their only reasoning is “Jesus picked 12 men, the 12 men picked men only, therefore it’s only men.” Totally ignoring the fact that Jews denied women positions of authority because they were unclean. To hold this position means we claim all women are unclean in the eyes of God.
Now you might think God holds women unclean because they are women, but I tend to think God can transcend human limitations.
Boy, you keep up even less than I do! ;-)
All those "-ess" and other feminine endings are sooo déclassé now! We don't have "actresses" any more -- just actors . . .
CONCERNING THE TEACHING CONTAINED IN ORDINATIO SACERDOTALIS RESPONSUM AD DUBIUM
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
October 28, 1995
Dubium: Whether the teaching that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women, which is presented in the Apostolic Letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis to be held definitively, is to be understood as belonging to the deposit of faith.
Responsum: In the affirmative.
This teaching requires definitive assent, since, founded on the written Word of God, and from the beginning constantly preserved and applied in the Tradition of the Church, it has been set forth infallibly by the ordinary and universal Magisterium (cf. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium 25, 2). Thus, in the present circumstances, the Roman Pontiff, exercising his proper office of confirming the brethren (cf. Lk 22:32), has handed on this same teaching by a formal declaration, explicitly stating what is to be held always, everywhere, and by all, as belonging to the deposit of the faith.
The Sovereign Pontiff John Paul II, at the Audience granted to the undersigned Cardinal Prefect, approved this Reply, adopted in the ordinary session of this Congregation, and ordered it to be published.
Rome, from the offices of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on the Feast of the Apostles SS. Simon and Jude, October 28, 1995.
Joseph Card. Ratzinger, Prefect
Tarcisio Bertone, Archbishop Emeritus of Vercelli
You may not be satisfied with their reasoning, but the proper authority has spoken. If you want women priests, join the Anglicans or the Lutherans.
Women priests are transvestites.
I did hear something about the actress thing, but I promptly forgot about it. Hunting giant ground sloth, avoiding all the smilodons, and painting the ol’ cave keeps me too busy to worry with what chicks wanna be called.
I still don’t get the priest/priestess thing.
Freegards
You said: So why does God hate women?
That is about the dumbest question/observation I have seen in awhile. Does God hate men because only women can get pregnant?
No you need to brush up on your theology. Only ex cathedra pronouncements are infallible. And the last time the Pope issued an ex cathedra statement was back in 1950.
It sounds like my parish did not get that message. At the Mass I attended last Sunday it was three girls zero boys alter servers.
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Click on my profile page for guidelines to the Religion Forum. And leave this thread.
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