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In an emotional ceremony filled with tears and applause, a 70-year-old Kentucky woman was ordained a priest on Saturday as part of a dissident group operating outside of official Roman Catholic Church authority.

Rockford, Il – (ProLifeCorner.com – 1-18-2013 – by Rockford Pro-Life Initiative – Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York is again viciously attacking human beings in the womb by pushing on-demand abortion legislation that, if enforced, could even put Catholic hospitals and many state-funded ministries out of business. Read more: http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/andrew-cuomos-brave-new-roe#ixzz2ILMJJdnF.The Rockford Pro-Life Initiative is respectfully requesting Cardinal Dolan and the Bishops of New York to make public the excommunication of Gov. Cuomo that he has already incurred privately by his relentless attacks on children in the womb.It is astonishing and a grave scandal that is deeply harming the faith of...

Roy Bourgeois, the former priest who was excommunicated in 2008 and dismissed from the Maryknoll society last year, has been formally notified of his laicization. Bourgeois received a letter from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, relayed through his former Maryknoll superiors, notifying him of his dismissal from the society and from the priesthood. The Vatican asks Bourgeois to sign the letter, acknowledging receipt—which he says he will refuse to do. Bourgeois was excommunicated in 2008 after he participated in a ceremony in which women claimed ordination. He had repeatedly refused to reconsider his stand, and had remained...

Featured Term (selected at random):AFFECTED IGNORANCE In ecclesiastical law, directly willed ignorance of a law or of its penalty, or both. Such ignorance does not excuse a person from automatic penalties (latae sententiae), i.e., those which follow immediately on breaking the law. All items in this dictionary are from Fr. John Hardon's Modern Catholic Dictionary, © Eternal Life. Used with permission.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said on Wednesday that Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was “waging war on the Catholic Church”—an apparent reference to the Obamacare regulation she finalized earlier this year that requires nearly all health-care plans to offer sterilizations, contraceptives, and abortion-inducing drugs free of charge. “This secretary of HHS is a radical. She is waging war on the Catholic Church. She’s adopted radical positions on a range of issues,” Gingrich said during a conference call on Wednesday. … In its lawsuit against the HHS and Sebelius, the Archdiocese of New York cited similar comments made...

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Chinese Father Joseph Yue Fusheng has been automatically excommunicated for allowing himself to be illicitly ordained a bishop despite repeated warnings from the Vatican. "The Holy See does not recognize him as bishop of the apostolic administration of Harbin, and he lacks the authority to govern the priests and the Catholic community in the province of Heilongjiang," the Vatican said in a written statement July 10. It also praised the new auxiliary bishop of Shanghai, who has been restricted by the government after saying he would give up his role in the government-approved Catholic Patriotic Association....

At Easter, the theologian Martha Heizer returns to committing a "delictum gravis" and will hold a Eucharistic celebration in the "domestic church" – under the threat of excommunication. The Tyrolean church theologian and critic Martha Heizer has drawn the ire of many religious leaders. She and four colleagues are accused of imitating Eucharistic celebrations without a priest. In the ecclesiastical world, this is a "delictum gravis", ie a "serious offense", which may lead to the excommunication. The local clergy has now launched investigations into the case. An opinion of the Bishop, Manfred Scheuer should be be presented "in the coming...

MADRID, Spain, August 16, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Cardinal Archbishop of Madrid, Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, has granted all of the 2,000 priests attending World Youth Day this week the special power to the lift the excommunication and to grant absolution in confession to those who have committed the sin of abortion. According to the Catholic Church’s Code of Canon Law, any person who procures an abortion is automatically excommunicated from the Church (can. 1398).  This penalty – the worst penalty there is under canon law - can only be lifted by the pope and bishops, as well as...

Nebraska bishop: Catholic politicians who support Planned Parenthood should be denied Communion by Patrick B. Craine Thursday Apr 14, 2011 17:30 EST LINCOLN, Nebraska, April 14, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Though not “formally excommunicated,” Catholic politicians who support Planned Parenthood or other measures facilitating abortion are “placing themselves outside of the pale of the Church’s doctrine” and should be denied Communion, says Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz of Lincoln, Nebraska. The bishop told LifeSiteNews that Planned Parenthood, America’s largest abortion provider, should be seen an enemy of the Catholic Church because “it advocates doctrines, immoral activities which are contrary to ... the...

CAMDEN - Rutgers University in Camden will host a woman theologian next week whom the university describes as a "female Catholic bishop." "Roman Catholic Bishop Patricia Fresen, one of only three ordained female bishops in the world," will lecture at the university at 12:20 p.m. April 15, according to a Rutgers news release.Fresen was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church in 2008, according to www.CatholicCulture.org."Patricia Fresen is not a Roman Catholic bishop. That would be the position of the Diocese of Camden," said Peter Feuerherd, diocesan spokesman, on Monday when contacted about Rutgers' symposium.The lecture is being sponsored by Rutgers-Camden's...

Rorate Exclusive: Excommunication of Norma Jean Coon Lifted Rorate Caeli first broke the news that Mrs. Norma Jean Coon, whom once pretended to be ordained a deacon in the Catholic Church, had returned to the Faith and publicly repented. We then reported that she was not only attending daily Mass -- without receiving the sacraments, of course -- but a Traditional Latin Mass. We can now report, praise God, that Mrs. Coon's excommunication has been lifted by Rome. We can also tell you that she now attends daily adoration of the Blessed Sacrament along with Holy Mass. Mrs. Coon:...

LifeSiteNews.com Life, Family and Culture News Barcelona archbishop begins excommunication proceedings for priest who paid for abortion by Matthew Cullinan Hoffman Tue Mar 15 5:56 PM EST BARCELONA, March 15, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Barcelona archbishop Lluís Martínez Sistach has begun excommunication proceedings against a priest in his diocese who has boasted of paying for abortions and blessing homosexual unions, according a statement posted on the archdiocesan website. The communiqué states that the archbishop and two other diocesan officials met with Fr. Manuel Pousa i Engroñat yesterday, “regarding several declarations of said priest regarding an abortion published in a book about...

Diane Dougherty lives in a neat, white house that she shares with her cats, Pete and Gypsy Rose. She teaches second grade in Fayetteville. She smiles a lot, her eyes flashing with intellect. She hardly looks like someone flouting centuries of tradition, challenging the Roman Catholic Church. Dougherty, 65, wants to be a deacon. But in the Catholic Church, the position of deacon — like that of priest and bishop — is held by men only. The Newnan resident is in the forefront of a movement that seeks to change all that. In ordination ceremonies in the United States and...

Twice a year (Labor Day and Memorial Day) I enjoy a picnic provided by one of my former seminary professors, along with many of his former students, mostly from classes that came years after me. During that last one, I toasted my old teacher in gratitude for the fact that he had always maintained, in my defense, that one can still believe in the Bound Powers theory, in spite of the language used in Vatican II. He smirked, and asked the younger priests there if they had ever heard of the Bound Powers theory; and no one raised his hand....

MANILA, Philippines—The president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines on Wednesday reminded President Aquino III that providing contraceptives to poor couples who opt for artificial birth control face excommunication from the church.Speaking on the Church-run Radio Veritas, Bishop Nereo Odchimar of Tandag, Surigao del Sur, the current CBCP president, said that even Mr. Aquino may be covered by excommunication. Mr. Aquino, a practicing Catholic, has stood by his position that Filipino couples who choose to use artificial contraceptives should be allowed to do so."Well, being the President of all, you must consider the position of the Catholic Church...

Sitting over an overpriced gin and tonic at the Polo Lounge in the Beverly Hills Hotel, I probed the excommunicated bishop about his secret sedevacantism. I didn't toss the issue naked on the table, since he would simply have denied everything. But I knew from several sources that, while the man publicly claimed to accept the legitimacy of then-Pope John Paul II, privately he sowed doubts among his friendlier seminarians. He whispered that the "formal and material heresies" taught by that pope had quite possibly deprived Karol Wotyjla of the throne. That would have left the seat (sede) of...

Monday August 9, 2010 Filipino Archbishop: Abortion Entails Automatic Excommunication By Patrick B. CraineMANILA, Philippines, August 9, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A prelate in the Philippines is warning Catholics that they face automatic excommunication if they in any way participate in an abortion.Archbishop Oscar Cruz, archbishop emeritus of Lingayen-Dagupan and a canon lawyer, told CBCPNews last week that this penalty applies to any who are “actively involved” in bringing about the abortion.  “That is called active participation … from the woman concerned, the husband who helped her, the abortionist, or the nurses,” he said to the bishops’ official news service.“Excommunication...

Soline Humbert outside the Church of St Thérése, Mount Merrion, Dublin. Cardinal Daly refused to accept from her a 10,000-name petition calling for women priests. Photograph : Matt Kavanagh The Vatican’s directive confirming its policy of excommunication for those involved in the ordination of women has been greeted with defiance by dissidents in the US and dismay by Irish campaigners‘SHOCKING.� “A travesty.� “A slap in the face.� “The action of a paranoid, scared, running-for-cover Vatican.� Those are just some of the phrases used by Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan to describe the latest directive from Rome on the ordination of women.The...

The Catholic Church won’t be celebrating one Iowa City resident’s ordination next month. In fact, neither the Diocese of Davenport nor the Vatican will even acknowledge Mary Kay Kusner’s ordination through a group called Roman Catholic Womenpriests. That lack of institutional acknowledgment keeps Kusner, 50, motivated as she prepares for ordination by a group called Roman Catholic Womenpriests. “I believe Christ’s intention was to have an inclusive church,” Kusner said. “I believe ‘catholic,’ which means universal, needs to be a truly inclusive and welcoming church.” Such a church, she said, would include the ordination of women. Kusner, a self-described devout...

I was alerted to this sad news.... Fr. Bourgeois has been excommunicated A reader sent me this: Dear Ms. , As stated in an earlier communiqué from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) in Rome, Father Bourgeois was given 30 days to recant his actions regarding the ordination of women as priests, or endure the penalty of excommunication. Since he has said he cannot recant those actions, he has been excommunicated by the CDF. Betsey Guest

The Diocese of Phoenix has a very direct Q & A regarding the direct, procured abortion at St. Joseph hospital and the consequent excommunication of hospital administrator Sister Margaret McBride. The statement ends on a curious note that has fueled some speculation. After discussing the St. Joseph Hospital situation the statement turns to another Catholic Healthcare West owned hospital: Moreover, Catholic Healthcare West has not followed the Ethical and Religious Directives of the Church in at least one of their institutions, Chandler Regional Hospital. These realities are a scandal to the faithful and must cease if CHW wishes to...

The Church's sexual abuse scandal is the "blame Bush" of Catholicism. Anything that goes wrong anywhere that has even the remotest connection to Catholicism can be explained by or blamed on the sex abuse scandal. It's reflexive now. Liberal Catholics can't say anything about the Church without bringing up the sex abuse scandal. Whether it's a conversation about altar rails, mass times, abortion, vestments, or gay marriage liberal Catholics will instinctively raise the specter of the abuse scandal as if the very existence of sin in the Church is evidence that they're right. A priest who's made quite a name...

A religious sister who was on a Catholic hospital panel that approved a direct abortion has excommunicated herself, the Diocese of Phoenix said on Tuesday. According to the diocese, Sr. Margaret McBride told Bishop Olmsted that she believed performing an abortion in a specific case from 2009 "was a morally good and allowable act according to Church teaching." The abortion took place late last year at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix. The mother was 11 weeks pregnant and was seriously ill with pulmonary hypertension, a condition worsened and possibly made fatal by pregnancy, according to the Washington...

In late 2009, an abortion took place at St. Joseph's Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix after a hospital ethics committee deemed the abortion necessary to save the life of the mother. Sister Margaret Mary McBride, the hospital’s vice president of mission integration, was a member of the committee that made the decision and has since been assigned new duties. The hospital has defended its decision, while Bishop Thomas Olmsted warned that Catholics who formally cooperated in the abortion were automatically excommunicated. The Diocese of Phoenix said in a May 14 statement: The Most Rev. Thomas J. Olmsted, Bishop of...

Jensen and Blackmore, the daughters of Harold Blackmore and two of his wives, sisters Florence and Gwen, grew up in Lister, B.C. That's where Harold established a polygamist sect, Canadian Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also known today as the community of Bountiful, B.C. They were asked to speak to a gathering of social workers and other child advocates at a conference sponsored by the Canadian Society for the Investigation of Child Abuse. As they talk about their experiences, they provide a rare glimpse into the world of polygamy, and the effects it has on the...

Snips: ....The Vanguard of St. Catherine of Siena,called for the ex-communication of Nancy Pelosi in a demonstration just outside the Vatican. They are also asking Archbishop Wuerl of the Archdiocese of Washington, DC to enforce the Pope´s position on the distribution of Communion to pro-abortion politicians which was communicated in a 2004 letter, "Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion," which he wrote when he was Cardinal Ratzinger. Terry stated, "Nancy Pelosi has betrayed the Catholic faith, fought to shed innocent blood, and repeatedly voted to take money from Americans to pay for the murder of innocent babies......"Meanwhile, Washington DC Archbishop Donald Wuerl,...

After Bishop Tobin ex-communicated Congressman Patrick Kennedy, the Congressman decided NOT to seek re-election. Perhaps Congressman Kennedy wanted to focus on matters of faith in his personal life, and leave public office. It is unclear if there was direct correlation between the ex-communication of Congressman Patrick Kennedy and his decision NOT to seek re-election. Maybe a new term should be coined to honor Bishop Tobin and the courage he showed in dealing with Congressman Kennedy. Maybe when a Catholic politican is ex-communicated, that politican could be considered to be Tobin-ed in honor of the good Bishop of Providence, Rhode Island....

PROVO, Utah -- Mormons need to lose their fear of talking about excommunication, says a student at the 12th Annual Religious Education Student Symposium. Presenting his paper "Excommunication and 'He Who Must Not Be Named,'" Feb. 19 at Brigham Young University, Benjamin Tengelsen said excommunication is comparable to talking openly about Voldemort in the popular Harry Potter series. "Noboby talks about him except Harry, who isn't afraid to say his name out loud," Tengelsen said. "We need to be like that. We need to lose our fear and be unafraid to talk about it." As long as the subject of...

Fox News analyst Bob Beckel today criticized Vice President Joe Biden for wearing ashes on TV; today is Ash Wednesday and Biden is Catholic. In the middle of a discussion on President Obama’s stimulus plan, Beckel gratuitously said, “Sorry about laughing, but I looked at Joe Biden’s forehead, and I know it is Ash Wednesday, but I’m not sure I would wear that ash on the air. Anyway….” Catholic League president Bill Donohue wasn’t amused: Bob Beckel’s admonishing remark, “I’m not sure I would wear that ash on the air,” makes us wonder whether it is the public display of...

HINSDALE, Illinois, November 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A congregation of US Dominican nuns has publicly apologized for the scandal caused by one of its members acting as a volunteer escort at a Chicago area abortion facility, who now faces severe canonical penalties including excommunication and the possibility of dismissal.    LifeSiteNews.com (LSN) first broke the story about Sr. Donna Quinn, O.P., a Dominican nun who is outspokenly in favor of legalized abortion, who had been identified by pro-life witnesses as an escort for the ACU Health Clinic.Sr. Quinn's religious community, the Wisconsin-based Sinsinawa Dominican Congregation, admitted in a press release posted...

ROME, August 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - When the Italian drug agency approved the sale of the deadly abortion drug RU 486 late Thursday night, senior Vatican officials responded strongly saying that doctors who prescribe it and the women who take it risk excommunication. The Italian Pharmaceuticals Agency (AIFA) said the drug, to be sold under the brand name Mifegyne, would not be sold in pharmacies and only be administered by physicians in hospitals. Bishop Elio Sgreccia, a bioethics professor, author and former vice-president of the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV) told Corriere della Sera newspaper, "This is a compound which...

Lusaka — The Vatican has excommunicated Father Luciano Mbewe from the Catholic Church for openly congregating with excommunicated former archbishop of Lusaka, Emmanuel Milingo and members of his 'Married Priests Now' movement and another church.The president of the Zambia Episcopal Conference (ZEC), Bishop George Lungu said in a statement that Fr Mbewe is no longer a member of the Catholic Church and whatever religious functions he holds are outside the Catholic Church. He added that the Catholic Apostolic National Church of Zambia which the priest heads is not part of the Roman Catholic Church."Even if signs and symbols, as well...

It was the made-for-TV ending to a weeks-long saga of fame and faith: Alberto Cutié, the telegenic priest embroiled in a magazine-photo scandal, would leave the Roman Catholic church to become an Episcopalian -- and would marry his girlfriend of two years.But when Cutié's new bishop, the Rt. Rev. Leo Frade, stood inside Miami's Trinity Cathedral to announce the news to dozens of international reporters, he created his own waves.The ''Inquisition is over,'' Frade said in widely broadcast remarks after Catholic Archbishop John C. Favalora admonished him for a disrespectful ``public display.''The style is typical of Frade's nine-year tenure,...

[Your PP includes this item not only because it's "stand-alone" probative value, but also because it's so clear an illustration of the disease that infects us as a Church. I won't rehash the events of the situation concerned here, since Father Euteneurer does an excellent job of that himself; but compare this with the situation your PP commented on in the article I wrote below: "We have been placed on the Index of Forbidden Blogs." Neither Archbishop Wuerl nor Archbishop Fisichella believe abortion is justified—or are even "soft" on the issue; it's simply that they have the disease: when...

LETTER OF HIS HOLINESS POPE BENEDICT XVI TO THE BISHOPS OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH concerning the remission of the excommunication of the four Bishops consecrated by Archbishop Lefebvre ( Rome , March 10, 2009) Dear Brothers in the Episcopal Ministry! The remission of the excommunication of the four Bishops consecrated in 1988 by Archbishop Lefebvre without a mandate of the Holy See has for many reasons caused, both within and beyond the Catholic Church, a discussion more heated than any we have seen for a long time. Many Bishops felt perplexed by an event which came about unexpectedly and...

In our days, when in vast areas of the world the faith is in danger of dying out like a flame which no longer has fuel, the overriding priority is to make God present in this world and to show men and women the way to God. Not just any god, but the God who spoke on Sinai; to that God whose face we recognize in a love which presses "to the end" (cf. Jn 13:1) – in Jesus Christ, crucified and risen... The remission of the excommunication of the four Bishops consecrated in 1988 by Archbishop Lefebvre without a...

A Catholic pro-life group has sent a letter to the Vatican calling on Pope Benedict XVI to excommunicate House Speaker Nancy Pelosi from the Catholic Church due to her position on abortion. Front Royal, Va.-based Human Life International (HLI) had the letter delivered from its Rome office in February, according to Cybercast News Service’s CNSNews Web site. The letter was sent “because so many people have called on the bishops in the jurisdictions she lives in, who could possibly do it — and they won’t,” HLI President Rev. Thomas Euteneur told CNSNews. “Pelosi has a home in the archdiocese of...

Pope to Pelosi: Catholics cannot back abortion U.S. House speaker — a pro-choice Catholic — met with pope in Italy VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict, underscoring the Vatican's ruling on an issue that divides Americans, told U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday that Catholic politicians and legislators cannot back abortion rights. Pelosi, a powerful U.S. politician who is Catholic and pro-choice, has been accused by U.S. bishops in the past of misrepresenting Church teachings on abortion. "His Holiness took the opportunity to speak of the requirements of the natural and moral law and the Church's consistent teaching on the...

Last year, in a post entitled, "Reform: can you deal with it?", your PP spoke about an imaginary priest, formed after Vatican II, whose entire belief system is based on the common misinterpretations of the Council, and what would happen to him should the Latin Church actually engage in a real reform of the Liturgy. I summarized his new Post-Vatican II faith as follows: And he is the priest referred to above: the one who, if faced with a general and comprehensive reform of the Western Liturgy—to use Cardinal Ratzinger's words—"standing wholly in the legacy of the traditional Rite," would...

The commotion over the lifting of the excommunications of the four SSPX bishops goes on and on. It seems that no one is able to make distinctions anymore or make any investigation more than reading a headline or the top lines of a story. Once again any stick will do when it comes to beating the Catholic Church and of course some within the Church are also willing to also pick up that stick and join in. The lifting of the excommunications does not regularize the SSPX and there are quite a few hurdles to overcome before they can be...

... is the topic of a new post by Dr. Ed Peters at "In the Light of the Law":While we await the L'Osservatore Romano article that is to offer an account of how Pope Benedict XVI arrived at the decision to lift the excommunication imposed on the four priests who received episcopal orders illicitly (c. 1382) from Abp. Marcel Lefebvre in 1988, the materials now coming from the Society of St. Pius X continue, in my opinion, to add to the burden such an article must carry if the remission is to make sense to otherwise well-disposed outside observers. In...

Fr. Dale Fushek, best known for being one of the founders of "Life Teen", has finally been excommunicated. From the Diocese of Phoenix website: December 15, 2008-The Most Rev. Thomas J. Olmsted, Bishop of Phoenix, has issued a Decree of Excommunication to Reverend Monsignor Dale Fushek and Reverend Mark Dippre. Fushek and Dippre have incurred the censure of excommunication because they have chosen to be in schism with the Catholic Church by establishing and leading an opposing ecclesial community known to the public as the Praise and Worship Center. Both priests have consistently refused to comply with explicit directions...

News Briefs American Maryknoll priest excommunicated for involvement in women's 'ordination' December 11, 2008 An American priest has evidently been excommunicated because of his active support for the ordination of women, and his participation in ceremonies simulating ordination. Father Ray Bourgeois received a warning from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in December, informing him that if he did not recant his position supporting women's ordination within 30 days he would face excommunication; the Maryknoll priest replied that he would not change his stand. The Maryknoll Society has now confirmed that the Congregation has contacted that its leaders...

Two Valley Catholic priests, Monsignor Dale Fushek and the Rev. Mark Dippre, have been excommunicated by Bishop Thomas Olmsted for defying his order to not engage in public ministry, an activity that was deemed out of accord with the Roman Catholic Church. Just over a year ago, the priests, who had once served together at St. Timothy’s Catholic Community church in Mesa, founded the nondenominational Praise and Worship Center, which meets Sundays at the Fiesta Fountains Reception Center, 1316 S. Longmore, Mesa. Fushek was put on paid leave of absence in late 2005 after he was indicted on 10 misdemeanors...

The place: Heaven’s gate. The time: Around 2028, give or take a few mortal years. The scene: A large crowd of newly dead, not yet liberated from their earthly forms, is trying to maintain order despite a cluster of men who shout, wag their fingers and, occasionally, shove. “Gentlemen, gentlemen! For pity’s sake, please!” one of the non-combative people in the crowd cries out. “What in God’s name has you behaving in such an unholy way?” A man whose body is of average size, but whose essence emanates a royal purple aura, whirls around with a contemptuous look. Pointing to...

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Despite being threatened with excommunication by the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Maryknoll Father Roy Bourgeois said he would not recant his belief that women should be ordained as Catholic priests. "There's nothing that Rome can do to me to take away the peace, the clarity I have on this issue," Father Bourgeois told Catholic News Service Nov. 12. "No matter what the consequences, I feel I am doing the right thing." Father Bourgeois sent a letter to congregation officials Nov. 7 outlining his stance on women's ordination and how he believes church...

At Dodger Stadium, Madonna took time out from her concert to praise the election of Barack Obama and also express her disappointment that Prop. 8, which bans same-sex marriage, was approved by California voter. So says our spy, The Times' Molly Hennessy-Fiske. Listen to Madonna's take here. here. More from Popsquire: During a celebratory moment for President-elect Barack Obama, M also commented on Calfornia’s Prop 8. She expressed disappointment that “we didn’t win” and offered hope to the audience when she said, “If we can have an African American president, we can have gay marriage!” Of course, some people were...

ST. LOUIS, Missouri, JULY 28, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Three leaders of a former St. Louis parish who incurred excommunication for hiring a suspended priest have been reconciled with the Church. According to a statement last week from the Archdiocese of St. Louis, Bernice Krauze, Stanley Rozanski and Robert Zabielski, members of the Board of Directors of St. Stanislaus Parish Corporation, met in June with Archbishop Raymond Burke to be reconciled fully with the Church. "They are once again in full communion with the Catholic Church and are no longer under any censure," the archdiocese reported. The St. Stanislaus Parish Corporation is...

The Vatican declared today that any women who attempt “ordination” or any bishops who attempt to “ordain” women are automatically excommunicated from the Church by their actions. The decree from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is said to be absolute, universal and immediately effective. The decree which was published in the Vatican daily, L’Osservatore Romano, comes in the wake of several women attempting to be “ordained” as Catholic priests. The most recent attempt to ordain a woman occurred on May 4 in Winona, Minnesota when Kathy Redig, participated in a ceremony of ordination.

Vatican City, May 29, 2008 / 02:29 pm (CNA).- The Vatican declared today that any women who attempt “ordination” or any bishops who attempt to “ordain” women are automatically excommunicated from the Church by their actions. The decree from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is said to be absolute, universal and immediately effective.The decree which was published in the Vatican daily, L’Osservatore Romano, comes in the wake of several women attempting to be “ordained” as Catholic priests.The most recent attempt to ordain a woman occurred on May 4 in Winona, Minnesota when Kathy Redig, participated in...