Posted on 07/06/2005 5:58:23 AM PDT by NYer
LYON, France, July 5, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A French Cardinal has excommunicated a Catholic woman claiming she was "ordained" as a priest by three women who call themselves Roman Catholic bishops. For those supposing the next generation of church leaders will turn the church even more politically correct, the action by one of the Church's youngest Cardinals will come as a shocker. Lyon's Cardinal Archbishop Philippe Barbarin, 55, has followed in the footsteps of Pope Benedict XVI. Cardinal Barbarin excommunicated the woman who went through a false 'ordination' yesterday. Pope Benedict XVI, acting in 2002 as Cardinal Ratzinger, officially excommunicated two of the women "bishops" who performed the ceremony.
Genevieve Beney, a 56-year-old married physical education teacher and mother of two, was "ordained" Saturday on a boat on the Saone River near the eastern French city, by self-proclaimed "bishops" from the dissident movement Women's Ordination Worldwide as 60 activists who support female ordination looked on.
"This is not a rupture with the Roman Catholic Church," Beney claimed before the ceremony. "If there is a rupture on my part, it is with a situation that I consider to be obsolete and unjust to women."
"This act . . . does not fulfil any of the conditions required by the Catholic Church, and such a ceremony unequivocally constitutes a serious act of rupture with the Catholic Church," Lyon's Cardinal Barbarin corrected in a statement, according to a Reuters report. "There will be no truth to the words that will be pronounced," Barbarin said before the ceremony. "For many Catholics, this will be a source of useless injury and suffering."
Nine women activists, eight American and one Canadian, have announced that on July 25 they will conduct their own "ordination" ceremony on a boat on the St. Lawrence River. When LifeSiteNews.com contacted the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops about the impending "ordination" of the Canadian woman later this month, a spokesman there, unlike Cardinal Barbarin, said the CCCB had "no comment" and no plans in place, at least that the CCCB was willing to disclose, as to how they would respond to such an event.
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Nine Women Activists Fantasize they will Ordain themselves in "International Waters" of the St. Lawrence
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/jun/05060911.html
Read the response of the Vatican to the "Danube Seven"
http://www.ourladyswarriors.org/dissent/cdfprieste...
Beney operates under the obvious delusion that anyone cares what she considers "just." The cardinal is showing some real promise here. Good for him.
Spot on, Badger! But that's OK... it's the Cardinals who more resemble ALFRED Kinsey who worry me.
ZOT!The fightercraft almost looks angelic, doesn't it?
(Yes, I know... in military parlaince, it's not a fighter.)
Beney and the jets? Tee-hee.
Nor does any Catholic have the slightest need to play pseudo-biblical mind tennis with such "theologians."
How are you thinking that quote is relevant to the priesthood? Priest and Prophet are separate offices. Many women before Christ prophecied (Esther, Suzanna, Judith (WHOOPS! That's only the Catholic bible!), Ruth, Deborah, Anna, Sarah, Miriam). None were priests.
Mother Superior can do no sacraments that I cannot do. She cannot offer absolution (contrary to your claim that she can hear confession). She cannot transubstantiate the Eucharist (I can serve as an extraordinary Euchartistic Minister). She can baptize if there is no other means to rescue a soul before death, but so can I. She cannot offer homilies.
Ack, just what we need---more angry feminists in vestments.
May I?
Re a "mother superior" hearing confession:
Canon 965 A priest alone is the minister of the sacrament of penance.
Canon 630 §3. In monasteries of nuns, in houses of formation, and in more numerous lay communities, there are to be ordinary confessors approved by the local ordinary [i.e. priests appointed by the bishop] after consultation with the community; nevertheless, there is no obligation to approach them.
Ordinarily, a priest must be granted "faculty" to hear confessions, usually in a particular diocese. He is then a confessor. Canon 986 provides that in "urgent necessity" any confessor may hear a confession anywhere (regardless of his particular faculty) and in "imminent danger of death" any priest may hear confession. But even in imminent danger of death, you must confess to a priest. Otherwise, you make a Perfect Act of Contrition and hope for the best.
Re distribution of the Eucharist: As provided by Canon 230, lay persons may distribute communion. But only a priest may celebrate the Mass.
Canon 861: ANYBODY ("any person") may administer baptism in an emergency - so long as water and the Trinitarian formula are used, and the person has the "right intention". He doesn't even have to be a Christian, technically.
So you're zero for three there. I would suggest a review of the Code of Canon Law . . . the Church has been kind enough to set down the rules in black and white so everyone can read them.
With respect to your larger question . . . women can't be priests for the same reason men can't give birth. Especially in the celebration of the Eucharist, the priest stands as "alter Christus" - another Christ, the Bridegroom of the Church. A bridegroom has to be a man. Note that Christ did not make his own Mother an Apostle. And none of this debars women from participating in the life of the church (as a Mother Superior, even, as you note) in roles appropriate to women.
Oh, wait, the bibles are going to be revised to provide that bishops be the husband of only one husband or something like that. Then we will be reminded that the new, new, really, totally, absolutely revised good, better, best news "Bible" rules, right?
Have you got some proof that Mother Superior is empowered to hear sacramental confessions????? In nearly 60 years of being Catholic, that is the very first time I ever heard of such a theory. Those who have not received Holy Orders (as she has not) have not been delegated the power of the keys. What she binds on earth is igored in heaven. What she looses on earth is ignored in heaven. Except, of course, to the extent that such a purported exercise of mock sacramental authority may, in and of itself, be a sin for Mother Superior or the obviously knowledgeable victim of her scam.
The ministers of the sacrament of marriage are the husband and wife. The priest only witnesses on behalf of the Church. The Eucharist is confected by the priest and only by the priest and not "sanctified." Lay women are allowed to administer the Eucharist in the sense of serving the Eucharist to the Catholic in good standing. (Not necessarily a good idea but then Rome decides). Non-Catholics of whatever gender can perform Baptisms under appropriate circumstances. A nun is in a poor position to marry since she is a vowed celibate religious. Only bishops (and therefore no women) may confer the sacrament of Holy Orders. As I understand it, women do not confer Extreme Unction but I may be wrong. Whatever Rome says is certainly OK with me. Only those who are clergy and therefore male may confer confirmation. Penance, likewise.
Not that it matters but I suspect that the Roman soldiers stationed at the tomb were men. To whom Christ revealed Himself first after the esurrection (or during it) has nothing to do with the question.
The question: Who rules as to whether the priesthood is limited to men?
The answer: The pope. Roma Locuta. Causa Finita. The pope (JP II) has spoken and ruled that women are not to be ordained and further ruled that his ruling was permanent and would survive his papacy. End of argument. The cafeteria is closed.
I was just hoping we could get all the Angry Feminists in Vestments into one location, then . . .
give them a monastery somewhere far, far away?
Pruning is good. The Church will grow back fuller and stronger someday. Thank God in heaven for B16.
dangus:
Thanks for responding to meandog. It's pretty much the answer I would have given about Mother Superior, except to add there no such position as the Rev. Mother Superior.
Having said that, I must admit I have a hard time explaining the Church's position on female clergy. My daughter left the Church because of this and other issues. She's a devout Christian, but with another congregation. Even my Dad, an ordained Deacon in the Catholic Church, could not convince her women should not be priests.
I wouldn't be so sure about that. There are nuns running around promoting prayer to the "four winds" and openly dabbling in WICCA. The archdiocese of Los Angeles is a travesty, thanks to Cardinal Mahoney. Cardinal Francis George is probably the only American cardinal who can be relied on to defend the faith.
Cenatio clausa est.
Excommunication is ipso facto. They can declare that the sun revolves around the earth. It doesn't mean it's true.
By breaking with the Church in so grave a manner, they are, by definition, out of communion with Rome. One could reasonably argue that Catholic, pro-death, pro-gay politicians are excommunicated as well, albeit not formally.
It's about power. Greed. Pride. Evil.
Some seem to be. The body of the Church will never be conquered, but there are some bishops who have clearly looked the other way, and will answer for their sins like all of us will.
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