Posted on 05/02/2009 7:10:09 AM PDT by Behind Liberal Lines
A woman ordained in July at a ceremony the Roman Catholic Church considers invalid will celebrate a Mass Saturday at a conference in Liverpool.
The Rev. Gabriella Velardi-Ward, a member of RC Womenpriests, an international group of Catholics who advocate women's ordination, will lead a 2:30 p.m. liturgy at the Upstate New York Call to Action conference at Le Moyne Manor in Liverpool.
The conference will also include presentations by the Rev. Roy Bourgeois, who has been criticized by the Vatican for participating at a Womenpriest ordination; and Mary Hunt, a native of Syracuse and a feminist theologian who is co-founder and co-director of the Women's Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual.
The event is Call to Action's sixth statewide conference. The theme is "It's a Question of Conscience -- Re-examining Conscience and the Doctrine of Reception."
The Catholic Church has consistently taught that only men can be ordained as priests, and church officials have typically said that women participating in what the group calls ordinations automatically excommunicate themselves from the church.
Danielle Cummings, assistant chancellor and director of communications for the Syracuse Diocese, said the ceremony Velardi-Ward will lead is not a Mass since it is not celebrated by an ordained Roman Catholic priest -- a baptized male who has received the ordination validly.
"If Mass is being celebrated by a non-ordained individual, the Mass would not fulfill the Sunday obligation of Mass for Catholics," Cummings said.
Womenpriests and its supports say its ordinations are legitimate because Catholic bishops in good standing ordained their first members to become female priests and bishops.
Bob Dugan of Liverpool, a leader of the local Call to Action chapter, said the church should begin ordaining women. "They are shutting down parishes all over the country, not just in the Syracuse Diocese," said Dugan, a member of St. Lucy Church in Syracuse.
"The reason they are shutting down churches is there are not enough priests to go around," he said. "Every member of the church has been called to priestly ministry by virtue of their baptism."
Bourgeois, who has spoken in Syracuse several times, is a Maryknoll priest and the founder of the School of the Americas Watch, which hopes to close the military training school renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.
Bourgeois was to talk about the School of the Americas on Friday and his support for women's ordination today.
After he preached the homily at an Aug. 9 Womenpriest ordination, the Vatican gave him 30 days to recant or be excommunicated. Bourgeois has continued to speak publicly about his support for ordaining women.
"Sexism, like racism, is a sin," he said in a letter to the Vatican. "And no matter how hard or how long we may try to justify discrimination, in the end, it is always immoral."
Dugan said Call to Action planned the woman-led service to show its support for women's ordination.
"We're not trying to provoke anything," he said. "We're trying to recognize that women are called to priesthood."
Have faith; the church has changed before and the ordination of women will be a change for the better.
Have faith, this too shall pass.
Admin - can you please correct the title.
“These women are NOT *ordained.*”
You are right. It’s all a lot of make-believe.
I wonder if I decided to take the oath of office as the President of the USA, the MSM would write a headline that “I was going to appoint the next Supreme Court Justice?
There is not a worldwide shortage. There are only shortages in those areas in which the Word is being preached in an ambiguous manner.
So the solution is more centralized control from Rome? They need to firmly move those who support a Cafeteria Catholic approach back to orthodoxy? If that is the answer, then I'd like to see Rome get to work.
One direct result is an upswing in the numbers of Seminarians in many Dioceses, as young men see the Bishops making changes in priest formation committees. This means that the people who were actively blocking orthodox young men from being ordained, in favor of more 'sexually mature' young men who were 'flexible' in their beliefs, are being replaced by people who are looking for priests who are strong in their beliefs, and are willing to preach without apology.
About as “compelling” an argument as that the moon is actually made of green cheese. In any event, the Roman Catholic Church (the one headquartered in the Vatican) is in charge of this issue and no changes are foreseen now or ever.
Me and my buddies declaring me a Gaia Wicken High Priestess doesn't make me one either.
You’re ignorant! Thanks for the invitation.
While we are at it, it would be an excellent idea to make membership in or participation in Call to Action an automatic excommunicating offense. Someone should go (with a media pass) and photograph the assembled heretics in case the diocese in question ever gets an actual Catholic bishop. IIRC, this is the Rochester Diocese.
See the difference here? They didn't ordain Chinese and Japanese--because there weren't any around. But they didn't ordain women--in spite of there being plenty around.
The former looks accidental to me--but the latter sure looks deliberate.
Amen
I’m not a catholic, but our denomination does not ordain women either. The qualifications are pretty well spelled out in Scripture, and as you have noticed the words “he” and “husband” are used - not ambiguous at all.
Just as Christ is the head of the Church, the man or husband is head of the family, (like it or not ladies),
and the pastor or priest is head of the congregation. It is a male only role.
The family and Church function best when they follow God’s design and rules. Women can serve in a multitude of ways, and we would do better concentrating on the places where we can rightly serve than trying to take over territory not reserved for us.
Actually women did get equal billing. The Gospels recognize that Mary Magdalene was the first to discover the resurrection. If God was politically correct, it would never be recorded this way as at that time a woman’s testimony did not count.
Women were treated well and highly regarded in the New Testament, there are just roles that are reserved for males.
They did not follow Jesus’s example.
Admin - can you please correct the title.
The title I posted is the original title to the article. It has since been changed, probably because people (rightly) complained.
The one thing that never seems to be highlighted much is that to whom much is given, much is required. Those in the higher places are judged at a different level than those that are not. With the office comes bigger responsibilities, and higher expectations. There are always some advantages to being second in command.
Christianity was the first major faith that put women on an equal footing with men. Not necessarily in terms of every single role of ministry, but as equal heirs in Christ and salvation. As equal persons. As equal spouses. And the promotion of monogamy as the norm and as a symbol of Christ and His Church (the Bride).
Exactly right, both of you!
“... a position of telling God what He is doing is right or wrong...”
CS Lewis pointed out that those living in America; the modern UK; and other democratic republics, are tempted to think they have some say in what God’s rules should be.
They make a fatal mistake; because
THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS NOT A DEMOCRACY; IT IS AN ABSOLUTE MONARCHY!!
Now stop whining, follow His rules, or join those who are perishing!
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