Posted on 06/29/2002 7:15:33 AM PDT by yankeedame
Women ordained as Catholic priests in Austria
June 30 2002
AFP
A dozen women from Austria, Germany and the United States were ordained as Catholic priests on a pleasure boat on the Danube yesterday despite the threat of excommunication from the Roman Catholic Church.
The ordination on the German-Austrian border, which was fiercely opposed by bishops from both countries, was witnessed by 300 guests.
"Women make up half of all Christians. If this ordination does not effectively conform to the laws of the Church, it goes against tradition and not against faith," said Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger, a former nun who is now a teacher and spokeswoman for the group.
The ordination was carried out by 68-year-old Ferdinand Regelsberger, who was himself ordained bishop in a ceremony contested by the Vatican and Austrian church authorities.
The former Benedictine monk was ordained by Romulo Braschi, an Argentine bishop who styles himself a "warrior of the soul" and a specialist in "karma", a dogma which really belongs to Hinduism.
Austria's bishops are fiercely opposed to the ordination of women, which they say goes against Catholic law.
"It is a sectarian deception which has created a schism with the Catholic Church," Maximilian Aichern, bishop of Linz in northern Austria, told Catholic news agency Kathpress.
In a message which was read out in all the churches in his diocese last week, Aichern warned the candidate "priestesses" against "a simulated ordination which would create a fundamental split with the Church".
"If they go ahead with their plans they could be excommunicated," the bishop of St Poelten in eastern Austria had warned. The bishop of Feldkirch, western Austria, had told the weekly Profil it was a "serious violation of the rules of the Church which threatens to draw in other believers".
"If a woman celebrates a mass she will be automatically excommunicated," predicted Bruno Primetshofer, an expert on Church law.
The progressive wing of the Austrian Church, which is in favour of women priests, has also distanced itself from the group.
The controversy comes amid a crisis in the Austrian priesthood. Last year, only 23 priests were ordained in a country which officially counts six million Catholics in a population of eight million.
In the 1970s, 75 priests on average were ordained each year, according to church statistics.
Good riddance to the fools.
Ordained?
Impossible.
Nonsense.
A woman cannot be a "priest".
End of story.
((ducking))
"Your Eminence Elaine"..."Reverend Rita"..."Your Holiness Holly"..."Your Grace Gracie"..."Your Piety Pauleen"..."The Venerable Venessa"..."Pope Judy III"..."Vicar Valarie"..."Monsignor Molly"..."Bishop Becky"..."Cardinal Cynthia"....
Of course if one would argue historicity....
Notice the headline, though, which imparts some measure of authenticity to the "priestesses." Bias, anyone?
They're automatically excommunicated: a jure latæ eo ipso.
Well, what a mess. The church continues to protect the homos among them, the child predators, and to protect the bishops who protected the vile abusing 'priests'.
The church has become just another money-grubbing bureaucracy using its political clout to hide behind. Sickening.
I'm no Canon lawyer but I'd say that there is no threat of excommunication. The newly ordained and the bishop who ordained them are automatically excommunicated. Their action removes them from communion with the Church.
You're right of course. 2000 years of tradition, wisdom and the guidance of the Holy Spirit mean nothing. These women are correct and all who have gone before them are wrong.
I think God would be awfully surprised that you're crediting someone else with an assist on the foundation of His Church.
But that has nothing to do with women's ordination anyway. Becoming a priest isn't a matter of something anyone is "owed." It has to do with respecting God's will.
Just wondering whether it was Gopher, Captain Stubing, and Julie McCoy or Gilligan, the Skipper, and Ginger presiding over the ordination ceremony.
I don't know that it's bias so much as ignorance.
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