Posted on 07/03/2005 5:30:41 AM PDT by NYer
LYON, France — A French woman defied a threat of excommunication by the Roman Catholic Church and held a ceremony proclaiming herself a priest on Saturday.
In a small ceremony on a boat, Genevieve Beney was joined by other women from around the world who have taken similar dramatic action to draw attention to the church’s policy against women priests.
“This is not a rupture with the Roman Catholic Church,” Beney said in a statement read aloud before she boarded the boat. “If there is a rupture on my part, it is with a situation that I consider to be obsolete and unjust to women.”
The Vatican has not commented on the case but has made clear it sees no room for debate about opening up the priesthood to women. The Church says Jesus chose men to be his apostles and that the practice of ordaining only men must stand.
In 2002, seven women — from Austria, Germany and the United States — conducted an ordination ceremony and were promptly excommunicated from the church.
Two of the women who participated in that ceremony — Gisela Forster of Germany and Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger of Austria — led Saturday’s ceremony, along with a third woman who followed in their footsteps, Patricia Fresen of South Africa.
Beney, a theologian, says its time for the church to change.
“We consider ourselves Catholic,” Beney told AP in an earlier interview. “But we do not agree with the church law … that says only a baptized male can be ordained as a priest.”
The Archbishop of Lyon, Philippe Barbarin, urged Beney earlier this week not to follow through with her plan, saying it “will constitute a serious act of rupture in respect to the Catholic Church.”
“There will be no truth to the words that will be pronounced,” Barbarin said. “For many Catholics, this will be a source of useless injury and suffering.”
A spokesman for the archbishop, Vincent Feroldi, said that no decree of excommunication would technically be necessary since Beney’s act violates church law and automatically makes her incapable of receiving the sacraments, such as communion.
Before boarding the boat, Beney’s husband, Albert Ratz, called his wife’s act “a magnificent adventure, an act of resistance against incomprehensible blockage by the Catholic church.”
I hereby ordain myself Governor .... poof! Hmmmm .. I hereby ordain myself President ... poof! Hmmm. Must not be using the same pixie-dust as this lady cause nothings happening.
IOW - we are CINOs.
Genevieve Beney has apparently NOT read Jennifer Ferrara's book - "The Catholic Mystique: Fourteen Women Find Fulfillment in the Catholic Church"
Former Lutheran Pastor Debunks Women's Ordination
this is interesting...
I will have to show it to my Pentecostal preacher sisterinlaw....
I don't see the point. If she's saved, she's a priest already.
1 Peter 2:5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
1 Peter 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
Unless, of course, she just wants to make some silly political point. Ya think?
there is that too...
of course (and I AM NOT accusing), to some Evangical Christians, Catholics ARE NOT saved....
the difference is honestly lost on me. Half of my family is Pentecostal and the other half is Catholic.....
As I said, I will have to show this to my sis in law....she will find it interesting. She has encountered some resistance to her becoming a priest from a few morons....none of whom are in her family I may add....
Great link and great article! Well written piece and a great testimony for the Catholic church and for the foundation of 'male' priests. thanks for sharing.
A former Catholic
I just ordained myself the President of the United States.
:>)
You can't 'ordain' yourself to political office - for that you need to borrow some PAC pixie dust. You could, like Napoleon, crown yourself Emperor :-)
Look at the Foursquare Church!
Aimee McPherson was no slouch. God used to actually show up and do things at her church services! *gasp*
Luckily, He's not as 'religious' as some christians.
I really hate titles like this. Uninformed people like my mother-in-law think these women really are Catholic priests.
Why not title it ex-Catholic plays make believe and pretends she is a Catholic priest. Or something a little more creative than that but you get the point!!!
This woman does not speak for me.
LOL
| ORDINATIO SACERDOTALIS |
| Pope John Paul II |
| Apostolic Letter On Reserving Priestly Ordination To Men Alone 1. Priestly Ordination, which hands on the office entrusted by Christ to his Apostles of teaching, sanctifying, and governing the faithful, has in the Catholic Church from the beginning always been reserved to men alone. This tradition has also been faithfully maintained by the Oriental Churches. When the question of the ordination of women arose in the Anglican Communion, Pope Paul VI, out of fidelity to his office of safeguarding the Apostolic Tradition, and also with a view to removing a new obstacle placed in the way of Christian unity, reminded Anglicans of the position of the Catholic Church: "She holds that it is not admissible to ordain women to the priesthood, for very fundamental reasons. These reasons include: the example recorded in the Sacred Scriptures of Christ choosing his Apostles only from among men; the constant practice of the Church, which has imitated Christ in choosing only men; and her living teaching authority which has consistently held that the exclusion of women from the priesthood is in accordance with God's plan for his Church."[1] But since the question had also become the subject of debate among theologians and in certain Catholic circles, Paul VI directed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to set forth and expound the teaching of the Church on this matter. This was done through the Declaration <Inter Insigniores>, which the Supreme Pontiff approved and ordered to be published.[2] 2. The Declaration recalls and explains the fundamental reasons for this teaching, reasons expounded by Paul VI, and concludes that the Church "does not consider herself authorized to admit women to priestly ordination."[3] To these fundamental reasons the document adds other theological reasons which illustrate the appropriateness of the divine provision, and it also shows clearly that Christ's way of acting did not proceed from sociological or cultural motives peculiar to his time. As Paul VI later explained: "The real reason is that, in giving the Church her fundamental constitution, her theological anthropology—thereafter always followed by the Church's Tradition—Christ established things in this way."[4] In the Apostolic Letter <Mulieris Dignitatem>, I myself wrote in this regard: "In calling only men as his Apostles, Christ acted in a completely free and sovereign manner. In doing so, he exercised the same freedom with which, in all his behaviour, he emphasized the dignity and the vocation of women, without conforming to the prevailing customs and to the traditions sanctioned by the legislation of the time."[5] In fact, the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles attest that this call was made in accordance with God's eternal plan: Christ chose those whom he willed (cf. <Mk> 3:13-14; <Jn> 6:70), and he did so in union with the Father, "through the Holy Spirit" (<Acts> 1:2), after having spent the night in prayer (cf. <Lk> 6:12). Therefore, in granting admission to the ministerial priesthood,[6] the Church has always acknowledged as a perennial norm her Lord's way of acting in choosing twelve men whom he made the foundation of his Church (cf. <Rev> 21:14). These men did not in fact receive only a function which could thereafter be exercised by any member of the Church; rather they were specifically and intimately associated in the mission of the Incarnate Word himself (cf. <Mt> 10:1, 7-8; 28:16-20; <Mk> 3:13- 16; 16:14-15). The Apostles did the same when they chose fellow workers[7] who would succeed them in their ministry.[8] Also included in this choice were those who, throughout the time of the Church, would carry on the Apostles' mission of representing Christ the Lord and Redeemer.[9] 3. Furthermore, the fact that the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and Mother of the Church, received neither the mission proper to the Apostles nor the ministerial priesthood clearly shows that the non-admission of women to priestly ordination cannot mean that women are of lesser dignity, nor can it be construed as discrimination against them. Rather, it is to be seen as the faithful observance of a plan to be ascribed to the wisdom of the Lord of the universe. The presence and the role of women in the life and mission of the Church, although not linked to the ministerial priesthood, remain absolutely necessary and irreplaceable. As the Declaration <Inter Insigniores> points out, "the Church desires that Christian women should become fully aware of the greatness of their mission; today their role is of capital importance both for the renewal and humanization of society and for the rediscovery by believers of the true face of the Church".[10] The New Testament and the whole history of the Church give ample evidence of the presence in the Church of women, true disciples, witnesses to Christ in the family and in society, as well as to total consecration to the service of God and of the Gospel. "By defending the dignity of women and their vocation, the Church has shown honour and gratitude for those women who—faithful to the Gospel—have shared in every age in the apostolic mission of the whole People of God. They are the holy martyrs, virgins, and the mothers of families, who bravely bore witness to their faith and passed on the Church's faith and tradition by bringing up their children in the spirit of the Gospel".[11] Moreover, it is to the holiness of the faithful that the hierarchical structure of the Church is totally ordered. For this reason, the Declaration <Inter Insigniores> recalls: "the only better gift, which can and must be desired, is love (cf. <1 Cor> 12 and 13). The greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven are not the ministers but the saints".[12] 4. Although the teaching that priestly ordination is to be reserved to men alone has been preserved by the constant and universal Tradition of the Church and firmly taught by the Magisterium in its more recent documents, at the present time in some places it is nonetheless considered still open to debate, or the Church's judgment that women are not to be admitted to ordination is considered to have a merely disciplinary force. Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church's divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. <Lk> 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful. Invoking an abundance of divine assistance upon you, venerable Brothers, and upon all the faithful, I impart my Apostolic Blessing. From the Vatican, on 22 May, the Solemnity of Pentecost, in the year 1994, the sixteenth of my Pontificate. NOTES 1. Paul VI, <Response to the Letter of His Grace the Most Reverend Dr. F. D. Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury, concerning the Ordination of Women to the Priesthood> (30 November 1975): <AAS> 68 (1976), 599. 2. Cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration <Inter Insigniores> on the Question of the Admission of Women to the Ministerial Priesthood (15 October 1976): <AAS> 69 (1977), 98-116. 3. <Ibid.>, 100. 4. Paul VI, <Address on the Role of Women in the Plan of Salvation (30 January 1977): <Insegnamenti>, XV (1977), 111. Cf. also John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation <Christifideles Laici> (30 December 1988), 31: <AAS> 81 (1989), 393-521; <Catechism of the Catholic Church>, No. 1577. 5. Apostolic Letter <Mulieris Dignitatem> (15 August 1988), 26; <AAS> 80 (1988), 1715. 6. Cf. Dogmatic Constitution <Lumen Gentium>, 28; Decree <Presbyterorum Ordinis>, 2b. 7 Cf. <1 Tim> 3:1-13; <2 Tim> 1:6; <Tit> 1:5-9. 8 Cf. <Catechism of the Catholic Church>, No. 1577. 9 Cf. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church <Lumen Gentium>, 20, 21. 10 Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration <Inter Insigniores>, 6: <AAS> 69 (1977), 115-116. 11 Apostolic Letter <Mulieris Dignitatem>, 27: <AAS> 80 (1988), 1719. 12 Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration <Inter Insigniores>, 6: <AAS> 69 (1977), 115. |
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Ya know God says something and some people act like it can just be ignored...I for one commit this sin so often, I do not openly rebel, but I certainly need 70X7! I forget that his word is RIGHT and there's NO other's that can be above it, especially not even my own reasoning or justifying.
It looks as though this woman and anyone that openly boast interpretations not condusive with the spirit of scripture are flagrantly rebelling and should be cast out until repentance. When you have the final word and authority on the subject and you try to turn it into something opposite by listening to a lie, that selfishness will eat you alive.
Hindus (if they read the NT at all) don't read it the way we do either.
Once you get through the headcounts, Protestants are remarkably alone in this world that holds women to be a separate species devoid of the fundamental right to fully participate in every venue of society.
Can you imagine how foreign we must seem to those guys in Iraq, or even the people in Israel.
Shortly Europeans will begin their long slide back into traditional points of view as the Islamofascists acquire citizeship, and then become the majority.
And folks wonder why it's taking so long for Jesus to return! It's this constant restarting of everything that keeps going on.
There are some really, really, really serious differences in the ways Catholics and Protestants read the Bible.
BTW, the opportunity for a woman to become a Roman Catholic Bishop is roughly identical to the opportunity for a woman to become a Grand Ayatollah. Check it out!
You mean Napoleon in France, or the guy out in California?
His Royal Majesty, Caesar St. Augustine Napoleon de Bonaparte. Real guy, and he's gotten the FEC to refer to him by that name.
I suggest you run the idea past your parish priest ~ what we disagree on is the position of women in the administrative structure of the church ~ the ecclesiastical, not the theological or the moral side.
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