Defying church, 12 "Catholic" women to be ordained here

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ^ | 6-15-06 | Marylynne Pitz

[Cavalcabo]

On July 31, a dozen well-educated, experienced Roman Catholic women will pass into uncharted spiritual waters on a boat cruising Pittsburgh's rivers.

On that afternoon, three women in vestments will lay their hands on the heads of the 12 women and anoint their hands with oil during an ordination ceremony that will be the first of its kind in the United States.

Among the participants is Joan Clark Houk, 65, of McCandless, who with seven other women are answering a call to be priests; the other four are candidates to be deacons.

It will be the fourth such ceremony in the world since 2002, all unrecognized by the Vatican. The women are part of a growing international movement to push for women's ordination.

The Women's Ordination Conference, based in Fairfax, Va., will announce today its support of the Pittsburgh ceremony, which will be held aboard the Gateway Clipper boat Majestic. Pittsburgh was selected because of its central location.

In a three-page letter dated May 9, Mrs. Houk, a member of St. Alexis in McCandless, advised Bishop Donald Wuerl of her plans. She has received no response. Mrs. Houk also sent a copy of the letter to all 360 priests in the diocese.

"It is a sin for the Church to discriminate against women and to blame God for it," Mrs. Houk wrote.

The Rev. Ronald Lengwin, spokesman for the Diocese of Pittsburgh, said the church "has determined that the ordination of males is a part of the faith handed down by Christ through his apostles and therefore the church is not free to change it. Ordination to the priesthood can only be conferred on a male."

[BelegStrongbow]

I have no clue what you are saying, so I do wish I had the pic of the bunny with a pancake on its head.

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but the question refers to who takes St. Paul's writing as utterly serious. If there are Muslims within that number, then that's news to me. My own expectation would be they might consider them advisory, at most.

Otherwise, exactly what did you mean then about some people not taking every word St. Paul spoke as the Word of God, please?

[Daffy]

Thanks for the remarks and viewpoint.

[Rutles4Ever]

BTW, in many circles, rosaries (aka "prayer beeds"), in and of themselves, are idolotry.

Yes, I'm aware of that misconception.

[nanetteclaret]

This is Ashtoreth worship all over again. The "godess" and "priestess" thing is as old as Babylon (or older). If God prohibited it then, why do they think He wouldn't prohibit it now? (Rhetorical question) They don't believe in God, they believe in Ashtoreth; they just don't know it - but would if they ever opened their Bibles.

[StJacques]

I have no problem with women expressing their religious views in a ceremony of ordination.

I have a very big problem with their calling themselves "Catholics" when they do it.

When our beloved Pope John Paul the Great passed from this life and into the bosom of our Lord I knew what to expect. We would see an entire discussion develop on the television news talk shows about whether the Cardinals selecting a new pope might "finally set the Catholic Church on a path to equalizing the role of women within it." And on came one after another of a group of commentators, not all of them women, who sat in front of the cameras and spoke to "centuries of change in the status of women" or "generations of progress in women's rights" or "the new world the Catholic Church must face," all of which developed the thesis that the status of women in the Catholic Church was one that demeaned them and that this was an opportunity for the Church to address the issue and "come into the modern world." All I could do was to sit in front of the television and ask the question "is there any such thing as unchanging religious truth"?

The Catholic Church as endured for two millenia for a reason; it did not simply throw out its major tenets just to make itself compatible with the current climate of ideas. If the Church is to survive it must stick to those precepts which have enabled it to last and perhaps speak more clearly to the need to express the value of "permanence" as an antidote to an ever-changing and always-evolving standard of public morality.

And I now anticipate an entirely new experience of outrage with the mainstream news media as I expect to find myself sitting in front of my television and listening to one news commentator after another describe these women as "Catholics."

[samiam1972]

I think I'm going to be sick. That was just so wrong. I can't find the right words to explain my absolute disgust with what I just saw. I will pray for all those women and the children they bring with them.

[Rytwyng]

On July 31, a dozen well-educated, experienced Roman Catholic women will pass into uncharted spiritual waters...

...of the river Styx, which feeds into the Lake of Fire.

[bornacatholic]

And the Bishops in these Dioceses where these clowns hold their Circuses have, it seems to me, the Duty to Teach the ordinations have no effect at all, and to Rule that because of their actions these women will be formally excommunicated.

The Bishop could contact the local fishwrap and set the rcord straight about Ordination, Jurisdiction, Obedience, Canon Law, Magisterial Taeching re women and the priests etc etc and by his education and example start to revivify the Faith

[ichabod1]

ipso facto, excommunicated.

[kenth]

Why do they keep doing this on boats? They seem to think it imparts some sort of shield from the Church.

The media does keep approaching this as if the women are actually priests. Then again, anything anti-Catholic is part of the media's agenda.

[ichabod1]

It is impossible for women to be priests in the Roman Catholic Church. Impossible. Even if the Pope himself ordained them they would still not be priests.

It used to be thought that the Episcopal church and the Roman Catholic church were the most similar because of the apostolic succession, apostate though it is, and the virtually identical masses. Now it appears that even with the wide liturgical gulf, the Baptists and the Catholics may be the closest brothers because of the stand on morality issues such as right to life, and innovation like women priestesses and homosexual pandering.

[ichabod1]

So you don't take the bible as the revealed word of God?

[muawiyah]

The general agreement is that St. Paul was certainly "inspired" to write correct doctrine, but he did not, as it were, take "dictation" from God.

Mohammad, on the other hand, said he was given "dictation" ~ that the Koran was literally an identical copy to a Koran kept in Heaven, by God, for the purpose of providing mankind with rules.

I would suppose you probably didn't understand my references, so there they are.

I suppose you can believe St. Paul merely passed on a dictated message from God, but that's not the Christian viewpoint on the matter of how it came about that mankind received sacred scriptures.

[muawiyah]

Then why did you express concern over a "goddess rosary"? It's certainly nothing to get excited about. Even Moslems use these things. I believe the theory underlying them is that they serve as a memnonic.

[muawiyah]

Issues of faith and morals, not those related to church governance, are the common thread used to identify Christian bodies. Catholics fool only themselves if they think the Anglicans are like them because of their priests, bishops, archbishop and centralized ownership of church property.

[muawiyah]

I believe the Bible contains the revealed Word of God? Don't you?

[BelegStrongbow]

Well, that wasn't what I said, nor what I implied. But because we actually agree, I'm going to simply drop the whole conversation.

Thanks.

[lastchance]

These woman are not Catholic, They are not Roman, Byzantine, Melkite, or any other Catholic in union with the See of Peter. They are heretics, blasphemers and daugthers of rebellion.

The press is so Anti Catholic it jumps at any chance to show how " Catholics" are defying that mean ole, homophobic, misogynist, anti choice fanatic the Pope and all his reactionary goosestepping cohorts. ( their view not mine)

I for one am long past sick of it.

[lastchance]

Why would women want to be ordained in the first place? To be irreverent, cause controversy and strife, assert their "Independence"?

YES.

[Jaysun]

So they can found their very own Protestant sect and be ministers in it, of course. :-)

I thought they usually headed up "charismatic" cults. Groups where someone might be seen sprinting, screaming out loud, or rolling around as if on fire in the middle of the service.