Posted on 11/08/2007 5:57:46 AM PST by NYer
St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke has warned two Roman Catholic women that they will be excommunicated if they proceed with a planned ordination Sunday.
The two women -- Rose Marie Dunn Hudson of Festus and Elsie Hainz McGrath of St. Louis -- are set to be ordained as part of the Roman Catholic Womenpriests movement that began in 2002.
Only men are ordained priests and deacons in the Catholic Church. The Womenpriests and the advocacy group, the Women's Ordination Conference, are among Catholics pressing to change that tradition.
Both women said they will ignore Burke's warning.
"It's a typically hierarchical form of intimidation, and we will not be intimidated," McGrath said.
In letters delivered by courier to the women's homes Monday evening, Burke warned the women they would be committing a "grave error" and "act of schism" by trying to receive priestly ordination.
He reminded them that the pope has stated infallibly that only men can receive a valid ordination.
"Should you refuse to comply ... in order to protect the faithful from grave spiritual deception ... you will incur automatically ... the censure of excommunication," wrote Burke, who is also a church lawyer.
He said "additional disciplinary measures will also have to be imposed."
The archdiocese declined to comment about the letters.
"What is he going to do, burn us at the stake or what?" Hudson asked. "We're going to just totally ignore it. This is not unexpected. We wondered why it took so long."
Both women have graduate degrees in theology or pastoral studies and have been active in ministry for years.
McGrath, 69, is the widow of a Roman Catholic deacon. She has worked for the archdiocese, for the theology department at Saint Louis University, has been a campus minister and edited for a religious publisher. She and her late husband were part of a national leadership team for marriage preparation and enrichment programs.
Hudson, 67, is a retired teacher who has been active in parish life. She's done prison ministry for the last 15 years.
Of the roughly 100 women who have been ordained as priests or deacons worldwide in the Womenpriests movement, including 37 in the U.S., only the first seven were officially excommunicated by the Vatican, said spokeswoman Bridget Mary Meehan. Others have received letters from their bishop like that sent by Burke, she said.
"It means you are no longer a Catholic in good standing, that by your very own decision you have chosen to separate yourself from the church," Meehan said. "But we are disobeying an unjust law that discriminates against women.
"Baptism makes us full members of the church for life."
McGrath also was penalized by the Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, a Roman Catholic graduate school and seminary founded by the Dominican order.
The school said she was asked to withdraw from a class she was auditing for "taking part in ordination, which "undermines and shows disrespect for Catholic Church teaching and practice."
The service is taking place at Central Reform Congregation, a synagogue in St. Louis. In response, the archdiocese said on its Web site it would no longer partner with the congregation on any interfaith activities.
Rabbi Susan Talve said she and the congregation's board agreed to allow the ordination in their sacred space. She said hospitality and providing sanctuary are among their core values.
"We're going to just totally ignore it. This is not unexpected. We wondered why it took so long."
How totally arrogant!
“...The two women — Rose Marie Dunn Hudson of Festus...”
Hey stoat buddy. I got me a town named after me.
If they are excommunicated, does that mean they will go to hell?
We're being oppressed!
and we will not be intimidated," McGrath said.
Then you will be excommunicated. Buh-bye!
No. It means they cannot receive the Sacraments.
One Sacrament is still open to them ... may God grant them the Grace to take advantage of it.
Notice a pattern with these womyn priestesses and bishopettes?
They're mostly in their mid-late 60s.
Doing a little math tells me that they were 20-somethings in the turbulent 1960s. The hippie generation that rebelled against authority and wanted to turn the Church and the world on its head. "Tune in...drop out....." or whatever the motto was.
Somethings never change. These ladies have grown older but not wiser. The tie-died shirts and flowers have gone but the attitude of sticking it to "the man" remains.
Can’t they just go to a different church?
Members, yes. FULL memebers not so much.
... full members of the church for life.
Distinguo. For THIS life, yes, but that's not all there is, you may recall .....
How would anyone know? What would happen to them?
Elsie and Rose are a perfect example of the legacy of pride. They both have kept the focus on themselves rather than on God. They have come to believe the ultimate falsehood, that freedom is a condition apart from God rather than the state of being united to His Will.
They are going to a different church, their own, and it is not Catholic.
Now if they could only get the gumption to do the same for those that support abortion in your church...
So if they did this, the sacrament wouldn’t take?
Isn’t that what happened in the reformation?
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