Elizabeth English presides over Mass at the Good Shepherd Independent Catholic Church in Sacramento on Sunday. She performs all the traditional duties of a Roman Catholic Church priest, but the Vatican does not recognize women in that role.
Posted on 02/01/2010 12:31:29 PM PST by SmithL
To parishioners in her small Sacramento congregation, Elizabeth English is their Catholic priest: She presides over their Sunday Mass, leads them during Communion and baptizes their babies.
To the Roman Catholic Church, English symbolizes a topic that church leaders consider closed: the ordination of women priests.
English left the Roman Catholic Church five years ago to pursue her calling to the priesthood. She is now a priest in the Independent Catholic Church, a group not recognized by the Vatican. She is the only female Catholic priest in the Sacramento region.
"I had to leave the church; there was no place for me," she said. "I wish there was."
Last week, English joined a Nobel Peace Prize nominee who is also a priest and about 150 others at St. Mark's Methodist Church in Sacramento to discuss the ordination of women priests.
They called on the church to consider women clergy, saying they are necessary for a vibrant and healthy church that needs the "experience, courage and compassion" of women in the priesthood.
(Excerpt) Read more at sacbee.com ...
***She is the only female Catholic priest in the Sacramento region.***
She is not a Catholic priest. She’s not even Catholic.
I think that maybe it's a much higher authority than "The Vatican" that does not recognize women in that role.
The ignorance of the press is disguisting. The witch was automatically ex-communicated when she went through the sham ordination. She can go through the motion of performing the sacraments but they are just as valid as if I dressed up as a priest for Halloween.
NOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLICNOTCATHOLIC ETC.
Theology aside, how can anyone take these people seriously when they can’t even bear to call themselves the proper term? If such a thing existed in the Church, female clergy would be called “priestesses”. There’s no such thing as “man priestesses” or “woman priests”, just priests and priestesses.
Freegards
There was a place for her. But not enough room for her ego.
She left the Catholic Church. Therefore she is NOT A CATHOLIC. Why is it so hard to understand. May God have mercy on her for leading souls astray.
No offense, but considering the high number of sex offenders in the Catholic Church, I almost positive that their performance of the sacraments are just as valid as hers.
Funny how the very same people against “women as priests” in the church have no or very little issues with the overwhelming number of homosexual men and various sex offenders.
What a GREAT WORLD we live in, eh?
She may be their "priest" but she's not a Catholic priest.and if her "parishioners" think that she's Catholic then *they're* not Catholic.
The sexual offenders were not Catholics, either.
I am a Protestant. But I don’t blame Catholics for having pedophiles around. They are a huge group of people.
If someone from Home Depot molested a kid, I wouldn’t blame Home Depot, either.
This dame and her friends exploring
the topic of “women as ordained Catholic priests”
is analagous to
Al Gore and his friends exploring
the topic of “global warming”.
A priest can be the worst person in the world but if that priest has a valid ordination and has not been kicked out from a Catholic viewpoint the sacraments are valid. This controversy goes back to the 4th century. The CC teaching on this goes back St. Augustine.
“Funny how the very same people against “women as priests” in the church have no or very little issues with the overwhelming number of homosexual men and various sex offenders.”
You have got to be kidding. Liberal Catholics would LOVE to have BOTH priestesses and homosexualist clergy in open “relationships”!! The conservative Catholics are the ones against BOTH of those things.
Freegards
There was no place for her as clergy. It’s a shame she left because of that, but from that photo it doesn’t look like the place is thriving or full of young folks who might not know any better...
Freegards
Heretic
You see as an ex-Catholic, this argument about their sacraments being valid just doesn’t ring true. How can they be valid if they are coming from a sinful vessel?
And please don’t tell me that old, “if you are thirsty in the desert and the only water you can drink comes from a rusted pipe, would you drink it” analogy.
That analogy throws out all other “good” priests and all other religions as well.
St. Augustine? Of course he is the guy who did whatever he wanted, with whom he wanted and later “apologized” after he saw the emptiness of his actions. He also was a big misogynist. So no wonder, the man believed that way.
You have the right to your opinion. At least you are honest and followed your conscience and left the CC. This heretic “priestess” wants it both ways.
I think I know why. Maybe it is because the Church WOULD LOSE at least half of their priests and would be in severe shortage for the masses.
I just think if the Church has no problem accepting Homosexual men, why not women??
I would think women would be focused on word of God just as much as a Homosexual man if not more so.
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