Janine Denomme
Posted on 05/20/2010 6:04:23 AM PDT by NYer
Janine Denomme
There are tough questions for the Archdiocese of Chicago after it denied a lifelong Roman Catholic a church funeral. CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine reports with the story of a battle a cancer victim fought until her dying breath.
The priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church is the world's oldest all-boys club. Women need not apply. No debate. No appeal. Protest at your own risk. Which is exactly what Janine Denomme did.
Janine was 45 when she died, after a year-long battle with cancer, on Monday. She was a devoted parishioner at St. Gertrude's Roman Catholic Church on Chicago's North Side, attended by many members of the gay and lesbian community.
CBS 2 talked to her last fall, about a new book Cardinal George had written, and his comments about sexual orientation.
"Using sexual orientation in the same line as moral failings does not make me feel welcome," said Denomme back then.
Though it wasn't the debate over sexual preference, but her campaign for women in the priesthood, that was the final straw.
Last month, Janine was ordained in a simulation, according to the Archdiocese, which carries an automatic penalty.
"Any woman who seeks ordination incurs excommunication," said Fr. Daniel Smilanic.
Archdiocese Canon lawyer Smilanic said the Cardinal had no choice. Janine knew that when she took her vows a month before she died.
Her longtime partner, Nancy Katz, said that Janine was also aware that she risked being denied a formal church funeral.
"I don't think she believed the church would lack a pastoral sensibility," said Katz. "And what she said to me as we talked about her funeral wishes, 'I can't imagine having my funeral anywhere but my parish.' And yet she knew that there was a risk involved with heeding her call for ordination."
How does it hurt the church to say, she made a mistake, but she was our lifelong daughter, let her be buried in the church as she wanted?
"We have to understand what the theology is," Smilanic said. "The Holy See has said that if people do this, they are automatically excommunicated. And the excommunication is reserved to the Holy See."
Translation: orders from Rome. Instant excommunication. Decreed by the same authority which takes years to excommunicate priests who abuse children.
Janine's funeral mass will be held Saturday at a Methodist church in Evanston; though many of St. Gertrude's parishioners, perhaps even its priests, are expected to attend.
Ping!
A lesson ~ if you want to be a Protestant, go to a Protestant church. We don’t bite. Still, you need to be careful to pick one with an “open burial” policy eh!
>>”Any woman who seeks ordination incurs excommunication,” said Fr. Daniel Smilanic. <<
Well she wasn’t really Catholic, now was she?
I can call myself a gorilla, that doesn’t make me a gorilla.
Devoted to what? not to her religion, apparently.
I don't agree with Catholic doctrines in some cases, but they have the absolute right to operate their church as they see fit. If someone doesn't like how they do it, they don't have to be a Catholic.
Not true. She automatically excommunicated herself when she set herself up in Holy Orders.
The same way people hurt themselves when they jump off bridges: just as certain, just as automatic.
A “simulated” ordination is not real. Jesus only chose men as his Apostles. Unless Jesus was wrong. Which I suspect, is what people like her are trying to prove.
>>”Any woman who seeks ordination incurs excommunication,” said Fr. Daniel Smilanic. <<
This statement bugged me — it may be true that any woman who seeks ordination is excommunicated, but it is equally true that any man who seeks ordination in a simulation is excommunicated. I really wish he didn’t just hang it on being a woman seeking ordination. The problem is not only that she’s a woman who wanted to be ordained - there are a lot of Catholic women who could say that — the problem is that she WAS “ordained” in a simulation, which is excommunicable for both men and women.
Chicago’s North Side...
nuff said.
She can rant to St.Peter now.
Last month, Janine was ordained in a simulation, according to the Archdiocese, which carries an automatic penalty.While the prayers of the faithful may have saved her somehow, or she may have said she was sorry with her last breaths, still and all, the powers of the devil are frightening indeed. He pounded away even (or especially!) when she only had days to live ...
I don’t know that people are trying to prove Jesus wrong by female ordination — I’m not a proponent of female ordination, but Jewish society at the time wouldn’t have been able to handle female rabbis, which was what Jesus’ Apostles were somewhat akin to. Plus, more and more we’re learning that women had a much bigger role in the early non-institutionalized Church than they do now and were slowly pushed aside as institutionalization occurred. We know that at the very least there were female deacons.
GREAT point!
The condescending, accusatory tone of this article is repugnant. Using a woman’s death as yet another opportunity to bash the Church? Well, whatever it takes. And of course, she and her “partner” had planned it that way... going out with big drama, what fun! Wonder what she thinks of that silly gesture right about now?
*shrug* Whatever.
‘Poser’ exactly. She had CHOSEN to leave the Church and its teachings. This is not a hankie-moment, but rather the hard edge of reality rearing its ugly head. Choices have consequences.
A nun once told me that women have a MUCH bigger role than Priests in the Church. That is to raise good Catholic children.
Afterall who ya gonna listen to? A Priest or your Mom?
I hear the Roman Catholics also have a big down on burying Satanists, Muslims, Pagans, Zoroastrians, Hindus, Animists, Atheists, animals, and a whole bunch of other non-Roman Catholics in consecrated Roman Catholic cemeteries. How mean and unfair of them.
But sarcasm aside, while much has been written in church doctrine about death bed conversion, there is little about death bed renunciation, I suppose because the church doesn’t want to slam the door on any variety of possible redemption. This is rather unfortunate, in that while someone who despises the church might eventually be provided some form or means of redemption, there would seem to be no harm in assuming that they got what was coming to them.
The writer waits until nearly 2/3 of the way through the article before it's revealed that Janine is a lesbian. Lesson learned = you can be a "longtime" lesbian and still get a "church funeral", but once you try to become a priest, you lose.
THe "ordained" should be in quotes.
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