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.
Was that a reply to me? It does not seem to pertain. And if Jesus was wrong then there is no Religion and no Church only some colossal playacting.
That's the parish she was the pastor of, right? Didn't they give her a nice one?
I wholeheartedly agree with the Catholic Church’s right to make it’s own rules. If this lady wanted to be ordained she could have joined multiple other denominations.
That being said, I am not as familiar with the Bible as I should be, could someone direct me to the passages from which the Catholics developed their dogma on male priests.
At the beginning of the books of Acts when he came to them in the upper room and breathed on them. We only see God "Breathing on some one twice. In Genesis, when he gave Adam life and in the Book of Acts with the Apostles.
You will find the most detailed explanation here.
And here are some scriptural passages that address the topic of women in the priesthood.
Gen. 3:15; Luke 1:26-55; John 19:26; Rev. 12:1- Mary is God's greatest creation, was the closest person to Jesus, and yet Jesus did not choose her to become a priest. God chose only men to be priests to reflect the complimentarity of the sexes. Just as the man (the royal priest) gives natural life to the woman in the marital covenant, the ministerial priest gives supernatural life in the New Covenant sacraments.
Judges 17:10; 18:19 – fatherhood and priesthood are synonymous terms. Micah says, “Stay with me, and be to me a father and a priest.” Fathers/priests give life, and mothers receive and nurture life. This reflects God our Father who gives the life of grace through the Priesthood of His Divine Son, and Mother Church who receives the life of grace and nourishes her children. In summary, women cannot be priests because women cannot be fathers.
Mark 16:9; Luke 7: 37-50; John 8:3-11 - Jesus allowed women to uniquely join in His mission, exalting them above cultural norms. His decision not to ordain women had nothing to do with culture. The Gospel writers are also clear that women participated in Jesus' ministry and, unlike men, never betrayed Jesus. Women have always been held with the highest regard in the Church (e.g., the Church's greatest saint and model of faith is a woman; the Church's constant teaching on the dignity of motherhood; the Church's understanding of humanity as being the Bride united to Christ, etc.).
Mark 14:17,20; Luke 22:14 - the language "the twelve" and "apostles" shows Jesus commissioned the Eucharistic priesthood by giving holy orders only to men.
Gen. 14:10; Heb. 5:6,10; 6:20; 7:15,17 - Jesus, the Son of God, is both priest and King after the priest-king Melchizedek. Jesus' priesthood embodies both Kingship and Sonship.
Gen. 22:9-13 - as foreshadowed, God chose our redemption to be secured by the sacrificial love that the Son gives to the Father.
Matt. 26:26; Mark 14:22; Luke 22:19 - because the priest acts in persona Christi in the offering to the Father, the priest cannot be a woman.
Mark 3:13 - Jesus selected the apostles "as He desired," according to His will, and not according to the demands of His culture. Because Jesus acted according to His will which was perfectly united to that of the Father, one cannot criticize Jesus' selection of men to be His priests without criticizing God.
John 20:22 - Jesus only breathed on the male apostles, the first bishops, giving them the authority to forgive and retain sins. In fact, the male priesthood of Christianity was a distinction from the priestesses of paganism that existed during these times. A female priesthood would be a reversion to non-Christian practices. The sacred tradition of a male priesthood has existed uncompromised in the Church for 2,000 years.
1 Cor. 14:34-35 - Paul says a woman is not permitted to preach the word of God in the Church. It has always been the tradition of the Church for the priest or deacon alone (an ordained male) to read and preach the Gospel.
1 Tim. 2:12 - Paul also says that a woman is not permitted to hold teaching authority in the Church. Can you imagine how much Mary, the Mother of God, would have been able to teach Christians about Jesus her Son in the Church? Yet, she was not permitted to hold such teaching authority in the Church.
Rom. 16:1-2 - while many Protestants point to this verse denounce the Church's tradition of a male priesthood, deaconesses, like Phoebe, were helpers to the priests (for example, preparing women for naked baptism so as to prevent scandal). But these helpers were never ordained.
Luke 2:36-37 - prophetesses, like Anna, were women who consecrated themselves to religious life, but were not ordained.
Isaiah 3:12 – Isaiah complains that the priests of ancient Israel were having their authority usurped by women, and this was at the height of Israel’s covenant apostasy.
Of course he does. And so does this woman “priest”. Yet Kennedy was still allowed a public Catholic burial.
This shows a nuptial relationship of those who symbolize Christ in relation to the Church: and we would argue that the priests embody this symbolism, standing for Christ (Bridegroom) in relation to the Church (Bride).
This unfortunate Lesbian woman evidently was deeply confused about sex and gender. But she;s not the only one. Most modern people (myself obviously included) have only a weak, puny understanding of embodied, God-intended, spiritual meaning of sexuality. She didn't "get" the relationship between male and female, and therefore didn't "get" that women can't priests for the same reasons that men can't be mothers.
That certainly does not mean that women can't be holy. And the really imnportant, as well as really interesting people in the Catholic Church are not the priests, nor the popes, but the Saints.
He should have been quietly and solemnly interred, possibly with a chanting of the Dies Irae, and his many followers instructed to pray to God for mercy.
My experience as a female Catholic has been that women who want to be priests usually are severely disordered in their thinking. Not a coincidence that many are homosexuals, as that also requires turning nature on its head, and devising a completely backwards, self-destructive world view. My conservative friends and I have long mused over whether it is the fornication or the false religion that comes first.
I wish the Church would excommunicate all these pro abortion politicians. They should all be denied a Catholic burial.
The tagline refers to Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosi, et al, and all the lawless bishops who refuse to enforce Canon 915 (which you can google):
Well said.
In other words, they are "opportunists", taking full advantage of the societal swing towards embracing homosexuality as normal.
Excellent points! Thanks for the post and ping.
They weren’t pushed aside at all. Go peddle your feminism elsewhere.
Look at the influence of the abbesses and the nuns throughout history.
Whatever, Bud. You know me not at all, and I’ve been around Free Republid a hell of a lot longer than you have.
Consequences...
Oh well. At least she didn’t interpret the Bible literally.
"Using sexual orientation in the same line as moral failings does not make me feel welcome," said Denomme back then... 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... 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.Thanks NYer.
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