Pink Smoke Gets in Your Eyes

Insight Scoop ^ | July 29, 2011 | Gail Deibler Finke

[NYer]

The woman next to me loved the title: Pink Smoke Over the Vatican. I know, because she said, "Great title!" with a knowing laugh.

There were a lot of knowing laughs in the theater Saturday morning, when the one-hour independent documentary about women's ordination had its Cincinnati debut. Perhaps the biggest came when the narrator explained that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is the modern day name for The Holy Office of the Inquisition—which, though true, does sound a bit over the top. But not as over the top as clandestine ordinations on ships by incognito bishops.

And that's what the film is about: Women who want to be priests, some of whom claim to have been ordained. Sympathetic bishops, they say, have helped them. The first "ordinations" of the infamous "Danube Seven" were done in Germany in 2002—on a boat, so that they were on no bishop's territory, and in secret, so the bishops involved would not be found out. Since then, nine "ordination" ceremonies have been held, most for "priests" but many for "deacons" and ten "bishops." Because no male bishops are now involved, assuming any really were to begin with, the ceremonies are no longer secret. They are also no longer held on boats, but take place in synagogues, non-Catholic churches, and hotels. The Association of Roman Catholic Womenpriests (RCWP) claims to have 100 women in training and plans to have several more "ordinations" in 2011.

Director Jules Hart, whose previous efforts for EyeGoddessFilms include a documentary about at-risk youth "creating a totem pole as a symbol of peace and healing," says she made the film because she was captivated by the stories of Catholic women longing for the priesthood. On Saturday, about 200 people, most of them women, crowded into the 220-seat theater to hear those stories. The manager told me that made it one of the most successful private screenings the theater has ever held.

Pink Smoke is on the independent film circuit and may be coming to a theater near you. If you go, what will you see? A lot of kindly white-haired ladies, both on screen and in person—and some angry women thrown in for balance. A lot of talk about feelings and justice, a lot of half-truths and wishful thinking, and a couple of jabs at men. But it's what you won't see that is most important.

Pink Smoke Over the Vatican begins with a lot of unsupported claims that women's ordination was once accepted and common in the Church, but that evidence of this was "all but eradicated" in a Dan Brown-type conspiracy of medieval men. For the record—in case any readers are wondering—even this author with a minor in medieval history can tell you that such a thing would be logistically impossible.

The film then goes on to profile several women RCWP claims to have ordained, including one "bishop," and their supporters. Prominent among the supporters is Fr. Roy Bourgeois, the excommunicated Maryknoll priest, who shakes his finger at the mean old Church and calls the priesthood a "boys club." He is given almost as much screen time as Patricia Fresen, a cheerful, grandmotherly South African woman who claims to have been the third woman ordained a bishop. She had to leave the Dominican order after (as the Church puts it) attempting ordination and refusing to recant. Her delighted and bemused account of her episcopal "ordination" was, for me, the highlight of a surreal film experience.

But not all of the women profiled were so engaging. One was so angry she practically set the screen on fire, and another barely managed to speak as she fought back tears of sorrow for her oppressed sisters. On the whole, "priest" or layperson, the people profiled talked about their feelings. They felt called to priesthood, they felt excluded from power, they felt overjoyed at the idea of women at the altar, they felt felt FELT.

[NYer]

Can women be ordained to the priesthood? This is a question which provokes much debate in our modern world, but it is one to which the Church has always answered "No." The basis for the Church’s teaching on ordination is found in the New Testament as well as in the writings of the Church Fathers.

While women could publicly pray and prophesy in church (1 Cor. 11:1–16), they could not teach or have authority over a man (1 Tim. 2:11–14), since these were two essential functions of the clergy. Nor could women publicly question or challenge the teaching of the clergy (1 Cor. 14:34–38).

The following quotations from the Church Fathers indicate that women do play an active role in the Church and that in the age of the Fathers there were orders of virgins, widows, and deaconesses, but that these women were not ordained.

The Fathers rejected women's ordination, not because it was incompatible with Christian culture, but because it was incompatible with Christian faith. Thus, together with biblical declarations, the teaching of the Fathers on this issue formed the tradition of the Church that taught that priestly ordination was reserved to men. Throughout medieval times and even up until the present day, this teaching has not changed.

Further, in 1994 Pope John Paul II formally declared that the Church does not have the power to ordain women. He stated, "Although the teaching that priestly ordination is to be reserved to men alone has been preserved by the constant and universal tradition of the Church and firmly taught by the magisterium in its more recent documents, at the present time in some places it is nonetheless considered still open to debate, or the Church’s judgment that women are not to be admitted to ordination is considered to have a merely disciplinary force. Wherefore, in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance, a matter which pertains to the Church’s divine constitution itself, in virtue of my ministry of confirming the brethren (cf. Luke 22:32) I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful" (Ordinatio Sacerdotalis 4).

And in 1995 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in conjunction with the pope, ruled that this teaching "requires definitive assent, since, founded on the written Word of God, and from the beginning constantly preserved and applied in the tradition of the Church, it has been set forth infallibly by the ordinary and universal magisterium (cf. Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium 25:2)" (Response of Oct. 25, 1995).

The following quotations from the Fathers constitute a part of the tradition on which this infallible teaching rests.

Women and the Priesthood

[RichInOC]

They asked me how I knew
My true love was true
Ohhhhh, I of course replied
Something here inside cannot be denied

They said someday you’ll find
All who love are blind
Oh, when your heart’s on fire
You must realize
Smoke gets in your eyes

So I chaffed them and I gaily laughed
To think they could doubt my love
Yet today my love has flown away
I am without my love

Now laughing friends deride
Tears I can not hide
Ohhhhh, so I smile and say
When a lovely flame dies
Smoke gets in your eyes
Smoke gets in your eyes

[famousdayandyear]

Thank you, Vatican II

[OldNewYork]

Sounds like instant excommunication to me, whether the official imprimatur has yet been added to it or not.

[dangus]

Were any of the “womenbishops” “ordained” by Catholic bishops?

[Pollster1]

My (Protestant) minister is female, and she’s fabulous. I think the Catholic Church is wrong on this question - carrying over a cultural detail from 2,000 years ago that is not central to scripture and should not be central to doctrine.

That said, my opinion is entirely irrelevant. The Church is the sole authority on who is a Catholic priest. These women should be Catholics and follow the Church’s rules or protestants and admit honestly that they are not Roman Catholic. I see no point in their current dishonest path.

[Aroostook25]

Would women priests molest little boys and girls?

[Mr. Silverback]

Pink Smoke also throws in Galileo (of course) and half-truths or outright lies about the history of priestly celibacy, several actions of the last two popes, and (again of course) the sexual abuse of minors.

Yeah, when we've changed from male priests molesting kids and having their deeds covered up by a male bishop to female priests "introducing" young girls to their repressed lesbian sexuality like something out of the Vagina Monologues and having their deeds praised by a female bishop, that will be a HUUUUUGE improvement. /Sarcasm

[hinckley buzzard]

Women who want to be priests, some of whom claim to have been ordained. Sympathetic bishops, they say, have helped them. The first "ordinations" of the infamous "Danube Seven" were done in Germany in 2002—on a boat, so that they were on no bishop's territory, and in secret, so the bishops involved would not be found out.

I'm gonna start a mailorder business to save them the trouble. Just send in two boxtops from your favorite grocery store box wine and 25 dollars to: Womanpriest, Box 5000, Ansonia Station.

In return you get a genuine certificate, suitable for framing, declaring you a priest; a rare prized facsimile of the papal ring; and a complimentary pack of wafers to help you get started.

[Salvation]

Evidently you are not aware of the huge number of molestations that take place in public schools. Much larger than any religious sect.

[hinckley buzzard]

Most of them are lesbians, so probably not, at least at first.

[Mr. Silverback]

Two words: Vagina Monologues. Just change the teacher to a friendly neighborhood priestess and you will get what these people are headed for.

I would mention the title of the section within the Vagina Monologues I am talking about, but the mods would delete my post for foul language.

[Venturer]

Glad you like your protestant female minister.

You are correct. These women need to stop trying to change the catholic faith and go join the Protestants if they want to be ministers.

They aren’t Catholics.If they don’t like the rules they should move on. I would have more respect for them if they did.

[NYer]

Thank you, Vatican II

Actually, if you visit the link I posted on Women and the Priesthood, you will discover that this nonsense dates back to the very beginning. It is not new.

[Mr. Silverback]

See my post 13.

Lesbians not only molest just like eveyone else, they celebrate it in plays about the empowerment of women.

I’d like to note the section I’m talking about finishes up with the rape victim saying that if what she experienced was rape, it was “good rape.” That’s where feminism is today, folks, and these womenpriest moonbats are just a facet of it, another “look at us warm and fuzzy caring types” con like the “peace” movement and all those nice, loving abortion clinic workers.

[Petrosius]

My (Protestant) minister is female, and she’s fabulous. I think the Catholic Church is wrong on this question - carrying over a cultural detail from 2,000 years ago that is not central to scripture and should not be central to doctrine.

So do you think that you are more compassionate and just than our Lord Jesus Christ? It is His action that we are following, not that of some man-made rule imposed by the Church after the fact.

[marsh2]

Seems like the women could seek out the many modern Protestant Christian religions that worship a Savior that welcomes women as human beings of equal capacity and value to males and that welcomes women to the priesthood. Run to the Christ with the open arms.

[NYer]

My (Protestant) minister is female, and she’s fabulous. I think the Catholic Church is wrong on this question - carrying over a cultural detail from 2,000 years ago that is not central to scripture and should not be central to doctrine.

And thank you for providing an opportunity to explain why women can never serve as priests in either the Catholic or Orthodox Churches.

The times have often favored a female priesthood and never more so than when Christ ordained his first priests, nearly 2,000 years ago. Virtually all the pagan religions of his day had priestesses, and it would have been entirely normal and natural for him to choose women for this task. He had, moreover, a number of excellent potential candidates, from his own Mother, who accompanied him at his first miracle and stood with him as he suffered on the cross, to Mary Magdalene or the women of Bethany. Instead, he chose only men, and he remained immovable on this, continuing right to the end to exhort and train them all, leaving thus a Church which turned out to be safely founded on a rock. From those twelve men a direct line of apostolic succession has given the Catholic Church the bishops and priests it has today.

In the Church’s latest statement on this matter, Pope John Paul II, using his full authority as the successor of Peter, stated categorically that the Church cannot—not will not, but cannot —ordain women, now or in the future. The Catechism of the Catholic Church sets it out clearly, quoting the decree Inter insigniores:

"Only a baptized man [ vir] receives sacred ordination. The Lord Jesus chose men [ viri] to form the college of the twelve apostles, and the apostles did the same when they chose collaborators to succeed them in their ministry. The college of bishops, with whom the priests are united in the priesthood, makes the college of the twelve an ever-present and ever-active reality until Christ’s return. The Church recognizes herself to be bound by this choice made by the Lord himself. For this reason the ordination of women is not possible."

We need to understand that Christians believe God to be the essence of divine omnipotence. To put it crudely, he doesn’t make mistakes. When he became incarnate as a human being, he did so at a precise and exact moment in human history, which had been planned from all eternity. From the beginning, God had chosen that there would be a Jewish people, among whom his divine Son would be born. Their own priestly traditions would form part of the background and culture which would help them—and others—to see and know him. Every detail about the Incarnation was known in the mind of God. He was born into the fullness of time.

You can read more about this here.

[Pollster1]

So do you think that you are more compassionate and just than our Lord Jesus Christ? It is His action that we are following, not that of some man-made rule imposed by the Church after the fact.

Not at all; I fall short by far too much in both areas. What I think is that His choice of twelve men was culturally determined and not spiritually directive to us. He never chose a woman as a disciple, but he also never used the Internet to spread the Word. I think His non-ordination of women is a cultural detail, while His non-ordination of gays is a spiritual necessity. In any case, it's not my place to make that choice for the Roman Catholic Church, nor is it the place of a few rogue "bishops" with more loyalty to politics than to the Pope. The bishops are wrong to do this without authority.