Posted on 09/01/2011 2:26:56 AM PDT by markomalley
WICHITA, Kansas -- He came to fame as a passionate political activist. For years, Father Roy Bourgeois has tried to shut down the School of the Americas in Columbus, Georgia. He and his thousands of supporters claim it trains Latin American soldiers to defend American backed governments. But in more recent years, Bourgeois has taken on a new target, the Vatican.
"Sexism is racism," said Bourgeois on a visit to the Wichita area this week. He is a staunch supporter to have women ordained as Catholic priests.
"God created men and women of equal worth and dignity," said Bourgeois. "There's this equality, Galatians 3:28. There's neither male or female. In Christ Jesus you are one."
The Catholic Church is furious with Bourgeois and is close to kicking him out.
"I received a letter from the Vatican saying that I had thirty days to recant," said Bourgeois. "That's the word they used, to recant"
The church's stance is one rooted in history. It cites biblical examples of men in positions of authority, among them, the twelve Apostles.
Several years ago, Pope John Paul The Second stated: "I have no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and this judgement is to be definitively held by all the church's faithful."
But Bourgeois says times have changed.
"My conscience will not allow me to recant," said Bourgeois. "Basically what you are asking me to do is to lie."
KSN News reached out to a number of people in the local Catholic community to try and get some type of comment about this story. But numerous requests were denied. The issue of women becoming priests we were told is just too controversial.
We make a very serious mistake if we rely on media like the New York Times, Newsweek, CNN, or MSNBC for reliable news about religion. These news media simply don’t provide trustworthy information about religious faith—and sometimes they can’t provide it, either because of limited resources or because of their own editorial prejudices. These are secular operations focused on making a profit. They have very little sympathy for the Catholic faith, and quite a lot of aggressive skepticism toward any religious community that claims to preach and teach God’s truth. |
Two reasons for posting this tripe:
And one question: where the he## is his Ordinary?????
He was in fact excommunicated in 2008.
KSN News reached out to a number of people in the local Catholic community to try and get some type of comment about this story. But numerous requests were denied. The issue of women becoming priests we were told is just too controversial.
It is very hard to believe that they couldn't find anyone in the Wichita diocese to defend Christian teaching.
I couldn’t help it, had to jump in the water:
A few thoughts: Father was excommunicated in 2008. Not mentioned in your story. The Church promulgated an infallible teaching on the subject of exactly why the Catholic Church cannot ordain women as priests, in 1994. Likewise not mentioned. Father had been given a chance to recant. That is the proper word. Merriam-Webster defines as “to withdraw or repudiate (a statement or belief) formally and publicly.” Father is in error, and must recant as part of a return to grace. Or he can remain outside the Church, where he is now. But he cannot perform those sacramental duties intrinsic to being a Roman Catholic priest, as a direct result of his inability to follow his vow of obedience. Please, do some research when reporting. A better headline here might have been “Former priest rejects 2000 Years of God’s Law For His Own.”
I don't understand why radicals insist on trying to reshape the Catholic Church in the image of other denominations.
Perhaps this priest has forgotten or never learned):
“God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as is in all the churches of the saints.” (1 Corinthians 14:33)
May we remember: “For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.” (1 Samuel 15:23a)
As our Lord Jesus said: “Man was made for the Sabbath, but the Sabbath was made for man.” And man was not made for woman, but woman was made for man.”
Not impossible, mind you....just tougher!
That needs a little unpacking. The non-ordination of women does not have the same doctrinal level as (say) the doctrines on the Trinity, the Incarnation, the nature of the Eucharist and so forth.
The clearest way of putting this is as follows:
There could NOT be a revelation from God tomorrow that God is not God, that there are four Persons in the Trinity, that Jesus was not Man, that Jesus was not God - and so forth.
But there *could* be a revelation from God tomorrow that women can be ordained.
I don't believe this will happen: I believe that the non-ordination of women is well-supported by Christ not having female apostles.
But the intrinsic 'hardness' of this doctrine is at the same level as that of the non-inclusion of gentiles in the Church (which matter was conclusively disambiguated by divine revelation to St Peter).
You said it better than I did. I was still on the first cup of coffee. Thus, while the brain was engaged, only the first few cylinders were firing. Thank you.
The teaching is one iota short of an "infallible" proclamation. In the 1994 Apostolic Letter, Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, the Holy Father said:
4. 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. Lk 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.
I say that it is one iota short because it does not explicitly pronounce an anathema on dissenters (although per canon law, dissent would fall within the definition of heresy). One possible reason for his declaration (vice definition) is that this was already part of the Church's deposito fidei and does not need to be re-defined.
When women become catholic Priests, I will find myself another way to get to God
Changing the Church in this manner would tell me that for 2,000 years the Church, and Christ, who chose men as his apostle’s has been wrong.Th Catholic Church is not meant to change just for political correctness.
There are certain fundamentals that any structure is built on, Destroy the foundation and the structure will collapse.
One more quick thought——That may be the purpose.
In short, weirdness would ensue.
Sorry, I must disagree with you here. Catholic doctrine does not proceed by new "revelations from God"; we aren't Mormons. Public revelation ended with the death of the last Apostle, and private revelation has no power to promulgate new doctrine.
The teaching that women cannot be ordained is infallibly known, from the ordinary magisterium, from 2000 years of tradition, and from Ordinatio. A teaching that is infallibly known cannot change.
Is it as central to the faith as the Trinity or the Divinity of Christ? No, of course not. But it is just as unchangeable.
It would be refreshing to have one of these guys say something like “While not having priestesses is racist and discriminatory, I believe abortion is murder,”gay marriage” isn’t possible, and the discipline of celibacy is very valuable.”
Freegards
Bravo Sierra
Very nicely put, Mark.
your analysis ignores the real issue: Did God make a mistake when he devised two sexes? And, if so, is our gender an artificial construct (i.e. made up by man, something that feminists preach in Universities) or is gender something that is deeply rooted in our entire being?
If men and women are different, it doesn’t mean they aren’t equal, merely that they have different roles in society.
As Edith Stein wrote: often a man and a woman can do the same secular work, but a woman brings into the job her femininity and motherhood, because she is not just a neutral worker but a woman who is working.
The priesthood being male goes back before Christ, into the Jewish priesthood. Man is the leader, the head, the priest and the protecter of the weak. Woman is the heart, the mother, and the spouse. Feminists would like to overturn these ideas, and they are wonderful for young women, but the “fruits” of this idea is to eliminate children.
That is why the “womynpriests” often support abortion, homosexuality, married priests, etc. They are rejecting the idea of the feminine as important, substituting the idea of the woman as man instead.
My mother used to say that God allows men to be priests to make up for the fact that men can’t be mothers. The liberals hate motherhood as a meaningful role model...
Good thread.
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