Free Republic

A rebel Catholic group has ordained its second woman priest in North Carolina, the first in the 46 counties that constitute the Catholic Diocese of Charlotte. News outlets report that the Association of Roman Catholic Woman Priests ordained 64-year-old Abigail Eltzroth on Sunday at Asheville's Jubilee, a nondenominational faith community. The group is opposed to the Roman Catholic Church's ban on women priests.

It’s not a joke. It’s something that Pope Francis has thought about before: naming a woman cardinal. Those who know the pope, both before and after he took over from Ratzinger, say that the first Jesuit pontiff is not only surprising people with his comments, but also with his actions. And this has been happening throughout his first six months in the role.Those who think that Francis – who has all the simplicity of a parish priest – is a naïve man are wrong. This pope isn’t an ordinary pope. He has come to St. Peter’s with concrete plans for...

1. Why doesn’t the Church allow women to be priests? I know plenty of women who could give a more moving homily and be more understanding in the confessional. There aren't many issues within apologetics that require as much sensitivity as this one. In a culture where opening the door for a woman can be seen as an act of misogyny, it's no surprise that male-only ordination strikes some as sexist on the Church's behalf. It can't be denied that there are women who could be more moving orators than some priests and provide more consolation within the confessional. But...

 A Lexington woman goes against centuries of tradition and the Catholic Church to be ordained a priest.  Jane Sevre-Duszynska was publicly ordained Saturday afternoon as a Roman Catholic woman-priest.  Ten years ago, Sevre-Duszynska asked a Lexington bishop to ordain her as priest. He refused. Even so she never gave up her belief she had been called to the ministry.  Saturday, inside the Unitarian Universalist church, she became the first woman in the South to be ordained by the Roman Catholic woman priest.  The Roman Catholic Church does not recognize Sevre-Duszynska or any of the Roman Catholic women priests.  The Lexington...

Send in the straightjackets - Newsweek has cracked up. Of all the stories in the entire world to cover, Newsweek's website is flagging as its "Top Story" an insane piece about a woman (complete with photo) who thinks she is an ordained Catholic priest. They found her in Missouri, though had Newsweek reporter Karen Springen walked into the nearest asylum, she would have found some who think they're the pope. Springen's discovery is Jessica Rowley. Jessica thinks she's a Catholic priest because some crackpot group said they ordained her. Springen, whose contempt for the Catholic Church is rivaled only by...

The bishop of the four-county Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania today removed a prominent Main Line priest who says the church has become too liberal on issues such as the ordination of women and recognition of same-sex unions. Father David Moyer, the North American president of the conservative Forward in Faith movement, didn't immediately return a call for comment. He had said in recent weeks that he expected to be deposed. Bishop Charles E. Bennison said the document he signed meant Moyer "is deposed entirely from the ordained ministry." "I find it grievous for him, and for his family. I did...