Posted on 01/23/2010 5:01:26 AM PST by NYer
Inside a red brick house in Falls Church, Bridget Mary Meehan placed a silver chalice of wine and a plate of flatbread on the coffee table in her living room and prepared to lead a sacred, forbidden ceremony.
"As we gather around this table, this intimate little house church table, let us remember that God is raising us up, all of us," she said, smiling at the four worshipers who had come to hear her say Mass.
Three and a half years ago, Meehan joined a group of Catholic women from across the United States known as the Roman Catholic Womenpriests -- ordained as bishops, priests and deacons, sometimes in secret ceremonies, against Vatican law. The first ceremony took place in 2002, when a renegade bishop ordained seven women in a boat on the Danube River near Passau, Germany. Most, if not all members, have been excommunicated.
The group, which has about 70 women, is one of several nationwide gaining support among U.S. Catholics as more of them begin to question the Vatican's stance on women's role in the Church.
"Our goal is to bring about full equality of women in the Roman Catholic Church," said Meehan, 62. "We love the faith. We love the spirituality. That's why we remain Catholic. We are holding disobedience to an unjust law that discriminates against women. We're willing to go the whole mile with the institution on this."
The movement has a strong following in the Washington region.
Last year, Maureen Fiedler, host of "Interfaith Voices" on WAMU (88.5), organized a fundraiser for her radio program with a special address by the Rev. Roy Bourgeois, a Catholic priest facing excommunication for attending a Womenpriests ordination.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Note the msm choice of terminology - "punished". Good to know the pastor is not administering communion. The Latin Church needs to eliminate communion in the hand.
Silly old women...
May God open their eyes to the truth.
Question...why would these women want to be part of a Church that doesn’t want them?
There is nothing “fordden” about it. They can dress up and play whatever games they like. They are not Catholic.What they do has no effect and is not even remotely what occurs in the Mass. Moslems could go through the motions or Methodists could do it. It is no more than a play for a very small audience.
It makes no sense for these people to just keep pushing people to conform to their ideas.
The day the Catholic Church allows this, is the day I leave the Church.
There is no such thing as women priests.
Silly wimmenses....
I suppose the closest they could come would be Church of England, maybe. They have women everythings. But its not Catholic....
Your question is wrongly formed. You should have asked "Why would these women want to be priests in a church which does not recognize female priesthood?" The answer is the same as why sodomites want to be preachers in churches which require their pastors to keep their sexual life within marriage.
Totally agree with you both. Why don’t they just become Episcopalians and get it over with? I even have a problem with the headline. If they are female, they are not RC priests.
As one of them explained: "Our goal is to bring about full equality of women in the Roman Catholic Church," said Meehan, 62. "We love the faith. We love the spirituality. That's why we remain Catholic. We are holding disobedience to an unjust law that discriminates against women. We're willing to go the whole mile with the institution on this."
In essence, out of defiance, not love for Christ and His Church.
The only difference here is that we admitted we were playing.
Complete baloney..see my previous post.
No need to worry. It won't happen. Pope John Paul II issued an "Apostolic Letter on Reserving Priestly Ordination to Men Alone" (Ordinatio Sacerdotalis). The Holy Father declared: "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." - May 22, 1994
If you don't like it, start your own religion...Oh,.....it's all about money isn't it....
I surely hope they realize this and come to their senses.
This is just another stealth attack on the Catholic Church. If these women can get the Church to bend on this issue, then it’s open season on all issues. Stay the course.
The men in the Catholic Church don’t have the “leadership role”...the women do because they run everything from the ground up. These women are trying to destroy the Church. When will people finally realize this? Don’t feel sorry for these morons. Tell them to take a hike.
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... and prepared to lead a sacred, forbidden ceremony.Uh, no; a sacrilegious, idolatrous parody is the phrase that fits.
I don’t feel sorry for them at all and believe what they’re doing is wrong and a very bad example for young women.
How do they not see that?
obedience
I believe TODAY’S so called Catholic church WILL cave.
That’s right. They don’t really love the Church or they wouldn’t be doing this. They want to destroy the Church, just like the radical gays want to destroy marriage. If either group truly respected and understood the institution they seek to infiltrate, they would lay off.
First, they are violating the man-made rules and laws of that religion. That is wrong and they have other options if they feel so strongly about it. The Roman Catholic Church does not allow ordination of women. That is the law. There are other faiths that do. I used to be ELCA and most of the woman Pastors I ran into were arrogant and condescending people who really enjoyed "lording" over mere men.
Second, I imagine that some of you Roman Catholics think fondly about the good old days, before Martin Luther, when you could deal decisively with heretics such as these by burning them a the stake.
The comments of some of you are spot on. They are old women, playing priest dress-up and are best ignored. This story is only being printed by the anti-Catholic, MSM to cause angst and to criticize Catholicism.
I have my beef with your church, but we are all Christians and in the words of Ben Franklin, "We must all hang together or surely we will hang separately!"
See post #17. I really don’t think the Church will cave. These radical nuns are becoming outdated and obsolete. Young nuns are joining the more traditional orders.
If that's all their is to you faith... getting up in front of the congregation in some robes and being seen....why bother with the rest? You are just conceited and shallow. Get yourself on American idol if that's what you need.
My personal take...half these people are a farse propagated by the same old commies that have infiltrated the women's movement and are trying to destroy the family and all Churches.
I’ll believe it when I see it but...I hope you are right.
In a spiritual sense, this is similar to a transvestite protesting his inability to bear children by making a statement of "We love the feelings. We love the physicality. That's why we remain grouped with the universal group of righteous humans. We are holding disobedience to an unjust law than discriminates against men."
There are some gifts of God the Holy Spirit which are provided only to men and some only to women, just as there are physical gifts given only to men and only to women.
Those who protest the obvious differences, are simply holding a frame of mind which places their judgment above what God provides.
I suspect others are correct in making the analogy between homosexuals attempting to infiltrate the Church hierarchy in a similar fashion.
FWIW, my first impression from their quoted statements and how they first "placed in their false office" is that they seem closer to a coven of witches, than simply degenerate believers.
It’s way too early on a Saturday morning for this.
Not for me...let me at 'em. I've had it with these bullies. I'm tired of being pushed around and told what to do by other women.
If you think they are just some sweet little misguided sheep...think again. It's a war out there for Christian women and the men are backed into a corner with PC laws.
I wonder what age the rest of them are. Even here, where life is and has always been relatively traditional, there's an age range that's approaching retirement - clergy, religious (what few there are of them in that age bracket), and laity - that spouts the goofball stuff and Meehan's age puts her in that group.
Hold the course people. This too shall pass. There can't be that many people out there that are following the "woman priest" movement or they couldn't do the play Mass in a living room.
I must disagree with your second point. Personally, I would very much like it if the Catholic errors of the MIddle Ages hadn’t happened, so there wouldn’t have been good reasons for the Reformation. Think of how much strife and sin would have been avoided in such circumstances. I think most Catholics are now like me in wanting to see reconciliation of Protestants to what we view as the one true Church, but we aren’t prepared to compromise the underlying tenets of our faith in order to see it happen.
Don't worry about them and don't. The fights I've had with other women just over hair length get old.
If you think they are just some sweet little misguided sheep...think again.
No, but if you look at their ages, at 62, the first woman quoted is one of the younger ones. The next generation didn't pick up the mantle and they're looking for girls to carry on what they've started. Sort of like the doctors who make their living killing the unborn. They're getting old and their movement is going to die with them if they don't recruit successors. From my generation, I doubt they get too many. More and more the women my age just walk away if they're thwarted.
I wish it was that easy for me. I must be on the front lines. I don't just walk away. These young girls are so uniformed and brainwashed. We have a new generation of bullies who "get in your face" just like they were told to do. Have you seen the pics they put up on the net? There is no more time for walking away.
Aside from hearing about lewdness, no. In my neck of the woods, younger girls are more into the modesty movement and even in high school would complain about the brainwashing that the sisters were trying to pull. This might well be a matter of experiences in different places.
Problem is...that's what we have always done...retreated.
That said, I think I'm ready for the easy life...let someone else fight on the front lines...in the fields. It's getting lonely out here and I'm getting tired. Most of the women I know just run from the tough spots. I've been to places that most Church going women could never imagine. I think it's a shame. Not saying that is your case.
The truth is, I was lead to do what I've done....at times it feels like a push or a shove. I wish I had an easier cup right now....you have no idea. Where did you say you are located again? :)
Being a convert, this is something I missed out on as a child. I've heard some of my Cradle Catholic friends talk about playing "Mass and Priest" with the help of NECCO.
Not only that, those young nuns are opening new foundations, and giving life to convents that were lacking in numbers. I think the pendulum has/is swinging the other direction.
You wrote:
“The fights I’ve had with other women just over hair length get old.”
Hair length? Somebody actually gave you guff over the length of your hair? Sheesh!
Why is that? If you think everyone else will cave and give up like you did you’re quite mistaken.
One of our own Freeperettes, in her twenties, joined a habited traditional order a few years ago. She wrote a beautiful opus just before she joined. I think and pray for her often.
Right. Post Luther protestants never did anything like that.
The list of "cannot" is so long it would take all day.
That's pretty weak, a drive-by slander, suitably imprecise so as to apply to everyone, wrapped in a nice candy-coated shell.
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