Fr. Jim Callan, Mary Ramerman, Enrique Cadena
You may want to read this on an empty stomach. A classical example of good intentions gone awry.
Posted on 04/05/2003 9:18:30 AM PST by ninenot
Allowing his church to be used for a service marking the annual World Day of Prayer for Women's Ordination has gotten a Milwaukee priest in hot water with the archbishop and attracted attention elsewhere in the country.
Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan was going to "address it with those concerned," said archdiocesan spokesman Jerry Topczewski, who indicated that Dolan was not pleased.
But people at the national Women's Ordination Conference were elated.
The March 25 prayer service at St. Matthias Church was the first one known to have taken place in a Catholic church in the United States in the seven years that the prayer services have been encouraged, said Erin Hanley, a conference spokeswoman in Fairfax, Va.
And after word of it filtered out, the national group learned that a similar prayer service was held in a Catholic church in Cincinnati, Ohio.
"It is a wonderfully pleasant surprise, and, actually, what (the Milwaukee pastor) said in his quote is the same thing that I heard in Cincinnati - we have been told that we cannot talk about the issue, but no one has ever said we can't pray about the issue," Hanley said.
Hanley was referring to comments that Father David Cooper, pastor of St. Matthias, made to the Catholic Herald, the archdiocese's weekly newspaper. He did not return a reporter's calls to his parish office and his residence.
Pope John Paul II, who has consistently said women cannot be ordained priests, sought to end debate in 1994 by declaring it a closed issue. Despite priest shortages here and in Western Europe, the Vatican has resisted pressure to ordain women, citing Jesus' selection of men as apostles, church tradition and church law.
The request for a prayer service did not arise within the congregation at St. Matthias, 9306 W. Beloit Road.
Ginny Kiernan Dahlberg, a Racine resident who last fall organized a local women's ordination chapter for southeastern Wisconsin called WISE-WOC, approached Cooper after unsuccessfully trying six other Catholic churches. She said the parish was not known for being progressive, but a friend suggested to her that Cooper might be receptive.
She said Cooper consulted with his parish council and other parish leaders before giving permission.
Controversy did not arise until the Journal Sentinel published a news brief about the service on its religion page.
"My cell phone was so hot," Dahlberg said. "People wanted to come, other people were furious. I got them all. This phone never stopped for three days."
Topczewski said Dolan learned about the service on the day it was scheduled to be held, three days after the notice was published.
"No one at the archdiocese was approached for counsel or permission for this prayer service to occur within the parish church," Topczewski said. "The archbishop found out about it, really, only hours before it occurred, when his office started getting complaints.
"The archbishop expressed his surprise and disappointment that an organization in direct opposition to the defined teaching of the church would be welcome at one of our parishes. He (later) noted his disapproval of what was reported to have gone on at the service."
Barbara Anne Cusack, archdiocesan chancellor, said she contacted Cooper before the prayer service the day it took place. Dolan simply asked her to contact the pastor to find out how it had occurred that this event was scheduled at a Catholic parish. She said she did that.
Cooper did not go out of his way to keep the prayer service quiet. Dahlberg said he approved her request for permission to send notices to parishes throughout the 10-county archdiocese.
"I spoke to Dave several times," Dahlberg said. "I asked him if it was OK for me to send out the bulletin notice, since it would establish his parish as host, and he had no problem with that. I sent him the service as soon as it was complete so he could see it well ahead of time . . . and spoke with him right before the service as well.
"He was never hesitant. I honor and respect this man tremendously. He displayed a courage too often lacking in our clergy."
Dahlberg, who said she will receive a doctorate in theology in May from Marquette University, presided at the service with David Gawlik, who was ordained a Catholic priest but left the institutional church and married. About 35 to 40 people were present, but Cooper was at a Parish Council meeting and did not attend, she said.
"We prayed for healing and forgiveness for the wounds caused by clergy sex abuse, the rejection of a priestly call on the basis of gender or marital status, and peace," Dahlberg said.
She began the service wearing an alb and stole, but later dropped them on the sanctuary floor, saying that the church will not let a woman wear those symbols of priestly ministry.
During the reflection she gave, she lifted a basket and a chalice - which she said the people could not see were empty - and said the words of consecration, "This is my body, this is my blood." But she said she was not behind the altar and "it was patently not a consecration."
Ditto. Fortunately, God will not allow that to happen.
You may want to read this on an empty stomach. A classical example of good intentions gone awry.
"Blessed are the cheesemakers"
Ted Kennedy is an Irish "Catholic" also, and I can't explain/defend his intentions anymore than Archbishop Dolan's. Nor do I even dare attempt to do so.
What is it they don't get?
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