Women ordained as priests in Canada

[dawn runner]

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9 women to defy Vatican to become priests

First posted 10:55am (Mla time) June 08, 2005
Agence France-Presse

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OTTAWA -- Nine women, including one Canadian and one American, plan to defy the Vatican and become the first female Roman Catholic priests and deacons ordained in North America during a ceremony on a boat on the St. Lawrence River next month.
The ceremony, which is not sanctioned by the Vatican, is to take place July 25 on the river near Gananoque in eastern Canada following a conference on women as priests at Carleton University in Ottawa.

The location for the ceremony was chosen because organizers considered it to be international waters between the United States and Canada where no diocese has jurisdiction and thus cannot interfere.

"I only have my faith and my hope and what the global scene says to me that I believe it's time to take this step," said former nun Michele Birch-Conery, 65, ordained as a deacon last year in Europe. She will be the first Canadian woman to be ordained as a priest next month.

"It is an immensely wounding part in our Catholic history to
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block women's ecclesiastical participation in orders. I think people have been closed to a deeper, fuller expression of their faith by having, in the hierarchy and levels of authority and decision-making, a male-only church," she said.

Fourteen women have already been ordained in similar river ceremonies in Europe in recent years and 65 others are planning to join their ranks soon.

The Vatican has refused to allow women becoming priests and reacted by excommunicating the first seven women ordained on the Danube River between Germany and Austria in 2003 after they refused to retract their vows.

But, two of the women, Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger of Austria and Gisela Forster of Germany, were later secretly ordained as bishops by their male counterparts in the Roman Catholic church, insists Birch-Conery.

The two women bishops will perform the St. Lawrence ordinations.

"This doesn't conform to the Catholic faith. Church teachings are clear: only men can be ordained," said Monsignor Serge Poitras of the Apostolic Nunciature in Ottawa, noting that the former Pope John Paul II addressed the issue in 1994.

"People can do what they want. We don't have an army. We won't chase after them. All we can do is deplore such challenges to church doctrine and set the record straight," he said.

About 220 people will attend the ceremony and banquet aboard the boat, which usually ferries tourists around the picturesque Thousand Islands on the St. Lawrence River.

Some of the women are divorced, others married. Celebacy or sexual orientation is not considered, but years of religious study is a prerequisite, Birch-Conery said.

Once ordained, the women will not lead a flock or perform liturgies, but Birch-Conery has already been invited to talk about her faith with several small groups.

"We know we may be discredited. But, levels of faith expression have opened for me that I didn't have before. It's a calling for me," she said. "We'll just have to see if this leads to change."

These wome are crazy. Well, everybody is entitled to be a fool out of himself. They can ordained themselves but is not sanctioned by the vatican. Their ordination is a sham.

Mga pari lang sila sa ilang kaugalingon.

[sting6ph]

poor them...honestly, i really don't know why they won't allow women...but I do believe in their wisdom why they won't allow it...

[rumsfield]

der's nating wrong about dat a woman catholic priest. No need 2 xplain about dat.

[FK]

mag-huwat lang onta sila noh... sa pagka karon nga dili pwede, they have to live with it.

[HoundedbyHeaven]

der's nating wrong about dat a woman catholic priest. No need 2 xplain about dat.

Everything is wrong in a female Catholic priest just as everything is wrong in a male Catholic nun. No need to explain about those.

[HoundedbyHeaven]

mag-huwat lang onta sila noh... sa pagka karon nga dili pwede, they have to live with it.

Actually, they don't have to wait because the late John Paul II has already answered the question of priestly ordination of women infallibly-- He infallibly declared that the God gave no authority to the Catholic Church to ordain women as priests.

This means that God according to the late pope WILL NEVER GIVE THE CHURCH AUTHORITY TO ORDAIN WOMEN AS PRIESTS...FOR ALL ETERNITY.

"Peter has spoken. The case is closed."

Peace, so be it.

[HoundedbyHeaven]

poor them...honestly, i really don't know why they won't allow women...but I do believe in their wisdom why they won't allow it...

Can I try and give you one? The Holy Eucharist is the Mystical Body of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is a male. The Holy Eucharist is therefore the male Mystical Body of the Lord Jesus. When a priest utters the words of consecration, when the bread and the wine is transubstantiated into the Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the priest is acting "in persona Christi" or "in the person of Christ". The person of Christ is male, just as He was male. The priest has to be a male to act "in persona Christi". This is a requirement. No bread and wine can be consecrated, can be transubstantiated into the Mystical Body and Blood of the Lord Jesus Christ if the priest is not male. This is the very core reason of it all.

[dacs]

I have posted reply on another topic which may fit well with this topic. Here it is:

You gotta read the Church magisterial documents to be enlightened on this matter. I have posted last May 24 two links (these can be found at the 'gays and lesbians in the Church' topic) that - I hope - would help you understand the stand of the Church and how she view women and their role in the Church.

Church heirarchy is not about dominion; it is about service. Remember that one title of the Pope is 'Servants of the Servants of God' - Servus Servorum Dei. The late Pope John Paul II issued an apostolic letter on reserving priestly ordination to men alone. The whole content of this letter I have provided below:

ORDINATIO SACERDOTALIS
Pope John Paul II
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apostolic Letter On Reserving Priestly Ordination To Men Alone

1. Priestly Ordination, which hands on the office entrusted by Christ to his Apostles of teaching, sanctifying, and governing the faithful, has in the Catholic Church from the beginning always been reserved to men alone. This tradition has also been faithfully maintained by the Oriental Churches.

When the question of the ordination of women arose in the Anglican Communion, Pope Paul VI, out of fidelity to his office of safeguarding the Apostolic Tradition, and also with a view to removing a new obstacle placed in the way of Christian unity, reminded Anglicans of the position of the Catholic Church: "She holds that it is not admissible to ordain women to the priesthood, for very fundamental reasons. These reasons include: the example recorded in the Sacred Scriptures of Christ choosing his Apostles only from among men; the constant practice of the Church, which has imitated Christ in choosing only men; and her living teaching authority which has consistently held that the exclusion of women from the priesthood is in accordance with God's plan for his Church."[1]

But since the question had also become the subject of debate among theologians and in certain Catholic circles, Paul VI directed the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to set forth and expound the teaching of the Church on this matter. This was done through the Declaration <Inter Insigniores>, which the Supreme Pontiff approved and ordered to be published.[2]

2. The Declaration recalls and explains the fundamental reasons for this teaching, reasons expounded by Paul VI, and concludes that the Church "does not consider herself authorized to admit women to priestly ordination."[3] To these fundamental reasons the document adds other theological reasons which illustrate the appropriateness of the divine provision, and it also shows clearly that Christ's way of acting did not proceed from sociological or cultural motives peculiar to his time. As Paul VI later explained: "The real reason is that, in giving the Church her fundamental constitution, her theological anthropology—thereafter always followed by the Church's Tradition—Christ established things in this way."[4]

In the Apostolic Letter <Mulieris Dignitatem>, I myself wrote in this regard: "In calling only men as his Apostles, Christ acted in a completely free and sovereign manner. In doing so, he exercised the same freedom with which, in all his behaviour, he emphasized the dignity and the vocation of women, without conforming to the prevailing customs and to the traditions sanctioned by the legislation of the time."[5]

In fact, the Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles attest that this call was made in accordance with God's eternal plan: Christ chose those whom he willed (cf. <Mk> 3:13-14; <Jn> 6:70), and he did so in union with the Father, "through the Holy Spirit" (<Acts> 1:2), after having spent the night in prayer (cf. <Lk> 6:12). Therefore, in granting admission to the ministerial priesthood,[6] the Church has always acknowledged as a perennial norm her Lord's way of acting in choosing twelve men whom he made the foundation of his Church (cf. <Rev> 21:14). These men did not in fact receive only a function which could thereafter be exercised by any member of the Church; rather they were specifically and intimately associated in the mission of the Incarnate Word himself (cf. <Mt> 10:1, 7-8; 28:16-20; <Mk> 3:13- 16; 16:14-15). The Apostles did the same when they chose fellow workers[7] who would succeed them in their ministry.[8] Also included in this choice were those who, throughout the time of the Church, would carry on the Apostles' mission of representing Christ the Lord and Redeemer.[9]

3. Furthermore, the fact that the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and Mother of the Church, received neither the mission proper to the Apostles nor the ministerial priesthood clearly shows that the non-admission of women to priestly ordination cannot mean that women are of lesser dignity, nor can it be construed as discrimination against them. Rather, it is to be seen as the faithful observance of a plan to be ascribed to the wisdom of the Lord of the universe.

The presence and the role of women in the life and mission of the Church, although not linked to the ministerial priesthood, remain absolutely necessary and irreplaceable. As the Declaration <Inter Insigniores> points out, "the Church desires that Christian women should become fully aware of the greatness of their mission; today their role is of capital importance both for the renewal and humanization of society and for the rediscovery by believers of the true face of the Church".[10]

The New Testament and the whole history of the Church give ample evidence of the presence in the Church of women, true disciples, witnesses to Christ in the family and in society, as well as to total consecration to the service of God and of the Gospel. "By defending the dignity of women and their vocation, the Church has shown honour and gratitude for those women who—faithful to the Gospel—have shared in every age in the apostolic mission of the whole People of God. They are the holy martyrs, virgins, and the mothers of families, who bravely bore witness to their faith and passed on the Church's faith and tradition by bringing up their children in the spirit of the Gospel".[11]

Moreover, it is to the holiness of the faithful that the hierarchical structure of the Church is totally ordered. For this reason, the Declaration <Inter Insigniores> recalls: "the only better gift, which can and must be desired, is love (cf. <1 Cor> 12 and 13). The greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven are not the ministers but the saints".[12]

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.

Invoking an abundance of divine assistance upon you, venerable Brothers, and upon all the faithful, I impart my Apostolic Blessing.

From the Vatican, on 22 May, the Solemnity of Pentecost, in the year 1994, the sixteenth of my Pontificate.

NOTES

1. Paul VI, <Response to the Letter of His Grace the Most Reverend Dr. F. D. Coggan, Archbishop of Canterbury, concerning the Ordination of Women to the Priesthood> (30 November 1975): <AAS> 68 (1976), 599.

2. Cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration <Inter Insigniores> on the Question of the Admission of Women to the Ministerial Priesthood (15 October 1976): <AAS> 69 (1977), 98-116.

3. <Ibid.>, 100.

4. Paul VI, <Address on the Role of Women in the Plan of Salvation (30 January 1977): <Insegnamenti>, XV (1977), 111. Cf. also John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation <Christifideles Laici> (30 December 198, 31: <AAS> 81 (1989), 393-521; <Catechism of the Catholic Church>, No. 1577.

5. Apostolic Letter <Mulieris Dignitatem> (15 August 198, 26; <AAS> 80 (198, 1715.

6. Cf. Dogmatic Constitution <Lumen Gentium>, 28; Decree <Presbyterorum Ordinis>, 2b.

7 Cf. <1 Tim> 3:1-13; <2 Tim> 1:6; <Tit> 1:5-9.

8 Cf. <Catechism of the Catholic Church>, No. 1577.

9 Cf. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church <Lumen Gentium>, 20, 21.

10 Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration <Inter Insigniores>, 6: <AAS> 69 (1977), 115-116.

11 Apostolic Letter <Mulieris Dignitatem>, 27: <AAS> 80 (198, 1719.

12 Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Declaration <Inter Insigniores>, 6: <AAS> 69 (1977), 115.

The portion I have highlighted above means that this 'issue' is now a close matter within the Catholic Church. The late pope made the pronouncement ex cathedra. For all practical purpose, the pronouncement cannot be rescinded, changed, repealed, withdrawn or voided. It is final : women cannot be ordained as priests.

The ordination that they are planning is neither valid nor possible. It is not valid because the Catholic Church shall not recognize it. It is not possible because no bishop (who has the faculty to ordain a man as priest) has the power to do so. These women therefore are dissenters who cut themselves off from the Church, saying 'I will not obey!'


'Mane nobiscum, Domine!' --- Stay with us, Lord!

[FK]

thanks for the correction.

then they just have to be contented sa ilang role.

[bisaya70]

good job dacs