Amy on "Catholic" women priests
Gerald Augustinus today posts and comments on an article from the San Diego Union-Tribune. You can see the whole article at the Cafeteria is Closed. It is about the Pittsburgh 12: Catholic women who recently went through an "ordination" ceremony on a boat and have set up the "Mary Magdalen Apostle Catholic Community" (MMAC).
The article speaks particularly about Dr Jane Via, one of the recently "ordained" who, in 1985, was banned by Bishop Leo Maher from speaking at any Catholic forum because she signed a national newspaper advertisement calling for the church to discuss its stand on abortion.
She recently presided at her first community liturgy (held at the Mission Hills United Methodist Church). You can read the text of Via's homily at the MMAC website. She tells us to feed the people with prophetic disobedience and the hope evoked by the restoration of women’s ordination. This will apparently uplift hopeless hearts.
Gerald points out that accompanying her at this liturgy was Rod Stephens, a priests of the Diocese of Orange who resigned from active ministry in 2004. He adds:
The article speaks particularly about Dr Jane Via, one of the recently "ordained" who, in 1985, was banned by Bishop Leo Maher from speaking at any Catholic forum because she signed a national newspaper advertisement calling for the church to discuss its stand on abortion.She recently presided at her first community liturgy (held at the Mission Hills United Methodist Church). You can read the text of Via's homily at the MMAC website. She tells us to feed the people with prophetic disobedience and the hope evoked by the restoration of women’s ordination. This will apparently uplift hopeless hearts.
Gerald points out that accompanying her at this liturgy was Rod Stephens, a priests of the Diocese of Orange who resigned from active ministry in 2004. He adds:
That's the gay ex-priest who sent out Christmas cards of him and his boyfriend and lived with him while still a priest. He now is a liturgical consultant.Amy Wellborn (Open Book) links to Gerald's post and makes a comment that is very much to the point:
Again, we beg the question, why "Catholic?" Why not set up a community that does all this, but ditch the Catholic monikker, since you're ditching the Catholic stuff anyway. Answer: no one would care.
