14th annual dissident fest

The Threshing Grain posts a letter endorsed by multiple groups of dissenters.

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI
00120 Via del Pellegrino
Apostolic Palace
VATICAN CITY

Your Holiness,
Every year on 25 March, the feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Catholics around the world organize events to bring attention to the fact that Catholic women are excluded from ordination. This year will be the 14th annual World Day of Prayer for Women’s Ordination, and we expect that there will be over 25 events around the world.

They picked that day because their was no Feast of the Renunciation. The picking of this feast day is ironic on so many levels. Especially since one of the arguments against women’s ordination is that if Jesus had wanted women as priests than surely his mother would have been the first one selected.

In honor of this day, we invite you to lead the way in presenting a fair and equitable model of how women should be treated in our world by taking the necessary steps to open all doors to women within the Roman Catholic Church, including admission to all ordained ministries. We also ask that you work to renew church structures in order to involve all members in governance. By acting justly within our own ranks, we, the body of Christ, can affect society.

And I guess no women in the Church throughout history affected the Church or society without being ordained priestesses. I didn’t realize Teresa and Catherine were actually names of male saints.

On the same day that we celebrate Mary saying ‘yes’ to God, we are saying ‘yes’ to women’s leadership in the Church. Mary’s decision was conscious and deliberate, and it made her an active partner in bringing about the reign of God. By praying for women to be priests on this day, we embrace Mary’s spiritual power and her prophetic role in God’s plan of justice for the world.

If only they followed their own advice. Let it be done according to my will is their motto – the anti-fiat.

Because Mary is a spiritual leader and some even call her a priest, on 25 March we will pray for women’s ordination to a renewed priestly ministry. We will also pray for the difference that women in church governance would make by addressing the issues of social justice that disproportionately affect women, such as domestic violence, sexual assault, sex trafficking, HIV/AIDS, genocide and more.

Some even call her a priest? Now I have read a lot of nonsense from dissenting groups, but I never heard that one.

The exclusion of women and lay men from the full decision making and sacramental life of the Church is linked to these issues in that — while the impact has extremely different levels of intensity — the root cause is the same: male domination and sexism.

Women are not excluded from the sacramental life of the Church. Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Confession, Marriage, and the last rights are not exactly exclusion. Amazing how there are so many women saints considering that they were excluded from the sacramental life of the Church. But I guess they will argue that being denied ordination is exclusion. In that case I guess I am also excluded from the sacramental life of the Church. As I have said before just because I am married and have no vocation to the priesthood, why should the priesthood be denied to me?

As this day of prayer approaches, we urge you to open the discussion on women’s ordination and the need for change in Church structures. To bring our beloved Church closer to the gospel values that Jesus modeled for us, we need all the gifts of the Holy Spirit, in women as well as in men, to be fully integrated into every aspect and ministry of the Church.

Exactly what part of no don’t they understand?

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. Ordinatio Sacerdotalis

Envoy Magazine once listed some future encyclicals which included.

Amen Amen Dico Vobis; Nihil Muliebrium Sacerdotum (Read My Lips: No Women Priests) Encyclical asking radical Catholic feminists what part of Pope John Paul the Great’s Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (on the reservation of holy orders to men alone) they don’t understand.

Rursus Dicam: Nullo Modo (I’ll Say It Again: No Way) Encyclical explaining the pope’s position on women priests even more plainly.

Thanking you for your time and consideration,

Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Ireland

The Threshing grain also lists the names of the groups who signed the letter and details on an "inclusive Mass" (though not including orthodoxy) that will be celebrated mocked at San Jose State University.