Women, Ordination, and Videotape
In my mail I got a "breaking news alert" from the National Catholic Reporter. You know it has to be pretty silly when they get in high dudgeon on something concerning the Church. In covering The archdiocese of St. Louis and the attempted ordination of women let us see what upsets them.
The archdiocese of St. Louis authorized
the video recording of a Catholic women's ordination ceremony that took
place in a synagogue last November. It then used the video, along with
photographs apparently taken from the video, as evidence to punish a
Catholic nun who attended the liturgy, according to several people
familiar with the case.
Sister of Charity Louise Lears was forced out of all church ministerial
roles and banned from receiving sacraments within the archdiocese by an
edict of St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke announced June 26.
You mean the archdiocese actually videotaped a "ordination" ceremony proudly advertised and announced before hand? A faux ceremony that now entitles those who directly participate with auto excommunication. An excommunication reserved to the Holy See to remit. A ceremony where those in his diocese flagrantly disobeyed their archbishop and the Church. Yeah the archdiocese would have no reason to want to know who was attending this. Then they dared to actually punish a nun who was causing scandal and was disobedient by being there. Imagine that.
I also have to laugh at the word "edict" which is what liberals call any Church document they disagree with. It was actually a decree of extra-judicial adjudication.
However, several people familiar with the documents, prepared by the
archdiocese that made up the case against her, strongly criticized what
they called the "surveillance" video-taping.
One of the confidential archdiocesan documents, according to
knowledgeable sources, was an affidavit giving permission to an
individual to attend the ceremony in order to record it. The record of
the ceremony is contained on two electronic discs in Lears' file.
So surveillance is now videotaping a ceremony open to the public.
"It was a surveillance video. That's
exactly what it was," said Sean Collins, a co-pastoral associate of
Lears at St. Cronan Parish until he resigned July 2nd, in part, he
said, to speak about what he says has been a grave injustice taken
against Lears.
"What disturbs me even more is that the video taping was premeditated,"
he said, referring to the affidavit authorizing it by the archdiocese.
Collins did not see the document firsthand, but referred to
others who
had seen it.
Premeditated? Well I guess in that context everything we do is premeditated. I guess also that it wouldn't be "disturbing" if the archdiocese had someone tape it at the very last minute to avoid premeditation. Sadly progressives crack me up when they see the grave injustice of punishing someone who is not faithful and is totally disobedient to her bishop. For them the problem is not that they do not at least give religious submission of intellect and will as per Vatican II to what has been infallibly defined by the ordinary Magisterium. Oh no it is the archdiocese's fault for videotaping them in their extreme disobedience.
The article also wonders why Sr. Lears was "singled" out when the reality is that he bishop had previously issued a summons and canonical admonition and she failed to appear to defend herself. She was also part of a pastoral team of a St. Cronan parish whereas the other religious that attended were part of religious orders directly and not working for the archdiocese.
Videotaping will send women back to the bad old days of secret ordinations on riverboats. Oh the shame.
Known as 
A "premeditated" video of a premeditated. public, advertised act of disobedience. Hmmm...The videographer is smelling like roses in this scenario.
"What disturbs me even more is that the video taping was premeditated
As opposed to all those who accidentally brought their cameras to the public event?
Can you call Sister Lear's presence there "accidental," or was it intentional, and therefore "premeditated"?
These people need to make up their minds. I thought these increasingly public performances were to show how these women are ready to seize power and putting the bishops on notice. If they want to play secret society, they need to have these play-acts in the parkinglot of their nearest Masonic building.
What I honestly don't understand is why people do this kind of stuff and 1) expect no repercussions; 2) remain part of a church that they clearly don't support and/or believe in; and 3) disregard the Magisterium AND the vox populi.
For Pete's sake, burn your bras, but give all this other stuff a rest. We're not buying.
Why don't these people just become Anglicans? It seems that branch of protestenism has everything they're looking for; Exceptance of gay and lesbian clergy, and women priests and now ... women bishops! Anglicans do not recognize the athourity of the Holy See, so why not? Anglicans have all the pretty vestments and everything!
I'll tell you why... because if they did that they wouldn't be in the spot light every time they did something, they would just be part of the norm. How boring! These are the "Look at Me" people!
Oops, that should have been protestantism.
Cry me a river Sean. 'Sister' knew where she was going and what she was doing.
Something similar at say Dignity and Women's Ordination Conferences might be highly useful in separating the wheat from the chaff.
Atta boy, Fr. Erik! Leave it to you to tell it like it is!
What is wrong with these crazy women who wanna be 'priestesses'? They ought to learn a little humility, and-in the case of the so-called "sister'- a big dollop of obedience!
St Vincent de Paul, please give your rebellious 'daughter' a slap alongside the head!
Jacque: You got most of it but you forgot an important point: They DO accept the authority of the pope, or at least they accept the pope as a person of authority. If they went off and did their own thing, they would be ordinary -- AND they would know that the people who claim to be the one, true church didn't care. They don't just what their way, they want to be RIGHT. And to prove themselves right, they need someone in authority to agree with them. The next best thing (or maybe, for them, the BEST thing) is for someone in authority to say they're wrong so that they can claim to be right.
Jeff: The bad old days of secret ordinations on riverboats! Ha ha!
Gail wrote: "And to prove themselves right, they need someone in authority to agree with them."
You almost have it right, Gail. What they want is for someone in authority to disagree with them and thus reaffirm their self-anointed status as "prophetic martyrs." Quite possibly the best thing the Archbishop could have done is ignore the whole thing. Not a word. Just utter silence. Isn't it usually the case that children throwing temper-tantrums will escalate the noise until the adult comes running? What happens if the adult just watches but refuses to respond? The noise gets louder and louder until someone pops an artery, or they just stop. Fr. Philip, OP
Someone posted why they "remain" Catholic on beliefnet. The post went on and on about how the individual started losing the faith and was about to leave during their college years. However some progressive priests insisted that they stay, stating that the Church was heading out of the medievil period finally and things would finally change for the better. So they ignored the teachings expecting them to change very soon. Eventually they grew to hate JP II. When the scandal came around, they actually not only started believing the Church was wrong, but that the Church was dangerous to society, and now for some time this person has been thinking about whether they can stay in the Church in good conscience considering how evil the hierachy is.
The individual said that he realized that he loved the Catholic laity who are the Church and that Catholicism is a part of his ethnic background, his culture, and is his family. Therefore he's torn, staying currently for the sake of the "family", but considering leaving because of the hierachy. Meanwhile the person was flustered with 'traditionalists' who kept closing the doors on him and how unChristian that was.
I think they're attached to the Church very sentimentally. They don't see it as a religion. The person also expressed that every faith is a way to reach God. Its a status of being able to say "I'm Catholic."
Don't do the crime if you can't do the time.
Sean Collins, a co-pastoral associate
What the blazes is THAT?
People ought to check out Sister Louise Lears' religious community website. She belongs to the Sisters of Charity from Cincinatti. Look carefully at the sidebars. Look carefully at their symbols and their causes. Nothing about the cross; nothing about the Eucharist; nothing about defending the unborn.
The real problem in this case is that Sister Louise probably had the full support of her religious community to publicly defy her archbishop and to participate in a liturigcal act which mocked a Catholic ordination ceremony. She didn't do this without the support of her sisters.
Sister Lears and other nuns like her are the real probelm within the church today. They think that they don't have to follow the rules. They are somehow, someway above the laws of the church, and the worse thing about this, is that they have gotten away with it for the past 40 years.
Archbishop Burke had the courage to do what most bishops wouldn't even think about doing. He disciplined a nun. Bishops are afraid of these militant religious sisters, and remember, these are the same ones who educate our politicans, who head up our Catholic Charities, who lead our parish ministries. Listen to their rhetoric. Read their speeches. Visit their websites. You will find a very determined group of progressive nuns who are hell bent in creating a major schism within the church. What Sister Louise did was just the beginning of their determination to divide and to confuse and to create scandal within the church.
They would tell us that the SVC was the new age of the laity. Well, maybe the lay people need to rise up and expose what their agendas really are. Maybe we should reproduce what they publish; maybe we should print what they say and speak; maybe we ought to list the militant pro-abortion groups that they are tied to.
Catholics need to know which religious communities stand with His Holiness, the Pope, and which communities don't. We have a right to know if a nun believes and really accepts what the church teaches. For too long, we have accepted that these progressive nuns are loyal daughters of the church. I think Sister Louise is just one of many who give lip service to the unity of the faith, but whose real purpose is to divide and conquer.
Womanpriests did not happen out of a vacuum. It was created with the support of thousands of Catholics nuns who have forced down our throats for the past 40 years their version of Catholicism a la carte.
DJP, don't worry, my friend...the Chronological Solution is going to take care of a lot of this for us....ticktockticktock....
Thanks for the encouragement, but once a person reads what is on the minds and hearts of these progressive nuns, they can do a lot of damage to the church before they meet their Maker, and they know just that. It becomes harder to discipline an old nun than one who is 40.
And these older nuns are determined to divide the church. Their only interest is abortion on demand, same sex marriage, women priests and a church completely void of the papacy and the bishops. Some really do hate the church as the church is today. Some express such vile discontempt for the Pope that one has to wonder if they are writing for Ian Paisley (Northern Ireland Protestant) or for Chick Publications.
When you read their blogs, or their websites, when you speak with some of them on a very personal level, they really do hate the institutional church - only because it is govern by men.
They seek to change the Liturgy and have done so in their convents/monasteries. They seek to change the church's teaching and have acted as if the church agrees with them. They seek to undermine any pro-life laws because they believe that a woman has an absolute right to decide who lives and who dies. These Catholic nuns are our university presidents who allow pro-abortionists to receive honary degrees; they are our Catholic Charities directors who allow immigrant women to have an abortions; they are our parish ministers who teach our children that sex before marriage is acceptable as long as your conscience tells you that it is; they are the ones who sit on Barrack Obama's campaign trying to convince Catholics that he is pro-life; they are the ones who aggressively defy church teaching and episcopal leadership and actively participate in a mock Catholic ordination ceremony.
They do this for only one reason. They are the ones in power and they seek to create the church in their image. They could care less about Apostolic Tradition or Magesterial teaching. It is their agenda, their viewpoints and understandings. It is either their way or the highway.
This is the church that Sister Louise wants. A tolerant church that accepts same sex marriage, a church that permits abortion on demand; a church that allows women to be ordained and a church that is controlled by those who claim to be more superior and more educated than the rest of us Catholics. Her ideal church: womanpriests, after all, she decided to bless their ordinations and mock our sacred liturgies.
Make no mistake about it. These nuns, before they meet their Maker, will inflict a lot of harm unless we educate Orthodox Catholics about their real agenda.
This is the first time that I have visited your blog. The joke about the word verification in Greek characters caught me by surprise though. LOL
DJP: the Church belongs to God not the crazy nuns. This sort of nonsense has been sprouting up in the Church since the beginning. No worries. If you need something to comfort you, read St Ireaneus' "Against Heretics" at www.newadvent.com (click "Fathers" in the upper right menu). You will discover that the Devil has been after us for centuries. He has already lost, so there's nothing to fear. Just remember that the one thing Pride fears most is ridicule; thus, The Curt Jester! Fr. Philip, OP
The reason these people don't just join another church is that in reality they have no desire to belong to a church they agree with... they want a fight. Ultimately, I think they think they want to change the Church, to feel that they have power over God. But in the short run, they just love shadow boxing.
DJP,
I agree that nuns like these can do and have done lots of damage, but "They are the ones in power"? Nah.
Maybe we should pray for them before they are reminded how small (but responsible) they are.
When you see pictures of the women in these "progressive" orders. They are very close- up. The subjects are old and gray. They do not wear habits. When you see pictures of the faithful orders, the faces are small because the photographer had to back up into the next yard to take the picture. The subjects are young and glowing with joy. There are 20 or more of them. They are wearing habits. Their orders are doing something that unconsecrated social workers cannot do. The next generation is not buying their vitriol. God will not be mocked.
The "ordination" of the priestettes was conducted by Patricia Fresen who has also been excommunicated (as I understand it).
The service took place in a synagogue, however, the rabbi did not participate other than to act as the welcoming host.
The ceremony consisted of the simulation of the Holy Mass and of the act of "ordaining" two women as "priests."
The excommunicated and soon-to-be-laicized priest, Marek Bozek, was also in attendance and participated in "laying hands" on the "ordinands" as did St Cronan's "Co-Pastor" Sr. Louise Lears.
More on this can be read at:
http://slatts.blogspot.com/2008/07/more-breaking-news-from-ncr-on-stl.html
Are these folks arguing that the "ordination" is none of the business of the Archdiocese? The world is getting stranger! Let's pray for all the people involved that they come to their senses and come back to the faith!
As much as I want to be angry at these people and entertain fantasies of doing a Papal Commissar routine... really I just feel sorry for them. To incur excommunication upon themselves just out of their stubbornness! It makes me sad.
It is not required that they understand the Church's teaching on this matter, only that they obey it. And that is something, in this case, which is quite simple to do. And yet they refuse.
Funny, romancatholicwomenpriests.org posted a 9 minute video of the event on google video, shot with (as far as I can tell) at least 2 different cameras. You can also see at least a half dozen still cameras being used.
Video was aired on at least one local TV station, who also (reportedly) had it on their web site. (now long gone, of course)
But the archdiocese having a copy, that's "surveillance".
Why isn't she in Gitmo?
Why isn't she in Gitmo?
Why would she be?
I think that these ersatz radicals were being very exclusive by not inviting the good rabbi to impose her hands on the priestesses. I mean, why not? You're breaking every rule in the book already, why enforce the one that says clergy for other religions can't ordain clergy in your own religion...not like it was a real ordination of anything...Fr. Philip (The Real Deal), OP
You're breaking every rule in the book already, why enforce the one that says clergy for other religions can't ordain clergy in your own religion...not like it was a real ordination of anything.
Careful, your speciesism is showing. We will never truly break the shackles imposed by the homo sapien hegemony until trained monkeys can impose hands.
Scott, yes, of course! Thank you. Thirty whacks on my snout with Bishopess Katie Schori's latest eco-homily for my misstep. Monkey-Bishops can't be far behind in Spain since the parliament there recently granted monkeys rights akin to those enjoyed by their human equals. I mean, where will the liberals go next to express their adolescent outrage at the world's injustices once they have managed to destroy the Church with their attention-seeking demands? The real danger of liberalism is that there is always someone out there more liberal than the last liberal to get her way.
Fr. Philip, OP
"Monkey-Bishops can't be far behind in Spain since the parliament there recently granted monkeys rights akin to those enjoyed by their human equals."
Father Philip, is that what they call a "Primate"?
Hmmm...Wasn't there already a film called "Sex, Lies, and Videotape?
Sadly, I must agree with how most posters here have described the current state of the change-oriented Sisters' Congregations today. Perhaps DJP (two posts on July 10) and Susanne (July 11), have described the situation with the greatest accuracy. I often heard that during his reign, Pope John Paul the Great experienced great concern over those fervent Religious trapped in those communities that had lost their way. Although there are many very holy souls within the ranks of the change-oriented communities, make no mistake about it: as a "movement," I believe that the change-oriented Sisters' Congregations of today have lost their Catholic faith and have become enemies of the Church. Thank God for Archbishop Burke who had the courage to intervene in this particular instance. The last time a prelate tried to straighten out a mess like this with the Sisters, it was Cardinal McIntyre and the IHM Sisters in Los Angeles in the late 1960s, and to their shame, his brother bishops and most of the Catholic laity betrayed him by declining to support him publicly. Let us not repeat that shameful moment in church history. Archbishop Burke, we are right behind you in this!