Punditry

A woman has been ordained as a priest in a secret ceremony in central Europe as an act of defiance against the Roman Catholic Church.

The woman who was "ordained" does not want to be identified

Three years ago, the Vatican moved decisively against an international movement for the ordination of women when it excommunicated the so-called Danube Seven.

Seven women had claimed the status of priests after a form of ordination ceremony held on a boat moored on the river Danube.

Now a similar ceremony has taken place in a private chapel in central Europe.

BBC Radio 4’s Crossing Continents Crossing Europe witnessed the event but only on condition the programme does not reveal the exact location or the identity of the young woman.

The unofficial ordination comes just two months after the inauguration of Pope Benedict XVI who is known for his traditional views.

In the case of the Danube Seven, it was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger – now Pope Benedict – who declared that since the women gave no indication of repentance "for the most serious offence they have committed, they have incurred excommunication". [Source]

I wonder why she doesn’t want to be identified? Is it to keep from being formally excommunicated? If that is the reason it is rather ironic to not accept the authority of the Church that it can not ordain women and at the same time accept it’s authority that you can be excommunicated.

How about a caption contest for this one? I will get it started with.

"Women ordains character from 8-bit Nintendo game"

Acid-tongued comedian Dennis Miller will replace Bill Cosby tonight at a major Catholic fund-raiser for Detroit’s Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Catholic officials announced this afternoon.

On Tuesday, Cosby caused a stir in the Archdiocese of Detroit by telephoning local Catholics concerned by the closing of 18 Catholic schools in metro Detroit. Cosby initially asked if he could meet with a group of the people trying to keep some of those schools open, before going to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Dearborn to help raise funds for Cardinal Adam Maida’s seminary.

Then, Tuesday night, Cosby canceled both appearances for personal reasons unrelated to the dispute over Detroit’s Catholic schools.

Scrambling to provide entertainment for the $250-a-plate fundraiser, seminary supporters instead booked Pittsburgh native Miller, who became nationally famous as a sarcastic anchorman on “Saturday Night Live.” Miller also appeared in several movies and starred in his own recently cancelled cable TV show.

Miller is known for mingling conservative political views into his comic monologues. However, he also is the comic whose quip in April, upon hearing news of the election of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger as Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican, has been widely repeated. At the time, Miller said, “Usually when I see a German guy on a balcony with an adoring throng underneath him, it tends to make me a little nervous.” [Source]

I occasionally caught parts of his short lived talk show and while he is generally conservative on some issues being that he is a 9-11 conservative, he is certainly no social conservative being both pro-abortion and for gay rights. He also seemed to take every opportunity he could to snipe at the Church on the sexual abuse scandal. Not exactly the best choice to raise money for a Catholic seminary. I find him pretty funny most of the time if only he could come fully over from the dark side.

Update: Dennis Miller missed a flight and did not attend the fundraiser.

Mark Shea has a great column called ‘On "Personal" Faith’
with some excellent insights such as "Personal things are not private; personal things are common."

When I ask what "forcing our beliefs on others" actually means, the reply generally boils down to "Talking about our beliefs in any way." The idea at work behind this notion is that personal means subjective, private, esoteric and inward.

That is exactly how the idea of personal faith has come to be understood. For a Christian this idea is antithetical to the Great Commission"Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation." This is what happens when personal faith has been delinked from absolute truth and a subjective faith is not worth the effort of spreading. A personal faith that does not flow out into the common life is no faith at all because you have lost the faith that it is true and worth having.

SouthCoast Voice of the Faithful members say the Fall River diocese is ignoring them because the lay group refuses to back church positions on controversial issues such as birth control, women’s ordination, celibacy and gay marriage.

Local representatives of the Catholic activist group formed in the wake of the clergy sexual abuse crisis say representatives of Bishop George W. Coleman have effectively stopped talking with them.

A spokesman for Bishop Coleman denied the charge but refused to answer any media questions about it.

The local Voice members say they take no position on these social issues because their membership includes a diversity of opinion on them.

They say their sole goal is to help victims of sexual abuse, support priests of integrity and increase lay participation in church administration.

"
They (diocese officials) were saying that by not taking a position, you’re not supporting the church’s position," said J. Christopher Boyd, a member of the Voice negotiating team and a member of Christ the King Parish in Mashpee. [Source]

The longer VOTF operates the more it outs itself as an organization that is the voice for anything but faithful. As time goes on they find it harder and harder to maintain the illusion of their agenda. Not that it was ever a very good illusion, but they did try in public to walk the line and not say anything against Church teaching. The majority of the leadership are nothing more than heterodox parasites that have latched on to the sexual abuse problem to further their goals. They have become a secondary infection. All this talk about priests of integrity is so much nonsense since they are more likely to fight against a truly faithful priest. They first awarded Rev. Thomas P. Doyle, O.P their Priest of Integrity award. He was also subsequently fired as an Air Force Chaplain for disobedience in not providing daily Masses. This is just so much nonsense about diversity of opinions on controversial items. They are only controversial because there are those that don’t fully accept the truth of the Catholic faith. They would seek to be controversial when people became faithful – a word VOTF throws around, but knows nothing about. I think truth in advertising laws should force them to change their name. Voice of the Heterodox, Dissidents, Secularists, etc. Or they could be allowed to retain faithful as long as it was preceded by ‘un.’

Too bad that the bishop’s spokesman denied the charge that VOTF was being ignored precisely because of the positions it holds. This should be readily accepted and broadcast that dissident groups will be ignored by the Church.

Guided by ultrasound, the abortionist grabs the baby’s leg with forceps. The baby’s leg is pulled out into the birth canal. The abortionist delivers the baby’s entire body, except for the head. The abortionist jams scissors into the baby’s skull. The scissors are then opened to enlarge the hole. The scissors are removed and a suction catheter is inserted. The child’s brains are sucked out, causing the skull to collapse. The dead baby is then removed.

"If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an American doctor describing what Americans had done to patients in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime — Pol Pot or others — that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that is not the case. This was the action of Americans in the treatment of their patients."

Sen. Dick Durbin D-Illinois (Catholic)

Oh wait – I slightly doctored his quote. Sen. Durbin was not talking about abortion because he was talking about treatment of terrorists at Gitmo. Because he:

• Voted NO on criminal penalty for harming unborn fetus during other crime.
• Voted NO on banning partial birth abortions except for maternal life.
• Voted NO on maintaining ban on Military Base Abortions.
• Vote on a motion to table [kill] an amendment that would repeal the ban on privately funded abortions at overseas military facilities.
• Voted NO on banning partial birth abortions.
• Voted NO on disallowing overseas military abortions.
• Durbin scores 100% by NARAL on pro-choice voting record
• Wants to expand embryonic stem cell research.

Maybe if we can pass a law to move all abortion clinics to Gitmo and for abortion to be administered by the military. Then as a result we can finally get abortion outlawed.

Now I am not trying to be a relativist and to deny that possibly some acts performed at Gitmo truly come under a Catholic definition of torture.

"Whatever is hostile to life itself, such as any kind of homicide, genocide, abortion, euthanasia and voluntary suicide; whatever violates the integrity of the human person, such as mutilation, physical and mental torture and attempts to coerce the spirit; whatever is offensive to human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution and trafficking in women and children; degrading conditions of work which treat labourers as mere instruments of profit, and not as free responsible persons: all these and the like are a disgrace, and so long as they infect human civilization they contaminate those who inflict them more than those who suffer injustice, and they are a negation of the honour due to the Creator" –Gaudium et Spes

If Sen. Durbin had actually addressed and argued that specific acts as truly being offensive to human dignity instead of comparing the interrogations done by our military to some of the most brutish and hellish regimes ever he might have actually had some valid points. Instead he engaged in the worse forms of moral equivalency. It is just ridiculous that he can see removing a terrorist’s air conditioning as torture and vote to allow baby brains to be sucked out during the process of birth .

Now I myself could possibly consider being subjected to the music of Christine Aguilera as torture and I am tempted the next time I ride a elevator and am subjected to Musak to file an appeal to the International Criminal Court or maybe the next time a hurricane causes me to lose air conditioning for days on end I might also have a case.

Jimmy Akin partially covered the topic of torture before.

As the nation’s Roman Catholic bishops gathered in Chicago Thursday
for a meeting to review their sexual abuse policy, Cardinal Francis George
said homosexual men should not be admitted into seminaries.

George, who is archbishop of Chicago and vice president of the U.S. Conference
of Catholic Bishops, said in light of the sexual abuse crisis, bishops are
paying closer attention to the sexual backgrounds of men interested in entering
the priesthood. Part of the commitment is that a man is celibate when he enters
seminary.

"Also, anyone who has been part of a gay subculture or who
has lived promiscuously as a heterosexual would not be admitted … no matter
how many
years in his background that might have occurred," George said.

I don’t think a policy that would have excluded St. Augustine
from the priesthood would be a good policy. This is the problem with a broad
policy or zero tolerance ideas that seek to be seen as fair over being discerning
and prudent. That seem to make a strait line moral equivalency between homosexual
activity and sinful heterosexual activity. Both are gravely sinful, though
homosexual activity is also gravely disordered. This is what happens though
when those accepting men to the seminaries have not been prudent in their judgments
in the past forcing some fit-all-policy to be forced into place.

The 1961 Document, “Careful Selection and Training of Candidates
for the States of Perfection and Sacred Orders” was promulgated by the
Vatican’s Sacred Congregation for Religious on February 2, 1961.

“Advancement to religious vows and ordination should be
barred to those who are afflicted with evil tendencies to homosexuality or
pederasty, since for them the common life and the priestly ministry would constitute
serious dangers”.

There is also suppose to be in the works a Vatican document
to again address this topic and reports of the draft document say that it
reiterates what the 1961 documents said.

The role, if any, of sexuality in the sexual abuse scandal is
being debated. Critics have charged there is no evidence that gays are more
likely to engage in abuse than heterosexuals. Others have said placing attention
on homosexuality is a way of deflecting attention from bishops who allowed
the scandal to unfold.

I always enjoy the unnamed "critics have charged" boilerplate
that so often ends up in articles. Unnamed critics with unmentioned research
or evidence is thrown in to "balance" an article. The fact that the overwhelming
instances of abuse was in fact predominately homosexual ephebophilia is ignored
which is why so many articles on abuse work overtime to ignore or not mention
the gender of abuse victims. They never seem to get around mentioning why the
introduction of altar girls did not create a spike in the amount of girls being
abuse.

Bishops are expected to approve a broader definition of sexual
abuse that covers priests who buy or disseminate child pornography, and they
will be asked to approve spending $1 million in reserve funds for an in-depth
study of the "causes and contexts" of the abuse crisis. The study
is expected to focus on whether abuse might be related to homosexuality, celibacy
and other issues. [Source]

The bishop’s conference seems to be more and more a studyarchy.
Go forth among all nations and initiate studies. Bishops don’t have to lead
or make decisions, they just inaugurate one more study to put off actually
using their common sense and acting on it.
To even
consider celibacy to be a factor in sexual abuse is to buy in to the culture.
To ignore that the discipline of priestly celibacy has not created this amount
of sexual abuse in the past. To ignore that these abuses started to spike
in the sixties and seventies which is definitely not when priestly celibacy
was introduced.

CHICAGO, June 13 /PRNewswire/ — As the Catholic Bishops of the United States gather in Chicago for their Spring Meeting, they will meet opposition to their pious homophobia. The Catholic Hierarchy in recent years has stepped up their attacks on the GLBT Community. The Rainbow Sash Movement stands shoulder to shoulder with our sisters and brothers in the Gay Liberation
Network as we condemn this rampant homophobia.

Rather ironic talking about attacks a week after members of the GLBT Community physically attacked a priest in the Cathedral a Notre Dame.

The Catholic Bishops have actively sought to deny GLBT their constitutional rights based on religious dogma.

Constitutional right to receive the Eucharist? Doesn’t the Catholic Church have a constitutional right to have religious dogma and then act on it? For groups that are always talking about acceptance and persecution they are trying to drive faithful Catholic into the closet. Our whole society is trying to do the same thing by silencing those that believe that homosexual actively is gravely disordered. We only need to look North to see the multiple charges against Canadian Bishop Henry for his pastoral letter on homosexuality.

From Matt Abbott:

Father Pat Brennan, pastor of Holy Family Parish in Inverness, Ill., one of the largest parishes in the Archdiocese of Chicago, is well known in both liberal and conservative circles. He’s been around for some time, and he’s no stranger to controversy.

In a 1997 homily, Brennan reportedly expressed admiration for former French bishop Jacques Gaillot, who was deposed in 1995 for, among other reasons, publicly endorsing use of the abortion pill.

More recently, in a May 2005 parish bulletin, Brennan wrote the following:

The Catholic publishing world, as well as Catholic universities, are [sic] reeling this week after the ouster of Rev. Thomas Reese, the editor of ‘America’ magazine for the last seven years. Reese was criticized by the then Cardinal Ratzinger for years for entertaining controversial topics in the magazine, as well as directly disagreeing with the cardinal.

Reese had difficulty with Ratzinger’s comments some years ago about non-Christians being in seriously deficient religions. Reese did not find these comments ecumenically sensitive. Many knowledgeable people say that Reese was forced to resign because of the pressure coming from the new pope and the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Thomas Groome, a friend of mine at Boston College and a theology professor said, ‘Fr. Reese’s removal must be interpreted as an ominous sign against open discourse in the Catholic Church.’ Another theologian, Stephen Pope, said, ‘This certainly is a repressive move.’

What we are up against is more restorationism rather than refounding the Church for a new age and time. [emphasis mine]

Arlene Sawicki, a former parishioner of Holy Family, says "… the use of the word ‘refounding’ means questioning every known doctrine and tradition of the Church, and setting forth a new paradigm for the Church according to the community’s consensus.

"That may include doctrinal and liturgical dissent, and open disrespect for the pope and Magisterium. Father Brennan often refers to the Magisterium as ‘those elderly men in long robes’ — apparently they are too old-fashioned for his new theology."

This is from an interview with Fr. Brennan.

Herron: How can we help people to allow the Lord to control their lives, rather than the church to control their lives?

Brennan: It is a paradoxical sort of situation. When the imagination jumps from the need to control to surrender, that is a genuine conversion experience, at least it always has been in my life. The paradox that I am alluding to, though, is I really think you need a church, or at least a community of faith, to help you make that jump.

When I have been in grief, when I have been in mourning, when I have bouts of a depression or fear, usually it has been the influence of other people around me who perhaps at that moment have a deeper prayer life than I, that help my imagination soar to the directive images of Jesus. But I think we are then into another problem.

Herron: What is that?

Brennan: Churches that, rather than serving, than mentoring, companioning, enabling ministry, really do try to control people’s lives. I fear that some churches are in an addictive pattern or a paradigm paralysis. They are stuck in that control, authoritarian model.

George Gallup’s research tells us that people are not looking for that any more. The days of guilt, obligation, those motivations for church attendance and church membership, are over. People are going where they are spiritually fed and where they feel that there is community, where they can belong.

Herron: Father Brennan, do you think the church is changing today to accommodate those needs?

Brennan: I do. I think the Holy Spirit is moving us back to a truly Pentecostal Acts II church, but I think there is massive resistance, massive resistance at the top for some people who want to maintain control and massive resistance on the bottom where people like to be an audience but don’t really want to be responsible for their faith.

I kind of enjoy progressive gobbledygook and phrases like "paradigm paralysis"
or "directive images of Jesus" much better then hearing "listening church" and "open dialogue" for the millionth time.

When I was a kid, we used to close every mass with prayers for the conversion of Russia. I guess what I am suggesting today is maybe Russia is doing okay and moving along pretty well. We ought to pray more and more for the conversion of us, for the transformation of the directive dominant images, inter-psychically, in our churches and the society in which we live.

Oh well there is always Fr. Barron Chicago with his excellent site containing mp3s of his homilies.

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.

The ceremony, which is not sanctioned by the Vatican, is to take place July 25 on the St Lawrence River near Gananoque in eastern Canada following a conference on women as priests at Carleton University in Ottawa.

Organisers consider the location for the ceremony 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, who was 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 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 to become 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 Monseigneur Serge Poitras of the Apostolic Nunciature in Ottawa, noting that the former Pope John Paul II addressed the issue in 1994. [Source]

The really sad part is that some people will go to these pseudo-Masses given by these women and be deprived of the Eucharist as a result. They will also probably be declared excommunicated as what happened in 2002 on the last riverboat "ordinations." These women of course will not become priests. Waving your hands over a cat and pronouncing them a dog will cause no ontological change as in the case when men are validly ordained.

When are they going to stop whining about Fr. Reese?

All editors come under pressure from proprietors, management, editorial boards and readers. In Tom Reese’s case, a small group of American bishops and conservative laity were not happy with the critical loyalty that characterised the magazine. As the Church’s doctrinal watchdog, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger began to take an interest, and in 2002 he wrote to the Jesuit General in Rome with a list of articles his office found offensive. If Tom Reese was to remain editor of America, the letter told Father Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, he must accept the establishment of a committee of three American bishops to review all material before publication.

The threat was not carried out at that time, but Reese was warned later that Rome would be watching carefully to see in particular how he dealt with the question of same-sex partnerships. When the doctrinal congregation’s observations on that subject appeared in 2003, denouncing “the legalisation of evil”, I looked to see what America would say. I could not find a single word anywhere in its pages. When I telephoned Reese in surprise, I found out what had happened. “I have to accept a huge amount of self-censorship now,” he told me.

I felt both saddened and alarmed. A restriction laid on America is chilling for all such media in the Catholic Church, including The Tablet. Lay editors are in a less vulnerable position than priest editors, but their responsibilities are not distinct.

…Only a truly pluralistic Catholic media can do justice to the symphony of voices and spiritualities, as wide as the world, that is Catholicism. Those who would prefer to have one single blast issue from all the trumpets will send many deafened concert-goers scuttling for the exits.

First off what in the world is a pluralistic Catholic media. Is this the belief by Catholic reporters that no single explanatory system or view of reality can be held? That all points of view are equally valid? A Catholic media that first and foremost does not accept the teaching authority of the Church is not really a Catholic media. Why in the world do some self-identified Catholic newspapers proudly proclaim that they are independent? Independent from the truth? When did being faithful to the Church become something to shun? I am happily dependent on both Christ’s Church and its teaching authority.

Now as for the example given, a symphony is a good parallel to use. What happens when you have people playing their instruments off key or they play from a different score then everyone else? Obviously the music becomes discordant and unlistenable. A true symphony like the Mystical Body of Christ has everyone playing their own individual parts that when played together is melodic and supports the whole. We only have harmony when individual voices actually harmonize with each other. When people become their own conductors instead of following Chris’s lead the orchestra becomes a bunch of individual soloists vying against everybody else to be heard.