9 Women to become Priests

[Soxy]

In a ceremony that is defying the Vatican, 9 women to be ordained.

 

Feel free to discuss.

 

Nine women to defy Vatican to become priests

 

Wed Jun 8,11:50 AM ET

 

OTTAWA (AFP) - 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 juridiction 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 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 Monseigneur 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."

[jackie hayes]

Oh, well if they really want it, then I guess it's okay.

[whitesoxmurph]

...and I am being sworn in as the King of Chicago on Friday, by the ghost of Mike Royko, on a boat in the Chicago River. Coronation Party at Billy Goats following.

[SleepyWhiteSox]

...and I am being sworn in as the King of Chicago on Friday, by the ghost of Mike Royko, on a boat in the Chicago River.  Coronation Party at Billy Goats following.

 

 

Seriously, it's ridiculous.

[Rex Kickass]

Wasn't Sinead O'Connor ordained too?

[Soxy]

Indeed she was Wino..... Edited June 9, 2005 by ChiSoxyGirl

[FlaSoxxJim]

Indeed she was Wino.....

 

Well if this isn't in keeping with historical Church practices, I don't know what is (note lack of green).

 

Another dissident bishop, Pat Buckley, called the donation "disturbing" and said there was a question of whether simony - the act of purchasing a sacrament [O'Connor's ordaination]- had taken place.

[Balta1701]

At some point, the Catholic church is going to have no choice but to do this.

 

They're already suffering from a massive shortage of priests. There just aren't enough unmarried men left out there to tend their flock of over a billion now.

 

They need to find new candidates. There are 2 possibilities...women or married men. Eventually, they're going to have to ordain one or the other, or the Church itself will start falling apart. You can't put 10,000 people into a mass every week in every country in the world. It just won't work.