How many women’s ordination groups does it take to change a light bulb?

At the site of the Women’s Ordination Conference, there is a petition in support of Fr. Roy Bourgeois, MM (and heretic).  I loved this line:

“Our Catholic tradition teaches that sexism is a sin and excluding women from the priesthood is sinful.”

Oh?

It occurs to me that there is no Scriptural prohibition of slavery, but we do it anyway.  Just of the top of my head.

But the real fun starts when you visit their programs page and discover that WOC (which is “cow” spelled backwards) you find the – I swear I am not making this up – “Ministry of Irritation”.

Ministry of Irritation challenges the Vatican’s policies [“policies”] regarding women by engaging the hierarchy and organizing on a grassroots level to bring public attention to the issue of women’s ordination and the need for structural change in the church. [Sounds like Alinsky, doesn’t it?]

And here I thought the Ministry of Irritation was the Vatican’s Secretariat of State.

Does COW… o0000ps  WOC have a Ministrix of Irritation?

By the way, this petition for Roy is sponsored by the

  • Association of Roman Catholic Womenpriests,
  • Roman Catholic Womenpriests-USA,
  • and Women’s Ordination Conference.

I count three groups, all standing for the same cause. Hmmm.   I wonder why there are three instead of one.  Could it be that women who agree about women’s ordination can’t agree among themselves about anything else?

How many women’s ordination groups does it take to change a light bulb?

Let’s learn more about irritation.

The Ministry of Irritation is the area that most people already associate with WOC[But not for the reasons they think.] it is our ministry of witnessing and prayerful protest. The purpose of this ministry is to challenge the Church’s policies regarding women [“policies”, not teachings, right?] by engaging the hierarchy and organizing on a grassroots level to publicly witness for women’s ordination into a renewing priestly ministry.

To explain why we use the term “irritation,” we use the analogy of the grain of sand and the oyster. The grain of sand irritates the inside of the oyster to create a beautiful pearl, and the people active irritation in this ministry are the grains of sand, irritating the Catholic hierarchy to create a pearl of wisdom for the Church that bring about repentance for the sins of the Kyriarchy [puh-leez!] and bring about a renewing priestly ministry!

Although most of the U.S. bishops have made it clear they do not want to talk with us, [Say it ain’t so!] through this ministry, we continue to make attempts to dialogue with them. [Try this.] In addition, we are developing new and creative ideas to fulfill our mission. In this ministry, WOC members organize and participate in the witness events that are a meaningful part of WOC’s history, [ooops…. herstory] actions such as:

[…]

You could craft a sitcom around this.

Or you could look at photos of a demonstration in favor of Roy Bourgeois.

Meanwhile….

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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56 Comments

  1. Dr. K says:

    WOC (which is “cow” spelled backwards)

    You learn something new everyday :-)

    I too have wondered why there are so many different women’s ordination groups. Come up with one group of heretics and stick with it. Then again, as we have seen countless times already with Protestantism, schism begets schism.

  2. AustinCatholic says:

    The puppets in the photo reminded me of a nightmare I had…involving the Diocese of Rochester. LOL!

    I wonder how many young people in that photo are PAID to be involved with this nonsense. I’m sure anyone with any rational sense, would not volunteer to do this for free.

    PUPPETS ALIVE! LOL!

    Laughing my head off in Austin, Texas….

    -RE

  3. Katharine B. says:

    On a positive note, how often do you see a shot of a group of girls so modestly dressed? +1 to the COWs for decency.

  4. “Kyriarchy”? That’s a new one for me.

  5. JohnE says:

    Nothing like a gathering of heretical activists, or photo op, to make a heretical priest finally wear his Roman collar. I’m surprised more don’t do that.

  6. BaedaBenedictus says:

    Looking at the photos of the protest linked by Fr. Z, I noticed somebody holding up a large “Dignity USA” sign. So they were involved. Ever notice how modern feminism and “gay rights” are always intertwined?

  7. APX says:

    That centre puppet just screams, “oh no u dinnint!”

    Sadly I’m moving to a city with a wymynpryst who has monthly “mass” at a united church close to the church I attend the TLM at. Y’know, I always thought I felt some sort of an evil presence while driving through the neighbourhood. Blegh!

  8. ghp95134 says:

    Looking at the comments on their photo page at http://woc.smugmug.com/Religion/istandwithroy/16568757_aaREA#1247968586_sTS9m …. the first one is priceless!!

    1. Jessica Williams wrote about this gallery on Aug 9th
    There once were some gals with a mania
    For liturgical extemporanea.
    When they get the urge,
    They just freely liturge—
    And I am the Queen of Romania.

    ==============
    Priceless!!

    –Guy

  9. Sam Urfer says:

    “Kyriarchy is a neologism coined by Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza to describe interconnected, interacting, and multiplicative systems of domination and submission, within which a person oppressed in one context might be privileged in another. It is an intersectional elaboration of the concept of patriarchy — it extends the analysis of oppression beyond traditional feminism to dynamics such as sexism, racism, economic injustice, and other forms of internalized and institutionalized oppression.”

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyriarchy

    Blech.

  10. Christ-Bearer says:

    Irritatrix?

    Fr. Z's Gold Star Award

  11. RobertK says:

    And their “tradition” is only 20 years old!. Never read about any of the first millenium church fathers having a debate about womens ordination. I guess those guys were all sexist, same goes for the apostles. Never knew St. Francis, or Dominic were “sexist”, if they weren’t St Catherine would have been Fr Catherine of Sienna. What about Fr. Claire.

  12. I don’t care who coined it, and what they thought they meant by it. What matters is that any Christian group using such a phrase clearly has no problem implying that they oppose the Lord Jesus and His Kingdom; or that they care so little for Christianity that they fail to notice these little details.

    Kyrie eleison! Christe eleison! Kyrie eleison!

  13. amenamen says:

    The abbreviation for the Ministry of Irritation is “MOI.”
    They get fabulous advice from “moi-self”:
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZOHe5LluSY

  14. amenamen says:

    OK. How many committees does it take?

    At least one committee would refuse to change the lightbulb because the Photoarchy discriminates against darkness.

  15. Young Canadian RC Male says:

    AHHHHHH!!!! Not the Big-head African Liturgy Puppets!! I thought those things died in the 70’s-80’s and were only immortally enshrined on YouTube videos of bad liturgies. I almost had a heart attack just seeing the picture.

  16. Christ-Bearer says:

    How many days partial indulgence are attached to the Fr. Z’s Gold Star for the Day?

    :-)

  17. Joe in Canada says:

    I agree with Suburbanbashee. The coining and use of Kyriarchy as something to oppose is very significant. It entails rejecting the Lordship of Jesus and the Fatherhood of God. Young Canadian RC Male: don’t forget the Eucharistic Congress in Quebec City just a few years ago! And weren’t there liturgical puppets helping at WYD Sydnedy?

  18. lizaanne says:

    I am only sad that Michael Voris is busy with smashing the condom vending “nuns” in Spain this week.

  19. Michael J. says:

    I wonder how many members of these, “Women Ordination Movement(s)”, are from the Diocese of Lincoln, Nebraska? I also think women as Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, women Lectors, and women (or girls) as Altar Servers is not helping any to discourage women from backing away from the impossible goal of the Ordination of Women. I truly hope the people who are members of or support this un-Catholic position have a change of heart and reconcile themselves with God while they still have the time. May God Have Mercy On Us All.

  20. j says:

    In the directory of Womynpriests
    http://www.womensordination.org/content/view/110/132/

    one listed her “qualifications” as
    Board certified chaplain (National Ass. of Catholic Chaplains)

    Which the NACC website
    http://www.nacc.org/membership/categories.asp

    defines as
    “Board Certified Chaplain ($270 annual)
    A Catholic chaplain who has the benefit of professional certification granted by the NACC Certification Commission on behalf of the USCCB/CCA. ”

    The application DOES list Roman Catholic or “Other” , but should the USCCB be made aware that these people are being “certified” Catholic by this organization?

  21. teaguytom says:

    You know the kids in the photo are either paid or they are from the most lib Catholic colleges around. Most of the women’s ordination people are baby boomers who sing “Gather us In” with “Gerry and the Atrics” next to the sanctuary at the liberal parishes. Someone needs to hand the kids a pamphlet from Una Voce, FSSP, Discalced Carmelites of Elysburg etc. Their brains are still open enough to learn new things.

  22. APX says:

    How many women’s ordination groups does it take to change a light bulb?

    Three.
    One to change it, one to whine about the socket being exploited by the light bulb, and another one to write about how if we just used candles for light there’d be no more socket exploitation.

    [LOL!]

    Sorry…
    Maybe that’s why I didn’t do so well in Women’s Studies.

    Fr. Z's Gold Star Award

  23. Robert of Rome says:

    Fr. Z,
    Can two of your Gold Stars of the Day be given on the same day? If so, or even if not, I think the above post by APX also deserves one!

    [So let it be written. So let it be done.]

  24. William Tighe says:

    “WOC (which is “cow” spelled backwards)”

    Some things never change, and the devil and his minions are unimaginative and repetitive, if dangerous, bores. Way back in the late 1960s/early 70s when agitation for the pretended ordination of women was just beginning among Anglicans in England, the principal organization promoting this absurdity in the Church of England initially named itself the “Campaign for the Ordination of Women.” Now to term a woman a “cow” in English English is particularly insulting on several levels, carrying along with it an implication of hebetudinal stupidity; and to call their organization by a name that could be immediately rendered as COW seemed rather to demonstrate the truth of the insult (at least as regards the “ladies” who were the ringleaders of the organization — and so they rapidly altered its name to the “Movement for the Ordination of Women,” but, delightfully, the damage had already been done. MOO.

  25. Andy Lucy says:

    Is the Ministry of Irritation in the office next to the Ministry of Silly Walks?

    Just curious.

  26. Seamas O Dalaigh says:

    Fr. Roy stated, “It is my conscience that compels me to say publicly that the exclusion of women from the priesthood is a grave injustice against women, against our Church and against our God who calls both men and women to the priesthood…. In essence, you are telling me to lie and say I do not believe that God calls both men and women to the priesthood. This I cannot do, therefore I will not recant.”

    “Hier stehe, ich kann nicht anders.”

    Oh, dear. This isn’t going to be pretty.

    James Daly

  27. Peggy R says:

    Our local CTA affiliate, appropriately called FOSIL (who claim to be “Faithful of Southern Illinois”–were “Fellowship of Southern IL Laity” since the ’70s until this year.)…has invited as speakers Fr. Roy Bourgeois and a nun who was told to cease her pro-gay “ministry”. She changed to the Loretto order to be able to continue. The event is in September. If I had the time of day for these people, I’d picket outside and recommend the Episcopal Church. Or I’d fork over the $10 and take copious notes and pursue my own ministry of irritation with them! But, they aren’t worth it. A woman in our diocese has called herself a priest on the “What if we Wait” petition about the new ICEL translations. I’ve read several letters by her in the local paper. (I also doubt her claims to academic credentials in theology.)

  28. pinoytraddie says:

    Ministry of Irritation: We Irritate because We are Selfish for The Riches of the Vatican!!

  29. disco says:

    I don’t care who you are – the guy with the smash the stained glass ceiling sign – that’s funny.

  30. AnAmericanMother says:

    Q: How many women’s ordination groups does it take to change a light bulb?

    A: “That’s not funny!”

  31. John V says:

    “How many women’s ordination groups does it take to change a light bulb?”
    None. They’d rather stay in the dark and pretend they’re changing the Church.

    I wouldn’t assume the three groups can’t agree about things other than women’s ordination. There’s probably a substantial overlap in membership, as you would probably find with other dissident groups like “Call to Action”, “Voice of the Faithful”, etc. When people stop paying attention to your group, start another one with a different name. After a while there’s the added benefit of listing the groups together and claiming that there’s a “coalition”, a word that really impresses the naive reporters.

    I once passed a gathering of twelve or fifteen protestors squeezing together for a picture, and assumed it was just the old trick of trying to fill the frame and make it appear there was a large crowd. The deception was even greater than that. According to the story that ran with the photo the next day, what I had witnessed was a “coalition several dozen local organizations gathered to voice their concern” about something or other I can’t remember. Based on the numbers, some of those people had to be representing more than one organization, and many of them probably belonged to several, maybe even all of the groups. What a farce.

  32. bmadamsberry says:

    In answer to your question: It doesn’t matter… they think it’s a box, not a lightbulb.

    However, I don’t think one can make a big deal about there being more than one group. There are many pro-life organizations, many priest support organizations, and many different apologetics groups.

  33. JohnW says:

    They are not Catholics,but they are protestants.

  34. Legisperitus says:

    The word “sexism” didn’t even exist before the 1970’s, and this was truly an example of the word creating the concept. So it’s part of our 2,000-year-old Catholic tradition that this 40-year-old concept is a sin?

  35. Peter in Canberra says:

    I agree with Michael J’s comments about female altar servers and extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion – all these, in the uneducated mind in today’s unisex world, make the male only priesthood even harder to take.
    And who brought us, or at least allowed them to be brought to us? Bl John Paul II

  36. Ed the Roman says:

    How many women’s ordination groups does it take to change a light bulb?

    I would say, “all of them.”

  37. pseudomodo says:

    In Canada they have an actual official government ministry called Status of Women.

    Yes you guessed it… SOW.

    I am not kidding. No, Seriously….

  38. pseudomodo says:

    BTW

    ‘Change’ a light bulb? Don’t you mean REDEFINE a light bulb?

  39. APX says:

    @Legisperitus

    So it’s part of our 2,000-year-old Catholic tradition that this 40-year-old concept is a sin?

    No no no! By “our” they mean “theirs”.

    I’ve been trying to imagine te sacrament of penance with womenpriests, but I can’t imagine it other than watching the seal of confession start leaking. Blegh! They probably have communal penance services with general absolution during which they sit in a circle, talk about their feelings and finish with a group hug.

  40. Therese Z says:

    Q: How many women’s ordination groups does it take to change a light bulb?

    A: None. They look at the relationship of the socket and the end of the bulb and decry such institutionalized heterosexualism.

    Somebody in the photos has a “Close Guatanamo” T-shirt, too. I don’t understand how all these puddles run together this way.

  41. Legisperitus says:

    Q. How many women’s ordination groups does it take to change a light bulb?

    A. None. They just perform a ceremony on the empty socket and then call it a light bulb.

  42. chironomo says:

    …one to whine about the socket being exploited by the light bulb

    That is a truly disgusting image.

    Q. How many women’s ordination groups does it take to change a light bulb?

    A: Well, they know it can never be changed, but they’ll just keep trying.

  43. Diakonia says:

    So you got one guy wearing his “Close Guantanamo” shirt while carrying his Ordain Women sign, and you have Dignity USA also joining in the festivities! Sounds like a bunch whose existence centers around protesting one thing or another! What an enormous waste of time over a non-issue.

  44. Maria says:

    Legisperitus says:
    Q. How many women’s ordination groups does it take to change a light bulb?

    A. None. They just perform a ceremony on the empty socket and then call it a light bulb.

    LOL! I think this is so funny, satirically so because it is true.
    If I could give a gold star I would.

  45. SonofMonica says:

    The pics of the Fr. Roy supporters are hilarious. A bunch of affluent, white and elderly people who see themselves instead as oppressed, diverse and young in spirit. Sorta looks like an average Episcopalian parish.

  46. chironomo says:

    So you got one guy wearing his “Close Guantanamo” shirt while carrying his Ordain Women sign, and you have Dignity USA also joining in the festivities! Sounds like a bunch whose existence centers around protesting one thing or another! What an enormous waste of time over a non-issue

    As it is with many “progressive Catholic” issues, it is more about “progressive” than about “Catholic”. This isn’t a religious issue….it is a leftist political issue, plain and simple. That is made obvious by it’s very prominent association with other leftist political issues.

  47. CMRose says:

    My sister says:

    Q. How many women’s ordination groups does it take to change a light bulb?

    A. Even with an infinite number it would be impossible because, like women’s ordination, no matter how many groups they have, it won’t ever happen.

    She also says they should all be confined to silent, contemplative orders.

  48. catholicmidwest says:

    “She also says they should all be confined to silent, contemplative orders.”

    Disagree. I’m pretty sure they’d have no idea what to do with that. I move that they all be confined to working at the local burger joint where they will have to learn to be civil, learn some public manners and generally get a clue — finally!

  49. Son of Trypho says:

    Why are these people addressing these completely bourgeois (pun intended) issues and not addressing real social justice and Christian concerns that affect women like criminal female exploitation?

    Female ordination vs illegal trafficking of women for exploitative purposes?

    You decide which one Jesus would care more about.

  50. jflare says:

    They seem to have a taste for somewhat splashy colors. Granted, there’s no red and orange, but I see plenty of green, blue, and purple of neon variety.

    Y’all will have to tell me which photo you’re looking at for the puppets. I haven’t spotted them yet.

  51. jflare says:

    Oh. THAT picture. ..I was looking at the pictures at the link.

  52. Kerry says:

    What would they reply if asked, “Can you absolutely guarantee that when elevating the Host, it absolutely becomes the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ”…? One wonders if they might take pause.

  53. j says:

    This post still makes me laugh two days later.

    The make-up-a-word-a-day incomprehensible psychobabble spouted by these
    narcissists, who by the way, oppose the new translations because they use
    hard words. Like ineffable. Which is easier to understand than mujerista.

    In one of the accidentally humorous blogs, they say
    “An online petition , sponsored by the Association of Roman Catholic
    Womenpriests, Call To Action USA, and Roman Catholic Womenpriests-USA, Women’s
    Ordination Conference, and co-sponsored by 15 church-justice organizations, [still anonymous]
    has garnered over 8,000 signatures of Catholics across the globe and
    continues to build momentum.
    Suzanne Thiel of Roman Catholic Womenpriests-USA affirmed: “Regardless of
    personal consequences, Fr. Roy refuses to be cowed by men who support an
    unjust law that knowingly discriminates against half the Body of Christ. He
    sees the face of Jesus in his sisters.””

    perhaps it’s the beards. Now if ex-Fr now Prophet Roy hung around with REAL
    women….

  54. BLB Oregon says:

    Again this seems a matter of people who are courageous enough to follow their consciences, but for some reason have missed the important point that the correct conscience, which alone is morally binding, is bound to seek and submit to correct formation. This is where Roy Bourgeois and those who have incurred excommunication for their activity in attempting the ordination of women have gone off the tracks. If we assume in charity that their intention is justice, and not necessarily self-aggrandizement, that truly is a sad thing.

    It is beyond me how they can miss the obvious truth that utter chaos is the only realistic result when everyone follows their inner sense of things to the exclusion of a commonly-binding moral law. So they are following their consciences? Well, that is fine, but how can they fail to see that Rome is bound to follow her conscience, as well? What outcome could they have expected, except the division into factions that we are seeing? It is inevitable. Any other expectation requires thinking that strays into the magical.

    John Wilkes Booth was following his conscience. Courageously willing to throw away a successful career in the theatre, he nevertheless became a murderer, because he failed to conform his conscience to the moral law that was his to learn since childhood. Likewise, these women may be, in effect, yelling “Sic semper tyrannis!,” as Booth did, but that does not rescue them from the charge of heresy. They rejected the opportunity to form their consciences correctly, and that was their downfall.

  55. Luke Whittaker says:

    Is it just me, or do the puppets make WOC’s implicit seriousness less apparent?

    They may as well carry a banner that reads, “Goodbye Jesus. Hello ME”. Yikes!

  56. Maria says:

    The puppet on the far right reminds me of some charachter out of South Park.
    I really dislike the ‘peace, man’ hippy style hand gesture. ugh.
    (No, I don’t watch that rubbish but my brother used to and I often used to have to see bits of it as I went in and out of the room.)
    All very scarey stuff if you ask me.

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