From The Syracuse Post-Standard comes this really dopey piece of news with my emphases and comments:
Self-proclaimed female Catholic priest to celebrate Mass in Syracuse suburb
by Renee K. Gadoua / The Post-Standard
Friday May 01, 2009, 7:23 PMA woman ordained [not] in July at a ceremony the Roman Catholic Church considers invalid [which makes a difference, right?] will [not] celebrate a Mass Saturday at a conference in Liverpool.
The Rev. Gabriella Velardi-Ward, a member of RC Womenpriests, an international group of Catholics who advocate women’s ordination, will lead a 2:30 p.m. liturgy at the Upstate New York Call to Action conference at Le Moyne Manor in Liverpool. [Will they have scary puppets?]
The conference will also include presentations by the Rev. Roy Bourgeois, who has been criticized by the Vatican [is that what they call it?] for participating at a Womenpriest ordination; and Mary Hunt, a native of Syracuse and a feminist theologian who is co-founder and co-director of the Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics and Ritual.[The mind reels at what that might involve…]
The event is Call to Action’s sixth statewide conference. The theme is "It’s a Question of Conscience — Re-examining Conscience and the Doctrine of Reception."
The Catholic Church has consistently taught that only men can be ordained as priests, and church officials have typically said that women participating in what the group calls ordinations automatically excommunicate themselves from the church.
Danielle Cummings, assistant chancellor and director of communications for the Syracuse Diocese, said the ceremony Velardi-Ward will lead is not a Mass since it is not celebrated by an ordained Roman Catholic priest — a baptized male who has received the ordination validly.
"If Mass is being celebrated by a non-ordained individual, the Mass would not fulfill the Sunday obligation of Mass for Catholics," Cummings said. [And I believe there might be even more implications!]
Womenpriests and its supports say its ordinations are legitimate because Catholic bishops in good standing ordained their first members to become female priests and bishops. [Even if that were true, and some validly consecrated bishop went through the motions, those women wouldn’t be ordained. They wouldn’t be ordained if a hundred bishops did that. No woman can ever be ordained.]
Bob Dugan of Liverpool, a leader of the local Call to Action chapter, said the church should begin ordaining women. "They are shutting down parishes all over the country, not just in the Syracuse Diocese," said Dugan, a member of St. Lucy Church in Syracuse.
"The reason they are shutting down churches is there are not enough priests to go around," he said. "Every member of the church has been called to priestly ministry by virtue of their baptism." [Ugh… this rubbish again. There is a difference between the priesthood ]
Bourgeois, who has spoken in Syracuse several times, is a Maryknoll priest and the founder of the School of the Americas Watch, which hopes to close the military training school renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.
Bourgeois was to talk about the School of the Americas on Friday and his support for women’s ordination today.
After he preached the homily at an Aug. 9 Womenpriest ordination, the Vatican gave him 30 days to recant or be excommunicated. Bourgeois has continued to speak publicly about his support for ordaining women.
"Sexism, like racism, is a sin," he said in a letter to the Vatican. "And no matter how hard or how long we may try to justify discrimination, in the end, it is always immoral." [What a sad and confused man.]
Dugan said Call to Action planned the woman-led service to show its support for women’s ordination.
"We’re not trying to provoke anything," he said. [Nooo…. of course not!] "We’re trying to recognize that women are called to priesthood." [not]