Fr. Z's Blog

When anti-Catholic atrocities take place, Catholic bishops should act.

I read in the Kansas City Star (a McClatchy paper), that some “Lutherans” are going to host a sacrilegious, fake catholic “ordination” of a woman by the usual wymyn suspects.  HERE  It is to take place at an ELCA associated Lutheran church on 3 January, 2015 at 2 pm.

It is hard to get worked up about what these disturbed wymym are doing, if considered in and of itself.  They are so far beyond the fringe that Hubble has a hard time seeing them.

What is far more bothersome is that this ecumenical atrocity is to take place in a church that calls itself “Lutheran”.  From the website of St. Mark Hope and Peace Church near downtown KC, we learn about the “pastor”… “pastrix”….

Pastor Donna Simon is a Midwesterner by birth (and temperament), though she has spent much of her life on the West Coast.  She is a graduate of San Francisco State University (English Literature) and Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in Berkeley, California.

Pastor Donna was called into the ministry from a volunteer position as church youth director at Messiah Lutheran Church, Redwood City, California.  While attending seminary, she came out as a lesbian.  Because the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America did not allow the ordination of openly gay and lesbian candidates, she joined the roster of Lutheran Lesbian and Gay Ministries, now known as Extraordinary Lutheran Ministries.

In 2000, Abiding Peace Lutheran Church extended a call to Simon.  She was ordained on October 28, 2000.  The ELCA changed its policy in 2009, and Pastor Donna joined the ELCA roster on October 28, 2010.

We know that the ELCA won’t take any responsibility for anything that anyone does.  However, they are still associated with this KC church and that “pastor”.

They don’t get a pass.  This is something that should make faithful Catholics see red.

It all works one way, right?  Protestants think they can tell Catholics what to do or think about our sacraments?

On the eve of the Octave for Prayer for Christian Unity, they stick their “F-YOU” finger in our faces, by hosting this farce and sacrilege.

Here’s the bottom line.  Antics like this should have consequences for ecumenical dialogue.

The women’s ordination thing is silliness.  It is a circus.

A Protestant church is going to host the circus.  By doing so , the will give the Catholic Church the finger.

There should be consequences.

We either take ecumenism seriously or we don’t. If we do – and I believe we must –  we have to react strongly when ecumenical ideals are so grossly violated by Protestants who invite or permit these “women priest” ceremonies in their churches.

Soon-to-be-excommunicated Georgia Walker (standing)

The most sacred rites of the Catholic Church are Holy Mass and ordination to Holy Orders.

They intend to trample the rites that we Catholics hold as sacred.

These silly Catholic women-priest supporters are committing sacrilege in simulating Mass and Orders.  That’s a given.  But they are so bizarre that they make little difference.

What does make a difference, however, is that the Protestants who host them intentionally assist in a mockery of our Holy Mass and a mockery of our priesthood.

For a long time progressivist Catholics were staging Jewish sedar meals in their churches.  Some Jews were angered by this.  We got the message from the Jews and stopped doing what was offensive to them, even though we meant no offense by doing so.

By allowing this group of fakers into their churches, Protestants accept the premise that what those women play at is actually a Catholic ordination and a Mass.

How dare PROTESTANTS decide what a Catholic Mass is?

They might speciously respond, “Gee, we mean no disrespect. We are just giving space to this group”.  NO.   We do not accept that.  What they are doing is aiding a protest against the Catholic Church.

There is no way around this.

But “Pastor Donna” at the church is committed to the “F-YOU” Finger approach.  In the Star article we read:

Donna Simon, pastor at St. Mark, has no patience for the view that women cannot be priests.

“The logic for male (only) ordination is spurious,” she said. “Nowhere in the Bible does it say you may not ordain women. But because Jesus only called men, the church has leaned into this tradition that you can only call men. It hasn’t leaned into a tradition that you can only call Jewish men because all the men that Jesus called were Jewish. They just picked that one thing.”

Protestants who give these fakers aid are either on their side, and thus support their claim that what they are doing really is an ordination and Mass, or in claiming not to be taking sides they are still giving support to an anti-Catholic protest.

Bishops have to take action when offensive, anti-Catholic things like this take place.

Upon hearing the news that this ceremony is going to take place (or has taken place), the local Catholic bishop must call the pastor of that Protestant parish and say, “I’m the Catholic Bishop.  Do not allow this sacrilege to be committed in your church. You wouldn’t do this for a group of dissident Jews wanting to ordain rabbis, but we are Catholics so you don’t care what offense you give us.  Until an apology is issued, don’t look for us to dialogue with you again.”

Then that Catholic bishop should call the head of the denomination and convey the same message.

Then that Catholic Bishop should send an informative note to the USCCB’s ecumenical office and to the CDF and to the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity to let them know the facts of the sacrileges that took place and who helped them.

Then that Catholic bishop should call the press and give them his view about the offense the Protestants gave and the damage they inflicted on ecumenical dialogue.  Of course, in the case of the Kansas City Star, which has the knives out for Bp. Finn, I suppose he won’t get too far.

True ecumenism does not consist in lying down and letting some other church ecclesial communion kick you and define what Mass is for you, or say who can be ordained, or stick their “F-You” finger in your face by hosting these sacrilegious fakers.