Fr. Z's Blog

In the Star Tribune, ultra-liberal newspaper of my native place, there is an article about wywmwmnyprysts.

It is too long and dull for you, so here are some bits. Let’s have a look with my emphases and comments.

Female priests push Catholic boundaries

ROSE FRENCH, Star Tribune

Dressed in a priestly white robe and green stole, Monique Venne lifted communion bread before an altar — defying centuries of Catholic Church law. [The writer stumbles in the first line: This is not just a matter of law. This is the Church’s teaching… the Church’s DOC-TRINE. Were it just a “law”, or as supporters of the impossible like to call it “policy” it could be changed.  The writer will call them “priests” or “Catholic priests” throughout.]

Despite promises of excommunication from the Vatican, she and six other women in Minnesota say they are legitimate, ordained Catholic priests, fit to celebrate the mass. They trace their status through a line of ordained women bishops back to anonymous male bishops [cowards] in Europe.  [Gratis asseritur, gratis negatur.]

“We love the church, but we see this great wrong,” said Venne, 54, who cofounded Compassion of Christ Church, a Minneapolis congregation that just celebrated its first anniversary. [WOW!  A founder of a CHURCH?  Along with about 15,000 others in the USA.] “Not allowing women to be at the altar is a denigration of their dignity. [False.] We want the church to be the best it can be. If one leaves, one cannot effect change. So we’re pushing boundaries.” [If one leaves…. ?  This from the one who founded a “church” apart from the Catholic Church.  Loopy.]

Minnesota has emerged as a hotbed [found directly under the seething cauldron] for the growing movement to ordain women as priests, with the highest per-capita number of female Catholic priests [No.  They are not “priests”.  They probably aren’t “catholic” at this point.  And they are “wymyn”, now, I think.  No?] in the nation, according to the organization Roman Catholic Womenpriests. Women [not-] priests are working in the Twin Cities, Red Wing, Winona, Clear Lake and soon St. Cloud. The group claims about 70 women priests in the United States and more than 100 worldwide.

Several Protestant denominations have allowed women to be ordained ministers for decades. But the Catholic Church views an all-male priesthood as unchangeable, “based on the example of Jesus, who, even though he had revered relationships with women who were his disciples, chose only men to be his apostles,” said Dennis McGrath, spokesman for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

“Women who claim to have been ordained Catholic priests in fact have no relationship to the Catholic Church because their ordination is not valid,” he said.

Dozens of congregations

An increasing number of Catholics disagree with the church on this. In a poll last year by the New York Times and CBS, 59 percent of U.S. Catholics favored letting women become priests, with 33 percent opposed.

That’s encouraging news for Roman Catholic Womenpriests, founded nearly nine years ago in Europe. It began after seven women were ordained aboard a ship on the Danube River by three male bishops. The group claims their ordinations are valid because they conform within the bounds of “apostolic succession.” [How stupid can you get?  That stupid, as a matter of fact!  Being on a river has nothing to do with that.]

“I do believe we are connecting through the original church, which started with the apostles,” said Regina Nicolosi, 69, of Red Wing, who became bishop [ROFL!] for Womenpriests’ Midwest region in 2009.

[…]

The rest is just… frankly… sad.  The rest is just plain sad.

Do you suppose they all have their “ordination tambourines“?