Fr. Z's Blog

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

Here is an example which calls for consequences.

From WTAX in Kentucky:

Kentucky woman ordained as priest in defiance of Roman Catholic Church [Note either the carelessness or the bias? She was not ordained as anything.]

By Mary Wisniewski

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (Reuters) – In an emotional ceremony filled with tears and applause, a 70-year-old Kentucky woman was ordained a priest [No.  She went through a fake ceremony.] on Saturday as part of a dissident group operating outside of official Roman Catholic Church authority. [Liberals often use the word “official” as code.  Watch for code.]

Rosemarie Smead is one of about 150 women around the world who have decided not to wait for the Roman Catholic Church to lift its ban on women priests, but to be ordained and start their own congregations.

In an interview before the ceremony, Smead said she is not worried about being excommunicated from the Church – the fate of other women ordained outside of Vatican law.

“It has no sting for me,” said Smead, a petite, gray-haired former Carmelite nun with a ready hug for strangers. [What slop.] “It is a Medieval bullying stick the bishops used to keep control over people and to keep the voices of women silent. I am way beyond letting octogenarian men tell us how to live our lives.” [Wayyyy beyond.]

The ordination of women as priests, along with the issues of married priests and birth control, represents one of the big divides between U.S. Catholics and the Vatican hierarchy. [And it is the writer’s objective to widen the divide. Note also how the “issues” are not easily related.] Seventy percent of U.S. Catholics believe that women should be allowed to be priests, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll earlier this year.

The former pope, Benedict XVI, reaffirmed the Catholic Church’s ban on women priests [“ban  on women priests” requires the premise that there is such a thing as a woman priest.  There isn’t.] and warned that he would not tolerate disobedience by clerics on fundamental teachings. Male priests have been stripped of their holy orders [No.  That’s impossible.  Holy Orders confer an indelible mark on the soul that can’t be “stripped”.  They have been “stripped” of permission to function as a priest.] for participating in ordination ceremonies for women.

In a statement last week, Louisville Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz called the planned ceremony by the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests a “simulated ordination” in opposition to Catholic teaching.

“The simulation of a sacrament carries very serious penal sanctions in Church law, and Catholics should not support or participate in Saturday’s event,” Kurtz said.

The Catholic Church teaches that it has no authority to allow women to be priests because Jesus Christ chose only men as his apostles. Proponents of a female priesthood said Jesus was acting only according to the customs of his time.

They also note that he chose women, like Mary Magdalene, as disciples, and that the early Church had women priests, deacons and bishops. [Which is not true.]

[HERE, folks, is a big problem….] The ceremony, held at St. Andrew United Church of Christ in Louisville, was attended by about 200 men and women. Many identified themselves to a Reuters reporter as Catholics, but some declined to give their names or their churches.

[…]

The rest of the piece is rubbish.

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 hosted the circus.  They gave 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.

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

They effectively trampled rites that we Catholics hold as sacred.

These silly Catholic women-priest supporters are committing sacrilege in simulating Mass and Orders.

However, the Protestants who host them are assisting 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.

By allowing this group of fakers into their churches, those Protestants accepted 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?

And if they respond, “Gee, we mean no disrespect. We are just giving space to this group”, then what they are doing is aiding a protest against the Catholic Church.

There is no way around this.

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.

True ecumenism does not consist in lying down and letting some other church 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.