Franciscan prophet faces excommunication and expulsion for celebrating mass with a woman priest

Comment:
Like Roy Bourgeous, Fr. Zawada is following his conscience.....He asks us to do the same.  I for one will be petitioning his superiors.  Their site says they are Prophetic, Fraternal, Franciscan.......Seems they are ousting their own prophet.....  Here is the address if you will follow suit!
DianeDougherty

Fr. John Puodziunas, Provincial Minister
Sts. Francis and Clare Friary
9230 W. Highland Park Avenue
Franklin, WI 53132
Voice 877.636.3742 Toll Free
414-525-9253


Sunday November 27, 2011

Dear Friends:

This is a message to friends of Fr. Jerry Zawada,   OFM.  Our dear friend Jerry is facing expulsion from the Franciscan order   and excommunication from the catholic church.

On November 19, 2011, Fr. Jerry Zawada joined with Rev.   Janice Sevre-Duszynska, ordained a priest in 2008 in the Association of Roman   Catholic Women Priests, in leading an inclusive Catholic Eucharistic liturgy   in Columbus Georgia.  Many were in Georgia at this time during the annual   gathering sponsored by School of Americas Watch.  Fr. Zawada told friends   he openly joined in this inclusive liturgy as a matter of conscience.   

Within days of the liturgy, Fr. Zawada’s order, the   Franciscan Friars of the Assumption BVM Province, Franklin, Wisconsin, was   contacted by church authorities in Rome.   Fr. Zawada has been   advised by his order that he is facing excommunication and expulsion from the   Franciscan order for joining in the liturgy with a woman priest.   

Fr. Zawada will meet with his Franciscan Provincial, Fr.   John Puodziunas, on Tuesday November 29, 2011.

Fr. Jerry has been a member of the Franciscan order for   56 years, since 1955.  He has been a priest for 47 years, since   1964. 

For the last several years, Fr. Zawada has been working   with the migrant community in Arizona and Mexico with the local Catholic   Worker community in Tucson, AZ.  He hopes to continue this work despite a   diagnosis of neuropathy or nerve damage which has afflicted his feet and   legs.  Fr. Zawada gets around with assistance from a cane or walker.  

It is expected that the Bishop of Tucson Arizona, who has   strongly objected to Fr. Zawada’s public civil disobedience actions   challenging US government policy, will also ask Fr. Zawada to cease all   official ministry in that diocese.  Fr. Zawada has served time in federal   prison for actions with the School of Americas Watch challenging human rights   violations by graduates of the US Army Western Hemispheric Institute for   Security Cooperation (formerly known as the School of Americas) at Fort   Benning GA and for actions at Fort Huachuca Arizona challenging the training   of military intelligence in the tactics of torture.
  
When I asked Fr. Jerry what his friends should do he said   he does not feel comfortable telling people what to do.  He encouraged   each of us to follow our conscience and to keep him in our thoughts and   prayers as he meets with his Provincial.

Peace,

Bill Quigley

http://ncronline.org/news/women/how-do-you-welcome-strangers

How do you welcome strangers?

Nov. 22, 2011

By Janice Sevre-Duszynska

• Women

Candidate Kay Akers, Deacon Diane Dougherty, priests Janice Sevre-Duszynska and Katy Zatsick on Fort Benning Road in front of the Progressive Catholic Coalition table. (Submitted photo)

Editor's Note: The following is the homily preached Nov. 19 by Janice Sevre-Duszynska, ordained a priest in the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests. She and Franciscan Fr. Jerry Zawada led an inclusive Catholic eucharistic liturgy at the SOA Watch Vigil at Ft. Benning in Columbus, Ga., as part of the Progressive Catholic Coalition. Zawada and Sevre-Duszynska have both served jail time for civil disobedience to protest nuclear weapons and militarism.


First Reading: "Comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable," in The Eucharist and the Hunger of the World by Monika K. Hellwig.
Second Reading: Ballad of the Carpenter (sung in English, then read in Spanish)
Gospel: Matthew 25: 31-46.

We afflicted the comfortable after showing "Pink Smoke Over the Vatican" for the first time in Rome in October. Following our press conference, our group met at the corner of Via Concilizione, the street leading to the Vatican. We were members of Call to Action, Women's Ordination Conference, and women priests. We were here to support Roy Bourgeois and women priests.
All are invited to say the words of consecration during the inclusive Catholic eucharistic liturgy Nov. 19. (Submitted photo)"What shall we sing?" we asked one another. I shook my ordination tambourine as the WOC banner was displayed and Roy brought out his red-and-white banner with "Ordain women priests" in English and Italian.

We were chanting the Celtic Alleluia and singing "Here I am, Lord" on our way to the Vatican to present the petition signed by 15,000 supporters of Roy and women priests. We were in Rome to cleanse the Vatican temple of sexism. A church that excludes women distracts us from being aware of the feminine aspect of spirituality and the experience and perceptions of women's living and dying. The result is we have a church with a distorted understanding of God. The imbalance creates evil, sin and the suffering continues in our world community.
"What do you want? Women priests. When do you want them? Now," we shouted out.
Roy turned to me and said, "Janice, we're turning over the tables in the Vatican."
"Yes, Roy. We are," I nodded, smiling.
Temple cleansing is not easy and can be unsettling. The Vatican showed its resistance by having the Italian police take the WOC banner away from Erin Hanna, as she was the organizer, and putting her and Miriam Duignan, the translator from womenpriests.org in London, into the police car, and with sirens at full blast, taking them to the police station. Then a plainclothes detective of the Italian police violently grabbed the banner away from Roy, pushing him. Roy joked at CTA in Milwaukee earlier this month that when he was driven to the jail in the police car, he had no sirens.
Then there was the issue of the three of us ordained who were in our albs and stoles: Ree Hudson, ordained woman priest from St. Louis, Mo., and Deacon Donna Rougeux and myself from Lexington, Ky. They would not arrest us. Nor would they let us into St. Peter's Square.
"They," he pointed to the Vatican temple, "they believe women are dangerous," said one of the policemen I talked with as he blocked me from the passage between the iron gates that now surround the temple. He continued: "Your priestly garb is a protest. We cannot let you in."
Then he whispered to me how he and the others support women priests, but that he must "do his job." Yet when he said this to me, I thought of military soldiers doing their "jobs" too.
"What does your conscience tell you?" I asked him. He just smiled and stood there.
I grabbed hold of my alb and stole and reflected. They've excommunicated us women priests. Told us in "delicta graviora" that we are in the same category of sin as pedophile priests -- whom they have not excommunicated. And now they won't let us into the temple area. Like the Pharisees, they are afraid of table turners, temple cleansers ... led by the Spirit within ...
Janice Sevre-Duszynska prepares for liturgy Nov. 19. (Submitted photo)

We had afflicted the comfortable: our brother priests at the Vatican.
Many people recognize the underlying connections between male-only images of God and a domination/subordination pattern of human relationships that contribute to violence in our world, including violence toward women and children.
Jesus' attitude toward women was revolutionary. The Last Supper was not an ordination. The 12 apostles were symbolic of the 12 tribes of Israel. Mary Magdalene was the "Apostle to the Apostles." The archaeological research of the early Church by theologians like Dorothy Irvin and Gary Macy provide scholarly evidence of a tradition of women deacons, priests and bishops during early Christianity.
Jesus challenged the religious and civil authorities of his time for the empowerment of the marginalized, including women. Women's rights are human rights. We are claiming the right to stand "in persona Christi" -- in the person of Christ -- as equals to men.
The full equality of women is the voice of God in our time. Ours is a holy shakeup of the Catholic hierarchy who treat women as strangers and give them no welcome. In today's Gospel, Jesus says, "I was a stranger and you gave me no welcome."
How do you welcome strangers?

Shifting Tides in Arlington, VA-Laity protests

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/protests-of-va-parishs-move-away-from-altar-girls-reflects-wider-catholic-debate/2011/11/17/gIQAnbRLcN_story.html

Comment:
In keeping with the Vatican's efforts to turn Catholics against each other and toward a pre-
Vatican Catholic Church, another parish is focusing on getting girls off the altar, assuming all members will continue former practices and simply pay, pray and obey......note: this church now has electronic donations.....and thinks the simple line tucked in the announcements will serve as a footnote of an inconsequential change.....

"Tucked in with announcements about a new electronic donation system and a church dinner at Margarita’s Mexican restaurant was news that Zickel, the mother of two girls, had been dreading: Corpus Christi would no longer train girls to be altar servers."

How will this change come about?
Change will come through using psythological bullying......the journalist writes:
"Mary Barnes choked up as she described watching her seventh-grade daughter serve during Mass in a white robe while the boys were switched to black ones."
Imagine both children were yours, one boy and one girl....is this the message we Catholics want to send our boys?   Does that boy want his sister treated in this fashion.....if yes, we have stepped aside to allow boys that first step in maintaining a dominance over women.....we should all make this a big issue...because this activity constitutes psychological bullying of the first degree....at a very early age and inthe name of Religion....this is not gospel behavior.....it is Catholic hierarchical behavior.
Comment:
Long time Catholics should reflect on how this hierarchy does not use armies or the military to accomplish thier latest goals.....All they have to do is set up a parallel dynamic of unequal dimensions....which usually is aimed at laity and has been effective in driving them back to thier pews or out of the church....remember when Eucharistic ministers stood behind the altar and were moved, not so long ago, below the first step.....?

The journalist writes:
"The church is trying to hold on to its orthodox doctrine and firm worship structure while making room for cultural shifts, such as gender equality and a push by laypeople for more involvement in decision making."

"But Catholic priests ultimately hold authority in their parishes and answer only to clergy above them, not to laypeople."
Comment:
I would like to rephrase this sentence, "The hierarchy is trying to hold onto its hold on "sexist practices through liturgical celebration......influencing the minds of the next generation that sexism is God's will" for Catholics because they have designed the church on that foundation.

Now...let this change come through protests from the pews......let us make clear to all Catholic clerics-they cannot and we will not let them use our children to set their agenda for maintaining male dominance in the American Church.....I hope the laity of this parish not only protest the pulpit-I hope they omit the use of "electronic donations" or any other donation until these sexist practices are STOPPED.

http://dianedoughertysblog.blogspot.com/


http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/protests-of-va-parishs-move-away-from-altar-girls-reflects-wider-catholic-debate/2011/11/17/gIQAnbRLcN_story.html


By Michelle Boorstein, Updated: Saturday, November 19, 5:10 PM

Catholic hierarchy burying its head in sand, says top priest

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/catholic-hierarchy-burying-its-head-in-sand-says-top-priest-2926679.html

By Ralph Riegel

Saturday November 05 2011

A LEADING priest has launched a broadside against the Catholic Church hierarchy, saying they are sticking their heads in the sand over a number of crucial issues, such as women priests.

Fr Joe McGuane, who is based in Youghal, Co Cork, warned that if the current church regime continued, Mass attendances in Ireland would soon be reduced to small groups of old women.

His comments came as relations between the church and the Government sank to a historic low after Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore confirmed the forthcoming shutdown of Ireland's embassy in the Vatican.
The financial problems facing the church could leave some clerics "filling supermarket shelves at night or on the dole if they have bad backs," the priest said.
In a hard-hitting assessment of the crisis that now faces the church, he warned: "The Papal Nuncio knows as much about the abuse-rocked Diocese of Cloyne as a cow knows about a holiday."
Fr McGuane said that some Dublin parishes now had greater populations than some west of Ireland dioceses.
He said the Eucharistic Congress, to be held in Dublin next summer, was "designed as a distraction", with interest in it -- on a scale of one to a 100 -- ranking as minus three.

He added: "Priests will have to drag themselves along to -- I suppose -- the Phoenix Park or Croke Park for a ridiculous jamboree, and dragoon as many parishioners as possible along with them."

Fr McGuane told the Irish Independent that he took no pleasure in his assessment of the problems facing the church -- but warned that those problems could only be overcome with honesty, courage and transparency.

He said a crucial issue now facing the church was the role of women.
"We are the only profession that excludes women; the only one who insists that it (the vocation) is for life.
"Unless we have married women, we will soon have tiny numbers.
"But then they will only be catering for a few, so I suppose there is no need to panic. Furthermore, there will be income only for a few.
Leadership
"Is it any wonder we are in the mess we are in? Seventeen years after the late Brendan Smyth was convicted of child sexual abuse, not alone are we still at square one but we have actually gone backwards.
"This is because of our dearth of leadership," he said. "Our prelates are, by and large, incapable of initiative and innovation. They are almost entirely bereft of ideas. They have no idea what to do."
The Diocese of Cloyne did not respond to Fr McGuane's comments last night.
Fr McGuane -- who is chaplain at the St Raphael's Centre -- insisted that the church's problems started at the top.

"There have been proposals that all bishops appointed before Diarmuid Martin should resign. This would be useless while the present system of appointments is in place. Clones would replace them," he said.

"They, in turn, would appoint similar clones to all positions and their characteristic would be blind knee-jerk unconditional obedience, no matter how stupid the instruction."

- Ralph Riegel

Governments weighing in...Europe leads the way-Church found Liable over priest's action

Comment:  It will be hard for the hierarchy to play both sides of the coin after this.....
NB. 
“There are, it seems to me, crucial features which should be recognised.
“Father Baldwin was appointed by and on behalf of the defendants.
“He was so appointed in order to do their work; to undertake the ministry on behalf of the defendants for the benefit of the church.
“He was given the full authority of the defendants to fulfil that role. He was provided with the premises, the pulpit and the clerical robes.
“He was directed into the community with that full authority and was given free rein to act as representative of the church.
“He had been trained and ordained for that purpose. He had immense power handed to him by the defendants.
“It was they who appointed him to the position of trust which (if the allegations be proved) he so abused.”
hopefully America will follow.....and since corporations are now seen as "persons" by the Supreme Court, perhaps new legislations will prevent them from ripping apart the fabric of the American people.
Diane Dougherty

irishtimes.com - Last Updated: Tuesday, November 8, 2011, 12:50
Church 'liable' over priests' action

Vatican inquiry into London child abuse claim 'a PR exercise' | 26/10/2011

The High Court ruled today that the Catholic Church can be held liable for the wrongdoings of its priests.
A judge in London announced his decision in a case which has been described as being “an issue of wide general importance in respect of claims against the Catholic Church”.
Although the point to be decided arose in a damages action over alleged sex abuse by a priest, it is understood that the decision will affect other types of claims made against the Church.
Mr Justice MacDuff gave a decision in favour of a 47-year-old woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, who claims she was sexually assaulted as a child by the late Fr Wilfred Baldwin, a priest of the Portsmouth Diocese, at a children’s home in Hampshire run by an order of nuns.
Giving his decision on a preliminary issue in her damages action the judge held that, in law, the Church “may be vicariously liable” for Father Baldwin’s alleged wrongdoings.
The trustees of the Portsmouth Roman Catholic Diocesan Trust - the defendant “standing in the shoes of the bishop” - were given leave to appeal.
Lord Faulks QC, for the defendants, said the Catholic Church “takes sexual abuse extremely seriously and it is entirely concerned to eradicate it”. The preliminary issue was on a point of law, he said, and emphasised that the Church was not seeking to abandon responsibility for sexual abuse.
During the hearing of the issue in July, the judge was told by Elizabeth-Anne Gumbel QC, representing the woman at the centre of the sex abuse claim, that the issue to be determined was whether the Church “can ever be vicariously liable in any situation for any tort at all”.
It was, she said, “a very wide issue indeed”.
Lawyers for the alleged victim said it was the first time a court has been asked to rule on whether the “relationship between a Catholic priest and his bishop is akin to an employment relationship”.
In his written ruling, Mr Justice MacDuff made clear that it had been agreed for the purposes of the litigation that the trustees of the Portmouth Roman Catholic Diocesan Trust “stood in the place of the Bishop of Portsmouth at the material time”.
He said: “The issue is whether the diocesan bishop should be held vicariously liable for the torts of the priest of his diocese.”
The claimant, who is seeking damages for personal injury, alleges she was sexually abused and raped by Father Baldwin, who died in 2006, when she was resident at the Firs Children’s Home in Waterlooville, Hampshire, between May 1970 and May 1972.
Mr Justice MacDuff said the issue “turns upon the relationship between Father Baldwin and the defendant”.
He said: “The defendant contends that Father Baldwin was not its employee, nor was the relationship ‘akin to employment’ and that vicarious liability cannot attach to the relationship which exists between them.”
He explained that vicarious liability “is a doctrine which makes an employer responsible for the tortious acts of an employee, acting within the scope, or course, of his employment”.
In the preliminary issue he only had to decide “whether the nature of the relationship (between Father Baldwin and the defendants) is one to which vicarious liability may - I emphasise may - attach”.
He had to determine whether vicarious liability may attach “notwithstanding that it was a relationship which differed in significant respects from a relationship of employer and employee”.
“This is not an issue which has previously been decided by the courts of England and Wales.”
The differences from a contract of employment were that there was “no real element of control or supervision, no wages, no formal contract and so on”.
He added: “But are those differences such that the defendants should not be made responsible for the tortious acts of the priest acting within the course of his ministry?
“There are, it seems to me, crucial features which should be recognised.
“Father Baldwin was appointed by and on behalf of the defendants.
“He was so appointed in order to do their work; to undertake the ministry on behalf of the defendants for the benefit of the church.
“He was given the full authority of the defendants to fulfil that role. He was provided with the premises, the pulpit and the clerical robes.
“He was directed into the community with that full authority and was given free rein to act as representative of the church.
“He had been trained and ordained for that purpose. He had immense power handed to him by the defendants.
“It was they who appointed him to the position of trust which (if the allegations be proved) he so abused.”

Leading Irish Priest Criticizes Catholic Hierarchy for 'Burying its Head in the Sand

Sunday, November 6, 2011


"Vatican Officials Stunned by Irish Decision to Close Embassy"

Pope said to be ‘deeply irritated’ by the move to end diplomatic ties
By
CATHY HAYES,
IrishCentral.com Staff Writer
Read more: http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Vatican-officials-stunned-by-Irish-decision-to-close-embassy-133290623.html#ixzz1cyQfFVyg

Posted by Bridget Maryat 7:07 PM 0 comments  Links to this post


"Leading Irish Priest Criticizes Catholic Hierarchy for 'Burying its Head in the Sand'"/Irish Independent

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Leading-Irish-priest-criticizes-Catholic-hierarchy-for-burying-its-head-in-the-sand-133320373.html
By
ANTOINETTE KELLY,
IrishCentral.com Staff Writer
"A top Irish priest has said the Catholic Church hierarchy has been burying its head in the sand over key issues.
If the current church regime continues, says Fr Joe McGuane, Mass attendance in Ireland will be reduced to just a few groups of old women.
Fr McGuane's comments came just as the relationship between the Church and Ireland hit a historic low after the country confirmed the forthcoming shutdown of its embassy in the Vatican.
The church's precarious economic situation could have some clerics "filling supermarket shelves at night or on the dole if they have bad backs," said the Youghal, Co Cork-based priest.
Fr McGuane, a chaplain at the St Raphael's Centre, said the Eucharistic Congress, to be held in Dublin next summer, was "designed as a distraction."
"Priests will have to drag themselves along to -- I suppose -- the Phoenix Park or Croke Park for a ridiculous jamboree, and dragoon as many parishioners as possible along with them," he told the Irish Independent.
He added that he took no pleasure in his negative assessment of the church's problems and said that the problems could be overcome "with honesty, courage, and transparency."
"...He said that the Church needs to change its position on women priests.
"We are the only profession that excludes women; the only one who insists that it (the vocation) is for life.
"Unless we have married women, we will soon have tiny numbers.
"But then they will only be catering for a few, so I suppose there is no need to panic. Furthermore, there will be income only for a few.
"Is it any wonder we are in the mess we are in? Seventeen years after the late Brendan Smyth was convicted of child sexual abuse, not alone are we still at square one but we have actually gone backwards.
"This is because of our dearth of leadership," he said. "Our prelates are, by and large, incapable of initiative and innovation. They are almost entirely bereft of ideas. They have no idea what to do."
Read more: http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Leading-Irish-priest-criticizes-Catholic-hierarchy-for-burying-its-head-in-the-sand-133320373.html#ixzz1cyIWOqwS
Bridget Mary's Reflection:
Fr McGuane is right on in his analysis that the church needs women priests now. I look forward to the day that we will have women priests in Ireland, following in the path of St. Brigit of Kildare! As the institutional church is in free fall in Ireland, may women rise up to create a more open, inclusive and just church of the people!
Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP
Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests
www.associationofromancatholicwomenpriests.org
sofiabmm@aol.com

Ireland to close Vatican embassy following child abuse row

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jJA5EzNl5STR-CfU-k2dzr_dWWOw?docId=CNG.05ef6098d03ca3f6ae535c992af6d23d.691
Ireland to close Vatican embassy following child abuse row
(AFP) – 4 hours ago 
DUBLIN — Ireland said Thursday it would close its embassy to the Vatican as part of a shake-up of its missions abroad following a row with the Holy See earlier this year over a child sex abuse scandal.
"It is with the greatest regret and reluctance that the government has decided to close Ireland's (embassy) to the Holy See," said a statement from the foreign ministry.
Foreign Minister Eamon Gilmore said the move was not connected to the row with the Vatican which was sparked by a July report into a long-running abuse scandal in the diocese of Cloyne, insisting it was aimed at saving money.
"I very much regret that due to the financial constraints that this country is under at the moment that we have to reduce the number of missions that we have abroad, including the mission that we have at the Vatican," he told RTE state radio.
The foreign ministry added in a statement that "the government believes that Ireland's interests with the Holy See can be sufficiently represented by a non-resident ambassador."
Cardinal Sean Brady, the ecclesiastical head of the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland, expressed his "profound disappointment" at the decision, which was relayed to him by Gilmore in a telephone conversation earlier Thursday.
"This decision seems to show little regard for the important role played by the Holy See in international relations and of the historic ties between the Irish people and the Holy See over many centuries," said Brady in a statement.
"I hope that today's decision will be revisited as soon as possible," he added.
The Vatican took note of Ireland's decision and stressed in a statement: "What is important are diplomatic relations between the Holy See and other states, and in the case of Ireland they are not brought into question."
The Irish ministry also announced the closure of the embassy in Iran and a representative office in East Timor as part of the overhaul, which it also insisted were aimed at saving money in the wake of the financial crisis.
Predominantly Catholic Ireland has traditionally had close links with the Vatican and the embassy was opened in 1929 but Dublin and the Holy See fell out dramatically earlier this year.
The July report into more than a decade of abuse by priests in the diocese of Cloyne condemned the Church's handling of abuse claims against clerics as inadequate.
The report sparked outrage in the Irish government and triggered an unprecedented attack by Prime Minister Enda Kenny who called the Roman Catholic Church's behaviour "absolutely disgraceful".
The Vatican subsequently recalled its envoy to Ireland in order to formulate an official response.
The decision to close the missions followed a 2009 report on public expenditure savings choices for the government which said Ireland had 76 embassies and consulates compared to 40 in 1989.
The report recommended reducing the number of embassies and consulates to 55.
Thursday's foreign ministry statement insisted the closures were aimed at saving money and made no mention of the child sex abuse row.
"In order to meet its targets under the EU/IMF programme and to restore public expenditure to sustainable levels, the government has been obliged to implement cuts across a wide range of public services," it said.
"No area of government expenditure can be immune from the need to implement savings."
Dublin was forced to turn to the European Union and International Monetary Fund in November last year to seek an 85-billion-euro rescue package following a financial crisis.
Ireland has had an embassy in Tehran since 1976 but trade volumes with Iran had fallen short of expectations, said the statement.
The Irish mission in East Timor had been in place since 2000, two years before independence, said the ministry.