Disrespect Women-They will Leave....

Comment:  Oh so true.....and we now have ARCWP and our small churches abound...
There are churches in America in which women aren’t allowed to speak out loud unless they get permission from a man first.

There are churches (many of them) in which women aren’t permitted to preach from the pulpit.

There are churches in America where a 13-year-old boy has more authority than his mother.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/churches-and-politicians-take-note-disrespect-women-and-they-will-leave/2012/03/07/gIQA9SwJzR_print.html

If Catholics Should Give Up Hospitals For Lent, Should We Also Give Up The Military?

Comment:A Marvelous piece of writing showing cafeteria Bishops at work....
"The bishops do not seem to have (much) of a problem with Catholics conforming their consciences to President Obama’s when it comes to matters of war and peace, why should it be any different with matters of health and disease?"


http://womenintheology.org/2012/03/30/if-catholics-should-give-up-hospitals-for-lent-should-we-also-give-up-the-military/

If Catholics Should Give Up Hospitals For Lent, Should We Also Give Up The Military?

March 30, 2012 by Katie Grimes

Several Catholic bishops have threatened that, if made to comply with the HHS ruling requiring Catholic hospitals to indirectly pay for their employees’ birth control, the Catholic church will have no choice but to “give up its health care institutions for Lent.”
As Cardinal George argues:

What will happen if the HHS regulations are not rescinded? A Catholic institution, so far as I can see right now, will have one of four choices: 1) secularize itself, breaking its connection to the church, her moral and social teachings and the oversight of its ministry by the local bishop. This is a form of theft. It means the church will not be permitted to have an institutional voice in public life. 2) Pay exorbitant annual fines to avoid paying for insurance policies that cover abortifacient drugs, artificial contraception and sterilization. This is not economically sustainable. 3) Sell the institution to a non-Catholic group or to a local government. 4) Close down.

In other words, the Catholic church would rather get out of the healthcare business altogether, even though it would mean sacrificing all the good that Catholic hospitals do, than be made to do something that it considers to be immoral. The moral philosophy guiding this conclusion would seem to be the following: it would be better to not do good in order to avoid doing evil than to do evil in order to keep doing good.
If this is true, then should we not also get out of the U.S. military business?
This statement probably seems like a huge non sequitur so let me explain.
As the bishops remind us in their 1983 document The Challenge of Peace: God’s Promise and Our Response, when it comes to matters of war and peace, a Catholic has only two options: either pacifism or adherence to just war theory.

The meaning of pacifism is straightforward enough: it is the belief that all wars, of any kind and for any reason, are always wrong. But just war theory, precisely because it is not a form of moral absolutism, is much more easily misrepresented. It is not, as some seem to think, an excuse for war. Just war theory begins from the presumption that war is almost always wrong. This is why, in the Summa, Thomas Aquinas conducts his treatment of war by asking “whether it is always sinful to wage war?” For Thomas, war is the exception; not the rule. The benefit of the doubt is always given to peace.
In sum, a Catholic must either think that all wars are wrong or that most wars are wrong.
But the United States military does not allow for this. Currently, the military recognizes the rights only of conscientious objectors, those who think that all wars are immoral; it does not recognize the rights of selective conscientious objectors, those who think that one war in particular is immoral. If you are a Catholic in the U.S. military and you wish to follow Catholic teaching on war, you are not allowed to do so. While the military can be said to respect the religious freedom and freedom of conscience of pacifist Catholics, it cannot be said to respect the religious freedom and freedom of conscience of those Catholics who wish to adhere to just war theory.
With its refusal to recognize the rights of selective conscientious objectors, does not the U.S. military exhibit a hostility to the religious freedom of Catholics that is at least as egregious as that allegedly displayed in the HHS mandate?
It is not therefore true, as Cardinal George insists, that, prior to the HHS ruling, “the government has respected the freedom of individual conscience and institutional integrity of the many religious groups that shape society.” If Catholics in the military have long been deprived of the right to refuse to fight in wars that their conscience and church tells them are wrong, then what Cardinal George says here is clearly not true. Rather than being an unprecedented attack on religious freedom, the HHS mandate would seem to be business as usual.
And this is not merely a theoretical debate about hypothetical scenarios. Unlike the claim that birth control causes abortions, which is based on unverifiable speculation, we know for a fact that the U.S. military has waged unjust wars. Some, if not most, of the wars the U.S. military has waged have failed to fulfill the criteria set forth by Catholic just war theory. Very recently, Pope John Paul II categorized the Iraq War as an unjust war. How many Catholic soldiers were made to fight in this war? How many Catholic members of the military were made to violate their own church’s teaching and contribute, however indirectly, to the prosecution of this war?
And this is not just about Catholic individuals. The Catholic church’s involvement in the military is just as institutional as its involvement in the healthcare industry. The Catholic church has a military chaplaincy and it even has an archdiocese devoted exclusively to the U.S. military.
If being made to pay, even indirectly, for birth control is reason enough for the Catholic church to get out of the healthcare business, shouldn’t being made to participate, even indirectly, in the execution of unjust wars be reason enough for the the Catholic church to get out of the military business? When it comes to church teaching on women’s sexuality, there is no good good enough to justify even the slightest deviation from church teaching. With respect to church teaching on war, one must ask, is there any evil evil enough to compel the church to take its own teachings seriously and reconsider its institutional affiliation with the U.S. military?
The bishops do not seem to have (much) of a problem with Catholics conforming their consciences to President Obama’s when it comes to matters of war and peace, why should it be any different with matters of health and disease?

Not in our name-Declaration of concerned protestant and catholic clergy -powerful

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/march282012/church-corruption.php

Mar-28-2012 13:59
Not In Our Name
Salem-News.com
A Declaration of Concerned Protestant and Catholic Clergy, with a Ten Point Program to Bring the Church to Justice and Protect the Innocent

(LONDON) - We are a group of Protestant and Catholic clergy who are compelled by our faith and conscience to speak out and act against the continuing reign of corruption, lies and criminality that predominates in the so-called Christian Church today.
This is a cry to all people of faith to awaken to the evil in which we are immersed.
The Church has betrayed Christ and humanity by committing unpardonable evil against countless children and “non-believers”, denying its victims justice, and absolving itself of any accountability for its crimes. The Pope himself is implicated in protecting known child rapists in his church, and presides over a system of massive, institutionalized child abuse and trafficking.
The Church is also responsible for a long history of brutality, theft, genocide and destruction committed over centuries on non-Christians and the innocent. This slaughter began over fifteen centuries ago, at the founding of the Church of Rome, and continues today.
The killing of millions of women and dissident Christians under Inquisitions, the Crusading ethic of Indulgence – which promised spiritual cleansing to anyone who killed Jews, Muslims and other “enemies of the faith” – and the eventual genocide of untold millions of indigenous people around the world with Christian blessing: all of this arose from the Church’s belief that it has the power to kill and conquer in the name of the same Christ who said, "Put away your swords".
The Vatican is responsible for the greatest slaughter of humanity in history because of two papal bulls (Romanus Pontifex, 1455, and Inter Catera, 1493) – proclaimed and still operative under so-called Canon Law – that sanctioned and encouraged the destruction and enslavement of all non-Christian peoples: the majority of humanity. The vast wealth of the Vatican today rests upon the stolen and unreturned lands of many of those nations.
Is it surprising, then, that for just as long, the Church has sanctioned the torture, rape and even murder of innocent children in its orphanages, sweatshops, and “residential schools” around the world?
Are we surprised that such a violent and wealthy organization places its own material survival ahead of justice for the innocents it has wronged, or for the world’s starving millions? Or, that under the canon law known as Crimen Solicitationas, every Catholic priest is expected to hide the evidence of the rape of children and allow this abomination to go unpunished, or face expulsion from the Church?

We are aware that Protestant churches as well are guilty of these crimes. The Anglican Church of England, the United Church of Canada, and Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Baptist and other churches in America and around the world also caused the torture and death of children in their schools and orphanages. These churches continue to aid and abet child rapists, and shelter such criminals in their ranks. The example may be set by Catholic Rome, but it is actively copied by others.
These facts are irrefutable, and yet Christians continue to give their attendance, money and allegiance to the church corporations with such blood on their hands and lies on their lips.
We have all, by commission and omission, given our support to the anti-Christ in our midst and allowed ourselves to be used to commit the worst of all sins: violence against the sacred holy spirit of God and the innocent.
All of these desecrations against God and humanity have been done in our name. They must be undone. And yet before we can cleanse ourselves of this enormous wrong and apostasy, we must recognize that the true body of Christ could not have committed such evil - only a false Church could.
Since Christ is manifest in every man and woman, the kingdom of heaven being within us, then churches which claim to "represent" Christ and yet violate and harm with impunity human beings, and children, are a lie and a violation of God's law and human dignity.
We therefore name the Church and its denominations responsible for such wrong as apostate, anti-Christ and servants of the world rather than of God; and we declare ourselves spiritually and actively absolved from our allegiance to such a lie, and to these church organizations.
In faith, we seek instead to re-establish a genuine Christianity not tied to these crimes and to a history of genocide and institutionalized child abuse.
The present, false Church is the offspring of the murderous legacy of Christendom, which is an empire of conquest and violence arising from the adulterous union of church and state under the later Roman emperors. Yet Christendom still operates today through wealthy, state-protected church organizations which are a law unto themselves: legal corporations in league with the state, answerable neither to God nor to their own congregations of believers.
Christendom is a heresy and a denial of the supremacy of Christ and his sacrifice. For we owe our allegiance to God, not to church bodies deriving their power and legitimacy from government and financial institutions, and worldly wealth. For the kingdom of Christ is not of this world.
For this reason, to cleanse ourselves of this enormous sin and crime, and to help reinvent and re-establish a genuine Christian faith rooted in true discipleship to the non-violent poor one Jesus Christ, we are issuing the following Ten Point Program.
We believe that these measures are required for the church to be brought under public control so that it no longer operates as a secret, criminal body preying on the innocent. There can be no "apology" or healing of the crimes of Christendom without the enacting of these concrete measures to make justice a reality for the living and the dead. (note: We are referring to all churches responsible for these crimes, Protestant and Catholic, when we use the term "The Church")
The Church must issue full reparations to all of its victims according to their wishes and needs. The Church must pay for all of the costs incurred by their damage to these victims, including all medical, counseling and retraining costs, and all loss of income caused by their disability or grief and suffering.

The Church must return all land and property taken from its victims, and restore and return all of the wealth generated by their exploitation of their victims to them, including the wealth gained through forced, unpaid or low paid labor.

The Church must surrender for a proper burial, unconditionally and at its own expense, the remains of all those who died in their institutions or under their care.

The Church must surrender to secular authorities without conditions all the evidence, and all the perpetrators and their accessories, connected to such deaths and to any other crimes against children and others under church care. The Church must participate unconditionally in any legal or human rights inquiries into their crimes and freely disclose their records to such investigations.

Those responsible for crimes against children and others in church facilities, including the Pope, must be arrested and tried in civil or international courts of law, and cannot be shielded from prosecution by any form of immunity or by so-called “canon law”.

All clergy and church employees must be licensed and monitored as public servants, and be legally compelled to swear a public, binding oath to protect the rights and sanctity of children, and disclose any harm done to them, if need be against the orders of the Church itself.

All tax exemptions, immunities, legal safeguards and special privileges enjoyed by the Church must be abolished.

Diplomatic recognition of the Vatican and its status as a so-called “state” must be annulled.

All special concordats and financial agreements with the Vatican must be annulled, and all public funds and taxes given to the Vatican and all other churches must be returned to the people in the form of a direct, public redistribution of that wealth to the poor.

The wealth and property of all church bodies larger than a single congregation must be nationalized and placed under public ownership, so that the Church may function as a servant of the community and especially of the poor.

We, the founding clergy of the Protestant and Roman Catholic faiths united in our group Not in Our Name, do solemnly pledge ourselves to this program and allegiance, and call upon all Christians and clergy to do the same.
Henceforth, and until this Program is enacted and the Church is disestablished as a corporate, self-governing, criminal body, we will conduct ourselves and our pastoral duties separate from and in opposition to corporate Christendom and its existing churches.
We call upon all true believers to reclaim their spiritual sovereignty and help us re-establish the true church of Jesus Christ, by disassociating themselves from corporate Christendom and its false churches, and the Vatican. Begin this new Reformation now by not giving money and tithings to the Catholic and Protestant churches responsible for crimes against the innocent and God.
We ask and pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, our one and ultimate authority.
We are twenty four clergy in Canada, the United States, Ireland, England, Australia and Italy, who are affiliated with Not in Our Name.
Duly signed and ratified this Fifteenth Day of March, 2012
(Names to follow)
Please share this with clergy and laity and sign it. You can reach us through Rev. Caoimhin Ui Niall at thecommonland@gmail.com

Vatican report attempts mere excuse not explanation

By Tom Doyle :
This “crisis” is not primarily about sexual molestation. It’s about the obsession with power and the corruption and stagnation of the clerical culture.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2012/0327/1224313953836.html

‘Pink Smoke Over the Vatican’ stirs student debate over ordained women

Go Janice!

http://marquettetribune.org/2012/03/27/news/pink-smoke-over-the-vatican-stirs-student-debate-over-ordained-women/

‘Pink Smoke Over the Vatican’ stirs student debate over ordained women

By Andrea Anderson

March 27, 2012

Janice Sevre-Duszynska, an ordained woman priest, speaks and answers questions about the documentary Pink Smoke Over the Vatican. Photo by Rebecca Rebholz/rebecca.rebholz@marquette.edu

Marquette Hall room 100, where many university students sit crabbily and fall asleep to their professor’s monotone voice throughout the week, buzzed with students Sunday night. They were there for the academic screening of “Pink Smoke Over the Vatican,” a documentary film about a movement supporting women seeking to be ordained as priests in the Roman Catholic Church.
The 58-minute film and attached academic event was sponsored by Marquette’s Women’s and Gender Studies Program and shared the views of men and women who encourage the ordination of women, along with those who oppose it. Janice Sevre-Duszynska, one of 12 women ordained in 2006 on the waters outside of Pittsburgh, was at the screening and shared her story with the audience and partook in the question-and-answer session after.
“Pink Smoke Over the Vatican” shares the stories of men and women who are working to put an end to the “underlying misogyny and outdated feudal governance that is slowly destroying the Roman Catholic Church,” the video’s website said. The name comes from supporters’ actions on April 17, 2005 when they released pink smoke in front of several U.S. cathedrals in an attempt to call churches to open doors fully to women participation.
At the beginning of the documentary the narrator continuously repeats the question, “Where are the women’s voices?” and then cites the 1024 Canon Law that says only a baptized male can be ordained.
Dr. Dorothy Irvin, a Roman Catholic theologian, explained in the film that the woman’s role in the church was eradicated after the Roman Empire made Catholicism its official religion. Before this, women were ordained and practiced the sacraments, all proven by the discovery of mosaics in South Africa and pictures in catacombs across the world.
The documentary also touched on Ludmila Javorova, a woman who was born into a Catholic family in communist Czechoslovakia and wished to be a nun, a forbidden practice for women at the time. During the Stalinist trials, priests were reported, jailed and killed, and as a result, Javorova kept her wishes secret.
One man who knew Javorova was Felix Maria Davídek, a former bishop of the Roman Catholic Church and resident of the Czech Republic. Davídek was jailed for his religious views and released in 1964 when he reached out to Javorova. He believed in the need for the ordination of women as priests, and so he ordained Javorova in December of 1970 in an underground Church in Czechoslovakia. When the Vatican found out it refused to recognize her holy orders, and she was excommunicated.
To date there are 130 female ordained Catholic priests in the U.S. and many in communities in Germany, Austria, France, Scotland, South America and Canada. It is the official position of the church that these women are excommunicated.
Sevre-Duszynska, at the end of the documentary, said the women are strong in faith, numbers and determination.
“Every Saturday for six or seven years I cleaned the sanctuary and make-believed I was giving service at the altar,” Sevre-Duszynska said. “I had it in me at such a young age, and it’s still there – the desire and sense of energy are still there.”
Sevre-Duszynska grew up in Milwaukee and now lives in Lexington, Kentucky. She celebrates Mass in Cincinnati, Ohio once a month with her fellow women priests, at an undisclosed location where the Vatican cannot intervene.
During the Q-and-A moderated by Leah Todd, a senior in the College of Communication, and Kate Nicholson, a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences, many students and members of the community had powerful comments.
One audience member, who said she has a very strong faith and belief in the Catholic Church, asked Sevre-Duszynska how she stayed in a community she was not welcomed in.
“I am a seasoned daughter and believer in the Catholic faith,” Sevre-Duszynska said. “We are being supported, and we would love to see more male bishops in this country support ordination of women and come forward. Many of them would do so and privately believe so but are scared to lose their jobs. If we all left, who is there to say, ‘Gee, who is wrong?’”
Another audience member asked why Catholics should stay with the Church if “it is going to be discriminatory.”
Marjorie Maguire, mentor and longtime friend of Sevre-Duszynska, said a person stays because numbers count.
“The reason to stay in church is because there are a billion people in the church, and they have a lot of power and so does the institution (the Vatican),” McGuire said. “I think it’s important to have this movement because it sees women being ordained by men they ordained.”

Sacred She-poem by Linda

A message from the poet-
Hello to all of you most courageous women,
     I am so very much inspired by all of you , by your love for God, and your determination to respond to God's call in the face of daunting opposition.
     I am a contemplative poet from NS (Nova Scotia) Canada and I have made a 2 and 1/2 minute video reciting my new poem entitled SacredShe .It is empowering for women, and the men who support them, in our church. check out the link and feel free to share.You can also access it on youtube through SacredShe (one word with capitol S's).
Thank you so much,
 Linda Longmire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mrp0PCE5vJ8

Jimmy Carter Leaves Church over Treatment of Women

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2009/07/20/jimmy-carter-leaves-church-over-treatment-of-women/

Addressing the global Catholic sex abuse scandal

Comment:Excellent response by our Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan. dd

“Cry out as if you had a million voices, it is silence that kills the world,” said St Catherine of Siena (25 March 1347 – 29 April 1380), a courageous reformer who lived at a time of grave scandal when three men, each claiming to be the pope, shook the church to its foundation.
Today Catholics live in a time when the institutional church has lost credibility because of the cover-up of a global sex abuse scandal which, like a rapidly spreading cancer, is destroying the moral fibre of our church.
Like St Catherine, we, the people, need to speak truth to our church leaders including our bishops and our pope. Silence is compliance.
Roman Catholics can no longer be silent about the thousands of victims throughout Europe and around the world who were sexually assaulted by Catholic clergy.
The growing number of allegations of sexual abuse in Ireland, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and the Netherlands indicate that the cover-up of crimes against children and youth in the Catholic Church goes all the way to the Pope and the Vatican.
In the United States the sex abuse scandal has destroyed the lives of victims and their families, bankrupted some dioceses and cost the Church over two billion dollars. Approximately two-thirds of sitting US bishops were alleged in 2002 to have kept accused priests in ministry or moved them to new assignments. Nineteen bishops in the United States have been accused of sexual abuse (http://www.bishop-accountability.org/).
The Vatican's record on child abuse was criticised at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland on 16 March 16 2010.
Pope Benedict, the former Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger of Munich, has been linked to the case of a German priest convicted of molesting children but allowed to continue to minister in Ratzinger’s archdiocese for more than 30 years until his recent suspension.
Later, as head of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Ratzinger was in charge of reviewing sexual abuse cases for the Vatican. The cases were handled under a strict code of pontifical secrecy.
The Vatican has handled more than 3,000 cases, according to its own report. Since Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, is implicated in the handling of the cases, it is surely right that the civil authorities should investigate the alleged cover-up to assure that transparency and justice is achieved.
Catholics should call on the all-male leadership of the Roman Catholic Church, especially those in the Vatican, to admit their failures, including the abuse of power at the center of this crisis. Catholics should call for the resignation of bishops who covered-up sex abuse. Standards of accountability must be the norm for all, including the pope and the hierarchy.
What is needed now is an independent truth commission made up of a broad representation of people of integrity, including victims of abuse and the non-ordained, to examine this global sexual abuse crisis and to chart a path forward to structural change - a change which would include women priests and married priests, with an end to mandatory celibacy.
Now more than ever our Church needs the wisdom and experience of women to re-birth a renewed community of equals empowered by the Spirit. Roman Catholic Womenpriests offer a collaborative model of an inclusive Church rooted in partnership with the people we serve, with no one excluded.
----------
(c) Bridget Mary Meehan is a spokesperson for Roman Catholic Womenpriests (http://www.romancatholicwomenpriests.org/), and ministers herself in the southern region of the USA. She is a widely published author and has produced television programmes on prayer, spirituality, and women's issues. This feature is adapted from a syndicated article.

Cardinal Dolan -Stop Endangerin​g LGBT Youth

Comment:  This is a letter from the director of a youth shelter caring for teens rejected from their families because they are gay.  In it, he petitions for compassion and empathy from the Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Dolan.  Religious rejection is truly an oxymoron.  How can we reject those we are mandated to love?  This is a heart felt and beautiful letter all should read and ponder.....dd

Cardinal Dolan,
I write to you as the director of the Ali Forney Center, the nation's largest organization dedicated to homeless LGBT youth. I am writing to you on behalf of the hundreds of thousands of LGBT youths who have been driven from their homes by parents unwilling or unable to accept their own children because they are gay. And I write to you as a member of the Archdiocese of New York who is deeply ashamed by the ways that his bishop contributes to the abuse and harm suffered by these youths.
I want you to understand how you, and other religious leaders who fight against the acceptance of LGBT people, are helping to create a national tragedy. As youths find the courage and integrity to be honest about who they are at younger ages, hundreds of thousands are being turned out of their homes and forced to survive alone on the streets by parents who cannot accept having a gay child. Parental rejection has become so prevalent that LGBT youths make up an astonishing 40 percent of the nation's homeless youth population.
Do you know that a recent study of family rejection found that parents who identify themselves as "strongly religious" are much more likely to reject their LGBT children?
Certainly you must see your responsibility in fostering a climate where parents turn on their own children, for you have been a loud and strident voice against the acceptance of LGBT people as equal members of our society. When you compare being gay to being an alcoholic, as you did in interviews with the local media, you cause parents who give credence to you to see their LGBT children in terms of sickness and addiction. When you equate the state of New York with Communist China for granting its LGBT citizens marriage equality, you make the acceptance of LGBT people seem menacing and evil. You recently wrote to President Obama threatening "a national conflict between church and state of enormous proportions" because of the Obama administration's decision not to support a federal ban on gay marriage. I hope that you understand that thousands of LGBT teens will be wounded in this conflict you have decided to escalate.
When you use your position as a religious leader to fight the acceptance of LGBT persons as equal members of our society, you inevitably make many parents less able to accept their own LGBT children.
I ask you to consider the enormous human suffering caused by parental rejection. The number of LGBT youths left in abject destitution and homelessness after being driven from their homes is estimated by the federal government to be between 120,000 and 240,000. Many of these youths have no way to support themselves except through prostitution. In New York City 20 percent of the homeless LGBT youth become infected with HIV. Youths who are rejected by their families suffer from elevated rates of depression and other mental illness; they are much more likely to abuse substances. Most alarmingly, LGBT youths who are rejected by their families are eight and a half times more likely to be suicidal than those whose families accept them.
I also ask that you consider how in fighting against the acceptance of LGBT people, you are encouraging behavior that grossly contradicts the core message of Jesus Christ in the Gospels, whether you intend to or not. Is it not at the very heart of Christ's message that God's love for us is the steadfast, unfailing, merciful love of a parent? I could point to numerous examples of this message in the Gospels, but I ask you to especially reflect on the parable of the Return of the Prodigal Son and its image of God as a tender, loving father so consumed with all-accepting, all-forgiving love for his child. Surely you must recognize the shamefulness of so many Christian parents discarding their LGBT children. What a grotesque perversion of the Gospel message you perpetrate when you fight against the acceptance of LGBT people, and in so doing foster this depraved climate where parents turn on their own children.
We have looked with horror at the spectacle of numerous bishops having enabled the abuse of thousands of children by failing to remove sexual predators from the ranks of the priesthood. As people come to better understand your role in the terrible suffering caused by homophobic parents turning on their children, you and other religious leaders who aggressively fight the acceptance of LGBT people will similarly be seen as demonstrating a reckless indifference to the welfare of children.
Cardinal Dolan, I pray that you might be able to open your eyes and your heart to the cruel suffering LGBT youths endure when their parents reject them. I invite you to visit the Ali Forney Center, only 30 blocks from St. Patrick's Cathedral, and meet with youths whose Catholic parents drove them from their homes. I want you to hear them tell you what it is like to have their parents be ashamed of them, and tell them that they are against God. I want you to see what their lives are like alone, unloved, and abandoned in the streets. I hope that by meeting our kids you can understand the pain and anguish you help to cause.
Decent people protect children from harm. I want you to be that decent person. I hope decent Christians will join me in demanding that religious leaders stop promoting homophobia. As the Cardinal Archbishop of New York, and as the President of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, you may well be the most influential religious leader in the country, and could make an enormous difference in this crisis of family rejection. I hope and pray that you can stop fighting the acceptance of LGBT people as equal citizens. I want you to understand how LGBT youth suffer because of such a fight. Please see these rejected children through the eyes of a pastor and figure out a way to stop causing them to be harmed.
Carl Siciliano is the founder and executive director of the Ali Forney Center, which provides housing, medical care, and vocational and educational support to LGBT youths who have been driven from their homes. Formerly he was a Benedictine monk and a member of the Catholic Worker movement.

Check out our New website-http://arcwp.org/

New Website for Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests Now Up!

http://arcwp.org/

Read more »

Friday, March 23, 2012

World Day of Prayer for Women's Ordination on March 25th

World Day of Prayer for Women's Ordination

is a concerted global action held

annually on March 25th, the feast of the Annunciation, to draw attention to calls of women as priests, deacons, and bishops into an inclusive and accountable Catholic Church. In solidarity with women's ordination advocates around the world, WOC members host prayer services and vigils to honor this special day.

Celebrate Women of Courage and Vision!

• Plan a vigil for March 25^th or check the WOC Calendar for events already happening in your local area this weekend and next!
  • Use our free Activist Tool Kit and bear witness.
• Host a Pink Smoke Over the Vatican screening! Buy the film for friends, clergy, or a young Catholic in your life.
• Download the Celebrating Women of Courage and Vision liturgy to use throughout the year.
• Blog for WOC! Write for WOC's blog, The Table, on issues of gender and Church justice. Submit your entry
• Join/Renew. WOC depends 100% on membership donations. Help us make the 18th World Day of Prayer the most successful yet!
• Thank you for your ongoing support! For more information and resources on planning your World Day of Prayer Event email our Membership Coordinator, Kate Conmy at Kconmy@womensordination.org

From Bridget Mary's Blog.....

Hierarchical Bullying-Once Again, the Catholic Mark is missed

Comment:  When the hierarchy of a Catholic High School in New Jersey cancelled the production of The Laramie Project, they once again missed a chance to highlight and focus on the true meaning of Catholicism.....All are Welcome.  The discovery, discussion and full meaning of this "truth" has been lost when the hierarch's closed down the production.....perhaps there are two lessons to be learned here by youth.  The first-these are NOT leaders that share Catholic faith they are Hierarchs that are misplacing their false beliefs that ' "Catholic" Equals Adherance to Hierarchical Practices' with the gospel message of equality and inclusivity.  Second, the Spirit moves in circles hierarch's do not approve of....here's hoping these youths and their parents see this action for what it really is....an exercise in hierarchical bullying.

http://newwaysministryblog.wordpress.com/2012/03/24/lessons-learned-from-cancelling-the-laramie-project-at-a-catholic-high-school/

Comment:  Suzanne belongs to the RCWP Movement in the West.  The work of her church is amazing.....

Noozhawk Talks: Rev. Suzanne Dunn Is Pushing the Boundaries of Priesthood

As a Roman Catholic Womanpriest, a life of faith takes on a deeper meaning while she works to bring new life to an old church

The Rev. Suzanne Dunn, pastor of the Catholic Church of the Beatitudes Santa Barbara, says her journey to the priesthood as a Catholic was lifelong. The “same call that I felt at 20 was niggling inside me, it was percolating,” she explains. “I decided to look into it and see if this is something that I would want to do.” (Garrett Geyer / Noozhawk photo)
By Leslie Dinaberg, Noozhawk Contributing Writer | @lesliedinaberg | Published on 03.18.2012


With her welcoming smile and no-nonsense short gray hairdo, the Rev. Suzanne Dunn doesn’t exactly fit the profile of a radical rabble-rouser. But this Carpinteria resident is one about 125 ordained Roman Catholic Womenpriests worldwide who are working to bring about a more inclusive version of the Catholic Church.
As leader of the Catholic Church of the Beatitudes Santa Barbara, Dunn and her congregation celebrate weekly Mass at 5:30 p.m. Saturdays at First Congregational Church of Santa Barbara, 2101 State St. They honor the history and sacramental tradition of the Catholic Church while opening up the communion table to all seekers of faith, including gays and divorced people who are not allowed to partake in traditional Catholic communion.
“All are welcome at the table — divorced, gay, everyone,” Dunn said. “We do not keep out anyone.
“It’s such a relief to people to not be judged and not be told that somebody’s going to make the decision for them. We truly believe that anybody who comes to church is an adult and can make their own adult decisions.”


This simple welcoming atmosphere is a huge relief for many, she says.
“I had a woman who was divorced for years, and when I said everybody is welcome at the table she came to communion and just sobbed and sobbed,” Dunn said. “She said, ‘I was never allowed to receive communion in my own church because of the divorce.’ So I do see that there are people who are beginning to realize that they are welcome and we don’t judge them.”
In addition to weekly Mass, the church assists with warming shelters for the homeless and is in involved in other social justice issues. There is also a monthly group called “Disengaged Catholics Speak.” (The group next meets at 4 p.m. April 14, before the 5:30 p.m. service.)
“We are wanting to reach out to the disengaged Catholics and let them know we are here,” Dunn said. “We have no desire to tell them what to do. But for those who don’t know there’s another way, we are here.”
The notion that there could be “another way” niggled at Dunn while she was growing up in St. Johnsworth, Vt., a small town of about 8,500 residents. When she was 13, she recalls telling her mother that it didn’t seem fair that she was expected to take secretarial classes while boys were given more interesting options.
Dunn was never drawn to the convent, but she said she broke off an engagement because “it wouldn’t be fair to the man I married because there was a deeper call. It’s hard to explain knowing that at 20, but I did know it and it was a very painful and difficult decision.”
Instead, she became a missionary and earned bachelor’s and masters degrees in religious education. This was at about the time of the Second Vatican Council, or Vatican II, which took place from 1962 to 1965 and addressed relations between the Roman Catholic Church and the modern world.
“It was right at the time of this great upheaval in religious life that I started having some sort of vision of what religious life could be if we were free from some of the structures,” Dunn said.
“I was told ... the goals and wishes I had (for more equality for women) were valid and perhaps that’s how religious life would be developing in the future, but that it wouldn’t happen in the community I was in.”
Dunn was encouraged to think of transferring to what was then a fledgling experimental group: Sisters for Christian Community, a nonpontifical group that Dunn has now been part of since 1980.
“We don’t have a motherhouse, we don’t hold funds in common,” she said. “We are responsible for our own selves and planning our own futures.”
Running a group with a consensual model isn’t always easy, she admits.
“It attracted a group of very intelligent women who were leaving their own congregations because they could no longer buy some of the concepts of inequality,” she said. “At the beginning it was a little hectic because everybody wanted to have their opinion heard; they hadn’t had that opportunity for a long time.
“It’s taken us many, many years to get the consensus power flowing,” she laughed.
Dunn got her doctorate in clinical psychology from what is now Fielding Graduate University and had a private practice for many years before going to work as liturgical director at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Carpinteria.
“It was a good experience, but it pointed out again the limitations of what were ascribed as roles for women and roles for men,” she said. “Perhaps I grew in understanding the clarity of the distinctions being made by the hierarchical church in terms of what women were allowed to do and what men were allowed to do.”
She retired from that position about five years ago and was ordained in 2008.
A pivotal factor in Dunn’s decision — quite a radical move for a woman in her 70s who had spent her life in the traditional church — was a workshop she attended a decade ago called “Women of the Willing Disturbance.” The workshop was led byMargaret Wheatley, an educator and writer who sees the weaknesses in traditional institutional structures and believes that hope for the future lies in an increased role for the cooperative, inclusive leadership style of women.
“Her challenge was that we needed to be hospice workers to the dying institutions and birth mothers to the new ones,” explained Dunn, who returned to Santa Barbara and promptly formed a group of women who “made a commitment to meet with no agenda other than to listen to one another, grow some leadership and empower one another. ... Our eyes were so opened. That was the first time I was aware that there was an opportunity (to become a priest). Once again, that same call that I felt at 20 was niggling inside me, it was percolating. I decided to look into it and see if this is something that I would want to do.”
At the same time, “It was extremely painful because, for me, it was leaving a tradition that had been my mother’s milk, you know?” she exclaimed. “Because we were told at that time that anyone who participated in any of these (ordinations) would be excommunicated, which is a severe punishment that the church imposes.”
When asked why she doesn’t just join a more inclusive church, Dunn admits it’s a valid question.
“If you talk to a lot of us who have gone into Roman Catholic Womenpriests, we’ve all thought about that,” she said. “Some of us have attempted to do it. I thought about it when I was 40, but I couldn’t leave the church that I knew ... I still feel that I haven’t left the church, the church has left me. The essentials of my religion and rituals are still very important to me, and I think they are for many people who have left the hierarchical church.”
Even though the group is called Roman Catholic Womenpriests, men are involved.
“Our goal is not to make this a woman’s church, it’s to make a church of equality,” said Dunn. “We’re not out to proselytize, we’re not out to evangelize, but we would like to have people who feel that they’ve been abandoned feel that they have a place. ... We want to bring new life to the church.”
— Noozhawk contributing writer Leslie Dinaberg can be reached atleslie@lesliedinaberg.com. Follow her on Twitter: @LeslieDinaberg.

Link to Catholic Church of the Beatitudes  Santa Barbara California    http://beatitudes-sb.org/

Vatican Assesses Ireland?

Comment:  When the blind assess the blind, does the assessment point toward a clearer vision or deepened blindness?

Vatican report gives blunt assessment of Church crisis in Ireland

Catholic World News
March 20, 2012

http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid


 The apostolic visitation involved six different teams, led by prelates from other countries, investigating the four archdioceses of Ireland, the formation of priests, and the religious orders.
Comment:  Those "appointed" are from the same culture.  Does anyone really thing they can reflect on wrongdoing appropriately.....they are all too intrenched!

The apostolic visitation came as the Church in Ireland faced a storm of criticism in the wake of reports that showed many bishops had failed to curb sexual abuse by priests,......... In a letter to the Church in Ireland, released on March 19, 2009, the Pontiff had expressed his horror “regarding the sinful and criminal acts that were at the root of this particular crisis.”
Comment:  This pope and the previous pope have then and are now doing the same thing. By stalling the process until statutes of limitations end, by refusing to attend to the culture of intimidation, by maintaining male domination and absolute authority, and appointing those who "agree" with this stance, the Vatican today is no more than a totalitarian state.....dictating its will not the gospel.

However, the report also found that substantial progress has been made in recent years to remedy the problem.
Comment:  What the Vatican terms substantial and the substantial progress needed are two different determinations.


Maeve Lewis, the director of One in Four, said: "The Vatican could have used this document to acknowledge its responsibility in helping to create the culture that led to the purposeful cover-up of the sexual abuse of children, so that the prestige of the Church was protected at the expense of children."
Comment:  Note-there is no admission of guilt, no responsibility taken and therefore no change....this hierarchy is not "Catholic"  it is clerical and sick! Prone to spreading more illness-not the gospel.

.

The struggles of the Church in Ireland, and the sweeping criticism of the country’s hierarchy, had given rise to reports that the Vatican might cut down the number of diocese in the country........ with a view to adapting diocesan structures to make them better suited to the present-day mission of the Church in Ireland.”
Comment:  What do people have to say about this....?  With no hierarchical reform-we just get fewer dioceses and parishes and it is not stronger...only smaller and sicker!

Church Lawyers set their sights on SNAP

http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/atheologies/5803/church%E2%80%99s_lawyers_have_snap_in_their_sights

State Integrity Report Card

Let's do one for the church. What categories would you suggest?  I would start with open access to ordination.  Full access to education and formation for leaders.   Vatican II formation. Collaborative decision making.  Accountability and transparency in finance.  This would be a great beginning.  DD 

http://www.stateintegrity.org/

Miriam Picconi's Letter to Friends about her Ordination

Comment:When Miriam read this letter to me, I asked if I could put it up for all to read.  Although she is writing to her friends, letting them know her heartfelt journey and how she got to joy through the brokenness of her past, it also speaks to the difficult journey all of us have had in pursuing this course.  She  is now and has been one called by Christ to serve.  It is an honor to put her letter up for all to read....and an honor to know her as a Sister in Faith.
Diane Dougherty

 

My Dear Friends,                                                                                                        March 18, 2012

May the grace and peace of the Holy Spirit
be with us always!

I know it's been quite some time since you’ve heard from me. First and foremost, I hope and pray you are well and that your family and friends are held in God’s tender embrace. It is Lent and we are still seeking strength for our journey in faith…strength to carry our crosses, strength to surrender to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, strength to act justly, love tenderly and walk humbly with our God.    

I don’t need to tell you that life and God’s providence is complex.  Life happens; the good, the bad,  the challenging, sometimes the ugly, sometimes the glorious and unfathomable.  Our responsibility is somehow to make sense of it all, grapple with what we don’t understand, discern what we can and trust the God within us and among us to lead us where we are called to be.

Because you have been a special companion on my journey, I desire to share with you what’s been happing in my life. I am truly in transition. In less than a month, on April 14^th at 2:00 PM at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Ormond Beach, Fl  I will be ordained a Roman Catholic Woman Priest through the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests. This may shock and scandalize some of you, others may simply think I’ve become a rebel and angry feminist, others of you may cheer me on and then others may simply think or ask …why?

As most of you know after serving 45 years in full time ministry for the Church, I was forced out of my last professional position as Pastoral Associate/Pastoral Director of Good Shepherd Parish in Frankfort, KY in September 2008 after serving seven years. I would be a liar if I didn’t admit this experience was one of the most devastating experiences of my life. Literally, I was broken in spirit that my church could do such a thing. The metaphor I’ve used to describe this is “I felt like a piece of garbage” being tossed out with no regard, no recourse, no voice.  I realized I wasn’t the only woman this happened to. There were others who were eliminated before me as well as after me, and it continues today for different reasons.  People who disagree with Church teaching or those who address the abuse of power in the church are silenced or threatened with excommunication, particularly those who support women’s ordination. In contrast, priest pedophiles and bishops who covered up their crimes are not held accountable or excommunicated. Clerical loyalty is to there own rather then victims or the people they are called to serve.   

I pondered and prayed over all these issues. I needed to work through my own pain and rejection.  I have been struggling with where we are in the Catholic Church… the direction to move backward and inward rather then address the critical needs of the day in the Spirit of Vatican II.     It was not on my agenda to become a priest…..however, in God’s providence I met some members of the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests and new hope was born.   

I had this deep sense that God wasn’t finished with me yet; I had more to give, more to do …more to accomplish.  I wanted to serve… but where…how ….what… was still unknown.  I attended a local Catholic Church but was confronted with a church that was not only pre-Vatican II but pre Trent. I couldn’t believe the theology, the liturgy nor the preaching.  I didn’t go to church to be chewed up and spit out again to be discarded.  I go to be spiritually fed, to be challenged and renewed.  That didn’t happen.  I found myself in an Episcopal Church where I was welcomed; where the pastor was very supportive and affirming.  I wasn’t looking to change my faith.…. I just needed time to heal.   This church provided a safe haven for me to experience community, prayer and worship.  In time I was invited to lead the Adult Bible Faith Sharing on the Sunday scriptures.  I was also invited to speak to several parish groups on various topics; to lead a time of prayer and reflection for the ladies group and on a number of occasions I’ve been invited to  preach  during Sunday Services.  It’s been a blessing.  At the same time I still felt the call to minister to Catholics.   

I love God passionately because God loves me passionately and all people.  I love the Church and all that we hold in high esteem; our heritage, our doctrines, our scriptures, our creeds, our sacraments, our beliefs, customs and traditions, all that reflects Catholicity.  At the same time, I see the Church, particularly the institutional church with new eyes. I used to say so often when I shared with people in the RCIA that the Church is like our family of origin.  There are things we love about our family and there are things we are ashamed of or things that should never have happened. Well, the Church is no different.   We love the church but we also acknowledge that there are things going on that are despicable and those issues have to be addressed. Issues of sexual abuse and cover up, clericalism, sexism, patriarchal and hierarchal domination, disregard for the reforms of Vatican II, the rampant attitude of some bishops to blatantly excommunicate people for disagreeing with church teaching or denying people Eucharist for various political reasons. Since when should Eucharist be used as a political ploy???  It can never be my church right or wrong.  I find it interesting that in the Gospels Jesus is always confronting the religious leaders of his day for atrocities against the people, for judging and burdening others, giving legitimacy to the letter of the law rather than the Spirit of the law. They didn’t get it then and they still don’t get it today. The attitude of most of our religious leaders is “you don’t like the Church… fine… leave! These are the rules…you don’t like them..  leave….we will have a purer church”. (So where’s the heart???  Where’s the compassion???  Where is the passion for justice???) Somehow, in my heart of hearts, I can’t imagine Jesus chasing people away or excommunicating them.  

I want to assure you, it’s not so much bashing the church as trying to address the issues that deeply impact our lives and doing something about them. As adults in the church we are called to much more than simply ….pray, pay and obey.  We are called to speak the truth in Love and to speak truth to Power.  David as well as Debora has to confront Goliath with the meager gifts and tools given.

Change never comes from the top down…. It always comes from the people…from the bottom up.  

Please let it be known, I am not leaving the church….how can I leave what I love. I am just as much Catholic as I am Italian….its in my blood….it is who I am. It is gift and vocation as it’s always been and now it continues as a call to priesthood which was initiated by God.  The ordination will be valid but illicit meaning it will be through apostolic secession in that  ( a male Bishop in good standing with Rome ordained our first women Bishops) but the ordination is not accepted by Rome.

As part of the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests we are seeking to create a new model of priestly ministry, in a discipleship of equals, addressing the injustices in the church, being a voice for  women, for the poor and marginalized, for those alienated or rejected  from the church for what ever reason. Everyone will be welcomed to our Eucharistic table. It is my hope and prayer that however people gather together in community and faith they will experience the profound unconditional love     of our God and the bond of unity that makes us one.     

Please know I miss you; I miss sharing life and faith with you.  You will be in my thoughts and prayers for you are like extended family to me.  You have touched my life and I have grown personally, professionally and spiritually. I greet you and hold you present in Eucharist where we are all transformed into the Body of Christ for one another and the world.  Please keep me in prayer.

Blessings this day and always,

Miriam

miriampicconi@gmail.com    

PressRelease: Historic Ordination of Miriam Picconi and Wanda Russell as Roman Catholic Women Priests

PressRelease:  Historic Ordination of Miriam Picconi and Wanda Russell as Roman Catholic Women Priests
 Release date:  March 14, 2012
Contact:  Janice Sevre-Duszynska, 859-684-4247, rhythmsofthedance@gmail.com
Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan, 941-955-2313, 703-505-0004, sofiabmm@aol.com
Miriam Picconi, 502-320-6817, MIRIAMPICCONI@gmail.com
Wanda Russell, 502-320-6814, tawandarussell0504@aol.com
Dorothy Irvin, 612-387-3784
See: http://www.associationofromancatholicwomenpriests.org/
http://bridgetmarys.blogspot.com/
On Saturday, April 14, 2012 at 2:00 p.m. Miriam Picconi and Wanda Russell of Palm Coast, Florida will be ordained priests in the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests.  The presiding bishop will be Bridget Mary Meehan of Sarasota and Falls Church, Virginia. The ceremony will take place at the Unitarian Universalist Society, 56 North Halifax Drive, Ormond Beach, Florida 32176 www.uuormond.net/ (Check their website for directions).
 From 12:30 – 1:30 p. m. Catholic theologian and archaeologist Dorothy Irvin, whose ground-breaking research reveals evidence of women deacons, priests and even bishops, has provided a historic foundation for our movement, will give a lecture with slides of Women’s Ordination in the Early Church. All are welcome to the ordination and pre-ordination lecture.Media are invited to a pre-ordination press conference at 12:30 p.m. with the candidates and Bridget Mary Meehan. Call Janice (859-684-4247) to schedule an interview.
The ordinands are theologically prepared and have many years of experience in ministry.  Miriam (Mary Ann) Picconi spent 25 years with the Missionary Servants of the Most Blessed Trinity, becoming certified in Theology and teacher training, while earning a degree in Special Studies and a Masters in Religious Studies, in addition to completing over 400 hours in Clinical Pastoral Education. She has administrated and directed a variety of parish programs. Wanda Y. Lavinghouse Russell has one married daughter, Monica Leavitt. She has a B.S. degree in Psychology, coursework in Parish Ministry and a Masters in Education, Counseling. She has been a social worker for 25 years and has volunteered in a variety of parish ministries.
 Both Miriam and Wanda are Associates with the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, Kentucky. In Palm Coast they lead a bible study group and advocate for the homeless.  They also participate in ecumenical ministry, Miriam sometimes preaching and teaching at a local Episcopal church, and they host a theology club.
 The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests rejoices in a “holy shakeup” that millions of Catholics worldwide welcome. The good news now is that male priests, bishops, a cardinal as well as theologians have expressed their support of female priests. They are following in the footsteps of Maryknoll Roy Bourgeois whose prophetic call for a dialogue on women priests is being heard in more and more places today in our Church.
 “Nothing can stop the movement of the spirit toward human rights, justice and equality in our world and in our Church,” said Bridget Mary Meehan. “The full equality of women is the voice of God in our time.”
 The Women Priests movement in the Roman Catholic Church advocates a new model of priestly ministry united with the people with whom we minister. We stand in prophetic obedience to Jesus who calls women and men to be disciples and equals. The movement began with the ordination of seven women on the Danube in 2002. Today there are over 130 in the movement worldwide. ARCWP is in the United States and Latin America. Our specific charism within the broader global Roman Catholic Women Priests initiative is to live Gospel equality and justice for women in the Church and in society now. We work in solidarity with the poor and marginalized for transformative justice in partnership with all believers. Our vision is to live as a community of equals in decision making both as an organization and within all our faith communities. We advocate the renewal of the vision of Jesus in the Gospel in our Church and world.

How the Fundamentalist Mind Compels Christians to Force Their Beliefs on You

http://www.alternet.org/story/154460/how_the_fundamentalist_mind_compels_conservative_christians_to_force_their_beliefs_on_you?page=entire

Bishops 'helped sway' Komen to anti-Planned Parenthood policy

Comment:  "I have never seen the Catholic Church..."  I would edit this to I have never seen the hierarchy......it is not in sinc with the people of God.....and hasn't for decades.  The hierarchy has moved an evangelical politic into our churches without any discussion.....and we are simply "bound to agree or leave..."  What happens if we simply stand still and say "not so.."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/03/15/1074747/-Bishops-helped-sway-Komen-to-anti-Planned-Parenthood-policy

"During my entire life, in the church and out of it, I have never seen the Catholic Church fight so hard for something as they have fought contraception and, yes, abortion. Poverty, social justice, civil rights—there are plenty of pronouncements against all, but I never seem to hear of anyone being threatened with excommunication or denied communion for being a racist, or treating the poor like crap, or being pro-death-penalty. ....... And we've been getting this, unrelenting, for decades."

Church Using Priests' Cases to Pressure Victims' Network

Comment:  I wholeheartedly agree ..."SNAP has done more good for the church than the many hundreds of lawyers....."   and will send a donation.....

SNAP and the Bishops: Shooting the Messenger
The Monitor
March 13, 2012


Dear Friends,
I'm sure most of you have seen today's New York Times article entitled "Church Using Priests' Cases to Pressure Victims' Network.”
I hope that you'll consider responding to this important article by adding your comments on the NY Times site and by visiting the SNAP website too. SNAP deserves our financial and moral support.
The Catholic church in the United States has always played two games with individual survivors of abuse by its clergy -- pastoral softball and legal hardball. But now we have confirmation from a straight-talking, knowledgeable player, William Donohue of the Catholic League, that SNAP as an organization is being targeted:
“The bishops have come together collectively. I can’t give you the names, but there’s a growing consensus on the part of the bishops that they had better toughen up and go out and buy some good lawyers to get tough. We don’t need altar boys.”
The USCCB has issued a denial, but there is ample corroboration for Mr. Donohue's assessment.
I would argue that, far from being a "menace to the Catholic Church," SNAP has done more good for the church than the many hundreds of lawyers and PR experts on diocesan payrolls. As a Catholic as well as an archivist, I believe that SNAP has performed two great services:
- SNAP has provided a community of solace for survivors of clergy abuse, both in its national and local meetings, and for the much larger group of survivors who don't go to meetings but are grateful to have SNAP's support. Helping the survivors of abuse is the responsibility of every Catholic layperson and cleric. SNAP is doing the church's work.
- SNAP has provided a way for survivors of abuse to talk about what they've suffered, and as a result, many hundreds of newspaper articles have been written, revealing a truth that would otherwise have festered. Without survivors' honesty and SNAP's advocacy, there would be no Charter and Norms, and hundreds of offending priests would still be in ministry.
Someday, I believe that SNAP's achievements, and their leading role in the worldwide movement for children's rights, will earn Barbara Blaine and David Clohessy the Nobel Peace Prize. The Catholic church, which has benefited greatly from SNAP's honesty and persistence, should take the lead in acknowledging their contribution.
All best,
Terry
Terence McKiernan
President
BishopAccountability.org

Hillary Clinton Urges Women Not to Take Any........

http://jezebel.com/5892765/hillary-clinton-urges-women-not-to-take-any-shit

Hillary Clinton closed the third annual Women in the World summit at the Lincoln Center in New York on Saturday with a call for women in the United States to set an example for women across the world in asserting their right to make their own choices, a right, she explain, which forms the cornerstone of any democracy.

Who's the Menace-the Bishop's or SNAP

Comment:  Who is the menace to Catholicism?  Bishops who have hidden priestly pedophiles and destroyed records about known behavior from the courts; or SNAP, that have acted as pastoral advocates going after those priests and Bishops seeking justice?  The answer does not take a rocket sciencist.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/13/us/catholic-church-pressures-victims-network-with-subpoenas.html?_r=1&ref=us

Support Workers at Catholic Institutions!

This week, Catholic Bishops are holding a closed-door meeting about their next steps in the debate over women’s access to comprehensive healthcare, including contraception. The problem is that in this debate about workers’ healthcare that affects women, only men are invited. Bishops are making decisions that affect the lives of thousands of workers and their families without consulting them.
It is time workers at Catholic institutions and those who support them be heard!
Sign the petition asking that 1) the bishops accept the White House compromise that will permit workers access to comprehensive health care, including contraception, and 2) that the Bishops set up a an advisory panel of workers with a full spectrum of views for dialogue on decisions that affect them.

http://www.change.org/petitions/support-workers-at-catholic-institutions

Women Priests Stand in Solidarity with Prophet of Justice, Fr. Roy Bourgeois

Monday, March 12, 2012
Women Priests Stand in Solidarity with Prophet of Justice, Fr. Roy Bourgeois

The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests stands in solidarity with Maryknoll Fr. Roy Bourgeois and supports the action of the order's General Council to retain him.

Last week three members of the Maryknoll General Council abstained from voting to dismiss Fr. Roy Bourgeois, a longtime peace activist, from the order which has been his community for 46 years. They are Maryknoll Frs. Paul Masson, the Society's vicar general, Jose Aramburu, an assistant general, and an unnamed priest.

Two council members voted in favor of dismissal: Maryknoll Fr. Edward Dougherty, the superior general of the order, and Maryknoll Fr. Edward McGovern, an assistant general.

Fr. Roy participated in the ordination of Janice Sevre-Duszynska on Aug. 9, 2008 in Lexington, Kentucky and has continued to speak out publicly in support of women priests.

"In these times of increasing attacks on women's freedom in all facets of society," said Bridget Mary Meehan, bishop of the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, "we celebrate Fr. Roy's freedom of conscience and courage to stand with women who are called by God to the priesthood. Our church and world community cry out for the compassion, justice-making and vision of women priests and all women. As living images of Christ, women are given freedom of conscience and must speak for themselves."

The ARCWP community walk in solidarity with our brother priest Roy Bourgeois whose life's work as a Maryknoll priest has been to challenge the "rulers, principalities and powers," that bring injustice and oppression in our world. Father Roy has consistently and prophetically challenged systems of power, whether they be governments, the military, multi-national global corporations or the church to follow the Gospel teaching of Jesus. As founder of the School of the Americas Watch, Fr. Roy has given voice to our sisters and brothers in Latin America who have suffered because of "guns and greed," as Roy has taught us.

We call on the Maryknoll community to support and celebrate Fr. Roy as a prophet.

We demand an immediate end to the unjust and unhealthy atmosphere of fear and intimidation created by the Vatican and carried out through our bishops and heads of religious orders to those who openly express disagreement with Church teaching. As Roy has reminded us, "those who disagree with church teaching should not be excommunicated or lose their pensions."We challenge all religious orders and our brother priests at the Vatican to build up the community as Jesus did: by empowering and liberating.We are living within a movement of grace called forth by Wisdom Sophia, a people-loving Spirit, who has pitched her tent beside us. She embraces and celebrates her prophets. Let us welcome Her Spirit and rejoice for our prophetic brother, Fr. Roy Bourgeois.
From: The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests

Contact: Janice Sevre-Duszynska: rhythmsofthedance@gmail.com; 859-684-4247

Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan, sofiaBMM@aol.com; 941-955-2313; 703-505-0004

www.associationofromancatholicwomenpriests.org

http://bridgetmarys.blogspot.com

Roman Catholic Womenpriests

Contact: Rev. Suzanne Thiel

503-784-3330

suzthiel@yahoo.com

For more than 100 years, the Society of Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers has been at the forefront of social justices issues throughout the world. We, Roman Catholic Womenpriests (RCWP-USA), are deeply grateful to the many priests and brothers who have dedicated their lives to working to right the wrong of injustice.

It is, therefore, with great sadness, that we decry the fact that Fr. Edward Dougherty, Superior General of the Maryknoll Order and one of his assistants, Fr. Edward McGovern, voted to oust Fr. Roy Bourgeois from the Order for following the dictates of his conscience in speaking up and acting against an injustice, perpetrated by the Vatican, that forbids women to answer God’s call to the ordained priesthood.

We continue to pray and walk in solidarity with Fr. Roy, whose life’s work as a Maryknoll priest for more than forty years has been to challenge power structures that sustain injustice and oppression in the world.

We pray also for his Maryknoll community, that their minds and hearts may be open to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, who empowers and liberates humanity.

Roman Catholic Womenpriests-USA, Inc. (RCWP-USA) is a prophetic organization within an international progressive movement in the Roman Catholic Church. Its mission is primarily to prepare, ordain in apostolic succession, and support women who are called by the Holy Spirit and their communities to a renewed priestly ministry rooted in justice and faithfulness to the Gospel. Visit www.romancatholicwomenpriests.org.

Women Priests Stand in Solidarity with Fr. Roy Bourgeois -Press Release

Women Priests Stand in Solidarity with Prophet of Justice, Fr. Roy Bourgeois

Press Release: March 12, 2012

From: The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests
Contact: Janice Sevre-Duszynska:  rhythmsofthedance@gmail.com;  859-684-4247
Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan, sofiaBMM@aol.com; 941-955-2313; 703-505-0004
www.associationofromancatholicwomenpriests.org
http://bridgetmarys.blogspot.com


The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests stands in solidarity with Maryknoll Fr. Roy Bourgeois  and supports the action of the order's General Council to retain him.


Last week three members of the Maryknoll General Council abstained from voting to dismiss Fr. Roy Bourgeois, a longtime peace activist, from the order which has been his community for 46 years.  They are Maryknoll Frs. Paul Masson, the Society's vicar general, Jose Aramburu, an assistant general, and an unnamed priest.


Two council members voted in favor of dismissal: Maryknoll Fr. Edward Dougherty, the superior general of the order, and Maryknoll Fr. Edward McGovern, an assistant general.


Fr. Roy participated in the ordination of Janice Sevre-Duszynska on Aug. 9, 2008 in Lexington, Kentucky and has continued to speak out publicly in support of women priests.


"In these times of increasing attacks on women's freedom in all facets of society," said Bridget Mary Meehan, bishop of the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, "we celebrate Fr. Roy's freedom of conscience and courage to stand with women who are called by God to the priesthood. Our church and world community cry out for the compassion, justice-making and vision of women priests and all women. As living images of Christ, women are given freedom of conscience and must speak for themselves."


The ARCWP community walk in solidarity with our brother priest Roy Bourgeois whose life's work as a Maryknoll priest has been to challenge the "rulers, principalities and powers," that bring injustice and oppression in our world. Father Roy has consistently and prophetically challenged systems of power, whether they be governments, the military, multi-national global corporations or the church to follow the Gospel teaching of Jesus.  As founder of the School of the Americas Watch, Fr. Roy has given voice to our sisters and brothers in Latin America who have suffered because of "guns and greed," as Roy has taught us.

We call on the Maryknoll community to support  and celebrate Fr. Roy as a prophet.


 We demand an immediate end to the unjust and unhealthy atmosphere of fear and intimidation created by the Vatican and carried out through our bishops and heads of religious orders to those who openly express disagreement with Church teaching. As Roy has reminded us, "those who disagree with church teaching should not be excommunicated or lose their pensions."

We challenge all religious orders and our brother priests at the Vatican to build up the community as Jesus did: by empowering and liberating.
We are living within a movement of grace called forth by Wisdom Sophia,  a people-loving Spirit,  who has pitched her tent beside us. She embraces and celebrates her prophets. Let us welcome Her Spirit and rejoice for our prophetic brother, Fr. Roy Bourgeois.

Spreading a Virus for Good-A New Weapon for Mass Instruction

Thanks to all who wrote to advertizers about HATE Speech on Radio-98% of advertizers ask that their ads be removed from programs promoting Hate......this is a new weapon of mass instruction.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/03/10/rush-limbaugh-scandal-proves-contagious-for-talk-radio-advertisers.html

If Jesus Came Today to the Roman Catholic Church, Would He Cleanse the Temple Again?

Comment:  This piece is particularly insightful.  Thank you Bridget Mary for highlighting what is truly hierarchical "dirty laundry" ....for all onlookers that have not been able to put this together, here it is.....

While I do not stand with them at all-I do not condone the actions or practices and I maintain their direction is NOT Catholic, as part of the body, I am attacked by their illness. The actions of this hierarchy can be likened to an organic socially transmittable virus spreading to all the parts of the body, threatening its health and welfare.

If Jesus Came Today to the Roman Catholic Church, Would He Cleanse the Temple Again?

If Jesus came today to the Roman Catholic Church, would he cleanse the Temple again? Would he be angry with the bishops over their battle to be exempt from paying for contraception for women who work for Catholic universities and hospitals? Would he tear up the new Roman missal that states that he died for the many, not for all? Would he lament the global sexual abuse cover-up and the shabby treatment of many survivors by the hierarchy? Would he protest the shuttering of parishes and schools? Would he be outraged at the treatment of gays and lesbians? Would Jesus stand in solidarity with women priests and their supporters who have been excommunicated and harshly punished by the hierarchy? Would he challenge Fr. Ed Doughterty, the Superior of Maryknoll, for his cooperation with the Vatican in supporting the removal of Fr. Roy Bourgeois from the Order? Would Jesus call the people of God to rise up for all victims of injustice including those in the Roman Catholic Church? It is time to cleanse the Temple again!
John 2: 13-25