tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44220283963914112842024-03-05T17:04:58.224-05:00Diane Dougherty's BlogOur growing communion of Priestly pioneers. ARCWP June 20, 2013Diane Doughertyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329185474381532954noreply@blogger.comBlogger380125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4422028396391411284.post-16161605359187408622015-10-27T18:46:00.003-04:002015-10-27T18:46:07.875-04:00http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2015/10/27/cincinnati-nun-dismissed-acting-priest/74682372/<br />
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Cincinnati nun dismissed for acting as priest</h1>
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A Cincinnati nun was excommunicated and dismissed from her Roman Catholic religious order last week after admitting she has been secretly acting as a priest since this spring.</div>
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Sister Letetia "Tish" Rawles, who has been a nun for 47 years, told the leaders of her order she was ordained in April as part of a movement that has been rebuked repeatedly by the church for violating Catholic teaching. Rawles, 67, has presided over religious services in secret and ministered to people who lived with her in a Cincinnati nursing care facility.</div>
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While other women have been ordained priests in violation of Catholic teaching, Rawles is believed to be the first member of a religious order in Greater Cincinnati to acknowledge taking that step and to face dismissal because of her actions.</div>
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Supporters appealed to the Vatican on Tuesday to allow Rawles, who is critically ill, to remain with the Dayton, Ohio-based Sisters of the Precious Blood. They said she has served the church as a teacher and care giver for decades and should be allowed to remain a nun, even if the church does not recognize her as a priest.</div>
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"Here's a woman who has devoted 47 years of her life in service to the people of God," said Janice Sevre-Duszynska, spokeswoman for the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests. "And now she's being thrown out of her community."</div>
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Rawles said she felt called to the priesthood since childhood and wanted to respond to that call before it was too late. "I thought that before I die, I want to fulfill God's call and my life-long dream to become a priest," Rawles said in a statement Tuesday.</div>
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The Catholic Church, however, is unequivocal in its rejection of the ordination of women priests. Pope John Paul II told the faithful 20 years ago that "the church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women." Subsequent popes have said nothing to change that position, which the church has held for centuries.</div>
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Under church law, Rawles was excommunicated, or separated from the church, the day she was ordained a priest. Sister Joyce Lehman, president of the Sisters of the Precious Blood, said the religious order had no choice but to dismiss Rawles.</div>
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Lehman said she spoke to Rawles last week after learning she may have taken part in the ordination ceremony in April. She said Rawles confirmed she had done so.</div>
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"She has gone against what the Catholic Church teaches," Lehman said. "We didn't make a big decision to do this. She was dismissed as a result of her actions."</div>
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Catholics have debated the ordination of women for years, and national surveys show a majority of Catholics believe the church should permit it. A Pew poll in June found 59 percent of Catholics support the idea.</div>
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Some have argued women priests would alleviate a serious priest shortage in the United States and in other parts of the world, while others say there is scant support for a male-only priesthood in the New Testament and that some historical evidence suggests women did act as priests in the early church.</div>
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But the Vatican's position shows no sign of changing. The case against women priests is based on the writings of church fathers, as well as New Testament references cautioning that women "could not teach or have authority over a man."</div>
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Yet a small but growing movement has sought to ordain women while continuing to push for change within the church. Sevre-Duszynska said 77 women have been ordained through a two-year program overseen by the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, and about 220 have been ordained worldwide. They do so even though ordination means immediate excommunication from the church.</div>
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"We also are created in the image of God," she said. "We also feel the call to the priesthood."</div>
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Lehman said she and other members of the Sisters of the Precious Blood were shocked to learn a member of the order had spent two years studying to be a priest and then had taken part in an ordination ceremony.</div>
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"She kept it secret from us," Lehman said. "There's no way she didn't know the consequences. This isn't something that should have been a surprise to her."</div>
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Although Rawles no longer is a member of the Sisters of the Precious Blood, Lehman said the order would make sure she continues to receive medical care and housing.</div>
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"We are in the process of setting up some means of financial support," she said. "Not because she was in the order, but because she is a person in need."</div>
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Diane Doughertyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329185474381532954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4422028396391411284.post-55394856229767616862015-08-24T21:21:00.001-04:002015-08-24T21:21:03.416-04:00Woman Priest Assaulted with Acid in New York City<strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25px; margin: 0px;">On Wednesday evening, August 19, 2015 Alexandra's journey took an unexpected turn. As she got into her car after work a young man approached her with a question. As she turned to face him he threw a cup of caustic liquid at her face, then fled. She sustained third degree burns to her face and hands from the Drano like substance with a high pH level. Her screams brought a by-stander to her aid and she was rushed to a New York hospital. </strong><br />
<strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25px; margin: 0px;"><br /></strong>
<strong style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25px; margin: 0px;">If you can help her with medical expenses, please use this Go Fund Me site. Many Thanks, Diane</strong><br />
<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25px; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Lato, sans-serif;"><b>http://www.gofundme.com/am2zxrbc</b></span></span><br />
<span style="-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased; background-color: white; font-size: 18px; line-height: 25px; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Lato, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></span>Diane Doughertyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329185474381532954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4422028396391411284.post-18284506394526297982014-01-11T19:10:00.001-05:002014-01-11T19:10:43.856-05:00Same Sex Marriage in Washington Causes Stir in Catholic School<div class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;">
<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Comment: I cannot tell you how proud I am of the students protesting the hierarchy's firing of the vice principle because he married the love of his life. While this is a very confusing time in their lives, the world is awakening to the wrong-sided views of a Catholic Church that teaches we are to live lives of love.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In an unbelievable move, the principal said that if he divorced his spouse he could have his job back and then they would have a civil ceremony and all would be OK inn the eyes of the hierarchy.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What I have come to know is that Bishops have two arms-one calls us forth and the other pounds us down if we get out of their hands. Now if the Bishop thinks he can pound down this next generation, I think he will have to come up with some amazing tricks. We taught Catholic teaching and gave these kids an education that made them able to "think!" </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On Jan 31 I will be wearing orange....wonder if the kids will be sent home if they wear that color:)</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Same Sex Marriage in Washington<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<a href="http://act.faithfulamerica.org/sign/eastsidecatholic/?source=fa_website_feature">http://act.faithfulamerica.org/sign/eastsidecatholic/?source=fa_website_feature</a></div>
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Faithful America</div>
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Protesters will be disciplined</div>
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Student interviews former vice principal and partner<b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
Diane Doughertyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329185474381532954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4422028396391411284.post-39178419057674760792013-10-22T08:43:00.001-04:002013-10-22T08:43:09.733-04:00Pope Francis Takes Aim At Ideologically Obsessed Christians, Says They Have Illness (VIDEO)Finally a hierarch that understands the illness within hierarchical ideology and is not afraid to name it.<br />
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<a href="http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/10/21/pope-francis-right-wing-christians/">http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/10/21/pope-francis-right-wing-christians/</a>Diane Doughertyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329185474381532954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4422028396391411284.post-34957075889438796542013-08-06T14:06:00.001-04:002013-08-06T14:06:34.056-04:00On a Theology of Women-priceless<a href="http://questionsfromaewe.blogspot.ca/">http://questionsfromaewe.blogspot.ca/</a>Diane Doughertyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329185474381532954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4422028396391411284.post-19812959773307340802013-07-30T11:50:00.000-04:002013-07-30T11:50:17.201-04:00THIRTY YEARS: WHAT WE’VE LEARNED AND WHAT I’VE LEARNED by Tom Doyle<br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: medium;">THIRTY YEARS: WHAT WE’VE LEARNED AND WHAT I’VE LEARNED</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">Thomas Doyle, J.C.D., C.A.D.C.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">July 27, 2013</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>This year marks the end of the third decade of the contemporary chapter in the Catholic Church’s age-old reality of sexual violation of clerics. In 1983 Jeff Anderson filed the historic case in Minnesota that would launch him on his life-long vocation of bringing not only civil but human rights to the Church’s countless victims. That summer, the bizarre saga of Gilbert Gauthe was exposed to the light in Lafayette, Louisiana. </span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>This nightmare did not begin in Boston in January 2002, as many erroneously believe. It did not begin in 1983 either. It has been a toxic virus in the Body of Christ since the very beginning. The Didache, a handbook for the earliest followers of Christ, written before the end of the first century, explicitly condemns men who sexually abuse boys. There were no “clerics” as such then so the “men” included the leaders or elders of the infant Church. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>The Louisiana spectacle generally gets the credit for being the beginning of public awareness of the so-called “crisis.” I daresay though that had Jason Berry lived in Minneapolis and not New Orleans, things might have been different. Either way you look at it, Jeff in Minnesota and Ray Mouton in Louisiana opened a new era for the Catholic Church and in doing so, changed the course of its history.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>When I first became involved with the Gauthe case in 1984 I still believed in the Church. I thought the institutional structure I was part of, and the People of God described by the Second Vatican Council, were one and the same. In spite of already having served three years on the inside at the Vatican Embassy I still had some confidence in bishops and shared the hope with my colleagues at the time, Mike Peterson and Ray Mouton, that once the bishops became aware of how terrible sexual abuse of a child could be and the potential for scandal of epic proportions, they would quickly step up to the plate and do the right thing, especially by the victims. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>I was dead wrong. Any lingering hopes I may have had were demolished by my experiences in the years that followed. I had no idea back then of the extent of the problem but more important, and worse, I had no idea just how duplicitous and destructive the bishops could be. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>Back in 1985 the transformation of the Catholic Church back to a medieval monarchy was underway but not yet in high gear. There were still some good men holding down the office of bishop, most of them remnants from the Vatican II era of hope. John Paul II, soon to be canonized, set about changing the Church by appointing men as bishops who had replaced pastoral compassion with unthinking obsession with orthodoxy that was for most, a thin cover for soaring ambition and lust for power. The unified game-plan for confronting the “nuisance of pedophilia” as one bishop (A.J. Quinn, Cleveland) referred to it, was not so obvious in the first years of this era, but it certainly is now.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>The Church’s response is actually the response of the governing elite, the hierarchy, not the community of the faithful. It has been and continues to be shaped by a small number of celibate males, most of them bishops and above, none of whom have ever had any experience of parenthood and all who live in a monarchy significantly isolated from the real world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>I don’t think any of us who were around thirty years ago had any idea where this odyssey would take us. Above all, we had no idea that the stubbornness, shock, conviction, anger, compassion, desolation, fatigue, disappointment and courage that we have all felt at one time or another, would propel the disparate and sometimes unlikely allies in this hellish drama to bring about profound changes in the Catholic Church and in our society.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>We have discovered things that have shocked and stunned us that thirty years ago were well outside most people’s imagination.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">1.<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>We have learned that it's not “over” simply because the bishops say it is, and it won’t be over as long as the culture and institution that enabled the systemic sexual violation remains as it is.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">2.<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>We have learned that the presenting issue is the sexual violation of children, adolescents and vulnerable adults by clerics of all ranks, from deacons to Cardinals, but that the most outrageous aspect of the scandal has been and continues to be the toxic response by the hierarchy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">3.<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>We have learned that both the Church and secular society had to be forced to look at child sexual abuse straight on and reluctantly accept the reality that it is a profound and lasting violation of a person’s body, mind and soul and to accept the harsh truth that violated children and adults have regularly been ignored.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">4.<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>We have learned that the toxic and even vicious response of the hierarchy and clergy is deeply embedded in the clerical culture. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">5.<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>We have learned that the root cause of the scandal has been the cover up by the hierarchy and not forces extrinsic to the institutional church such as an anti-Catholic media, a sexualized culture or a materialistic society.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">6.<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>We have learned that there is a monstrous chasm between the authentic Christian response expected of the institutional Church and the actual experience of victims and their families.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">7.<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>We have learned that the exposure of widespread sexual abuse by clerics has brought irreversible changes to the relationship between the Church and secular society.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">8.<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>We have learned that John Paul II cared little or nothing for the victims of his priests and bishops but was instead concerned with protecting bishops, preserving the image of the priesthood and finding a focus for blame anywhere but in the institutional Church.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">9.<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>We have learned that the clerical elite that runs the institutional Church is abysmally ignorant of the complex nature of human sexuality and therefore of the devastating effects of sexual violation on all levels of personhood.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">10.<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>We have learned that the exposure of widespread sexual abuse at all levels of the institutional Church has triggered the exposure of corruption in other areas such as finance and a demand for accountability.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">11.<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>We have learned that today’s bishops have a severely limited and deficient understanding of pastoral care.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">12.<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>We have learned that the last two popes and the hierarchy have a seriously twisted notion of right and wrong whereby they protect or excuse clerics who violate children but persecute and punish sincere, faith-filled men and women who seek new and more effective ways to bring the Christian message to people in our twenty-first century culture.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">13.<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>We have learned that victims who present themselves to Church authorities in a docile, deferential and non-demanding manner……who play nice…… will be tolerated but those who stand on an even level with the bishops and demand true justice will be treated as the enemy.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">14.<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>We have learned that the Church’s leaders from the papacy on down have grossly underestimated the impact their action and inaction would have and the mortal blow this would deal their credibility.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">15.<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>We have learned that some of the most morally compromised people in our society are lawyers who represent Church entities in sex abuse litigation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">16.<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>We have learned that the clerical subculture than runs the institutional Church is fed by a highly malignant, narcissistic spirituality that requires a docile, controlled and compliant laity to survive.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">17.<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>We have learned that the passive-dependent relationship of the laity to the clergy, centered on sacramental rituals, has in general prevented little more than a passive, muted response from far too many “devoted” Catholics.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">18.<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>We have learned that the strident defense of the institutional Church is grounded in either an ignorance of the authentic meaning of “Church” as the People of God or worse yet, an arrogant rejection of it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">19.<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>We have learned that blind orthodoxy has replaced courageous charity as the main focus of the papacy and hierarchy in our era. Those who profess their staunch but limited orthodoxy and total loyalty to the pope and magisterium are concerned for their emotional security at the expense of charity towards victims.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">20.<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>We have learned that the Church has in fact, responded to the victims with charity and support in their demand for justice, but it is not the hierarchy but rather the fundamental Church, the People of God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>The sex abuse phenomenon has affected peoples' lives in a variety of ways. It has had a profound impact on my own life on several levels. Most of the impact has been from what I have learned about the institution and its leaders and from my experiences trying to help and support survivors.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">1.<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>I have learned that the sage advice I was given in 1972 by a distinguished priest who had been a peritus at Vatican II, who said “with bishops yes and no are interchangeable terms,” is true.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">2.<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>I have learned that it is dangerous and naïve to place complete, unquestioning trust in the words and actions of the hierarchy.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">3.<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>I have learned that the Vatican bureaucracy and the hierarchy are, for the most part, driven by fear.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">4.<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>I have learned that the ontological change that supposedly happens at ordination to the priesthood is a myth that is sustained only to try to support and enhance clerical power.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">5.<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>I have learned that constant, obsessive and unchecked anger towards the institutional church, the bishops and the papacy is not only debilitating but also self-destructive.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">6.<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>I have learned that as long as I allowed my anger to dominate my emotions, the toxic and dark side of the Church still controlled me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">7.<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>I have learned that I needed to challenge and question every aspect of the institutional Church that I took for granted or believed without reservation, and that to gain a healthy spirituality I needed the freedom to embrace a higher power of my understanding and to reject that which was grounded in fear or made no sense to me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">8. <span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span> I have learned that the institutional Church, its bishops, priests and unquestioning followers are not the enemy. The enemy is a destructive, heretical and anti-Christian virus called clericalism.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">9. <span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>I have learned that bottomless pits of money unjustly expropriated from the faithful, legions of lawyers, volumes of empty excuses and seemingly endless public relations verbiage are, in the end, no match for truth.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: medium;">AN EPIC SHIFT</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>The contemporary history of sexual violation by Catholic clergy has not had a straight-line trajectory from 1983 to the present. It has been a zig-zag pattern influenced by various factors including the quality of the victims’ interactions with Church officials, the evolution of the response of the secular legal system, developments in the understanding of the range of effects of sexual violation and on the reasons why people abuse. These factors also include the quality of coverage by the secular media and the general recognition of the validity of the victims’ stories.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>A crucial factor has been the fact that much of the evolution has been carried out in the arena of the civil law. In the beginning victims and their families approached Church officials for assistance and for support. They were almost universally disappointed and in their frustration they turned to the civil courts for validation and accountability. The basic demand made by victims and their families was recognition and belief and that the cleric-perpetrator be dealt with by the Church so that he could never harm another child. In the civil courts the Church was confronted with a power greater than itself.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>Prior to 1983 the secular press gave no priority to the few cases of sexual molestation by priests that became known. For example, the story of the trial and conviction of a priest for rape in a southwestern diocese was limited to a short paragraph, buried in the back pages of the local newspaper. That all changed with the revelations of abuse and systemic cover-up in Lafayette LA in 1983. Since then the media has slowly but surely shaken its deference to the institutional Church and has reported cases with increasing detail and with editorial support of the victims.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>Once it became clear to the hierarchy in the U.S. that they could no longer avoid publicity and control the victims, the relationship with victims and their supporters became adversarial. In the early years of this era if the victims acquiesced to the bishops and remained silent and graciously accepted whatever small monetary settlements were offered as well as the assurances that “father will be taken care of” the relationship remained uneven with the victims clearly in a subordinate and controlled position.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>That quickly changed when victims realized, after presuming complete sincerity, that they were being lied to by the very men they were taught to believe would be the source of help. Once the victims challenged the bishops and religious superiors both in private and openly, things began to change. When the victims approached the civil legal system in rapidly increasing numbers, the sides were hardened.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>From the late eighties to the present the relationship in general between victims and the institutional Church has been highly adversarial. Part of this is due to the understandable negative reaction of victims and survivors to the institutional Church and to all of its symbolism and control. Most of this is due to lived experience. They have learned that as long as they play by the bishops’ rules without question of confrontation, the illusion of pastoral caring will remain.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>Over the decades popes and bishops have made countless public expressions of regret for the abuse issue and have offered apologies to the victims. The apologies generally take the form of “I’m so sorry for the pain you have felt” or something along those lines. While the individual bishops, bishops’ conferences and the popes are expressing their regret and their commitment to helping victims, they are at the same time viciously attacking them in the civil courts, spending hundreds of millions of dollars to defend themselves and to destroy victims’ credibility. They profess they have committed themselves to making the Church safe for all children and vulnerable adults but only on their terms. All changes made by Church institutions such as background checks, training, review boards and victims’ assistance coordinators have been forced on the bishops. The attempts to change civil laws to make them more favorable to victims have been vigorously opposed, generally by one group only, the Roman Catholic Church.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>Their lack of credibility is hardened when some bishops, in spite of their zero tolerance policy, continue to put credibly accused clergy in ministry or cover for suspected clergy doing all they can to thwart any type of effective investigation.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>Pope John Paul II ignored victims and openly sympathized with bishops and priests. In the years that intervened between his first known direct awareness of the serious nature of the problem in 1984 and his death in 2005, he never acknowledged much less responded to even one of the thousands of letters and pleas made by victims of sexual abuse. Requests for audiences were simply ignored with no response. At the regular world youth gatherings, the pope met with representatives of all manner of youth groups, but never the victims of his own priests.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>So, it is not difficult to understand why the lines are hardened and why trust simply does not exist even in minimal form. When the bishops created the National Review Board in 2002 they populated it with what they believed to be “safe” people. The first board had a victim as a member for one term but there have been none since. They also seriously underestimated the integrity of several of the initial members. Since then they guaranteed the NRB’s irrelevance by selecting members who would not rock the boat or venture to far into the minefield in search of truth. They sponsored the John Jay College’s second study, Causes and Context, but by controlling the focus of the study and the areas of research they made sure it would contribute nothing to the search for the real reasons why this epidemic has flourished. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>In the first years after the Boston revelations in 2002, when the landscape dramatically shifted, I made several attempts to engage two bishops who were members of their sexual abuse committee. I wanted to open up lines of real communication and pave the way so that bishops could begin to know victims and thereby gain a true understanding of just how horrific a problem lay before them. I had several polite conversations but every planned meeting was cancelled due to “unforeseen circumstances”. I knew of course that bishops are very busy men and I should have known that understanding sex abuse victims was not part of their agenda.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>As the lawsuits continued to expose the systemic nature of the cover-up and deception, and as they prompted more and more victims to come forward, it became obvious that the bishops’ overall strategy had nothing to do with pastoral care or getting to the systemic reasons for the abuse epidemic. Rather, their focus was defeating the victims in court and defeating any attempts at legislative change that would mean more to accountability. The rank hypocrisy was too obvious to miss.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>There is no reason to think the landscape will change in the near future. There are stories of bishops who have shown compassion for victims but these are exceptions and certainly not the norm. On the other hand the only bishop in the United States, Tom Gumbleton of Detroit, to stand publicly with the victims was removed from his post by the Vatican only weeks after his first public witness. The excuse given in the letter from the Vatican’s Congregation for the Bishops said that he had “broken communio with his brother bishops.” That short phrase explains the strategy of the institutional Church. Protect the bishops at all cost even at the expense of the innocent boys and girls whose souls were demolished by the clergy.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>Tom Gumbleton’s alignment with the victims was remarkable in that he was and remains the only bishop in the United States to publicly choose victims over the protection of the governing structure. His witness is both profoundly important because of what it symbolizes, and at the same time powerfully disappointing because he was not publicly supported by or joined by even one of the other 450 bishops in the United States.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>The real beginning of what hopefully will be an epic shift came in 2003 when Bishop Geoff Robinson (Sydney, Australia) publicly criticized Pope John Paul II’s lack of leadership in the abuse crisis. In 2004 he retired from his position as auxiliary bishop of Sydney “for reasons of health,” an obvious euphemism. Like Tom Gumbleton, he was fired because he “broke communion” with the bishops but he, like Tom, did something that was far more important and far more in keeping with the mandate given them by Christ: he joined “in communio” with the men and women whom the Church’s priests and bishops had violated and whose trust they had mocked and betrayed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>Geoff published a remarkable book in 2007. Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church (Garrett, 2007) looked deeply into the two key areas that have driven the sex abuse phenomenon from being an isolated crisis to a part of a toxic culture. His witness is remarkable because he publicly challenged the two main supports for the toxic clerical culture. He has continued his public witness through speaking tours, especially here in the U.S. In coming here he refused to be intimidated by the Vatican or by the bishops of every diocese where he spoke, all of whom told him to abandon the tour and prevented him from speaking in any Catholic venue. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>Most recently he has been joined by two other bishops, Pat Power, auxiliary bishop of Canberra and William Morris who was removed as bishop of Toowoomba for suggesting the Church think about ordaining women. Together they have circulated a petition worldwide asking for a new general council to try and bring about the deep structural and ideological changes needs to truly confront the evil of sexual abuse. In conjunction with the petition, Geoff has published another incredible book, For Christ’s Sake: End Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church for Good (Garrett, 2013).</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>Catholics have asked why the priests have not spoken up. The common answer is fear. But that fear has been broken by the creation of a “Whistleblowers Forum” of priests and religious women, active and retired, who have banded together to speak out, support one another and openly challenge the ecclesiastical system.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>What I believe is a unique and revolutionary step has been the decision by the Capuchin Franciscan Friars of the St. Joseph Province (Detroit) to conduct a complete audit of their files and a review of the way their province has responded to reports of sexual abuse by its members. The bishops have patted themselves on the back for their annual “Audits” every year but these are no more than self-evaluations with the same degree of integrity and credibility one would find in the Wall street financial institutions if they conducted their own in-house financial audits and volunteered to the IRS how much they thought they should pay in taxes.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>The provincial, Fr. John Celichowski, took a major risk in starting the process because he knew it would open the province to complete exposure. He took another major risk…when he asked me to be part of the audit-review team.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>We worked together for over a year and produced the most complete report of its kind anywhere. Furthermore this was the only ecclesiastical entity, diocese or religious order, in the world to open itself up to an outside study of how each and every report of sexual abuse had been handled and then to make results available to the public.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>The Capuchin venture is historic and a fundamental move in a positive direction because it is not the enterprise of an individual standing independent of the ecclesiastical world, outside the gates of the monarchy, but that of an official body that is an integral part of the institutional Church. <span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span>Where will this epic shift lead? We hope it will prompt other religious communities to give serious consideration to opening themselves to a similar, completely independent review. My personal hope is that this momentous move may somehow prompt bishops to begin to see that there is only one truly authentic Christian response for the institutional Church and that is to honestly acknowledge the unchristian way victims have been treated and to reach out to those who have been harmed and offer honest compassion. Nothing short of this will help the institutional Church find its way back to the community of Christ, the People of God.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana;">July 27, 2013</span></div>
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Diane Doughertyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329185474381532954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4422028396391411284.post-2017451313697637722013-06-25T21:37:00.002-04:002013-06-25T21:37:22.222-04:00Mobilizing Faith for WomenHere is the link from the Carter Center for a great Webcast seminar..... <br />
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Mobilizing Faith for Women: Engaging the Power of Religion and Belief </div>
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<a href="http://www.cartercenter.org/news/upcoming_events/promo/hrd-forum-2013.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0066cc;">http://www.cartercenter.org/</span><span style="color: #0066cc;">ne<wbr></wbr>ws/upcoming_events/promo/</span><span style="color: #0066cc;">hrd-<wbr></wbr>forum-2013.html</span></a></div>
Diane Doughertyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329185474381532954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4422028396391411284.post-89720405059999394082013-06-25T13:17:00.000-04:002013-06-25T13:17:28.457-04:00Jimmy Carter Says Catholic church should ordain women<a href="http://www.inquisitr.com/812592/jimmy-carter-catholic-church-should-ordain-women-priests/">http://www.inquisitr.com/812592/jimmy-carter-catholic-church-should-ordain-women-priests/</a><br />
<a href="http://www.inquisitr.com/655641/jimmy-carter-most-trusted-politician-in-america-poll/" target="_blank" title="Jimmy Carter, Most Trusted Politician In America? [Poll]">Jimmy Carter</a> says the <a href="http://www.inquisitr.com/570679/papal-conclave-sends-white-smoke-but-should-vatican-have-chosen-a-new-female-pope/" target="_blank" title="Papal Conclave Sends White Smoke, But Should Vatican Have Chosen A New Female Pope?">Catholic Church should ordain women priests</a>.<br />
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As previously reported by <em>The Inquisitr</em>, lately American politicians apparently feel they can tell the Catholic church how they should function.<br />
<a href="http://www.inquisitr.com/808341/obama-catholic-schools/" target="_blank" title="President Obama Says Catholic Schools And Protestant Institutions Are Divisive">President Obama made some upset with his comments on Catholic schools</a>. In response, <a href="http://www.inquisitr.com/809012/president-obama-called-war-criminal-in-irish-parliament/" target="_blank" title="President Obama Called War Criminal In Irish Parliament">President Obama was called a “war criminal.”</a><br />
Now Jimmy Carter’s Catholic church comments over the weekend are being bandied about. Jimmy Carter was asked by <em>Time</em> whether ”religion can be a force for women’s rights instead of a source of women’s oppression.” Jimmy Carter’s response:<br />
“I think there’s a slow, very slow, move around the world to give women equal rights in the eyes of God. … And I think the great religions have set the example for that, by ordaining, in effect, that women are not equal to men in the eyes of God. This has been done and still is done by the Catholic Church ever since the third century, when the Catholic Church ordained that a woman cannot be a priest for instance but a man can. A woman can be a nurse or a teacher but she can’t be a priest. This is wrong, I think…”<br />
Jimmy Carter goes on to equate the Catholic Church’s all-male priesthood to a “human rights abuse.” It’s estimated there approximately 600 million Catholic women in the world, but none may apply for the priesthood. In 2008, the Vatican formally declared its policy of <a class="external" href="http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/episodes/january-11-2013/roman-catholic-women-priests/14476/" target="_blank" title="Roman Catholic Women Priests">excommunication of women priests who completed ordination</a>.<br />
Yet, at the same time, many liturgical type churches, including the Church of England, have begun ordaining women priests. While some churches, like the Catholic Church, try to make a distinction between the clergy and laity, others say that the New Testament calls Jesus Himself the High Priest and that all are equal ministers underneath Jesus.<br />
Do you agree with <a class="external" href="http://www.patheos.com/blogs/deaconsbench/2013/06/jimmy-carter-links-catholic-all-male-priesthood-to-human-rights-abuse/" target="_blank" title="Jimmy Carter Links Catholic All-Male Priesthood to “Human Rights Abuse”">Jimmy Carter that the Catholic Church should ordain women priests</a>?<br />
<br />Read more at <a href="http://www.inquisitr.com/812592/jimmy-carter-catholic-church-should-ordain-women-priests/#1hXGLBwUKtQhx58K.99" style="color: #003399;">http://www.inquisitr.com/812592/jimmy-carter-catholic-church-should-ordain-women-priests/#1hXGLBwUKtQhx58K.99</a> Diane Doughertyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329185474381532954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4422028396391411284.post-25813566606901288092013-06-14T08:26:00.001-04:002013-06-14T08:26:53.234-04:00Five Catholic Women will be ordained in Virginia<h3>
Five Roman Catholic Women to Be Ordained in Falls Church, Virginia on <span class="aBn" data-term="goog_493850394" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">June 22, 2013</span></span>: Women Priests Invite Pope Francis to Model Gospel Partnership Like Clare and Francis </h3>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong>Release date:<span> </span>May 30, 2013, Feast Day of St. Joan of Arc<u></u><u></u></strong></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16pt;"><strong>Contact:<span> </span>Janice Sevre-Duszynska, D.Min, (Media) </strong></span><a href="mailto:rhythmsofthedance@gmail.com" target="_blank" title="mailto:rhythmsofthedance@gmail.com"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16pt;"><strong><span class="il">rhythmsofthedance@gmail.com</span></strong></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong>, <a href="tel:859-684-4247" target="_blank" value="+18596844247">859-684-4247</a><u></u><u></u></strong></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16pt;"><strong>Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan, </strong></span><a href="mailto:sofiabmm@aol.com" target="_blank" title="mailto:sofiabmm@aol.com"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16pt;"><strong>sofiabmm@aol.com</strong></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong>, <a href="tel:703-505-0004" target="_blank" value="+17035050004">703-505-0004</a><u></u><u></u></strong></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong>See: </strong></span><a href="http://arcwp.org/" target="_blank" title="http://arcwp.org/"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong><span style="color: #669922;">arcwp.org</span></strong></span></a><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong>, </strong></span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16pt;"><a href="http://bridgetmarys.blogspot.org/" target="_blank" title="http://bridgetmarys.blogspot.org/"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong><span style="color: #669922;">bridgetmarys.blogspot.org</span></strong></span></a><u></u><u></u></span><br /><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong></strong></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong><u>Celebration of Priestly Ordination for:<u></u><u></u></u></strong></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16pt;"><strong>Barbara Anne Duff of Macon, GA, </strong></span><a href="mailto:Barbara.Duff@cox.net" target="_blank" title="mailto:Barbara.Duff@cox.net"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16pt;"><strong>Barbara.Duff@cox.net</strong></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong>, <a href="tel:478-718-0613" target="_blank" value="+14787180613">478-718-0613</a><u></u><u></u></strong></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16pt;"><strong>Joleane Presley of Manassas, VA, </strong></span><a href="mailto:joprsly@gmail.com" target="_blank" title="mailto:joprsly@gmail.com"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16pt;"><strong>joprsly@gmail.com</strong></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong>, <a href="tel:410-900-3998" target="_blank" value="+14109003998">410-900-3998</a><u></u><u></u></strong></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong></strong></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16pt;"><u><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong>Celebration of Ordination to the Diaconate for:<u></u><u></u></strong></span></u></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16pt;"><strong>Mary Collingwood of Cleveland, Ohio, </strong></span><a href="mailto:mecreg6@yahoo.com" target="_blank" title="mailto:mecreg6@yahoo.com"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16pt;"><strong>mecreg6@yahoo.com</strong></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong>, <a href="tel:216-408-4657" target="_blank" value="+12164084657">216-408-4657</a><u></u><u></u></strong></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16pt;"><strong>Marianne Smyth of Silver Springs, MD, </strong></span><a href="mailto:mtsmyth@comcast.net" target="_blank" title="mailto:mtsmyth@comcast.net"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16pt;"><strong>mtsmyth@comcast.net</strong></span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 16pt;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong>, <a href="tel:240-444-0781" target="_blank" value="+12404440781">240-444-0781</a><u></u><u></u></strong></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16pt;"><strong>Mary Theresa Streck of Menands, NY, </strong></span><a href="mailto:mstreck@gmail.com" target="_blank" title="mailto:mstreck@gmail.com"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16pt;"><strong>mtstreck@gmail.com</strong></span></a><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 16pt;"><strong>, <a href="tel:518-434-2277" target="_blank" value="+15184342277">518-434-2277</a></strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong>The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests calls on Pope Francis to embrace the full equality of women in the church and world. Just as Clare and Francis were partners in living out the Gospel with the poor and marginalized, we pray and invite Pope Francis to do the same with women priests.<u></u><u></u></strong></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong></strong></span><br /><div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14pt;"><strong>Today, women priests continue to follow the tradition of women disciples living and preaching the Gospel taught to them by Jesus. We are leading the Roman Catholic Church into a new era of justice and equality for women.</strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong>On Saturday, June 22, 2013 at 1:00 p.m. Barbara Anne Duff (Macon, GA) and Joleane Presley (Manassas, VA) will be ordained priests in the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests (ARCWP).<span> </span>Mary Collingwood (Cleveland, Ohio), Marianne Smyth (Silver Springs, MD) and Mary Theresa Streck (Menands, NY) will be ordained deacons in ARCWP.<span></span>The presiding bishop will be Bridget Mary Meehan of Falls Church, VA and Sarasota, FL.<span> </span>The ceremony will take place at First Christian Church, 6165 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church, VA 22044 </strong></span><a href="http://www.fccfc.org/" target="_blank" title="http://www.fccfc.org/"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong><span style="color: #669922;">www.fccfc.org</span></strong></span></a><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong> (please consult for directions) All are welcome.<u></u><u></u></strong></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14pt;"><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong>Media are invited to interview these women by email or phone.<span></span>Respectful photo taking/videos during the ceremony is acceptable. <u></u><u></u></strong></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14pt;"><u></u><u></u></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14pt;">The candidates are theologically prepared and have many years of experience in ministry. <u></u><u></u></span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14pt;"><u></u><u></u></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14pt;">Barbara Anne Duff is a former Maryknoll sister, educator, Air Force Nurse and VA Hospital Nursing Home administrator. “I am fulfilling my original call to minister to those who are on the margins of society. We women priests are working toward a renewed priestly ministry, supporting nonviolence and social justice in our church and in the world.”<u></u><u></u></span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14pt;"><u></u><u></u></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14pt;">Joleane Presley works full time as a Senior Chaplain at a rehabilitation hospital in Maryland. She has her Masters of Divinity degree from Duke University and is trained as a chaplain. “Working with people with disabilities and meeting their spiritual needs has been a dream come true. Being ordained as a woman priest brings all of these dreams full circle. God has called me from age seven to be a priest and serve those who are hurting and ill. I believe that women who are called are making a difference in this hurting world.”<u></u><u></u></span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14pt;"><u></u><u></u></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14pt;">Mary Collingwood, wife, mother, grandmother, educator and outreach minister, has served the church her entire adult life in diocesan offices, on parish staffs and in Catholic schools and as a board member to various non-profit agencies.<u></u><u></u></span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14pt;"><u></u><u></u></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14pt;">Marianne T. Smyth has a Masters Degree in Counseling and four certificates from Global Ministries in Theology and Scripture. A secular Carmelite for seven years, Marianne was a caretaker for her elderly mother and worked with students with learning disabilities and who were drug/alcohol dependent. <span></span>She now ministers to those facing sickness, dying and death. <u></u><u></u></span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14pt;"><u></u><u></u></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14pt;">A former Sister of St. Joseph, Mary Theresa Streck earned an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership. She is an artist and peace activist who is co-founder and director of the Ark Community Charter School in Troy, New York, a school primarily serving low-income families.<u></u><u></u></span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14pt;"><u></u><u></u></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14pt;">Women priests are answering the call and our movement is growing since it began in 2002 with the ordination of seven women on the Danube. There are now 150 women in our Roman Catholic Women Priests’ Movement in the world, including 100 in 30 states in the U.S. living and serving over 60 inclusive Catholic communities and welcoming all to receive the sacraments.<u></u><u></u></span></strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;"><strong><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14pt;"><u></u><u></u></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 14pt;">According to a recent CBS Gallup Poll, over 70% of Catholic in the U.S. support women priests. There is no shortage of vocations as women are now saying “Yes” to this call and are being ordained. In 2013, ARCWP will have ordained 13 women priests and deacons. We have more than a dozen candidates who will soon begin preparation for ordination.<u></u><u></u></span></strong></span></div>
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Diane Doughertyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329185474381532954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4422028396391411284.post-85901750353036490832013-06-14T07:56:00.000-04:002013-06-14T07:56:00.575-04:00Rebel Priests<br />
This article is WELL written and describes the sacrifice women are making to change the church we love from within....Donna Rougeux is a member of our Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests and lives in Lexington, KY.<br />
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<a href="http://t.meredith.ly/YKVoXam" target="_blank">http://t.meredith.ly/YKVoXam</a><br />
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Diane Doughertyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329185474381532954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4422028396391411284.post-23709352916845982882013-06-13T10:20:00.001-04:002013-06-13T10:20:34.104-04:00Batavia Woman Fighting tochange Catholic Church<div>
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<a href="http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20130612/NEWS01/306120002/Batavia-woman-fights-change-Catholic-Church?nclick_check=1" target="_blank" title="http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20130612/NEWS01/306120002/Batavia-woman-fights-change-Catholic-Church?nclick_check=1">http://news.cincinnati.com/<wbr></wbr>article/20130612/NEWS01/<wbr></wbr>306120002/Batavia-woman-<wbr></wbr>fights-change-Catholic-Church?<wbr></wbr>nclick_check=1</a></div>
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<span></span><strong>BATAVIA</strong> — A Batavia woman is fighting for change in the Catholic Church by becoming a priest.<br />
<span></span>Debra Meyers May 25 was the first woman in Cincinnati to be ordained as a priest in the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests. Bridget Mary Meehan of Falls Church, Virginia, and Sarasota, Florida, was the presiding bishop.<span></span><br />
<span></span>Despite the ordination, which took place at St. John’s Unitarian Universalist Church, 320 Resor Ave., in Cincinnati, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati does not recognize Meyers as a priest.<span></span><br />
<span></span>“From our point of view as Roman Catholics, it (ordination) didn’t really take place,” said Dan Andriacco, communications director for the archdiocese.<span></span><br />
<span></span>Ordination can only be conferred by the proper authority, he said. The proper authority in this case would be a bishop.<span></span><br />
<span></span>Because the archdiocese does not recognize women as bishops, Meyers’ ordination is illegal and invalid, Andriacco said.<span></span><br />
<span></span>“The clear and consistent teaching of the Catholic Church is that the Catholic Church cannot ordain a woman as a priest,” he said.<span></span><br />
<span></span>Meyers said she does not care “one way or another about what other people think.”<span></span><br />
<span></span>Every individual baptized Roman Catholic is called on by the Vatican II documents to be a prophet, priest and shepherd, she said.<span></span><br />
<span></span>“That’s the new covenant,” she said.<span></span><br />
<span></span>Meyers, who is a professor at Northern Kentucky University, holds a master’s degree in religious studies and a Ph.D in history and women’s studies.<span></span><br />
<span></span>She knew when she was a small child that she wanted to be a priest, she said. While many people told her she could not be, she found their words to be disturbing, not discouraging.<span></span><br />
<span></span>“I have always been a minister,” she said.<span></span><br />
<span></span>Before her ordination, Meyers provided pastoral care as a mother, a volunteer at St. Vincent de Paul, pregnancy crisis centers and a professor, she said.<span></span><br />
<span></span>While she knows many women who sought other religious affiliations to be ordained, Meyers said she feels a duty to fulfill her role as a Roman Catholic.<span></span><br />
<span></span>“I feel called to help the church move forward into the 21st century with an inclusive society,” she said.<span></span><br />
<span></span>She wants to help marginalized followers inside and outside the church, including women, gays, lesbians and individuals who are divorced and wish to remarry.<span></span><br />
<span></span>“It’s hard to believe in the New Testament and see how many people are excluded in the church today,” Meyers said.<span></span><br />
<span></span>As a priest, she hopes to perform weddings and serve Mass for alienated Catholics and may offer pastoral care through in-house churches, she said. She also plans to continue teaching at NKU.</div>
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Diane Doughertyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329185474381532954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4422028396391411284.post-81764322973481794442013-05-22T20:34:00.000-04:002013-05-22T20:34:02.790-04:00Rev. Debra Meyers, Breaking the Holy Ceiling<a href="http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/article-27770-breaking_the_holy_ce.html" target="_blank"><span style="color: #0066cc;">http://www.citybeat.com/</span><wbr></wbr><span style="color: #0066cc;">cincinnati/article-27770-</span><wbr></wbr><span style="color: #0066cc;">breaking_the_holy_ce.html</span></a><br />
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Breaking the Holy Ceiling</h1>
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Group to ordain the first female Catholic priest in Cincinnati</h2>
<span class="dateCreated" id="Date_Trans">By <a href="http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/by-author-817-1.html">German Lopez</a> · May 22nd, 2013 · News</span><span class="author" id="author_Trans"></span><br />
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<img alt="debra meyers" src="http://www.citybeat.com/cincinnati/imgs/media.images/10590/debra%20meyers.widea.jpg" title="debra meyers - Caption: Debra Meyers - Credit: Photo: Jesse Fox" /><span class="imageCredit" style="width: 650px;">Debra Meyers - Photo: Jesse Fox</span><div class="bottomTools" id="bottomTools">
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s1">D</span><span class="s2">espite strong Vatican opposition, one group is preparing to ordain Cincinnati’s first Roman Catholic woman priest on May 25.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s2">The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests (ARCWP) already ordained a woman priest in Louisville, Ky., and it’s hoping to carry the movement around the country, including Cincinnati.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s2">The Vatican and local Catholic leaders oppose the movement, and the ordination isn’t technically legal under the Catholic Church’s rules. But ARCWP says its ordinations put pressure on the Vatican to pull back rules that are keeping it in the past.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s2">Locally, Debra Meyers will be ordained as the first Catholic woman priest. Meyers holds a Ph.D. in history and women’s studies and a master’s in religious studies. She is currently a professor of history and women’s studies at Northern Kentucky University, and she also serves the Resurrection Community in Cincinnati where she promotes equality and social justice. For Meyers, this is a chance to break the glass ceiling and prove women can take up the highest roles in Catholic organizations, which she says is a necessary next step for the Church to keep up with the times.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s2"><i>CityBeat</i> interviewed Meyers about her ordination. The full interview, edited here for clarity and brevity, is available below.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s3"><span style="font-weight: bold;">CityBeat</span>:<b><i> </i></b></span><span class="s2"><i>What led to this ordination?</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s3"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Debra Meyers</span>: </span><span class="s2">I have been a minister for a very long time. My primary focus is single moms with children. One of the reasons is that single mothers and their children make up a vast majority of the impoverished people in the United States today. Without an education — an associate or bachelor’s degree at the very minimum — a woman can’t find a job for a living wage, as opposed to some men who take jobs in construction that don’t require as much of an education.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s2">One of my jobs as an adviser was to make sure that single moms have an opportunity to get an education and break out of this cycle of poverty. My dedication to this particular group has extended to my many volunteer activities. So I’ve been a minister for a long time, and ARCWP offers me an opportunity to solidify what I’m doing.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s3"><span style="font-weight: bold;">CB</span>:</span><span class="s2"><i> What is ARCWP’s main goal?</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s3"><span style="font-weight: bold;">DM</span>:</span><span class="s2"> I think that ARCWP is really interested in fulfilling what Jesus Christ promised us, what Paul and the New Testament promised us and certainly what the Vatican II promised us, which is that we were all made in the likes of God and we are all qualified to be prophets, priests and shepherds in this world.</span></span><span style="font-size: x-small;"></span></div>
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In that view, women are created with equal ability and should be allowed to answer God’s call with equal relevance as men do.</div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s2">That’s really what we’re all about: We’re just looking for equality for women so that they’re not just second-class citizens that are just washing dishes. We are in fact called by God to do some of the things men are doing. We have the right to fulfill that calling.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s3"><span style="font-weight: bold;">CB</span>:</span><span class="s2"><i> Why do you think Vatican officials have been resistant to this movement?</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s3"><span style="font-weight: bold;">DM</span>: </span><span class="s2">Certainly, the Vatican as an entity has a lot to preserve. It’s been a male-dominated organization from the start. By allowing women in with equal footing, that really disrupts a lot of the male domination that’s been going on.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s2">It also would really press the Vatican to fulfill the promise of Vatican II. That is to be inclusive and welcoming of everyone, which the Church hasn’t done a very good job of in the past 60 years.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s3"><span style="font-weight: bold;">CB</span>:</span><span class="s2"><i> Of what other groups do you think the Vatican could be more inclusive, besides women?</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s3"><span style="font-weight: bold;">DM</span>:</span><span class="s2"> The Church should take the message forward — that Jesus didn’t exclude anyone. He welcomed everyone to the table. He welcomed everyone to be part of the faithful group. He welcomed everyone into the New Covenant.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s2">What was promised by God, and all He was asking from all of us, was to love one another. That means everyone, whether you’re gay, lesbian, white or black. It’s an inclusive idea that welcomes every single person that wants to partake.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s2">That’s really another thing that ARCWP is very interested in: helping the Church [understand] that it’s heading down the wrong path by excluding people.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s3"><span style="font-weight: bold;">CB</span>:</span><span class="s2"><i> So this group could help cover more than women, and it could help other groups that feel left out, such as LGBT individuals?</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s3"><span style="font-weight: bold;">DM</span>:</span><span class="s2"> Absolutely. For the most part, there’s been a real feeling of alienation for a lot of Roman Catholics because most of us have gay relatives, gay friends and women who have been called by God and been excluded from ordination. We all know people like that. We know nuns that are doing fabulous work, and they’re being pressured to conform to certain things from the Vatican as well.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s2">We’re all beginning to question the exclusiveness of the traditional Roman Catholic Church. All we’re saying is we’re Catholic, we want the Church to really embrace the idea that the congregants are the Church and we really believe in Jesus’ message of the inclusion of everyone.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s3"><span style="font-weight: bold;">CB</span>: </span><span class="s2"><i>Recently, a Catholic school teacher was fired for getting pregnant out of wedlock. How do you feel about that kind of situation?</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s3"><span style="font-weight: bold;">DM</span>:</span><span class="s2"> We ought not to be judgmental. There needs to be room for healing above all else. When people are in an environment where they find themselves in difficult positions, they need help; they don’t need judgment.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>CB:<i> </i></b><i>What do you feel personally qualifies you for this ordination and movement?</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>DM:</b> As I mentioned before, I’ve been ministering to a variety of people for a very long time as a professor, adviser and social worker at volunteer organizations. But I’ve also had, in addition to my other degrees, a religious studies degree with an emphasis in pastoral care. That certainly qualifies me for this position.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">But I got all this experience prior to even knowing about ARCWP. I got it on my own because it was the right thing to do. I was called by God to work for God’s people.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s2"></span><span class="s3"><span style="font-weight: bold;">CB</span>:<b><i> </i></b></span><span class="s2"><i>What will your ordination change about your personal position?</i></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s3"><span style="font-weight: bold;">DM</span>:</span><span class="s2"> I don’t think it’s going to change me all that much. I think it is good for me to be a visual example particularly for women about the promise of a more inclusive Church. It helps women know that they really do have the quality, and they don’t have to suppress it. When they’re called by God, here are examples of how they can fulfill God’s love.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="s2">It may open up new doors and possibilities to reach people, and that’s my real hope. This isn’t some kind of stunt or anything. I really do believe in this.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>CB:<i> </i></b><i>Anything else you’d like to add?</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>DM: </b>People that are really critical of this movement: I would ask them to really think about how important it is to love our neighbors and love the diversity of our neighbors. Allow people when they are called by God to fulfill that calling. They’re being called to fulfill the greater good, not themselves. For people try to quash that progressive movement forward is really shameful.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span><span class="s4"> ©</span></span></div>
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Diane Doughertyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329185474381532954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4422028396391411284.post-8459365285396905282013-05-21T14:10:00.002-04:002013-05-21T14:10:43.945-04:00Nuns on the Bus are coming June 5th-mark your calendars......<a href="http://www.networklobby.org/bus/events">http://www.networklobby.org/bus/events</a><br />
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To all friends,<br />
This will be a great time to meet some authentic leaders of the Catholic tradition. They will go to Saxby Chanblis office at 3PM on June 5 and at 7PM will they will be have a Friendraiser...we are calling all to join the Sisters........<br />
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Shepherd Services of Atlanta</strong></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><br />
2426 Shallowford Terrace, Chamblee, GA 30341 </span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><strong>Save the Date June 5</strong></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"></span><br />Diane Doughertyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329185474381532954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4422028396391411284.post-45381839780086013852013-05-20T09:46:00.004-04:002013-05-20T09:46:46.833-04:00Ordination in Cincinnati-Dr. Debra Meyers-Press Release
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<span style="color: #540000; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Historic First
Ordination in Cincinnati as Dr. Debra Meyers will be ordained a Roman Catholic
Woman Priest</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #540000; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Release date: May 7,
2013</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #540000; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Contact: Janice
Sevre-Duszynska, D.Min. (media) </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="tel:859-684-4247" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">859-684-4247</span></a></span><span style="color: #540000; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, </span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="mailto:rhythmsofthedance@gmail.com" target="_blank" title="mailto:rhythmsofthedance@gmail.com"><span style="color: #114ee6; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">rhythmsofthedance@gmail.com</span></a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #540000; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bishop Bridget Mary
Meehan, </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="tel:703-505-0004" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">703-505-0004</span></a></span><span style="color: #540000; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="mailto:sofiabmm@aol.com" target="_blank" title="mailto:sofiabmm@aol.com"><span style="color: #114ee6; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">sofiabmm@aol.com</span></a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #540000; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Dr. Debra Meyers, </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="tel:513-735-2876" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">513-735-2876</span></a></span><span style="color: #540000; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">, </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="mailto:drmeyers@aol.com" target="_blank" title="mailto:drmeyers@aol.com"><span style="color: #114ee6; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">drmeyers@aol.com</span></a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #540000; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On Saturday, May 25,
2013, Dr. Debra Meyers of Batavia, Ohio will be ordained a priest in the
Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests. The presiding bishop will be
Bridget Mary Meehan of Falls Church, Virginia and Sarasota, Florida. The
ceremony will take place at 1 p.m. at St. John's Unitarian Universalist Church,
320 Resor Ave., Cincinnati, Ohio 45220.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #540000; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">All are welcome.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #540000; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Media are invited to a
pre-ordination conference on Saturday, May 25, at 11:30 a.m. at the church with
the candidate and Bridget Mary Meehan. Call Janice </span><span style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="tel:%28859-684-4247" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">(859-684-4247</span></a></span><span style="color: #540000; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">) to schedule an interview. Respectful filming/photo taking
during the ceremony is acceptable.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #540000; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The ordained is
theologically prepared and has many years of experience in ministry.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #540000; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Dr. Debra Meyers
earned a Ph.D. in History and Women's Studies and a MA in Religious Studies
with an emphasis on pastoral care. The author of several books, she is a
professor of History and Women's Studies at Northern Kentucky University. Her
ministry focuses primarily on single mothers and their children who make up the
vast majority of impoverished people in our country. She also serves the
Resurrection Community in Cincinnati where they are living the Gospel of
equality and social justice. Dr. Meyers is a wife, the mother of two successful
children and a grandmother.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #540000; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">"God called me to
the Catholic priesthood as a child and every step of my academic and spiritual
life as well as my social justice activism has prepared me to serve God's
people as a pastor," said Dr. Meyers. "I thank ARCWP for the
opportunity to fulfill God's call."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #540000; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Since two-thirds of
the world's poor are women, justice and equality must be top priorities for our
church. Our world and church can no longer function without the voices of
women's lived experience. Women priests are visible reminders that all women
are images of God.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #540000; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">On March 13, five
hours before the new pope was elected, a woman priest celebrated Mass in Rome.
The church is at a crossroads with a new pope and women priests. This paradigm
represents a holy shakeup and is pregnant with potential for renewal and
change. Pope Francis's simplicity and solidarity with the poor and marginalized
is the Good News that Catholics have been waiting for. Now is the time to
embrace women.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="http://ncronline.org/news/vatican/embrace-women-s-gifts-protesters-" target="_blank" title="http://ncronline.org/news/vatican/embrace-women-s-gifts-protesters-"><span style="color: #114ee6; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">http://ncronline.org/news/vatican/embrace-women-s-gifts-protesters-</span></a></span><span style="color: #540000; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">say</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #540000; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">We are encouraged by
the tender gesture of Pope Francis who washed the feet of women in prison on
Holy Thursday, thus breaking the sexist tradition of washing only men's feet.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #540000; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">During the Easter
homily Francis affirmed women as the first witnesses to the Resurrection.
"This tells us that God does not choose according to human criteria...The
women are driven by love and know how to accept this proclamation with faith:
they believe, and immediately transmit it, they do not keep it for
themselves."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #540000; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Women who have
accepted the call from God to priesthood and who have become women priests want
to share "the joy of knowing that Jesus is alive, the hope that fills
their heart."</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #540000; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The Association of
Roman Catholic Women Priests calls on Francis to embrace the full equality of
women, including women priests.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #540000; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Women priests are
answering the call and our movement is growing since it began in 2002 with the
ordination of seven women on the Danube. There are now 150 in our Roman
Catholic Women Priests' Movement in the world, including 100 in the U.S. living
and serving in over 60 inclusive Catholic communities and welcoming all to
receive the sacraments.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #540000; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">According to a recent
CBS Gallup Poll, over 70% of Catholics in the U.S. support women priests. There
is no shortage of vocations as women are now saying "Yes" to this call
and are being ordained. Two women will be ordained priests and two will be
ordained deacons in Falls Church, Virginia in June.</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #540000; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">See:</span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="http://www.associationofromancatholicwomenpriests.org/" target="_blank" title="http://www.associationofromancatholicwomenpriests.org/"><span style="color: #114ee6; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">http://www.associationofromancatholicwomenpriests.org/</span></a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 14pt;"><a href="http://bridgetmarys.blogspot.com/" target="_blank" title="http://bridgetmarys.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: #114ee6; font-family: "Helvetica","sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">http://bridgetmarys.blogspot.com/</span></a></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 14pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
Diane Doughertyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329185474381532954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4422028396391411284.post-30187435340644921272013-05-16T20:36:00.001-04:002013-05-16T20:36:26.353-04:00Introducing the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests<h2>
<span><span class="aBn" data-term="goog_2110454985" tabindex="0"><span class="aQJ">Thursday, May 16, 2013</span></span></span></h2>
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<a href="http://www.blogger.com/null" name="13eaf52408953634_1914565012374171021"></a><h3>
Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests/<a href="http://www.arcwp.org/Update" target="_blank">WWW.ARCWP.ORG/Update</a> 2013/NEW VIDEO on YOUTUBE </h3>
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTBrJSZk5t0" target="_blank"><strong><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #669922;">http://www.youtube.com/watch?<wbr></wbr>v=xTBrJSZk5t0</span></span></strong></a><br /><br /><strong><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: medium;">Watch new youtube video with update 2013 on the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests</span></strong><br /><strong><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: medium;">Visit us at </span></strong><a href="http://www.arcwp.org/" target="_blank"><strong><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="color: #669922;">www.arcwp.org</span></span></strong></a></div>
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Diane Doughertyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329185474381532954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4422028396391411284.post-30183381588931750792013-05-04T19:08:00.003-04:002013-05-04T19:08:49.618-04:00Is Pope Francis Inaugurating a third millinium? Leonardo Bo ff<a href="http://im-wac.blogspot.com/2013/04/is-pope-francis-inaugurating-third.html">http://im-wac.blogspot.com/2013/04/is-pope-francis-inaugurating-third.html</a><br />
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Is Pope Francis inaugurating
the third millennium? </h3>
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<br />by Leonardo Boff
<br />Theologian-Philosopher <br />Earthcharter Commission <br /><br />The first
millennium of Christianity was marked by the paradigm of community. The Churches
had relative autonomy regarding their own rites: Orthodox, Coptic, Ambrosian
from Milan, Mozarabic, from Spain, and others. They venerated their own martyrs
and confessors and had their own theologies, as seen in the flourishing
Christianity of North Africa with Saint Augustine, Saint Cyprian and the lay
theologian Tertullian. Those Churches recognized each other, and even though a
mostly juridical vision in Rome was already appearing, the primacy of charity
predominated . <br /><br />The second millennium was characterized by the paradigm
of the Church as a perfect and hierarchichal society: an absolutist monarchy
centered in the figure of the Pope as supreme head (cephalic), endowed with
unlimited powers and, most recently, with infallibility, when he makes
declarations as such in matters of faith and morality. The Pontifical State was
created, with an army, a financial system and legislation that included the
death penalty. A body of experts of the institution was created, the Roman
Curia, responsible for the world ecclesiastical administration. This
centralization produced the Romanization of all of Christianity. The
evangelization of Latin America, Asia and Africa was accomplished within a
process of colonial conquest of the world, and meant that the Roman model was
transplanted, practically annulling the embodiment of the local cultures. The
strict separation between the clergy and the lay was made official. The lay had
no power of decision, (in the first millennium the lay participated in the
election of bishops and even of the Pope), and were turned into childlike
non-entities, in law and fact. <br /><br />The palatial ways of the priests,
bishops, cardinals and popes were affirmed. The titles of power of the Roman
emperors, starting with those of Pope and Sumo Pontiff, were transferred to the
bishop of Rome. The cardinals, princes of the Church, dressed up as the high
Renaissance nobility, and so it has remained until now, scandalizing more than a
few Christians, who were used to seeing Jesus of Nazareth as poor, a man of the
people, persecuted, tortured and executed on the cross. <br /><br />All indications
are that this model of Church ended with the resignation of Benedict XVI, the
last Pope from this monarchical model, in the tragic context of scandals that
have touched the very heart of the credibility of the Christian message.
<br /><br />The election of Pope Francis, who comes «from the end of the world», as
he presented himself, from the periphery of Christianity, from the Great South
where 60% of Roman Catholics live, will inaugurate the ecclesiastic paradigm of
the Third Millennium: the Church as a vast network of Christian communities,
rooted in the various cultures, some more ancient than the Western cultures,
such as the Chinese, Indian and Japanese, the tribal cultures of Africa and the
communities of Latin America. It is also embodied in the modern culture of the
technologically advanced countries, with a faith that is also lived out in small
communities. All these incarnations have something in common: the urbanization
of humanity, where more than the 80% of the population live in huge
conglomerates of millions and millions of persons. <br /><br />In this context, it
will be impossible to talk of territorial parishes, but of neighborhood
communities, of the buildings, of the streets nearby. In that Christianity, the
lay will be protagonists, encouraged by priests who may or may not be married,
or by women priests or women bishops, bound more by spirituality than
administration. The Churches will have different faces. <br /><br />The Reformation
will not be restricted to the Roman curia, that is in a calamitous state, but
will be extended to the entire institution of the Church. Perhaps only by
convoking a new Council, with representatives from all of Christendom, will the
Pope have the security and the master lines of the Church of the Third
Millennium. May the Spirit not fail him. <br /><br /><a href="http://leonardoboff.com/"><span style="color: #5f28e1;">Leonardo Boff</span></a><br />04-05-2013 </div>
Diane Doughertyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329185474381532954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4422028396391411284.post-46664784852497745962013-05-01T19:58:00.002-04:002013-05-01T19:58:51.837-04:00Catholic Assemblywoman: Newark Archbishop priorities are appalling<h1 style="color: #363636; font-family: prelo-slab,serif; font-size: 42px; font-weight: normal;">
Assemblywoman: Newark Archbishop John Myers' priorities are appalling: Opinion</h1>
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<a href="http://blog.nj.com/njv_guest_blog//print.html?entry=/2013/05/assemblywoman_newark_archbisho.html" style="color: #305cb6; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Print</a></div>
<a href="http://connect.nj.com/user/njoslguest/index.html" style="color: #305cb6; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><img alt="Star-Ledger Guest Columnist" src="http://imgick.nj.com/home/njo-media/width40/img/avatars/1828392.png" style="min-height: 40px; vertical-align: middle;" /></a>By <span><a href="http://connect.nj.com/user/njoslguest/posts.html" style="color: #305cb6; font-weight: 700; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Star-Ledger Guest Columnist </a></span><br />on May 01, 2013 at 6:33 AM</div>
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<span title="NJONLINE/Spacer_NJ_RoS_03_StoryAd"></span><div style="min-height: 1px;">
<img height="2" src="http://ads.nj.com/RealMedia/ads/adstream_lx.ads/blog.nj.com/njv_guest_blog/2013/05/assemblywoman_newark_archbisho.html/L11/1154939977/StoryAd/NJONLINE/Spacer_NJ_RoS_03/Spacer_SpanMJX.html/52435159365644676b2b5541427a6854?_RM_EMPTY_&" style="vertical-align: middle;" width="2" /></div>
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<span><img alt="archbishopmyers.JPG" src="http://media.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/photo/12639615-large.jpg" style="min-height: auto; vertical-align: middle;" /><span style="font-size: 10px;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">The Most Reverend John J. Myers, Archbishop of Newark</span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-style: italic; text-align: right;">Aristide Economopoulos/The Star-Ledger</span></span></span> </div>
<strong>By Valerie Vainieri Huttle</strong>Newark Archbishop John J. Myers must go. I agree wholeheartedly with <a href="http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2013/04/newark_archbishop_john_myers_m.html" style="color: #305cb6; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">The Star-Ledger editorial calling for his immediate resignation</a> <br />
<a href="http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2013/04/newark_archbishop_john_myers_m.html" style="font-size: 16px;" target="_blank">http://blog.nj.com/njv_<wbr></wbr>editorial_page/2013/04/newark_<wbr></wbr>archbishop_john_myers_m.html</a><span style="font-size: 16px;">. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: 16px;">If he does not resign, the Roman Catholic Church should swiftly investigate his support and protection of the Rev. Michael Fugee, a priest who admitted to sexual contact with a minor.</span><br />
The archbishop placed Fugee in various positions throughout the archdiocese, from chaplain at St. Michael’s Medical Center to co-director of the Office of Continuing Education and Ongoing Formation of Priests, to a parish in Rochelle Park. Myers shuffled Fugee into each new post after his history came to light.<br />
There seems to be a blatant breach of the agreement reached with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office and the Archdiocese of Newark to keep Fugee away from minors by Myers.<br />
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<span><img alt="huttle.jpg" src="http://media.nj.com/njv_guest_blog/photo/12659951-small.jpg" style="min-height: auto; vertical-align: middle;" /><span style="font-size: 10px;"><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 12px;">Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle</span><span style="color: #666666; font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; font-style: italic; text-align: right;">File photo</span></span></span> </div>
As a lifelong Catholic and a public official, I was outraged to learn of the archbishop’s efforts to promote Fugee and to continually expose children to him knowing his past behavior. Myers may have confused turning the other cheek with turning a blind eye, but lay Catholics have not.As horrified as I am by Myers’ latest disregard for his parishioners, I am sad to say that I am not surprised.<br />
<a href="http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/04/with_approval_of_archbishop_pr.html#incart_river" style="color: #305cb6; font-weight: bold; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Reading about Myers on Sunday</a>,<br />
<a href="http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2013/04/with_approval_of_archbishop_pr.html#incart_river" style="font-size: 16px;" target="_blank">http://www.nj.com/news/index.<wbr></wbr>ssf/2013/04/with_approval_of_<wbr></wbr>archbishop_pr.html#incart_<wbr></wbr>river</a><br />
<span style="font-size: 16px;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: 16px;">I was reminded of why I was not at church, as I was on so many Sundays in years past.</span><br />
Several years ago, the pastor of my church received a call from Myers after a single letter requested that I be removed from serving as a lector. Because I am an advocate for marriage equality, it was not appropriate for me to speak publicly in church.<br />
To Myers and some others, it did not matter that the bill was titled Marriage Equality and Religious Exemption Act, as it would allow for marriage equality in New Jersey and would not force the church to perform same-sex marriages or even recognize them. I may have been driven away from my church, but my faith has never wavered.<br />
I attended parochial school, actively participated in my church, volunteered as a CCD teacher, taught pre cana with my husband, served as parish council president, and was invested as a Lady of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, one of the highest honors bestowed upon a layperson. This was under the spiritual leadership of Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, now cardinal and archbishop emeritus of Washington, D.C.<br />
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Like so many others, I am both Catholic and progressive. I do not see a conflict between my faith and my progressive values. As a child in catechism class, I was taught to heal the sick, help the abandoned and feed the hungry. Now, as the chair of the Assembly Human Services Committee, I dedicate my efforts to bettering the lives of individuals with disabilities, children and low-income families. I sponsor legislation focused on equality, access to opportunity and strengthening the social safety net.<br />
Yet, for Myers, my beliefs and my work somehow make me an inappropriate participant in the church. Well, I ask whether it is better for the church to be known for caring for society’s most vulnerable or for protecting child abusers, ignoring sexual misconduct and using religion to cloak a lack of acceptance of our LGBT family and friends.<br />
We as Catholics are often challenged by our faith. We are frequently disappointed, frustrated and disgusted by the actions of the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy. We need spiritual leaders who inspire and protect our youth, not expose them to sexual predators.<br />
Not only for the sake of the children but the entire flock, Myers should step down!<br />
<em>Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Bergen) represents the 37th Legislative District.</em></div>
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Diane Doughertyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329185474381532954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4422028396391411284.post-10946781532592095052013-04-30T19:14:00.001-04:002013-04-30T19:18:42.918-04:00Rosemarie Smead's Ordination-Louisville, KY<h2 class="date-header">
Monday, April 29, 2013</h2>
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<a href="http://bridgetmarys.blogspot.com/2013/04/rosemarie-smeads-ordination-some-photos.html"><span style="color: #669922;">Rosemarie
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<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-small;"><strong>Pastor
Jimmy Watson of St. Andrew UCC welcomes all to
ordination</strong></span><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: x-small;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: x-small;">Louisville TV
Story:</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: x-small;">Kentucky Woman Goes Against Roman
Catholic Law- Ordained as Priest</span></strong><br />
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<a href="http://www.wdrb.com/story/22097974/kentucky-woman-goes-against-roman-catholic-law-ordained-as-priest"><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: x-small;"><strong><span style="color: #669922;">http://www.wdrb.com/story/22097974/kentucky-woman-goes-against-roman-catholic-law-ordained-as-priest</span></strong></span></a><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: Times; font-size: x-small;">City's First Female Priest To Be
Ordained/TV Story</span></strong><br />
<a href="http://www.whas11.com/home/Citys-first-female-priest-to-be-ordained-204872971.html"><strong><span style="color: #669922; font-family: Tahoma; font-size: x-small;">http://www.whas11.com/home/Citys-first-female-priest-to-be-ordained-204872971.html</span></strong></a><br />
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<span class="post-author vcard">Posted by <span class="fn" itemprop="author" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"><span itemprop="name">Bridget Mary Meehan</span>
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Diane Doughertyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329185474381532954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4422028396391411284.post-80770928197899869292013-04-29T18:15:00.000-04:002013-04-29T18:15:17.295-04:00Rosemarie Smead is Ordained a Roman Catholic Woman Priest<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
"Kentucky Woman Ordained as
Priest by Dissdient Roman Catholics" NBC Story </h3>
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<span style="font-size: xx-small;">Kentucky woman ordained
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong><img alt="" height="301" id="http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/130428-smead2-hmed-5p.jpg" src="http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/130428-smead2-hmed-5p.photoblog600.jpg" width="400" /></strong></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>John Sommers /
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Ordaining Bishop
Bridget Mary Meehan (C) presents Rosemarie Smead (R), a 70-year-old Kentucky
woman, to the audience after she was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest during
a Celebration of Ordination at St. Andrew's United Church of Christ in
Louisville, Kentucky April 27, 2013. </strong></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>By Sofia Perpetua,
NBC News</strong></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>A dissident Roman
Catholic group ordained a 70-year-old woman a priest in Louisville, Kentucky,
during a ceremony attended by hundreds on Saturday.</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>About 150 women
from all over the world have been ordained in defiance of the Roman Catholic
Church that bans them from becoming priests.</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Rosemarie Smead
will be starting her own congregation and she told Reuters she is not worried
about being excommunicated.</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>"It is a medieval
bullying stick the bishops used to keep control over people and to keep the
voices of women silent,” she said. “I am way beyond letting octogenarian men
tell us how to live our lives."</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Smead, a former
Carmelite nun with a bachelor's in theology and a doctorate in counseling
psychology, wept throughout the ceremony.</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>According to a
recent New York Times/CBS News poll, seventy percent of U.S. Catholics believe
women should be allowed to be priests.</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>In a statement last
week, Louisville Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz called the planned ceremony by the
Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests a "simulated ordination" in
opposition to Catholic teaching.</strong></span><br /><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>"The simulation of
a sacrament carries very serious penal sanctions in Church law, and Catholics
should not support or participate in Saturday's event," Kurtz
said.</strong></span><br /><em><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Reuters contributed
to this story</strong></span></em></div>
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Diane Doughertyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329185474381532954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4422028396391411284.post-16820166833696872802013-04-29T18:10:00.001-04:002013-04-29T18:10:38.697-04:00Pope Francis entertains Leonardo Boff-Change clerics change....<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/28/pope-francis-liberation-theology_n_3173986.html?ir=Religion&utm_campaign=042913&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Alert-religion&utm_content=FullStory">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/28/pope-francis-liberation-theology_n_3173986.html?ir=Religion&utm_campaign=042913&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Alert-religion&utm_content=FullStory</a>Diane Doughertyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329185474381532954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4422028396391411284.post-56290453406518264842013-04-22T08:45:00.000-04:002013-04-22T08:45:43.985-04:00Rosemarie Smead to be ordained in Louisville, KY<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/04/21/group-to-ordain-woman-as-priest-in-kentucky/2100081/">http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/04/21/group-to-ordain-woman-as-priest-in-kentucky/2100081/</a><br />
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Group to ordain woman as priest in Kentucky</h1>
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<span class="asset-metabar-author asset-metabar-item" itemprop="name">Peter Smith, The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal</span><span class="asset-metabar-time asset-metabar-item ">12:01 a.m. EDT April 21, 2013</span></div>
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Rosemarie Smead admits her action is a flagrant defiance of Roman Catholic law.</h2>
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<span class="cutline">Rosemarie Smead is scheduled to be ordained April 27 by the dissident Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests.</span><span class="credit">(Photo: Michael Clevenger, The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal)</span></div>
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Story Highlights</h3>
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<li class="hlt-item">Smead to be ordained by dissident Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests</li>
<li class="hlt-item">Archbishop says Catholics shouldn't support or participate in ordination</li>
<li class="hlt-item">Smead says she has no fear of excommunication</li>
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LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Rosemarie Smead sees herself as preparing all her life for the step she's about to take.<br />
She was brought up a devout Catholic. She lived for a short time as a cloistered nun. She has theology and counseling degrees. She marched for civil rights in Selma, Ala. -- then worked with troubled children there for years. She forged a career as an Indiana University Southeast professor, training school counselors.<br />
Now the petite 70-year-old from Bedford, Ky., is preparing for what she freely admits is a flagrant defiance of Roman Catholic law -- specifically Canon 1024, which restricts the priesthood to baptized men.<br />
On Saturday, Smead is scheduled to be ordained by the dissident Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests. The service will take place in a Protestant sanctuary.<br />
It will be the first such ordination in Louisville by the decade-old Women Priests group, which has been holding such services around the world.<br />
"It's illegal, but it's valid," said Smead. "In order to challenge this law, we have to break it."<br />
National and Kentucky polls have shown around two-thirds of all Catholics -- but a minority of those who frequently attend Mass -- support ordaining women. But church leaders insist that public opinion won't alter Catholic doctrine.<br />
"Despite the name, the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests is not an entity of the Roman Catholic Church or the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville," Louisville Archbishop Joseph Kurtz said in a statement. "Its action in carrying out a simulated ordination of Dr. Rosemarie Smead stands in direct opposition to the Roman Catholic Church's teaching on the priesthood."<br />
Kurtz said the "simulation of a sacrament carries very serious penal sanctions in Church law, and Catholics should not support or participate."<br />
In 2008, the Vatican stated that any woman who attempts ordination, and anyone seeking to confer it on her, faces automatic excommunication.<br />
The association's 2008 ordination of a Lexington, Ky., woman, Janice Sevre-Duszynska, led to the defrocking of a Roman Catholic priest who took a prominent role in the ceremony.<br />
The Catechism of the Catholic Church says Jesus chose men as his apostles and that they chose men as their successors.<br />
"The Church recognizes herself to be bound by this choice made by the Lord Himself. For this reason, the ordination of women is not possible," it says.<br />
In the face of such opposition, Smead admits she hesitated to seek ordination at a retirement age, a decision "that would require me to have a great deal of courage and to stand up to the dudes."<br />
But, she added, "I have never been a stay-in-the-box person. Because of my relationship with God, I have no fear of excommunication."<br />
<aside class="comp single-photo" itemprop="associatedMedia" itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/ImageObject"><img alt="None" itemprop="url" src="http://www.gannett-cdn.com/media/USATODAY/GenericImages/2013/04/20/gan-woman-priest-042013-1-3_4_rx340.jpg?228a71852a22ff512d948fddff187818eb64a894" width="340" />Rosemarie Smead, photographed April 16, Louisville, Ky., is scheduled to be ordained by the dissident Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests.<span class="credit">(Photo: Michael Clevenger, The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal)</span></aside>The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests traces its roots to 2002 and says it has ordained about 100 women priests worldwide, including several bishops, many leading small congregations independent from Vatican authority.<br />
Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan of the association said its first bishops were ordained by a Roman Catholic bishop whose name has not been disclosed, giving them valid orders in the line of succession from the apostles.<br />
Advocates for women's ordination contend there is evidence in ancient texts, burial art and other sources that early churches ordained women.<br />
<b>"</b>We're reclaiming that earlier tradition," said Meehan, who will preside at Smead's ordination. She also cited gospel accounts of Jesus first appearing to women after his resurrection and telling them to bring the good news to others.<br />
"That's the meaning of the word apostle, (one commissioned to) go and tell," she said.<br />
Meehan said Smead has had "a lifelong call" to serving others and that ordination "would enhance and expand her ministry."<br />
Smead attended Catholic schools while growing up in Ohio in the 1940s and 1950s. She said she felt a call to serve God and others, but the notion of a woman priest was never discussed then.<br />
"I felt like the best thing I could possibly be is a contemplative nun in a monastery," Smead said.<br />
She spent about three years at a Carmelite convent but left after her health broke down. "We went to bed at 11 o'clock at night. We got up at 4:30 in the morning," she said. "I could not deal with the sleep deprivation."<br />
Eventually she went to Marquette University, where she earned an undergraduate degree in theology. In 1965, she and fellow students took part in the historic march through Selma in support of the Rev. Martin Luther King and other civil rights activists.<br />
After a brief marriage, Smead began working toward a doctorate in counseling psychology at Auburn University while starting a clinic in nearby Montgomery, Ala., for children with severe learning disabilities and emotional problems.<br />
She later returned to Selma to direct a treatment program for juvenile delinquents.<br />
"They were lost in the system, but we took them," she said.<br />
Seeking to train others in similar work, she became professor of counseling education at IUS in New Albany in 1981 and published how-to textbooks on group therapy for children.<br />
Heart attacks in the 1990s prompted Smead to scale back her stressful regimen of teaching, publishing and conference travel. She pursued a new avocation -- raising Australian shepherds and bringing them to dog shows, then training children on how to do the same. Smead retired from IUS in 2007.<br />
"All this time I was going to my Catholic church on Sundays, following what I believe is my spiritual life," she said.<br />
But, she added, "doing couples counseling and family counseling for 40 years, you get pretty darn liberal. ... I've counseled so many women who would come in crying. They had six kids, and the husband and the priest were saying, 'Sorry, you cannot use birth control,' when she was at her wit's end."<br />
When Smead learned about Bourgeois' plight, she looked up the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests online.<br />
She contacted members, began attending its meetings in Cincinnati and was urged to apply for ordination. She said that was an answer to her prayer for direction after retirement.<br />
"I'm in good health," she said. "I'm not going to sit on my duff. I never have. I need to be giving back."<br />
Smead took correspondence courses in theology and was ordained a deacon by the association last fall.<br />
Many women priests host small churches, as Smead has begun doing in recent months, calling it Christ Sophia Inclusive Catholic Community. Starting May 11, she'll be leading monthly services, using space at St. Andrew.<br />
St. Andrew's pastor, the Rev. Jimmy Watson, said hosting the service was natural for a congregation that welcomes openly gay members and whose denomination was a pioneer in ordaining women.<br />
"These acts reflect the United Church of Christ's extravagant sense of hospitality and inclusion," Watson said.</div>
Diane Doughertyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329185474381532954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4422028396391411284.post-53692168626489111842013-04-03T14:43:00.001-04:002013-04-03T14:43:24.205-04:00Ann Harrington, Greenville NC seeks Ordination in ARCWP
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 18pt;">Women see
expanded role</span></i></b><br />
<div class="story-reporter" style="margin: 1em 0in;">
By <strong>Kim Grizzard</strong></div>
<div class="story-publisher" style="margin: 1em 0in 2.25pt;">
The Daily Reflector</div>
<div class="story-date" style="margin: 1em 0in 2.25pt;">
Sunday, March 31, 2013</div>
<br />
In her 1962 class picture, Ann Harrington sits four rows back in Sister Mary
Rosanna’s fourth-grade class. But some 40 years after her days at Our Lady of
Hope, Harrington is ready to move to the front.<br />
<br />
The wife, mother and longtime Catholic is a candidate for ordination to the
diaconate of Roman Catholic Womenpriests. The movement, which began in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Germany</st1:country-region> a little more than a decade ago, has
since ordained 150 women, all without the approval of the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Vatican</st1:place></st1:country-region> or the
blessing of the Catholic Church. <br />
<br />
“It’s very much like the civil rights movement ... Rosa Parks sitting down
on the bus saying, ‘I’m not sitting in the back of the bus anymore,’”
Harrington said. “I’m not sitting in the back of the Catholic Church anymore.”<br />
<br />
Harrington will talk about her journey this week as the Interfaith Alliance
of Eastern Carolina shows the film “Pink Smoke Over the Vatican,” an
award-winning documentary which chronicles the stories of women who have risked
excommunication to pursue what they consider to be a calling from God.<br />
<br />
“Why are we, in 2013, even having this discussion?” Harrington, 61, asked.
“It makes no sense. Women have been in every field. They do everything.<br />
<br />
“The problem is that when a woman feels called by God to be a (Catholic)
priest, there is no way for her to answer that call.”<br />
<br />
The Catholic Church prohibits the ordination of women as priests or bishops.
Though the idea of women’s ordination has been discussed for decades, Pope John
Paul II declared in 1994 that “the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer
priestly ordination on women.”<br />
<br />
Newly elected Pope Francis made headlines last week for becoming the first
pontiff to wash women’s feet, an act he performed during a Maundy Thursday
ritual at a juvenile detention center in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Rome</st1:city></st1:place>.
Though this move upset some traditionalists, Francis is considered a
conservative, and he has written of his opposition to ordaining women.<br />
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Father Justin Kerber, pastor of St. Peter’s Catholic Church, does not
believe Francis will admit women to the priesthood.<br />
<br />
“I think this pope will be in line with the other 265 popes before him,”
Kerber said. “He will say this has already been decided and is not open to
discussion.<br />
<br />
“The church is not a democracy,” he said. “To put this up for a vote, we
don’t do that.”<br />
<br />
In a February survey by the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Pew</st1:placename>
<st1:placename w:st="on">Research</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Center</st1:placetype></st1:place>,
more than half of the 300 American Catholics questioned said the pope should
maintain traditional positions. Of the 46 percent who said he should move in
new directions, 9 percent said women should be allowed to serve in the
priesthood.<br />
<br />
Lynn Caverly, co-director of the Interfaith Alliance of Eastern Carolina,
said marginalization of women in leadership is one of the main reasons she left
the Catholic Church a decade ago.<br />
<br />
“The first time I saw a female clergy perform the Eucharist, tears streamed
down my face. It just felt so right,” Caverly said. <br />
<br />
“I grew up Roman Catholic, and it’s still a big part of my identity. I just
kind of outgrew the patriarchy. I just got tired of looking in the mirror and
seeing this female face but knowing that the image of God did not look anything
like me, and I think that’s not what Jesus really intended.”<br />
<br />
Kerber said that in recent years the Catholic Church, like much of American
society, has become less male-dominated. At St. Peter’s, the parish manager and
head of the parish council are women, and women have assumed leadership roles
in everything from financial management to faith formation.<br />
<br />
“The parish would fall apart, every parish would, if it weren’t for women,”
Kerber said. “The church loves the role of women and loves all the beautiful
things that women contribute to the church and respects women tremendously.
Everything is open to women in our church with the exception of being ordained
a priest or a bishop.”<br />
<br />
Opponents of women clergy said that Jesus chose men, his 12 disciples, to
lead the church. But proponents contend that scripture records women being an
integral part of Jesus’ ministry and point out that the New Testament book of
John records that Jesus first appeared to a woman, Mary Magdalene, after his
resurrection.<br />
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“We’re all baptized into the body of Christ, and the priest is merely there
as a representative and someone to help the community celebrate the sacraments,”
Harrington said. “There’s really no reason that a woman couldn’t do any of
these things.”<br />
<br />
Harrington, a <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Maryland</st1:place></st1:state>
native, grew up doing all the things that were expected of a Catholic girl at
that time. She attended Mass with her family. She went to Catholic school. She
even considered becoming a nun.<br />
<br />
But after meeting an marrying her husband, Mark, who also was baptized
Catholic, she felt her calling was to be a wife and mother. The couple had four
sons. Harrington sang in the church choir, helped her husband lead Boy Scouts
and volunteered with vacation Bible school.<br />
<br />
As her children grew older, Harrington found time for more personal
reflection, attending retreats and seeking spiritual direction. It was not
until the death of a close friend that Harrington began to sense a calling to
church leadership, perhaps to priesthood.<br />
<br />
“I felt so led to be a minister for this family who had no church
affiliation,” she said.<br />
<br />
“Why am I feeling this call now? There may have been other times when I
considered it ... and pushed it aside because, No. 1, it’s not a choice, not a
choice within Catholicism.”<br />
<br />
The Rev. Bob Hudak, rector of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">St.
Paul</st1:place></st1:city>’s Episcopal Church, believes many Catholic women
feel a call to the priesthood.<br />
<br />
“I have met so many women priests who started off in Roman Catholic families
and went through their own kind of struggle and search and found a home in the
Episcopal church where they could pursue a path to priesthood,” he said.<br />
<br />
One of those is the Rev. Mimi Lacy, rector of St. Timothy’s Episcopal
Church. Lacy, 56, the eighth of nine children, grew up Catholic but was
excommunicated when she married her husband, who had been divorced. But it
wasn’t until nearly 20 years after she joined her husband in the Episcopal
Church that she began to consider joining the clergy.<br />
<br />
Even in the Episcopal Church, which began ordaining women in the 1970s,
there was opposition. Lacy recalls a friend telling her that the priesthood was
no place for a woman, an experience that helps her to understand something of
what Catholic women must feel.<br />
<br />
“She wants to obey (God) and then these people are telling her no,” Lacy
said. “It’s very frustrating. <br />
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“There are women that jump ship. There are women that stay on and suffer
through their pain and hope it will change,” she said. “I don’t think it will
any time in the near future, but I admire their perseverance. You only change a
system by being a part of it.”<br />
<br />
Hudak, who was ordained as a Franciscan at age 26, served for nearly 20
years before choosing to marry in 1991, a choice that required him to leave the
Catholic priesthood. In the Episcopal Church, being a husband and father did
not preclude him from being ordained.<br />
<br />
Though Hudak continues to believe his decision was the right one, it was
nonetheless painful.<br />
<br />
“It was like leaving home,” he said. “I always felt like being Roman
Catholic was like being Jewish. You’re born into a family, you’re born into a
history, you’re born in to cultural customs that really shape and influence
your life.”<br />
<br />
His experience helps him identify with people like Harrington, who continue
to feel an attachment to the church despite their disagreements over some
practices. <br />
<br />
Harrington still attends Mass and still meets regularly with a women’s study
group.<br />
<br />
“I think her Catholic roots are so deep and strong that she’d rather fight
than switch,” Hudak said of Harrington, whom he has known for about eight
years.“It may be that her response and those of others like her will be sort of
like the leaven, the yeast that causes the change to take place.<br />
<br />
“I would think there’s hope with the new pope,” he said. “But again when
you’re steering an ocean liner that’s as large as the Roman Catholic Church,
it’s going to take awhile for changes to be made.”<br />
<br />
<i>Interfaith <st1:city w:st="on">Alliance</st1:city> of <st1:place w:st="on">Eastern
Carolina</st1:place> will kick off its speakers’ series, “Contemporary Issues
in Faith, Religion and Spirituality” at 7 p.m. Monday at Unitarian Universalist
Congregation, <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">131 Oakmont Drive</st1:address></st1:street>.
The documentary “Pink Smoke Over the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Vatican</st1:place></st1:country-region>” will be shown. Ann
Harrington will speak, and a question and answer session will follow. Call
702-3007 or email caverlyl@ecu.edu.</i><br />
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Diane Doughertyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329185474381532954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4422028396391411284.post-36028679786648584972013-03-30T16:17:00.001-04:002013-03-30T16:17:21.861-04:00Despite Censures, Womenpriests Movement Grows/Washington Post <h2 class="date-header">
<span>Saturday, March 30, 2013</span></h2>
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<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
Despite Censures,
Womenpriests Movement Grows/Washington Post Article/March 29, 2013 </h3>
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<a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/despite-censures-womenpriests-movement-grows/2013/03/29/60990986-989a-11e2-b5b4-b63027b499de_story.html#"><strong><span style="color: #669922;">
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<span class="entry-title">Despite censures, Womenpriests
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<!--tooltile AD END--><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">By <span class="author vcard"><span class="fn">Megan O'neil| Religion News
Service</span></span>, <!-- For AP News Registry --> </span><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"> </span></div>
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<article><span class="dateline"></span><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;">"</span><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>If heading a
religious community is a lonely job for any woman, a Catholic Womenpriest might
be the loneliest of all. </strong></span><span style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><strong>Yet the ordination
of Catholic women within the Womenpriests movement, which flaunts Roman Catholic
Church law forbidding the practice, continues to grow, as members demand greater
inclusion of women in the institutional
church..."</strong></span></article></div>
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<span class="post-author vcard">Posted by <span class="fn" itemprop="author" itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/Person"><span itemprop="name">Bridget Mary Meehan</span>
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Diane Doughertyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329185474381532954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4422028396391411284.post-44282706816502551962013-03-30T08:39:00.001-04:002013-03-30T08:46:57.848-04:00Losing my religion for equality…by Jimmy Carter<h2 class="title">
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><strong>Comment</strong>: Jimmy Carter got it right again-now for our part.
We must campaign strongly in the forum of public opinion, to gain access to
every agency of broad influence, spreading clear information about how present
religious practices in all denominations condone the sin of sexism by
attributing men's acts of dominance to God, when in actuality they are contrived
to control women. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">He got it right when he wrote criminal practices tied to
religion supports ," the belief that women must be subjugated to the
wishes of men (in order to) excuse slavery, violence, forced prostitution,
genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime." </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The most recent coverage by media of the Stuebenville crisis
giving ample sympathy to the boys who raped an underage girl and put it on You
Tube, without the thought of remorse or wrongdoing at the time. As the media
repeatedly announced with the greatest compassion that the boy's lives were
over, most absorbed the emotions without comment to the life of the victim, or
to the fact that they committed a heinous crime. This piece offers a glimpse of
the mountains all societies have to climb in terms of shifting consciousness
from male privilege to criminal acts.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Once again-thank you Jimmy Carter for actively following the
God of love and compassion and bringing to all of us the leadership that helps
define who God is in our 21st century.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Religions, most particularly the Catholic Church as run by the
hierarchy, must face many challenges in our time, and hopefully gender eauality
will be at the top of the list.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><strong>Losing my religion for equality…by Jimmy Carter</strong></span></div>
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<a href="http://www.womenspress-slo.org/?p=11440">http://www.womenspress-slo.org/?p=11440</a></div>
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25 January 2013102,777 views31 Comments</div>
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<a href="http://www.womenspress-slo.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Jimmy_Carter_1.jpg"><img alt="" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-11441" height="459" src="http://www.womenspress-slo.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/Jimmy_Carter_1.jpg" title="Former U.S. President and Nobel Laureate Jimmy Carter gestures at the 21st Hay Festival" width="300" /></a><br />
<strong>Women and girls have been discriminated against for too long in a twisted interpretation of the word of God.</strong><br />
I HAVE been a practicing Christian all my life and a deacon and Bible teacher for many years. My faith is a source of strength and comfort to me, as religious beliefs are to hundreds of millions of people around the world. So my decision to sever my ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, after six decades, was painful and difficult. It was, however, an unavoidable decision when the convention’s leaders, quoting a few carefully selected Bible verses and claiming that Eve was created second to Adam and was responsible for original sin, ordained that women must be “subservient” to their husbands and prohibited from serving as deacons, pastors or chaplains in the military service.<br />
This view that women are somehow inferior to men is not restricted to one religion or belief. Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many faiths. Nor, tragically, does its influence stop at the walls of the church, mosque, synagogue or temple. This discrimination, unjustifiably attributed to a Higher Authority, has provided a reason or excuse for the deprivation of women’s equal rights across the world for centuries.<br />
At its most repugnant, the belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime. But it also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives, and continues to deny them fair access to education, health, employment and influence within their own communities.<br />
The impact of these religious beliefs touches every aspect of our lives. They help explain why in many countries boys are educated before girls; why girls are told when and whom they must marry; and why many face enormous and unacceptable risks in pregnancy and childbirth because their basic health needs are not met.<br />
In some Islamic nations, women are restricted in their movements, punished for permitting the exposure of an arm or ankle, deprived of education, prohibited from driving a car or competing with men for a job. If a woman is raped, she is often most severely punished as the guilty party in the crime.<br />
The same discriminatory thinking lies behind the continuing gender gap in pay and why there are still so few women in office in the West. The root of this prejudice lies deep in our histories, but its impact is felt every day. It is not women and girls alone who suffer. It damages all of us. The evidence shows that investing in women and girls delivers major benefits for society. An educated woman has healthier children. She is more likely to send them to school. She earns more and invests what she earns in her family.<br />
It is simply self-defeating for any community to discriminate against half its population. We need to challenge these self-serving and outdated attitudes and practices - as we are seeing in Iran where women are at the forefront of the battle for democracy and freedom.<br />
I understand, however, why many political leaders can be reluctant about stepping into this minefield. Religion, and tradition, are powerful and sensitive areas to challenge. But my fellow Elders and I, who come from many faiths and backgrounds, no longer need to worry about winning votes or avoiding controversy - and we are deeply committed to challenging injustice wherever we see it.<br />
The Elders are an independent group of eminent global leaders, brought together by former South African president Nelson Mandela, who offer their influence and experience to support peace building, help address major causes of human suffering and promote the shared interests of humanity. We have decided to draw particular attention to the responsibility of religious and traditional leaders in ensuring equality and human rights and have recently published a statement that declares: “The justification of discrimination against women and girls on grounds of religion or tradition, as if it were prescribed by a Higher Authority, is unacceptable.”<br />
We are calling on all leaders to challenge and change the harmful teachings and practices, no matter how ingrained, which justify discrimination against women. We ask, in particular, that leaders of all religions have the courage to acknowledge and emphasise the positive messages of dignity and equality that all the world’s major faiths share.<br />
The carefully selected verses found in the Holy Scriptures to justify the superiority of men owe more to time and place - and the determination of male leaders to hold onto their influence - than eternal truths. Similar biblical excerpts could be found to support the approval of slavery and the timid acquiescence to oppressive rulers.<br />
I am also familiar with vivid descriptions in the same Scriptures in which women are revered as pre-eminent leaders. During the years of the early Christian church women served as deacons, priests, bishops, apostles, teachers and prophets. It wasn’t until the fourth century that dominant Christian leaders, all men, twisted and distorted Holy Scriptures to perpetuate their ascendant positions within the religious hierarchy.<br />
The truth is that male religious leaders have had - and still have - an option to interpret holy teachings either to exalt or subjugate women. They have, for their own selfish ends, overwhelmingly chosen the latter. Their continuing choice provides the foundation or justification for much of the pervasive persecution and abuse of women throughout the world. This is in clear violation not just of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but also the teachings of Jesus Christ, the Apostle Paul, Moses and the prophets, Muhammad, and founders of other great religions - all of whom have called for proper and equitable treatment of all the children of God. It is time we had the courage to challenge these views.<br />
OBSERVER<br />
Jimmy Carter was president of the United States from 1977 to 1981.<br />
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Diane Doughertyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329185474381532954noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4422028396391411284.post-79263371283562008742013-03-29T21:10:00.000-04:002013-03-29T21:10:00.840-04:00Michael Morwood says "It's Time" Lets begin the church of the 21st century<a href="http://www.catholica.com.au/gc2/mm/009_mm_290313.php" target="_blank">http://www.catholica.com.au/<wbr></wbr>gc2/mm/009_mm_290313.php</a>Diane Doughertyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14329185474381532954noreply@blogger.com0