Womanpriest Mass

Our womanpriest community, Mary Magdalene, First Apostle was covered by the St. Cloud Times today. The article does a good job of laying out the issue to people who know nothing or very little about it. I like the quotations he chose to include by Mary Smith, our pastor, and Kelly Doss, one of our planning group.

In previous posts I’ve refuted the hierarchy’s false, tired, sometimes amusing, arguments against womenpriests. The funniest argument against ordaining women is explained by Florian:
Women are not valid "matter" for the sacrament of holy orders to begin with, at least in the eyes of the church. So, ordination of women priests is not valid, even if "ordained" by bishops who are intending to properly administer the sacrament, because no sacrament takes place anyway without the proper matter.
The valid and proper matter must be the penis.

The hierarchy claims that our Catholic tradition does not include women’s ordination. Wrong. Archaeology reveals that women were ordained priests and bishops in the first centuries of our church’s existence.
And more recently, in the 1970s our tradition was moving toward approving ordination for women. This seemed to be the consensus among bishops,
Bishops who speak on the subject are simply content in observing that the traditional arguments put forward against the ordination of women are no longer convincing
theologians,
Well known theologians have explicitly stated and written that they see no dogmatic obstacle to the ordination of women.
and the “people of God.”
The position of women in the church up until now has been due to social and cultural factors. . . . the Lay Apostolate asks the Catholic Church to give women all the rights and responsibilities of a Christian.
Clearly Catholics in the 1970s saw no impediment to ordaining women and were getting ready to proceed. What happened? Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI couldn’t stand the idea and forced the Church to accept their position. They appointed bishops who toed their traditionalist line and found theologians to manufacture spurious arguments against women’s ordination. In Ordinatio Sacerdotalis John Paul declared,
that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful.
A declaration that history will ridicule as certainly as the one against Galileo. People of conscience will win this one—it’s just a matter of time.

Comments

Ella said…
Matter? What is Florian talking about? Doesn't he know its the Holy Spirit that is leading and energizing the people to work for equality and justice for women in the Roman Catholic Church. Its all about the Spirit,Florian.
Steve said…
I am not sure how I stand on the issue, and equality is certainly a valid course. However, I can't help but find it troubling that many of the women priests are married and have kids. It seems like this strays too far from the Catholic Church. perhaps another church is better for your group? Food for thought.

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