Submitted by SHNS on Tue, 12/27/2011 - 14:10
By ROSE FRENCH , Minneapolis Star Tribune

Dressed in a priestly white robe and green stole, Monique Venne lifted communion bread before an altar -- defying centuries of Catholic Church law.

Despite promises of excommunication from the Vatican, she and six other women in Minnesota say they are legitimate, ordained Catholic priests, fit to celebrate Mass. They trace their status through a line of ordained women bishops back to anonymous male bishops in Europe. "We love the church, but we see this great wrong," said Venne, 54, who cofounded Compassion of Christ Church, a Minneapolis congregation that just marked its first anniversary. "Not allowing women to be at the altar is a denigration of their dignity. We want the church to be the best it can be. If one leaves, one cannot effect change. So we're pushing boundaries."

Minnesota has emerged as a hotbed for the growing movement to ordain women as priests, with the highest per-capita number of female Catholic priests in the nation, according to the organization Roman Catholic Womenpriests. The group claims about 70 women priests in the United States and more than 100 worldwide.

Several Protestant denominations have allowed women to be ordained ministers for decades. But the Catholic Church views an all-male priesthood as unchangeable, "based on the example of Jesus, who, even though he had revered relationships with women who were his disciples, chose only men to be his apostles," said Dennis McGrath, spokesman for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis. "Women who claim to have been ordained Catholic priests in fact have no relationship to the Catholic Church because their ordination is not valid," he said.

An increasing number of Catholics disagree with the church on this. In a poll last year by the New York Times and CBS, 59 percent of U.S. Catholics favored letting women become priests, with 33 percent opposed.

That's encouraging news for Roman Catholic Womenpriests, founded nearly nine years ago in Europe. It began after seven women were ordained aboard a ship on the Danube River by three male bishops. The group claims their ordinations are valid because they conform within the bounds of "apostolic succession."

"I do believe we are connecting through the original church, which started with the apostles," said Regina Nicolosi, 69, of Red Wing, Minn., who became bishop for Womenpriests' Midwest region in 2009. Dozens of U.S. congregations are being led by female priests, and many Catholics view the movement as a solution to the church's problem of declining numbers of male priests. Roman Catholic Womenpriests is the first group to claim "apostolic succession," said Marian Ronan, associate professor at Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, Calif. The church sees that as a threat to its authority, Ronan said.

The Vatican issued a pronouncement in 2008 that women who sought ordination and bishops who ordained them would be excommunicated. Last year, the Vatican also labeled female ordination a delictum gravius, or grave crime.

Venne says women who work on church staffs also face the likelihood of getting fired for becoming priests. Male priests who support them can't do so publicly because they risk their retirement pensions if they are excommunicated.

Proponents of female ordination argue, however, that New Testament and early Christian art show women as priests and in other leadership roles.

Asked why they insist on remaining Catholic when they could be welcomed as ministers in other denominations, the women say, in so many words, it's their religion, too.

"I'm as much Catholic -- I feel like it's a nationality -- as I am English, German and Polish," said Linda Wilcox, 64, who felt called to become a priest after working in the St. Paul library system for nearly 35 years. She is one of four women priests at Compassion of Christ.

Women priests in Minnesota come from a variety of backgrounds: chaplain, librarian, even meteorologist. A significant number are married and have children, another forbidden activity by the church, which calls for its priests to be celibate.

Compassion of Christ is a small congregation, with only 15 to 20 people attending regularly. One is Pauline Cahalan, 66, a lifelong Catholic. "Basically there's just something missing with the fact that there's this philosophy or rules that say the Holy Spirit only inspires men to be priests," Cahalan said. "And that if a woman gets that calling ... they're supposed to ignore it and deny it. That just doesn't make sense to me."

Roman Catholic Womenpriests

For Immediate Release
August 8, 2011

Under pressure from the Vatican, the Maryknoll Catholic religious order has issued a second canonical warning to Fr. Roy Bourgeois stating he will be dismissed from the order and his priesthood if he does not recant his support for women priests.

Fr. Roy responded to this latest threat: “As people of faith we believe in the primacy of conscience. Our conscience gives us a sense of right and wrong and urges us to do what is right, what is just. What you are asking me to do in your letter is not possible without betraying my conscience. In essence, you are telling me to lie. This I cannot do, therefore I will not recant. I firmly believe that the exclusion of women from the priesthood is a grave injustice against women, against our Church, and against our God.”

"The culture of bullying within the Catholic Church cannot be tolerated any longer," said, Erin Hanna, Executive Director of the Women’s Ordination Conference. “It is contrary to the gospel itself to bully and dismiss faithful priests who dare to break the silence in support of women's rightful role in the Church.”

“Jesus himself welcomed women as well as men into ministerial leadership,” said Jim FitzGerald, Call To Action’s Executive Director. “It is a shame that our church does not do likewise.”

"The Vatican does not excommunicate the pedophile-priests who have raped and sodomized Catholic youth, or punish the bishops who covered up these crimes. Yet, now in this outrageous action they stand ready to defrock Fr. Roy, priest of the people and prophet for justice who has served God for over 40 years as a well-known peace and justice activist and Nobel Peace Prize nominee” said Bridget Mary Meehan, from the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests. Suzanne Thiel of Roman Catholic Womenpriests-USA affirmed: “Regardless of personal consequences, Fr. Roy refuses to be cowed by men who support an unjust law that knowingly discriminates against half the Body of Christ. He sees the face of Jesus in his sisters.” An online petition, sponsored by the Association of Roman Catholic Womenpriests, Call To Action USA, and Roman Catholic Womenpriests–USA, Women's Ordination Conference, and co-sponsored by 15 church-justice organizations, has garnered over 8,000 signatures of Catholics across the globe and continues to build momentum.

Roman Catholic Womenpriests

AUGUST 8, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
From: Roman Catholic Womenpriests, Inc
Contact – Eileen DiFranco, 267-258-6966, emdifranco@aol.com, (East)
Alice Iaquinta, 262-306-8722, aliceiaquinta@hotmail.com, (Midwest),
Patricia Sandall, 760-448-6189, patsysandall@yahoo.com, (West)

Womenpriests are saddened and angered that Fr. Roy Bourgeois will be dismissed from the Maryknoll order and expelled from the priesthood solely because of his support for the ordination of women in the Roman Catholic church.

To remain a priest and a member of the Maryknoll order, Bourgeois must recant, according to the demands of The Maryknoll Community in a document dated July 27, 2011. The demand was ordered by the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The Vatican and the Maryknolls insist that Bourgeois deny his conscience about his support of women’s ordination in order to remain a member of the order and a priest.

Maryknoll order Superior General, Fr. Edward M. Dougherty, states in the letter to Fr. Bourgeois, “You were warned at that time of possible dismissal if you continued your campaign in favor of women priests and failed to recant publicly your position on this matter.”

Fr. Bourgeois insists that he must be true to his conscience, in accordance with the Catechism of the Catholic Church. He says that in the final analysis, one’s conscience is one’s ultimate authority and must be followed.

Roman Catholic Womenpriests believes the Vatican and Maryknoll Order actions are unconscionable. In the light of the world wide sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic church and the subsequent lack of accountability and consequences for bishops and others responsible for intentional and systematic cover ups, the threats made to Roy Bourgeois become even more reprehensible and indefensible.

Roman Catholic Womenpriests, Inc., once again, stands in solidarity with Fr. Roy. RCWP encourages all who are outraged by Vatican and Maryknoll actions to contact the Maryknoll order, the Vatican and the US Apostolic Nunciature, to protest their lack of courage and integrity, their injustice to Fr. Roy and lack of justice for all women in the church.

Roman Catholic Womenpriests
Contact – Eileen DiFranco, 267-258-6966, emdifranco@aol.com,   (East)
Alice Iaquinta, 262-306-8722, aliceiaquinta@hotmail.com,    (Midwest),
Patricia Sandall, 760-448-6189, patsysandall@yahoo.com,  (West)

For Immediate Release

Edward M. Dougherty, the Superior General of the Maryknoll order has given
Father Roy Bourgeois fifteen days to recant his public support of women’s
ordination.  Labeling support of his sisters in ministry as “contumacy” and
accusing him of giving “grave scandal” to the Christian faithful, Dougherty has
threatened Bourgeois with both dismissal from the order and laicization.

The behavior of the Maryknoll order and of Father Dougherty stand in stark
contrast to the Erie Benedictine sisters and their superior, Sister Christine
Vladimirov who stood behind Sister Joan Chittister in 2002 when she was directed
to refrain from speaking at the first world wide conference held in support of
women’s ordination. When the Vatican threatened penalties for disobeying the
order not to speak, the Benedictines responded to the Vatican saying that
whatever punishment the Vatican meted out to Sister Joan should be applied to
all of the sisters. The Vatican backed down.  

Roman Catholic Womenpriests urge all people of good will to stand behind Father
Roy Bourgeois, a true champion of peace and justice, who refused to be cowed by
men who support an unjust law that knowingly and persistently discriminates
against half of the Body of Christ.  Father Roy has acted as a true Imago Dei by
speaking truth to power, regardless of the consequences. He has seen the face of
Jesus in his sisters.

RCWP urges everyone who does not support this punitive, threatening action
toward Fr. Roy to write to Edward Dougherty, M.M., Superior General of the
Maryknoll Brothers and Fathers, at P.O. Box 305, Maryknoll, New York 10545-0305,
to express their support for Fr. Roy, a man who faithfully walked in the
footsteps of Jesus everyday of his ordained life.