Women Priests – Page 35 – Hear Our Voices

After nearly five decades as a Catholic nun, Tish Rawles became a priest—and found herself cast out. Now she’s calling on Pope Francis to do what Jesus would’ve done and bring her back.

When Letitia “Tish” Rawles was ordained as a Catholic priest in April, it was the culmination of a lifetime’s worth of yearning—and a practical fix to ministering to the sick and dying at her Cincinnati assisted living facility, where it was often hard to find a priest to administer last rites.“I’ve wanted to be a priest since… probably the fourth grade, as soon as I started attending Catholic school,” she told The Daily Beast. “I always wondered why there were no women at the altar, only men.”

But Rawles didn’t know any female priests then, so she became a nun despite feeling the “deeper calling” of the priesthood. “And I’ve loved being a nun,” she said.

The 67-year-old had that taken away from her last week, though, when the Ohio-based Sisters of the Precious Blood, the order she’d been with for 47 years, found out about her ordination and told her she was out. She was automatically excommunicated from the Catholic Church, which bars women from the priesthood and shows no signs of budging from that position.

Now Rawles and her supporters say they’re appealing to Pope Francis during his Year of Mercy to restore her to the church and to her order. That’s what Jesus would have done, they say.

“This is an opportunity for Pope Francis to take a step towards reconciliation and healing misogyny in the church,” Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan of the Association of Roman Catholic Woman Priests told The Daily Beast. “The full equality of women in the church is the voice of God in our time.”

The ARCWP is one of many organizations pushing for allowing women to be Catholic priests but an outlier in that it ordains women. Meehan said the ARCWP’s female bishops were even ordained by an anonymous male Catholic bishop, linking them to an unbroken lineage leading back to the apostles.

“Did she know it was against the rules, did we know it was against the rules? Of course,” Meehan said. “But we are the Rosa Parks of the Catholic Church.”

The ARCWP emphasizes the Catholic concept of “primacy of conscience,” which it says allows it to choose to dissent from an unjust teaching.

“We’re walking in the footsteps of prophets and saints,” Meehan said. “Look at Joan of Arc. They burned her at the stake for what? For following her conscience.”

For Rawles, though, joining the priesthood wasn’t an easy decision.

Even after attending services led by women priests, she tried to convince herself that she was too old, too sick to take on the task herself. Rawles said she suffers from multiple sclerosis, late stage liver disease, and diabetes.

Complete Article HERE!

October 6, 2015

Synod should reflect on possibly allowing female deacons, says archbishop

Canadian Archbishop Paul-Andre Durocher of Gatineau, Quebec, arrives for the opening Mass of the Synod of Bishops on the family celebrated by Pope Francis in St. Peter's Basilica Oct. 4. (CNS/Paul Haring) — Canadian Archbishop Paul-Andre Durocher of Gatineau, Quebec, arrives for the opening Mass of the Synod of Bishops on the family celebrated by Pope Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica Oct. 4.

By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Canadian Archbishop Paul-Andre Durocher of Gatineau, Quebec, said the synod should reflect on the possibility of allowing for female deacons as it seeks ways to open up more opportunities for women in church life.

Where possible, qualified women should be given higher positions and decision-making authority within church structures and new opportunities in ministry, he told Catholic News Service Oct. 6.

Discussing a number of proposals he offered the synod fathers to think about, he said, “I think we should really start looking seriously at the possibility of ordaining women deacons because the diaconate in the church’s tradition has been defined as not being ordered toward priesthood but toward ministry.”

Currently, the Catholic Church permits only men to be ordained as deacons. Deacons can preach and preside at baptisms, funerals and weddings, but may not celebrate Mass or hear confessions.

Speaking to participants at the Synod of Bishops on the family Oct. 6, Archbishop Durocher said he dedicated his three-minute intervention to the role of women in the church — one of the many themes highlighted in the synod’s working document.

The working document, which is guiding the first three weeks of the synod’s discussions, proposed giving women greater responsibility in the church, particularly through involving them in “the decision-making process, their participation — not simply in a formal way — in the governing of some institutions; and their involvement in the formation of ordained ministers.”

Archbishop Durocher, who recently ended his term as president of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, told CNS that much of his brief talk was focused on the lingering problem of violence against women, including domestic violence. He said the World Health Organization estimates that 30 percent of women worldwide experience violence by their partner.

He reminded the synod fathers that in the apostolic exhortation “Familiaris Consortio” in 1981, St. John Paul II basically told the church that “we have to make a concerted and clear effort to make sure that there is no more degradation of women in our world, particularly in marriage. And I said, ‘Well, here we are 30 years later and we’re still facing these kinds of numbers.’”

He said he recommended one thing they could do to address this problem was, “as a synod, clearly state that you cannot justify the domination of men over women — certainly not violence — through biblical interpretation,” particularly incorrect interpretations of St. Paul’s call for women to be submissive to their husbands.

In his presentation the archbishop also noted that Pope Benedict XVI had talked about the question of new ministries for women in the church. “It’s a just question to ask. Shouldn’t we be opening up new venues for ministry of women in the church?” he said.

In addition to the possibility of allowing for women deacons, he said he also proposed that women be hired for “decision-making jobs” that could be opened to women in the Roman Curia, diocesan chanceries and large-scale church initiatives and events.

Another thing, he said, “would be to look at the possibility of allowing married couples — men and women, who have been properly trained and accompanied — to speak during Sunday homilies so that they can testify, give witness to the relationship between God’s word and their own marriage life and their own life as families.”

Complete Article HERE!

September 16, 2015

In Defiance Of The Church, Some Catholic Women Seek Priesthood

By Jeff Brady

Rev. Caryl Johnson (center) oversees communion at St. Mary Magdalene Community in Drexel Hill, Pa., as parishioners Janet Hamm and Jim Kalb assist. Unlike most traditional Roman Catholic services, a gluten-free bread and alcohol-free wine are offered.

Sunday morning services at St. Mary Magdalene Community in Drexel Hill, Pa., look different than a typical Roman Catholic mass. The homily is interactive, there’s gluten-free communion bread and the priest is a woman.

Caryl Johnson calls herself a priest but technically she was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church. That happened automatically in 2011 when she was ordained by the group Roman Catholic Womenpriests.

The organization acknowledges that it’s violating church requirements but says the ban on female priests is unjust. So far the group has ordained 188 women around the world.

For many Catholic women there’s a big gap between what they believe and church dogma. Birth control is an example: the church bans it, but a recent poll from the Pew Research Center shows nearly 79 percent of Catholic women think they should be allowed to use it. Fifty-eight percent also think the church should ordain women.

Johnson says for more than three decades she struggled with the church ban on female priests. She tried to live within the rules — taking on expanded ministry roles as women were allowed to perform them. But it wasn’t enough. Johnson says she felt a spiritual call to become a priest that she couldn’t ignore any longer.

“I had a decision to make,” says Johnson, “Am I going to follow the spirit of God and do what God asks no matter what the cost? Or am I going to follow a rule?”

These days the Catholic church has difficulty recruiting enough men to be priests. Johnson is among those who believe opening ordination to women and married people could help address that problem.

Pope Francis though has flatly rejected opening the priesthood to women.

And there are women in the church who oppose it, too.

Referring to female priests like Johnson, Rebecca Woodhull, president of the National Council of Catholic Women says, “They are not Catholic priests. They can call themselves that but it would be — maybe — with a small ‘c’ and not a capital ‘C.’ ”

Like Pope Francis, Woodhull says she supports gender equality in issues such as workplace pay. But she says in the Catholic church, men and women have different roles, and she believes there are good reasons for that.

“Women have special ‘charisms’ — special talents — that are just endemic to the female person,” Woodhull says. “Pope John Paul called it ‘the feminine genius.’ ”

Woodhull says those include sensitivity and tenderness, traits well-suited to roles set aside for women in the church such as becoming a nun. That said she does support recent moves to put women in other leadership positions.

Last year Pope Francis appointed Luzia Premoli, superior general of the Combonian Missionary Sisters, to a high-ranking missionary group called the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples. It’s the first time a woman has held such a high position in the church.

Moves like that have made Pope Francis popular with the more liberal wing of the Catholic church.

Outside St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Evanston, Ill. after a recent Sunday mass, Barbara Marian, 73, interrupted a reporter who asked her about Pope Francis saying, “Oh, don’t we love him? Don’t we love him?”

Marian is a longtime activist in favor of ordaining women. She and her husband drive nearly two hours to worship at “St. Nick’s,” which is widely seen as one of the more liberal parishes in the region.

Even though Catholic church dogma hasn’t changed much under Pope Francis, Marian says he has changed the tone of dialogue and she thinks that’s a good start.

“The funny thing is when the tone opens the door and we can sit down and listen to each other, we both go away smarter, more humble, more understanding,” Marian says. And she hopes that will lead to change in the church.

When Pope Francis visits the U.S. later this month he’s not scheduled to speak specifically about the role of women in the church, but some hope he will. Just a few days before he arrives in Philadelphia, the group Women’s Ordination Worldwide will hold its annual conference there. Organizers expect hundreds of activists who want the Catholic church to ordain women to attend.

Complete Article HERE!

April 13, 2015

Oakland man marks church protest anniversary, with protest

By Ann Rubin

Today marks his anniversary. Every Sunday for the last five years, Tim Stier has stood in front of Oakland’s cathedral, in protest.

“I was a priest for 25 years, and I would much rather be in church,” Stier says.

Instead, he’s out front. He calls this a voluntary exile from the Catholic Church, and says he won’t be back until there are changes to the policies on dealing with the LGBT community, women, and victims of abuse.

“So since then, I’ve been out of a job and I’ve dedicated myself to supporting those groups of people,” Stier says.

Some days, he’s out there practically by himself. Sometimes, others join him.

“Nothing happens if you don’t do something. And so here we are,” says protester Billy Bradford.

And other issues have taken center stage, like controversial morality clauses in San Francisco Catholic teacher contracts.

“I’m appalled with the contracts for the teachers. I mean to me it feels like a witch hunt,” says protester Mary McHugh.

Some who attend services at Oakland’s cathedral, say they don’t mind passing the protest on their way out, but hope the protesters understand not everyone sees it their way.

“If they’re going to keep that on a one way street, that’s where I have a problem,” says George Smith.

And while Stier continues to advocate for change, he says he doesn’t always feel like he’s being heard.

“Optimistic? That would mean I feel there was going to be change in my lifetime… I don’t think so,” he says.

But he says, after five years, he’s not ready to give up yet.

“I keep getting motivated to keep coming back. But who knows, maybe there’s a more effective way I could do advocacy,” says Stier.
Complete Article HERE!

December 17, 2014

First female bishop named as the Reverend Libby Lane

Reverend Libby Lane has been announced as the first female bishop for the Church of England, just a month after a historic change to canon law.

She will become the new Bishop of Stockport, a post that has been vacant since May.

Mrs Lane has been the vicar at St Peter’s Hale and St Elizabeth’s Ashley, in the diocese of Chester, since 2007.

The general synod voted to back plans for female bishops in July and formally adopted legislation on 17 November.

The appointment will end centuries of male leadership of the Church and comes 20 years after women became priests.

Mrs Lane was ordained a deacon in 1993 and a priest in 1994, serving her curacy in Blackburn, Lancashire. Since 2010 she has also held the role of Dean of Women in Ministry for the diocese of Chester.

Speaking at Stockport town hall the new bishop, whose role was approved by the Queen, said it was a “remarkable day for me and an historic day for the Church”.

“This is unexpected and very exciting,” she said.

“I’m honoured and thankful to be called to serve as the next Bishop of Stockport and not a little daunted to be entrusted with such a ministry.”

Prime Minister David Cameron congratulated Mrs Lane and said: “This is an historic appointment and an important step forward for the Church towards greater equality in its senior positions”.

Mrs Lane will be consecrated as the eighth bishop of the town at a ceremony at York Minster on 26 January.

The first women priests were ordained in 1994, but to date women have not been able to take on the Church’s most senior roles.

Legislation to fast track women bishops into the House Of Lords will be introduced to Parliament on Thursday.

But Mrs Lane will not be able to enter the House of Lords, as the post she is taking up is a junior or suffragan appointment within the Diocese of Chester, the BBC’s religious correspondent Caroline Wyatt said.

The first women bishop eligible to take up a seat in the Lords is expected to be announced in the new year.

Mrs Lane, who was schooled in Manchester and then the University at Oxford, before training for ministry at Cranmer Hall in Durham, dismissed suggestions her appointment was just a symbolic gesture by a Church still predominantly run by men.

The bishop and her husband, who is also a priest, were one of the first married couples in the Church of England to be ordained together.

Mrs Lane’s interests include being a school governor, supporting Manchester United and learning to play the saxophone, according to her church’s website.

The general synod, the Church’s law-making body, gave the final seal of approval to the legislation on women bishops after it passed through Parliament in October.

After the change was approved, the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby said that the Church was entering into a “completely new phase of our existence”.

But divisions still remain in the church between Anglicans who feel the change is consistent with their faith and traditionalists who disagree.

One of the first crucial steps towards appointing female bishops came in 1975 when the general synod voted that there was “no fundamental objection” to the ordination of women to the priesthood, but it did not pass a second motion asking for the legal barriers to women’s ordination to be removed.

In 1985, a vote allowed women to become deacons, and in 1992 women were officially permitted to be ordained in the priesthood, but the first women priests were not announced until two years later.

In November 2012, the vote to allow female bishops failed by six votes in the House of Laity. But in July 2013, it voted 152 in favour of the motion, with 45 against, and five abstentions.

Gloucester, Oxford and Newcastle are also among the dioceses where new bishops will also soon be appointed, and interviews for the vacancy as bishop for the Southwell and Nottingham diocese took place at the start of December.

Churches in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland already allow women as bishops, but haven’t appointed one yet.

Complete Article HERE!

Category: Women Priests

Nun Excommunicated for Becoming a Priest

Synod should reflect on possibly allowing female deacons, says archbishop

In Defiance Of The Church, Some Catholic Women Seek Priesthood

Oakland man marks church protest anniversary, with protest

First female bishop named as the Reverend Libby Lane