Jag bad Kjell Ove Nilsson (domprost emeritus i Göteborg) om att få lägga in följande aktuella debattartikel i min blogg (den är även publicerad i veckans nummer av Kyrkans tidning).
Den fångar in alla de vanligaste argumenten mot vigning av kvinnor - och bemöter dem på ett bra sätt, tycker jag.
Passa gärna på att kommentera och ställa eventuella frågor till artikelförfattaren....!
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"I år firar vi femtioårsjubileet av kvinnans rätt till prästämbetet. Jag var nyprästvigd på våren 1958 och hade den sommaren brottats med problemen i bl.a. en stor enkät till alla präster. Jag kom efter viss möda fram till att det trots allt måste vara rätt att viga kvinnor. Det satt åt en del. Det fanns många påtryckningar och en mängd goda argument från Bibel och tradition, och ändå fick det bli ett ”JA”! Det ställningstagandet har bara förstärkts genom åren, inte genom lättsinnig anpassning utan tack vara ökad teologisk klarsyn – det var ju också ett huvudskäl till att jag blev domprost i Göteborg 1986.
Det har radats med ”goda” skäl till en annan åsikt. Men problemet med kvinnans tillträde till prästämbetet i Svenska kyrkan är t ex inte att en större del av kristenheten ännu inte medgivit det. Anglikanska kyrkan håller på att göra så i land efter land, och inom den romersk-katolska kyrkan pågår heta debatter, trots påvens nej - ännu.
Det är inte heller bibelsynen, eftersom Bibeln faktiskt inte säger något om det. Orden om att kvinnan skall tiga i församlingen (1 Kor 14:34) hör egentligen inte dit, vilket motståndarna indirekt medger: Felet med kvinnliga präster är ju inte att de tiger, ty tala får de, men de får inte, ”kan” inte, har inte makt att ”konsekrera” nattvarden, bl.a. därför att de inte antas kunna ”representera” Kristus. En kvinnlig präst kan inte, har inte förmåga, att läsa instiftelseorden så att de får sakramental verkan! En kvinnlig prästs nattvard är därför inte en riktig nattvard, säger de. Men om detta säger Bibeln ingenting!
Problemet med kvinnliga präster är inte heller en jämställdhetsfråga eller en könsfråga, det är inte ett socialt eller psykologiskt problem, men väl teologiskt. Socialt och psykologiskt var jämlikhet en omöjlighet på Jesu tid - inte teologiskt (jfr Gal 3:28).
Ojämlikheten var ännu en självklarhet: Kvinnan var i princip omyndigförklarad, under en man, nämligen sin far, sin bror, sin make. Hon kunde inte uppträda självständigt eller offentligt och ansågs inte vittnesgill. Så är det ju ännu på olika håll i religionens värld.
Hur skulle kvinnor då kunna vittna om Kristus, eller än mindre vandra med honom och hans manliga lärjungar ute på vägar och stigar - utan att helt enkelt anses för prostituerade?
Ibland vill man rationellt hävda, att om Jesus så velat hade han naturligtvis kunnat avskilja också kvinnor till apostlar. Se bara hur han ofta upphöjde kvinnans människovärde! Ett sådant resonemang är vilseledande och djupast sett en förnekelse av inkarnationen: Jesus var faktiskt människa just där, med den samhällssyn och kvinnosyn som där rådde. Inte ens Jesus kunde sätta sig över detta. Han var sann människa och han var själv tidsbunden!
Gör man allvar av människoblivandet kan man alltså bli förlöst både i fråga om bibelsyn och kyrkosyn - och kvinnosyn!
Här gäller det egentligen frågan om tidsbundenhet. Är inte också Nya testamentet bundet vid sin tid, inte minst i denna fråga? Och Jesus själv? Han var naturligtvis tidsbunden, han som kommit ”i köttet”, men hans frälsningsgärning är det inte, evangeliet är det inte. Och det är tragiskt, att det urkyrkan var tvungen att göra en gång p.g.a. omgivningens tryck, nämligen att inte tillåta kvinnor som präster och församlingsledare, det återspeglar en samhällssyn och en människosyn som nu delvis bara finns kvar i kyrkan, men inte längre i omgivningen! Det blir ju helt förryckt!
Evangeliet frigör, det binder inte. Det har sitt innehåll, givet och detsamma, alltid. Men detta har inte något att göra med könet på den som förkunnar det, eller som vid altaret utdelar Kristi kropp och blod.
Prästen representerar verkligen Kristus, och det har naturligtvis inte med prästens manlighet eller kvinnlighet att göra. Kristus var man, men han var också jude, omskuren, förmodligen mörkhårig! Representationen är teologiskt menad, sakramentalt, inkarnatoriskt. Den kvinnliga prästen, liksom den manliga, är kallad att i sin tjänst re-presentera Kristus, vad han gjort och ger, åter göra närvarande hans frälsningsgåva, aktualisera och realisera frälsningsverket, så att det blir gripbart, konkret tillgängligt för människors tro.Så när prästen predikar, döper, delar ut bröd och vin, är det Gud som gör det. Genom både kvinnor och män!
Allt detta talar för kvinnliga präster, inte emot! Det är värt att fira! Och det borde vara en självklarhet efter alla dessa år!"
Tycker att den modige prästen som följde sitt samvete och deltog i mässfirandet i samband med vigningen av en katolsk kvinna förtjänar att lyftas fram i ett eget inlägg.
Så här uttalade han sig innan vigningen:
"For me it seems very right," he said in the interview. "I would have a problem sleeping at night in the future if I didn't put my body where my words are."
In considering the implications, he said, "I don't know how I could continue to be silent in the church, this is such a big issue for me.
"Over the years and listening to women friends – if one listens, just shuts up and listens to their stories, their faith journey and, in some cases, their call by God to ordination to the priesthood in the Catholic church – there is a problem for us guys in the church. What are we saying? God is calling us but not you? This is heresy. We're tampering with the sacred here."
/.../
In 1998, as he noted in his homily, he wrote a letter to the rest of his community in which he called sexism a sin. "As people of faith," he wrote, "we profess that God is all powerful and the source of life. Yet, when it comes to women being ordained, it seems that opponents are saying that this same God …. somehow can not empower a woman to be a priest. Suddenly, we as men believe God becomes powerless when women approach the altar to celebrate Mass."
I sin predikan skriver han bl.a. så här (de två första notiserna är citat ur ett brev från 1998):
"In my 26 years as a priest, it is my experience that we need the wisdom, sensitivity, experiences, compassion and courage of women in the priesthood if our church is to be healthy and complete.
/.../
Just as soldiers in Latin America and inmates in prison abuse their power and control others, it saddens me to see the hierarchy of our church abusing their power and causing so much suffering among women. Jesus was a healer, a peacemaker, who called everyone into the circle as equals.
/.../
Now I have been a Catholic priest for 36 years and I must say, more than ever before, I am convinced that women should be ordained in the Catholic church.
The hierarchy will say, “It is the tradition of the church not to ordain women.” I grew up in a small town in Louisiana and often heard, “It is the tradition of the South to have segregated schools.” It was also “the tradition” in our Catholic church to have the Black members seated in the last five pews of the church.
No matter how hard we may try to justify discrimination, in the end, it is always wrong and immoral. As Reverand Nancy Taylor of Boston put it, “Prejudice in liturgical clothing is still prejudice.”
Tycker det är intressant att läsa hur tidningarna formulerar sig. En del vet inte hur de ska uttrycka sig om "katolska" "kvinnliga" "präster" och så.
I den här var det lustigaste slutklämmen - där man får veta att inga protesterande dök upp - men man hade garderat med poliser utanför kyrkan... För säkerhets skull.... :-)
Nu är freds- och rättsaktivisten Janice vigd till katolsk präst....
Denna gång deltog en manlig katolsk präst med gott anseende öppet för första gången.... Läs mer om det via länkarna nedan samt läs hans predikan...
Kan höra hur de som är emot förnyelsen och den vändning den nu tagit, vrider sina knogar så de knakar och funderar på hur de ska straffa Fr. Roy för hans högst aktiva deltagande.
Biskop på en isolerad ö?
Annars är han mycket varmt välkommen som präst i Sverige... Kanske skulle föreslå det... :-)
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"Janice Sevre-Duszynska was ordained a priest Saturday, Aug. 9, in Lexington, Ky., making her the sixth woman to be ordained in the United States this year as part of the Roman Catholic Womenpriests movement.
The movement has ordained 32 priests in the United States over the last two years. Saturday’s event was noteworthy because for the first time, a male, Roman Catholic priest in good standing publicly joined the ceremony. Maryknoll Fr. Roy Bourgeois concelebrated at the ceremony and was a homilist. (See related story and read Bourgeois’ homily.)"
Har fått en del länkar till artiklar om dem - den här har jag inte hunnit läsa än - men vid en snabb genombläddring verkar den kunna vara intressant.
Den här artikeln ger en liten inblick i Marie David's (en av kvinnornas) tjänst - mest påtagligt är hur välkomnande och varm församlingen är, och hur prästen inte kör ett eget race s.a.s. utan alla får bidra om de vill. Man ser därför inte något spår av slentrian - varje mässa har samma grundelement (förmodar jag) men får sin prägel av dem som är närvarande.
"Sevre-Duszynska, 58, a Jessamine County resident and grandmother of three, has protested the church’s stance for the last decade.
In 1998, she disrupted the ordination of a Lexington priest at the Cathedral of Christ the King by pleading with then-Bishop J. Kendrick Williams to ordain her as well. In 2000, she impersonated a reporter to attend an annual meeting of Catholic bishops in Washington, D.C., where she grabbed the microphone and again called for the ordination of women. And in 2002, she was arrested as part of a group protesting ordination of deacons by the Catholic Diocese of Atlanta.
“To refer to God only in masculine terms empowers men but diminishes women,” said Sevre-Duszynska. “It affects how women are treated, how their children are treated. We come from God also.”
/.../
While she won’t be allowed to lead a parish, Sevre-Duszynska plans to continue her work as a community activist, a role for which she is known nationwide.
In 2001, she served a 90-day sentence after being charged with trespassing at Fort Benning, Ga., while protesting that the former School of the Americas, now the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation, was training terrorists. As she completed her sentence, she was fired from her job as a teacher of English as a second language by the Fayette County school district for not fulfilling the terms of her teaching contract. Her dismissal was ultimately overturned in a series of court decisions. She retired from the district in 2005.
In 2005, on the 60th anniversary of the U.S. bombing of Hiroshima, she was arrested again, for trespassing at a Nevada weapons testing site.
“My heroes as priests are on the fringes ... they need to challenge the government and the Vatican,” Sevre-Duszynska said.
/.../ She sees herself as an itinerant priest, not a parish priest.
“I’m happiest as a priest on the streets,” she said. “I will celebrate the Mass, I will celebrate the sacraments. But I intend to be out there on the streets being a voice for the voiceless.”"
Särskilt den här insändaren apropå en artikel var lite kul - har tänkt på citatet i fråga (ur Thomasevangeliet) ibland... :-)
IN HIS July 23 letter, referring to the Roman Catholic hierarchy's negative responses to women who are being ordained, Paul M. Paré wonders whether it would "be easier to simply declare the participants not women." Interestingly, Jesus himself has already proposed such a sex change.
Den här undersökningen av brittiska katolikers tro var ganska intressant, och stundtals förvånande, inte minst synen på reinkarnation.
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Här en annan artikel jag fick tips om - en undersökning om katoliker och preventivmedel, apropå jubiléet av Humanae Vitae (har inte hunnit läsa artikeln än).
Här är en balanserad intervju som ger båda sidornas perspektiv. Tog en timme att ladda ner på min uråldriga dator - men den är bara 10 minuter lång. Sevärd!
Katolsk kvinnlig präst gästar vigning av kvinnlig buddhistdiakon
Ja, så spännande nyheter kommer just nu från Asien.
En av de vigda kvinnorna, Victoria Rue, har startat en blogg där hon berättar om sin resa (som pågår just nu), i interreligiöst dialogsyfte, och inte minst för att träffa kvinnor i andra religioner som är pionjärer på vigningsområdet s.a.s.
Hon deltog nyligen i denna vigning av en kvinnlig buddhistdiakon (motsvarande).
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"It's now Friday but I will try to describe a bit of what happened yesterday on July 17. I have been at the monastery of the first woman monk/bikkhuni of Thailand since Tuesday evening. But yesterday was quite amazing. At 5:30am I went with Ven. Dhammananda and her "novice" (like a deacon) and 7 or 8 volunteers making begging rounds in the nearby town. The devotion of all those who gave these women was palpable. I took video and pictures and will try to get them up on this blog soon.
Flowers and food were offered. Begging rounds are done on Thursday and Sunday. From this food, all the guests were fed who arrived for the ordination that same day. At 8am the young woman who was to be ordained had her shoulder length thick black hair cut off. I participated in this with 20 other women. She held a lotus leaf that caught the hair as it was clipped off. All the while she chanted: hair, nails, skin, flesh---to remind her of the impermanence of our bodies.
At 9am the ordination ceremony began.
A day earlier I had given Ven. Dhammananda a gift of a clear glass chalice with the words "Women's Ordination Conference" carved into the glass. WOC, as most of you know, has been organizing for women's ordination in the Catholic Church for 30 years.
And I have been a board member for the past 3 years. So it was with much gratitude that I saw Dhammananda place the chalice on a table to be used in the ceremony."
En intervju hon gjorde med den nyvigda kvinnan är också väldigt intressant - där finns bl.a. följande paralleller mellan den rörelse som viger katolska kvinnor och den "kvinnomunkrörelse" det här handlar om.
1. The Thai Sangha does not accept her ordination done in Sri Lanka by male and female monks. The Vatican does not accept RCWP ordinations.
2. There is a clear history of women ordained by the Buddha. There is a clear history of women ordained in the early church.
3.According to the Thai Sangha (like the Vatican) the ordination of women monks died out in the 1100's and can't be returned. There were women priests, deacons and bishops in the early church historically, but the Vatican denies this and when pushed to it suggests that these women were married to male deacons,priests, bishops and that's perhaps why they had the same titles.
4.There is clear need for women monks in Thailand. There were 330,000 male monks and now there are 180,000--young men are not joining. The number of male priests globally are declining in the church.
5. There have been abusive behaviors of male priests and male monks.
6. Both women monks and women priests are working to balance keeping the tradition and adding something new (inclusive language, equalizing participation of all, re-imagining rituals.
Artiklar och videoklipp börjar strömma in. Det var en välbevakad vigning av några katolska kvinnnor (tre präster och en diakon) i söndags...
Nedan några utdrag ur en artikel som kommer med delvis ny information. (Även om formuleringarna är lite lustiga i den "neutrala" balansgång tidningen försöker ha men inte riktigt lyckas med.)
Jag har också fått en fråga som jag vill vidarebefordra till er som gillar att göra efterforskningar i kanoniska lagen - gällande de manliga biskopar som vigde de första kvinnorna.
Ses dessa från officiellt håll som (själv-)exkommunicerade eller inte? De vigde ju kvinnor långt innan skrivelsen som påtalar detta kom. Och hur blir det i så fall med de sakrament de fortsätter att fira fram till sin död då namnen kommer att avslöjas? Blir resultatet en massa odöpta barn, ogifta par, ovigda präster, ogiltiga mässor etc? Vore tacksam för svar, skriv gärna på engelska, så jag kan maila över det till den som frågade.
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"But the women who participated in the event, along with the several hundred people who spent nearly three hours in the sweltering Church of the Covenant, said they rejected the excommunications and believed that the women had been validly ordained. The women were vested with white chasubles and red stoles and greeted with a standing ovation as they were declared to be priests. They then helped preside over a service at which they declared bread and wine to be consecrated and offered what they called Communion to anyone who wished to receive it.
/.../
"Why is Rome so upset about us? Because they know the ordinations are valid," said Bridget Mary Meehan, the spokeswoman for Roman Catholic Womenpriests. "We are not intimidated. We feel so strongly."
The organization has not released the name of the bishops it says consecrated the first women bishops, saying they would face sanction by the Vatican, but says it will release the names once the male bishops die.
/.../
"I'm feeling such joy, I could rise up," Lee said in an interview after the ceremony. She pointed out that she was wearing a cross from Dignity, an organization of gay Catholics. "I am a priest for the poor and those who live at the margins, and we deserve the full sacraments of the Catholic Church," she said.
/.../
"We give witness to the whole world that it is not male gender which is the prerequisite for a valid ordination, but faith and baptism, the foundation of our dignity and equality."
Läste just en intressant artikel - nedan några utdrag.
Senare i artikeln tas frågan om enbart män som representanter för Kristus upp - ur ett för mig nytt perspektiv. Även Gudsbildens manliga och kvinnliga sidor - och deras betydelse för Kyrkan tas upp - dessutom jämförs protestantiska och katolska kyrkan i detta hänseende.
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""Bishops enjoy the fullness of the sacrament of orders and both priests and deacons are dependent upon them in the exercise of their authority. For the priests are the prudent fellow workers of the episcopal order and are themselves consecrated as true priests of the New Testament, just as deacons are ordained for the ministry and serve the people of God in communion with the bishop and his presbytery."
According to the most authoritative Catholic sources, therefore, priesthood and episcopacy are so closely united in the unity of holy orders and the unity of the local church round their bishop, that the question of women bishops and women priests are one and the same question.
/.../
For the community of Roman Catholic theologians the simple issue is: are the arguments for excluding women from ordination given by the Vatican valid or not? Did Jesus Christ establish a norm when only choosing men under the initial twelve? Did the subsequent reluctance to ordain women in the Church derive from cultural prejudices, or from an awareness of a presumed divine and revealed injunction originating in Jesus himself? The answer determines the fate of women deacons, priests and bishops - all in one stroke.
And what is their verdict?
By all evidence available to me, I estimate that three-quarters of Catholic theologians disagree with the official position held out by the Vatican. They do not accept as proven that Jesus Christ himself excluded women from future ministries. They point at cultural bias against women as the culprit of anti-women decisions in tradition."
Fick en artikel om en av de kvinnor som kommer att prästvigas i Boston snart.
Hon har tidigare skrivit detta inlägg i bloggen om sin tjänst bland de hemlösa i "Lejonparken".
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"Lee said the group is breaking in good conscience a rule that they say discriminates against women.
"As Rosa Parks did when she sat on the bus," Lee said, "we are sitting on the bus."
Lee said she was raised a Methodist but converted to Catholicism in 1991.
In 1998, she worked at Florida Gulf Coast University and helped to develop the master's of social work program. She holds a doctorate of ministry degree and a doctorate in social welfare.
Lee said she has a twinge of sadness about not being recognized by the Catholic Church. She said she is "praying the church will open their eyes and their ears."
Lee's Church in the Park ministry hold services every Friday night in Fort Myers' Lions Park.
She said the church offers food, clothing and counseling to more than 100 members, the majority of the congregation being homeless.
The Rev. Walter Fohs of Lamb of God Church in Estero said Lee more than deserves the ordination. Lamb of God holds joint services with Lee's congregation.
"She is tireless in her work at Church in the Park," Fohs said.
He said the ordination is also vital to the Catholic community as "a necessary sign of the future of the church."
Fohs said, without criticism of the Catholic Church, that a Christian ministry "has to be inclusive and speak to a wider population.""
Läste en intressant bloggartikel som lyfter upp ett brett spektra av frågor apropå jubiléet av Mulieris Dignitatem i år. Nån som märkt något direkt av "firandet" förresten?
Hoppas det märks mer när SvK drar igång sitt ganska så olikartade kvinnofirande i höst....
Anglikanska kyrkan firar just nu för fullt. Delvis.
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"This year the Catholic Church is celebrating the 20th anniversary of Pope John Paul II’s Apostolic Letter Mulieris Dignitatem (The Dignity of Women). In it the Pontiff refers to “the genius of women” and so, two decades later, several seminars in different parts of the Roman Catholic Church are studying how (whether?) “this genius” is being celebrated.
/.../
While the Catholic Church is studying the steps it took in the last twenty years, the Anglican Church decided to take a veritable plunge. Those in favour are calling it a leap forward. Several women groups – and not just women groups - are lauding this decision for it recognises the dignity and equality of women. In a certain sense the decision is the logical consequence of another controversial one taken by the Anglican community ten years ago: the ordination of women priests.
Those against call it a fall into the chasm. The vote came in spite of the fact that more than a thousand clergymen threatened to leave the Church of England unless sufficient safeguards were put in place for those who objected to women bishops. One has got to see now whether the compromise reached will accommodate the dissenters and manage to keep them within the fold. The compromise will take the form of a "national code of practice," which could include suggesting a woman bishop delegate her duty of care towards objectors to a "complementary bishop" who would be male.
Final legislation that would lead to the ordination of a woman bishop within the Anglican congregation is considered to be about two or three years away from completion.
Four hundred and eighty clergymen had left the Church of England, mostly for the Roman Catholic Church, when women were allowed to be ordained. Seventy subsequently returned."
Någon som trodde att dekretet nyligen skulle avskräcka? Nej då... Här vigs det på. Skörden är stor - men arbetarna få.
Egentligen är det skrämmande hur blinda man har varit genom tiderna för diskrimineringen mot kvinnor såväl i samhället som i Kyrkan. Och i den senare skyller man på Gud! Än mer otäckt är det att den partiella blindheten för en del räknas som en eftersträvansvärd dygd.
Nu är ämbetsfrågan inte direkt någon jämställdhetsfråga för mig utan en kallelsefråga (kan vara värt att upprepa för nyare läsare) - men sedd även i det perspektivet blir det onekligen frapperande.
Det enda jag förespråkar är att man tar Gud på fullaste allvar - det gör man inte när både kvinnor och män upplever sig vara kallade men bara män får pröva kallelsen i Kyrkans famn och omhuldas hela vägen och sätts på piedestal när de väl är vigda - medan kvinnorna slängs ut på gatan ifall de vågar följa kallelsen.
Vem har starkast kallelsemedvetande? Den som får en tryggad framtid och väljer den bekväma vägen? Eller den som vet att hon inte kommer att ha någon officiell uppbackning - och ändå följer den som kallar?
Vem blir den bästa tjänaren av dessa?
Jag vill inte generalisera - det finns säkert bra präster av båda sorterna - men tycker att det ligger något i det - och ställer det därför på sin spets här.
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PRESS RELEASE
First U.S. Womanbishop Ordains Roman Catholic Womenpriests on July 20, 2008, Church of the Covenant, Boston, Massachusetts
Two hundred and thirty-two years ago, our American forefathers dreamed of a country where all men were created equal. That dream, of course, remained imperfect for many years while people of color were enslaved and all women were denied the right to vote and to hold office. The men who met in Boston and in Philadelphia preparing the way for the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the Bill of Rights had compelling theological reasons to deny women – and people of color – the right to vote. God, they firmly believed, had made some people more ontologically equal than others. The time has finally arrived when Abigail Adams’ request to her husband John to “Remember the ladies” has come to fruition. The United States, like many other countries in the world, had at long last, a woman presidential candidate.
Today, women in the Roman Catholic Church, invite the hierarchy to heed our foremother Abigail’s request to “Remember the ladies,” that is, fifty per cent of every congregation in every parish in the world. The Church of Jesus Christ in whom it is said that there is no male or female in Christ Jesus, has said repeatedly that it has no power to ordain women because the Lord God almighty, who made men and women in God’s very image, has tied their hands in this one particular issue. However, the church has been directed by Vatican II documents to develop a sense of history and to understand the sensus fidelium, the sense of the faithful. The last fifty years indicate that the Holy Spirit expects women to be treated as full partners in every respect in the world and in the church. Sixty-six per cent of the faithful have indicated that they would support women priests just as many Americans indicated that they were ready for a woman chief executive.
Jesus founded a church that lives and breathes through the action of the Holy Spirit who constantly renews the face of the earth. Just as the status of women in many societies has changed, so the status of women in the church needs to change. The very health of the church depends upon a full acceptance of women into every level of church governance.
And so, it is with great joy that Roman Catholic Womenpriests announces the ordination of three women to the priesthood and one to the diaconate on Sunday, July 20 at 3:30 P.M. at the Church of the Covenant in Boston, Massachusetts. Gloria Carpeneto of Baltimore Md., Judy Lee of Fort Myers, Florida, and Gabriella Velardi Ward of New York City will be ordained to the priesthood, and Mary Ann McCarthy Schoettly of Newton, New Jersey will be ordained to the diaconate with the first U.S. bishop, Dana Reynolds, presiding. All are welcome to participate in this most joyful event to sing a new church into being, one that reflects the faces of all of God’s children.
If it's a crime to be convinced that women may be ordained, then I'm a criminal too, and you'll have to put me in jail, where I'd be accompanied by numerous such convicts.
If it's a crime to attend a woman's ordination, then, please, take me to all such crime scenes in the world, so I may share that heavenly joy, before you put on dogmatic handcuffs and striped chasubles on all the attendants.
I'll then rejoice as an unofficial prisoner chaplain among my partners in crime. We'll attend to those who are innocently imprisoned, by experts on Canon law.
And filled with God's grace we'll sing all night long until the prison gates are opened by angels so we may march out on the bright fields of freedom, still joyfully singing, since God gave us a sign that even the blind could see.
S/He Who Is is walking with us.
Charlotte Thérèse
(The poem is dedicated to Raymond Burke, inspired by his action against Sister Louise Lears.)
Det här kan visa sig vara Burkes sämsta tänkbara drag i sin strävan efter högre positioner och fler utmärkelser. Folk gillar inte när man ger sig på ordenssystrar....
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Archbishop Burke Disciplines Sister of Charity
She Participated in Attempted Ordination of Women
ST. LOUIS, Missouri, JUNE 27, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Archbishop Raymond Burke has disciplined a Sister of Charity who has promoted and participated in an attempt to ordain two women to the priesthood.
Sister Louise Lears was accused of four delicts connected to her "encouragement of, promotion of and participation" in the attempted ordination of two women to the priesthood in November 2007.
The decree of extra-judicial adjudication regarding the sister was published Thursday, the day before the archbishop of St. Louis was named the prefect of the Apostolic Signature, the supreme court of the Church.
The Sister of Charity, is a member of the pastoral team at St. Cronan’s Catholic Church in South St. Louis, and a coordinator of religious education in the archdiocese.
A statement accompanying the decree affirms that, after a process of several months, the archbishop found the sister guilty of three of the four delicts of which she was accused.
"Delicts, which must be published in the Church," the note said, "are grave and external violations against the Catholic faith or moral teaching."
Accusations
Sister Louise Lears is accused of four delicts: "1) the obstinate rejection, after written admonition, of the truth of the faith that it is impossible for a woman to receive ordination to the sacred priesthood (cann.750, §2; and 1371, 1º); 2) the public incitement of the faithful to animosity or hatred toward the Apostolic See or an ordinary because of an act of ecclesiastical power or ministry (can. 1373); 3) the grave external violation of divine or canon law, with the urgent need to prevent and repair the scandal involved (can. 1399); and 4) prohibited participation in sacred rites (can. 1365)."
The statement affirms that throughout the process, Sister Lear's "right to defend herself against the accusations was carefully safeguarded."
A text accompanying both the statement and decree reported that Archbishop Burke met privately the Sister Lears to issue a summons and canonical admonition, which is considered a warning.
Given that Sister Lears did not acknowledge that her public actions are against Church teaching, the archbishop has issued the penalty of interdict.
"This means that Sister Louise Lears cannot participate in public worship and cannot receive the Sacraments until she repents. The penalty of interdict is aimed at calling the persons away from their sin and to reconciliation with Christ and His Church," said the text.
Archbishop Burke ruled that the fourth delict is a "question of the competence of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith," so he has referred the matter that dicastery.
Penalties
The archbishop imposed the following canonical penalties upon Sister Lears: "1) the penalty of interdict and 2) the prohibition of receiving any mission in the Archdiocese of Saint Louis, effective immediately.
"Interdict prohibits the reception of the sacraments. The prohibition of receiving any mission prohibits the holding of any Church position or the exercise of any apostolate of the Church in the Archdiocese of St. Louis."
The note says the "penalties are imposed for the purpose of bringing Sister Louise Lears to repentance for the delicts which she has committed and to reconciliation with the Catholic Church."
The statement continues: "Archbishop Burke expressed his sadness in imposing the canonical penalties which were necessitated by the refusal of Sister Louise Lears, even after repeated admonitions, to withdraw her statements and repudiate her conduct which have constituted grave delicts in the Church.
"The archbishop asks all of the faithful of the archdiocese to pray for the reconciliation of Sister Louise Lears with the Church."
Fick en länk till en artikel om de katolska kvinnor som vigts - särskilt intressant tycker jag är att församlingarna omkring dem växer snabbt.
Fast hierarkin inte godkänner dem så gör gräsrötterna det och välkomnar deras tjänst.... Vilket kanske tyder på att de som trodde sig styra över kyrkan håller på att tappa järngreppet?
"Tortorilla, who works as a counselor and spiritual director, ministers to about 90 people in Portland and in Eugene who call themselves the Sophia Christi Catholic Community. They meet monthly in borrowed sanctuaries. "I believe in the supremacy of conscience, and my conscience has led me all along to be an ordained Roman Catholic priest," Tortorilla said last week. She, too, rejects the excommunication decree and says she will continue to serve her growing community. Archaeological and historical evidence, she says, supports the view that women have been priests and bishops in the Catholic Church.
"The Holy Spirit's call to be a priest is very strong and very persistent," she said. "It supercedes the Vatican's determination not to ordain women."
Artikeln ligger bara kvar öppet på nätet i två veckor och en vecka har redan gått - så skynda er att läsa den här.
Fick en länk till en intressant artikel igår - här ett utdrag:
"Obviously, ordination of women would be an innovation for Catholics – it was also for Anglicans in the 1970s. Yet the argument that something has not yet been done in the past is not a conclusive argument that it never will be done in the future. An infallible pronouncement requires connection to revelation, and is not proven by a negative. In other words, the absence of biblical sources advocating women’s ordination is not equivalent to an explicit ban against it. Note as well that Jesus chose only Jewish men, yet that was not considered a ban against Gentile priests and bishops. So citing what Jesus did or did not do is scarcely definitive here. Finally, the pope’s distinction about what is theological and what is cultural in the scriptures about women’s ordination had not achieved the consensus required for an infallible declaration.
Theologians noted that in 1976 the Pontifical Biblical Commission had advised Paul VI by a vote of 12-5 that the ordination of women was “not against scripture.” Moreover, the underground Catholic Church in Communist Czechoslovakia had ordained at least one woman, Ludmila Javorova, to be a priest serving the Diocese of Brno under Bishop Felix Davidek. The exercise of her priesthood is subject to regulation, but not the validity of her ordination in 1970. The same distinction also applies to the recent declaration (April 6, 2008) of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith that would excommunicate women priests being ordained and the ordaining bishops in any future ritual. However, the sin committed would be disobedience to Church policy – the Sacrament of Holy Orders is not sinful."
Läs hela artikeln här - och välkommen att kommentera!
Fotnot: påven har inte gjort anspråk på att uttala en ofelbar lära angående detta - bara svindlande nära.
Women priests - different views - possible coexistence?
I read an interesting blog post today by Pamela Dolan, about women priests - from yet another angle.
Here's an excerpt:
"My grandmother died last month. She was one of those matriarchs whose passing can shake a family to its foundation. When I was little I called her my “double mother” because she was more like a parent to me than a grandparent. It was in large part because I didn’t want to risk my relationship with her that I spent more than a decade “soul searching” before I left the Roman Catholic Church and began exploring a vocation to ordained ministry. She was of the generation that sincerely considered it a sin just to set foot in a Protestant church. The disruption in our relationship caused by my choice to become an Episcopalian was a longstanding source of guilt, even anguish.
Her death inevitably reopened many of the wounds I thought I had moved past. My sense of vocation is strong, and has been confirmed a number of times by people and processes I trust. (I’ve mentioned in earlier posts that I’m a postulant to the priesthood.) Nonetheless, when I learned that my grandmother had died, my grief was complicated by anxiety; questions such as “will I be allowed to receive communion at her funeral Mass?” haunted me."
I got the following thoughts which I now invite you all to discuss here.
I wonder what the Church would look like if we could set aside all that prevents Christ from shining through fully. The Christ that doesn't make a difference between women and men when he calls, but who calls the person.
I guess the whole beauty would suddenly be seen, and attract the world...
I've written quite a lot about the subject in my blog through the years.
And somehow come to a conclusion that should work if we see the question as what it really is - not one of faith, as it's often mistaken for - but one of practice (like married priests), which makes it possible to change it back to how it in fact used to be - when women were also allowed to serve in Church ministry - during over 1000 years.
Wouldn't it be possible to have different practices within the same Church also regarding women priests?
Like we already have with the Eastern tradition of married priests - and protestant married priests converting and becoming Roman Catholic priests.
So that those (I among them) who long for Catholic women to be welcomed as priests - and those who don't - could agree on disagreeing - but allow both views and practices to coexist under the same roof.
It could even be a separate rite within the Church - perhaps called "the ancient rite" since it's the oldest tradition we have - but coexisting with later developments.
I may be naïve, but think we'd learn a whole lot from that. And that the Church would blossom in a new and fruitful way....
It's interesting to compare it with the question about reopening the deaconate for women - which is seen as a matter of practice which isn't "finally" decided about yet.
How could there be such a huge difference between two steps of ordination?
Allt fler katoliker vaknar upp till verkligheten.... Och detta gäller inte bara i England/Wales.
Om det kommer in underskrifter från hela välden (sorry, enbart katoliker verkar få skriva under denna gång) ger det en tydlig signal... Den somriga snöbollen är i rullning.
Kom, helige Ande!
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Thousands of leading Roman Catholics including Lord Patten and Baroness Williams are calling on the Church to allow women and married men into the priesthood.
Senior clergy are also among the 2,000 who have so far signed a petition demanding that action be taken to tackle the "major crisis" of dwindling numbers of Catholic priests.
They claim that there is no real barrier to married men being ordained, despite it being part of the Church's teaching throughout its history, given that married former Anglicans who convert to Catholicism are allowed to become priests.
And in a further controversial move, they also want Catholic leaders in England and Wales to discuss the possibility of women becoming priests, an issue which has already been hugely divisive in the worldwide Anglican Church.
They say training programmes should be set up in colleges and online to "prepare suitable men and women for ministry".
A spokesman for the organisers of the petition said: "The possible ordination of married men has been raised as an urgent matter by bishops worldwide for over 30 years, and is becoming pressing now in this country as the shortage of priests worsens, parishes are merged and the average age of the clergy rises.
