Bridget Mary's Blog

"Seeking Communion, Finding Rejection" by Michelle Boorstein, Washington Post

2012-02-29T15:13:00.003-05:00

http://thewashingtonpost.newspaperdirect.com/epaper/viewer.aspx
"Barbara Johnson and members of her family want the Archdiocese of Washington to remove a priest at a Gaithersburg church from his ministry duties. Johnson, an art-studio owner from the District, had come to St. John Neumann Catholic Church in Gaithersburg with her lesbian partner. The Rev. Marcel Guarnizo had learned of their relationship just before the service.

“He put his hand over the body of Christ and looked at me and said, ‘I can’t give you Communion because you live with a woman, and in the eyes of the church, that is a sin,’ ” she recalled Tuesday.
She reacted with stunned silence. Her anger and outrage have now led her and members of her family to demand that Guarnizo be removed from his ministry.
Family members said the priest left the altar while Johnson, 51, was delivering a eulogy and did not attend the burial or find another priest to be there...."
Bridget Mary' Reflection:
We have a reached a new low in the institutional Roman Catholic Church. The refusal of Rev. Marcel Guarnizo contradicts Jesus' words and example. Jesus, who wept with Martha and Mary when Lazarus died, would weep at the treatment of Barbara Johnson by this parish priest. Jesus invited all to come to him, he did not say except gays and lesbians! It is disgraceful to refuse communion to anyone, anytime, period! That is why women priests are attracting more and more justice seeking Catholics in our inclusive communities where everyone is welcome to receive sacraments at all our liturgies and sacramental celebrations.
Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP
www.associationofromancatholicwomenpriests.org
sofiabmm@aol.com

Excellent article by Mary Hunt:

"Eucharist is not a Political Football"

Posted on February 29, 2012

http://www.waterwomensalliance.org/2012/02/eucharist-is-not-a-political-football/

Innisfree Village is Celebrating 40 years. The Albemarle Community Brings Together adults with Special Needs and their Volunteer Caregivers./NBC News

2012-02-29T11:28:00.000-05:00

http://www.nbc29.com/story/17039374/innisfree-village-celebrates-40th-anniversary

"Innisfree Village is celebrating 40 years. The Albemarle community brings together adults with special needs and their volunteer caregivers.

They say, "It takes a village to raise a family" and at Innisfree that consists of more than 30 residential volunteers and 40 "co-workers" as they're called or adults with special needs. Residents and their caregivers live as families, work, and play together in a community unlike any other.

Rhonda Miska with the Innisfree Village said, "We are different because we are not an institution, we're not a group home. It's not a place where staff come and wear a nametag. It's a place where we live together in family style homes and focus on what we have in common not on what sets us apart."

"Co-workers" have a daily routine of workshops, from weaving to woodworking, baking, farming and therapeutic recreation. Their work is sold in area stores and the profit makes its way back to the village.

The nonprofit just celebrated its 40-year anniversary and it continues to grow. It is currently looking for volunteers." Click here for more information.

"Imposing Sharia: Roman Catholic Version" by Rabbi Waskow Arthur

2012-02-28T13:43:00.000-05:00

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-arthur-waskow/imposing-sharia-roman-cat_b_1290752.html?view=print&comm_ref=false
"During the last few weeks, we have seen an outrageous attempt to impose sharia law on the US government and the American public.NOT Muslim sharia; it is Roman Catholic "sharia" about contraception that the US Conference of Catholic Bishops has been trying to impose on Americans of all faiths and beliefs who happen to work at a Catholic-sponsored hospital or university.Have Muslims been campaigning to impose sharia law on US courts? NO! Of the many faces of Islam in America, the face of the future -- open in wonder and questioning -- is the one our society could be, should be, encouraging. This one:Yet the same voices -- Fox News, various candidates for President -- that have bitterly attacked non-existent attempts by American Muslims to impose sharia on the public have not criticized this actual real-life attempt at doing so by the bishops. Indeed, many of these same voices have supported the bishops.The bishops warned about "religious oppression" even when the Catholic Hospital Association celebrated the arrangement that the Obama Administration worked out, making sure that health insurance companies will pay for free contraception without involving the Catholic-sponsored employers who might object.The only threat to religious freedom was the attempt by the bishops to deny religious freedom to the employees of those institutions -- Catholics and others -- whose religious consciences are totally at peace with the use of contraception.Nobody is preventing the bishops from preaching their version of God's will. Their problem is that they have not persuaded Catholic women. (98 percent of them use artificial contraception; the rate among non-Catholic women is 99 percent). Perhaps the "flock" are not so sheep-like as to blindly obey teachings on sexuality from an all-male, all-celibate hierarchy..."Similarly, the Philadelphia Inquirer just reported (Feb 20, p. 1) that Catholic hospitals have in the last few years tied the tubes of thousands of women who after birthing a child asked for the procedure. The operation sterilizes them. No more kids. It violates Catholic religious law. Yet thousands of Catholics wanted it, and the hospitals affirmed their conscientious decision. Are the bishops playing games here? To benefit whom?The bishops are asserting that the only "Catholic" consciences that count are those of -- surprise! -- the bishops! Not parishioners, not women, not the adults who as children were molested or raped by priests who were protected by the bishops.
Those who brag that "The Church is not a democracy" might better ask themselves, "Why not?" Indeed, in the early centuries of the Church the people of Rome and other cities took part in electing their bishops -- in Rome, the Pope. Time to renew the tradition, and not just in Rome?...."

Rabbi recommends that you write to the editors of local news papers and on your FaceBook page, a brief letter along these lines but in your own words:

"Dear editor, I am horrified that all-male, all-celibate Roman Catholic bishops would try to manipulate governmental power in order to impose their own theology about contraception - one that 98% of Catholic women reject -- upon women of any and all faiths and beliefs who work in hospitals and universities. This is exactly the behavior that some people hysterically ascribe to Muslim sharia, though American Muslims have never even proposed or attempted doing what the bishops have just done. It would be - it is -- outrageous for any religious group to impose its theology on the public. And it is outrageous to falsely accuse Muslims or any other community of imposing its will in this way."

Bridget Mary's Reflection:
Outstanding analysis by Rabbi Waskow. It is time to speak out! The male Roman Catholic bishops agenda should not become U.S. public policy. At stake, the religious freedom of the 99%!
At the end of the day, Catholics will live out their beliefs according to their consciences. They will also vote according to their consciences And women are the majority of the voters too!

Chicago Cardinal Said to Snub Irish Prime Minister’s visit over Vatican Embassy closure/Sexual Abuse Silence "Deadly" for Church: Vatican official (Reuters)

2012-02-27T21:57:00.000-05:00

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Chicago-cardinal-said-to-snub-Irish-Prime-Ministers-visit-over-Vatican-Embassy-closure-140411403.html

"Cardinal Francis George of Chicago has turned down an invitation to the Irish Fellowship Club’s St. Patrick Day dinner, and speculation is rife that it is because Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny is the main speaker, the Chicago Sun Times has reported.

Kenny lashed out at the Vatican in a widely reported attack last year over their refusal to cooperate in the inquiry into child sexual abuse in the diocese of Cloyne in Cork.
Then, late last year, the Irish government decided to close their Vatican Embassy in a move widely seen as related to the strong criticism of the Vatican role in the sex abuse scandals....The Sun Times asks: “Has Cardinal George now become the latest participant in the 'cold war' between Ireland and the Vatican over... the Catholic Church’s failure to tell the truth about its major sexual-abuse scandal there?"
Read more: http://www.irishcentral.com/news/Chicago-cardinal-said-to-snub-Irish-Prime-Ministers-visit-over-Vatican-Embassy-closure-140411403.html#ixzz1ndmVtZ6i

Sexual abuse silence "deadly" for Church: Vatican official (Reuters)
ROME — Hiding behind a culture of "omerta" -- the Italian word for the Mafia's code of silence -- would be deadly for the Catholic Church, the Vatican's top official for dealing with sexual abuse of minors by clergy said Wednesday. Monsignor Charles Scicluna made the unusually forthright comment in his speech to a landmark symposium in Rome on the sexual abuse crisis that has rocked the Church in the past decade."The teaching ... that truth is at the basis of justice explains why a deadly culture of silence, or 'omerta,' is in itself wrong and unjust," Scicluna said in his address to the four-day symposium which brings together some 200 people including bishops, leaders of religious orders, victims of abuse and psychologists. Rarely, if ever, has a Vatican official used the word "omerta" - a serious accusation in Italian -- to compare the reluctance of some in the Church to come clean on the abuse scandal with the Mafia's code of silence.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/46254582/ns/today/t/sexual-abuse-silence-deadly-church-vatican-official/

Bridget Mary's Reflection:
Finally, a Vatican official coming out with the truth on the global sexual abuse scandal that has rocked the church.
Now the question is does Vatican have the will to make the structural changes that will reform the clerical culture of cover up and silence? Is the Vatican ready for married priests and women priests and an empowered role for the people of God as decision-makers in their own church?
Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP
Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests
sofiabmm@aol.com
www.associationofromancatholicwomenpriests.org

Leading priest Predicts the End of Celibacy in the Catholic Church

2012-02-27T21:36:00.001-05:00

Three-time Nobel Prize nominee makes remarks on Irish television

"Fr Shay Cullen has earned three Nobel Peace Prize nominations for his work saving hundreds of children from a life of sexual abuse in the Philippines.

For the past 40 years he has worked with the children in a Filipino city of Olongapo.

Speaking to legendary Irish broadcaster Gay Byrne on state television station RTE, Fr Cullen predicted celibacy will soon be outdated....“All of the other Christian churches manage very well and many Anglicans who were married and had family and children and came over to the Catholics and were warmly accepted."

Archdiocesan Official Accused of Covering Abuse Begins Trial/ Philadelphia

2012-02-27T18:40:00.002-05:00

http://ncronline.org/news/accountability/archdiocesan-official-accused-covering-abuse-begins-trial

“The whole country is watching because it’s a key moment in the ongoing story about how the church handles child sex abuse,” said Marci Hamilton, who holds the Paul R. Verkuil Chair in Public Law at the Cardozo School of Law at New York’s Yeshiva University. Lynn’s case could push the focus beyond the perpetrator and to the systemic problems in the church, she said.
“I would really be surprised if [Lynn] were found to be not guilty. The evidence is compelling,” she said.
Hamilton, a leading church/state scholar and counsel in multiple sex abuse cases, said the prosecution’s case hinges on showing a pattern in the archdiocese of putting known clergy abusers of children in contact with other children.
To that end, the prosecution won a major pretrial victory when Common Pleas Court Judge M. Teresa Sarmina ruled they could tell jurors how the archdiocese handled 22 past cases of alleged abuse.
“Those cases will be a part of establishing that it wasn’t simply one oversight, it wasn’t an accident that the survivor that’s at the heart of the case against Msgr. Lynn was put into danger’s way,” Hamilton said. “It was actually just an ongoing practice that he was following over the years. ... It wasn’t an accident. It wasn’t an oversight. It was a system of covering up child sex abuse.”

Bridget Mary's Reflection;
The heart of the issue is that it is systemic and global. Clericalism is the major issue and it's focus is protecting priests and bishops from scandal. Catholics in the pews must have decision-making authority in the Catholic Church in parishes, dioceses, and in the Vatican to create a more open, accountable and transparent church. And that includes equal numbers of women! The fox cannot guard the hen house.

Attorneys: Cardinal Ordered Memo on Priests Destroyed/Sexual Abuse Scandal Goes All the Way to the Vatican/ 2001 Edict/ Time for a Renewed Catholic Church

2012-02-26T21:07:00.000-05:00

http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/24/justice/pennsylvania-church-abuse/index.html?iref=allsearch

CNN) -- A Philadelphia archdiocese official on trial for allegedly covering up the sexual abuse of children has asked a court to throw out charges against him based on a 1994 memo showing Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua ordered a list of suspected abusive Catholic priests to be destroyed.
Attorneys for Monsignor William Lynn asked a Philadelphia court to dismiss charges of conspiracy and child endangerment based on documents that Lynn had informed his superiors -- including the cardinal -- that priests in the archdiocese were assaulting children.
"The recent unexpected and shocking discovery of a March, 1994 memorandum composed by Monsignor James Molloy, Monsignor Lynn's then-supervisor, on the topic of this review, clearly reveals that justice demands that all charges against Monsignor Lynn be dropped," Lynn's attorneys said in a filing.
As revealed in court papers filed on Friday, Molloy's handwritten memo dated March 22, 1994, informed Bevilacqua that the secret list of 35 priests had been shredded per his instructions.

http://bsalert.com/artsearch.php?fn=2&as=1418&dt=1
"A BBC documentary has exposed that Pope Benedict XVI, aka Cardinal Ratzinger, played a leading role in a systematic cover-up of child sex abuse by Roman Catholic priests.

In 2001, while he was a cardinal, he issued a secret Vatican edict to Catholic bishops all over the world, instructing them to put the Church's interests ahead of child safety.

The document recommended that rather than reporting sexual abuse to the relevant legal authorities, bishops should encourage the victim, witnesses and perpetrator not to talk about it. And, to keep victims quiet, it threatened that if they repeat the allegations they would be excommunicated."
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23369148-pope-led-cover-up-of-child-abuse-by-priests.do

"Five years ago he sent out an updated version of the notorious 1962 Vatican document Crimen Sollicitationis - Latin for The Crime of Solicitation - which laid down the Vatican's strict instructions on covering up sexual scandal. It was regarded as so secret that it came with instructions that bishops had to keep it locked in a safe at all times.
Cardinal Ratzinger reinforced the strict cover-up policy by introducing a new principle: that the Vatican must have what it calls Exclusive Competence. In other words, he commanded that all child abuse allegations should be dealt with direct by Rome.
Patrick Wall, a former Vatican-approved enforcer of the Crimen Sollicitationis in America, tells the programme: "I found out I wasn't working for a holy institution, but an institution that was wholly concentrated on protecting itself."
And Father Tom Doyle, a Vatican lawyer until he was sacked for criticising the church's handling of child abuse claims, says: "What you have here is an explicit written policy to cover up cases of child sexual abuse by the clergy and to punish those who would call attention to these crimes by the churchmen.
"When abusive priests are discovered, the response has been not to investigate and prosecute but to move them from one place to another. So there's total disregard for the victims and for the fact that you are going to have a whole new crop of victims in the next place. This is happening all over the world."
Bridget Mary's Reflection:
Catholics in Philadelphia must be reeling from this shocking betrayal by the hierarchy. For ten years, I was an Immaculate Heart of Mary Sister. I taught in grade schools in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and experienced the dedication of the nuns and people up close.
Now, the Archdiocese is closing or merging a large number of schools. What will happen to the next generation of Catholic school children? I feel sorry for the IHM nuns who have given everything for decades to educate the youth of Philadelphia. Now a number of their schools and convents will be closed. How sad! Who will take care of the elderly nuns in the order who are supported by the education ministry of their Sisters? Will the Archdiocese step up to the plate?
Philadelphia is only the tip of the iceberg in the sexual abuse scandal. This is part of a pattern that is global in scope. And it goes all the way to the top. Pope Benedict played a major role (as cited in the news links above) as Cardinal Ratzinger in his position as head of the Sacred Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith .
It is a disgrace that the Catholic Church has behaved like a crime family by covering up its crimes by threats and punishments.
Catholics worldwide are demanding change. Groups like Voice of the Faithful have been established to hold the institutional church accountable.
This is one of the reasons that alternative faith communities are rising up. More and more Catholics are welcoming a renewed Catholic Church with women-priests-led inclusive communities where transparency and accountability are the norm in a people, empowered church.
Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP
sofiabmm@aol.com
Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests
www.associationofromancatholicwomenpriests.org

Links to Stories on Vatican Mandated Apostolic Visitation of Nuns/Time to End Sexism in our Church

2012-02-25T20:58:00.004-05:00

http://ncronline.org/apostolicvisitation
Bridget Mary's Reflection
Anyway, you slice it, the nuns won this one! Let's hope the Vatican learned not to harass the women religious!
Now it is time for the nuns to talk back and take action!
Nuns have served the church for many decades and some have been doing priestly ministry quietly in priestless parishes with their orders' approval. I hope that the religious orders in which women are called to priestly ministry will find a way to proceed. The women priests movement does catacomb ordinations for those under threat, but, the ideal of course is to celebrate the call of the community to serve as a priest with the community in an open, prophetic way.
Sisters, it is time to cross the line of patriarchy's oppression, and join us in the prophetic journey to bring justice for women to our church in grassroots communities. We must be the change that we have dreamed of now.
Jesus set the pace. He called women as well men to follow him and treated them as equals and partners. In Luke 8, we read there were many women disciples! Jesus entrusted the most important message of Christianity to a woman apostle, Mary of Magdala, the apostle to the apostles! The Catholic Church should follow the example of Jesus. The Vatican cannot continue to discriminate against women and blame God for it. Sexism is a sin and must not be tolerated. The renewal of our church is in the hands of the people of God, which includes, of course, the nuns! This is a call to action!
Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP
sofiabmm@aol.com
www.associationofromancatholicwomenpriests.org

An opportunity whose time has come" by Dorothy Pedtke

2012-02-24T21:40:00.005-05:00

http://www.southbendtribune.com/news/opinion/sbt-20120224sbtmicha-05-05-20120224,0,4049026.story

"...At the Saturday presentation, several women who had long felt frustrated and put down when they spoke of feeling called to ordination were encouraged to speak of their own experience. Some had been insulted for their "presumption." At best they were just told "no!" Priests who are nice guys felt ashamed to speak so to these women, knowing no real cause for this treatment. Others are not so compassionate. Many of us at the talk had never thought much about the question, but on hearing about the experiences and the shattered feelings of the women who felt called, we began to see the injustice of the church's stance. Some attending who felt vocations heard for the first time that a few women have already been ordained. They were in tears with excitement. They don't feel they're defying the church. They feel called by God and frustrated at not being able to accept. Now they have hope...."

What an abortifacient is -- and what it isn't by Jamie L. Manson/NCR Online

2012-02-24T19:21:00.000-05:00

http://ncronline.org/blogs/grace-margins/what-abortifacient-and-what-it-isnt

"...The most important point that emerges from all of this research is that, so far, there is no scientific evidence that any FDA-approved contraception is capable of destroying an embryo. To say that any of these drugs are abortifacient is not only misleading, it does a profound disservice to women who find themselves in a situation where they might have to use one of these drugs or devices.According to the U.S. Department of Justice's National Crime Victimization Survey, an average of 207,754 sexual assaults is reported in this country every year. And according to a study at Princeton, more than 25,000 women become pregnant every year after being sexually assaulted.The CHA did a fine job of arguing why emergency contraception should be available to all victims of sexual assault, regardless of the hospital's Catholic affiliation...Regardless of the situation, it is for a woman to decide what is best for her health and well-being.As we saw last week in the all-male panel testifying before Congress about contraception and in the statements of the Rick Santorum and his financial backers, the culture of shaming women for taking control of their sexuality is still a powerful force in this country. And the desire by men to take control of women's bodies seems equally powerful..."[Jamie L. Manson received her Master of Divinity degree from Yale Divinity School, where she studied Catholic theology and sexual ethics. Her columns for NCR earned her a first prize Catholic Press Association award for Best Column/Regular Commentary in 2010.]

"Misguided Missal" Learn What You Can Do

2012-02-23T20:21:00.000-05:00

http://archive.constantcontact.com/fs094/1101674625527/archive/1109180565844.html

Lent: Pray, Fast and Give to Challenge Injustice

2012-02-23T08:44:00.002-05:00

http://www.christfaithpower.com/2011/03/09/ash-wednesday/ (Check out this great site, the following reflection is from Ash Wednesday entry there.)
Joel (2:12-18) calls for a fast... Joel does not call individuals to repentance. He calls the whole community...

When we look at Jesus’ life and his final days, one thing stands out. Jesus suffered the agony of capital punishment crucifixion because he challenged unjust structures—Roman occupation and priestly burdens upon his followers. Lent is then about following Jesus and challenging the unjust structures in our government and our church which hold us captive. John Dear offers ten principles of resistance to the vagaries of empire during Lent http://ncronline.org/blogs/road-peace/lent-practice-spirituality-resistance.

... We are so often complicit in the injustices of empire that we do not even realize it. Prayer, fasting and almsgiving prepare us to challenge injustice wherever we may find it.
We sometimes restrict our concept of fasting to moderation in food and drink. Fasting refers to all consumption. Descartes’ “I think therefore I am” has morphed into “I consume therefore I am.” Merton railed against technology and commodification. He decried our focus on things and doing. He bemoaned conspicuous consumption. He reminds us that we are human beings. We ARE in the great I AM.
Isaiah expands the concept of fasting that is acceptable to God:

This, rather, is the fasting that I wish:

releasing those bound unjustly,

untying the thongs of the yoke;

Setting free the oppressed,

breaking every yoke;

Sharing your bread with the hungry,

sheltering the oppressed and the

homeless; Clothing the naked when

you see them, and not turning your

back on your own. (58:6-7)

"Former North Side Catholic Nun Gets Ordained" /Chicago Sun Times/ Judy Beaumont Ordained by Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests

2012-02-22T21:06:00.000-05:00

Newly Ordained Priest Judy Beaumont Shares Eucharist with Child at Ft. Myers Ordination

http://www.suntimes.com/news/sneed/10713366-452/sneedlings.html#

...."Beaumont, who is now referred to as Pastor Judy, was ordained by the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests.

“We are following our conscience and we are full loyal members of the church,” said Beaumont.

“We will do everything we can to bring about a new way of inclusivity in the church,” said Beaumont, who is now the 11th priest ordained by her group..."

Ash Wednesday/ New Inclusive Lenten Liturgy/ Penitential Rite

2012-02-22T12:02:00.001-05:00

PENITENTIAL RITE

Presider: As we pray, fast, and give alms, may weexperience a new openness to Gospel compassion and justice, Jesus havemercy.

ALL: Jesus, have mercy.

Presider: Jesus located divine authorityin our human hearts, for the times we have failed to trust our experiences ofGod in our everyday life and in our world, Christ have mercy.

ALL: Christ have mercy.

Presider:For the times we have failed to challenge religious and political authoritiesto do justice and live compassion for all, Jesus have mercy.

ALL: Jesus, have mercy.

Presider: Let us pause now for reflection. Place your hand over your heart and breathein God’s boundless love and forgiveness for you and for all those whom you arecalled to love and forgive.

(Extendhands and recite prayer of General Absolution)

ALL: God, the Father-Mother of mercies through thedeath and resurrection of Jesus / has reconciled the world and sent the HolySpirit among us for the forgiveness of sins / through the ministry of theChurch may God give us pardon and peace / and we absolve you from your sins inthe name of God / the Father-Mother, and of Jesus, the Son, and of the HolySpirit. Amen.

This is the Penitential Rite from our Lenten Liturgy. It is one of eleven liturgies in our ARCWP Inclusive Worship Aid. You can order at http://www.associationofromancatholicwomenpriests.org/

Inclusive Worship Aids

A CD providing worship aids written by Bridget Mary Meehan, Judy Lee and Dorothy Shugrue. It is a resource created by priests in the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, containing a variety of Eucharistic liturgies.

It is our hope that this resource will be a blessing for all inclusive communities who worship in spirit and truth. The prayers and rituals can easily be adapted to the specific needs of any group.

Here is a list of included liturgies: ~ Liturgy for Advent/Christmas ~ Liturgy for Lent ~ Liturgy for Water, Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, Third Sunday of Lent, Easter Season, Baptismal Celebration Liturgy, Earth or Renewal Themes ~ Liturgy for Fire, Easter Season, Pentecost, Earth Day, Social Justice ~ Liturgy for Ordinary Time ~ Liturgy to Celebrate Creation, New Life, Creativity, New Beginnings, Spring or Summer ~ Liturgy for Marian Feast ~ Liturgy to Celebrate Justice, Partnership and Equality for Women in Church and Society ~ Liturgy of Good News to the Poor, For Anytime ~ Liturgy for All Saints’ and/or All Souls’ Day, Funerals/ Memorials.

Worship Aids are provided on a CD in Word Doc and PDF formats.

If you are able, a suggested donation of $25.00 will defray our cost and help to support the growth of ARCWP and our ministry.

Please click the DONATION button above. If you prefer, you may write a check to: ARCWP, 18520 Eastshore Drive, Ft. Myers, Florida 33967

Click Link below to see video about Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests
http://www.youtube.com/embed/YEEKn7PAGNs

Contraception Furor v. Catholic Realities The current flap over health care is about birth control, it is not about religious liberty, and it is not over. By Mary E. Hunt

2012-02-21T19:05:00.001-05:00

http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/sexandgender/5713/contraception_furor_v._catholic_realities http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/sexandgender/5713/contraception_furor_v._catholic_realities

"Not Religious Liberty, but Religious Influence
The bishops’ issue is not religious liberty, but religious influence, namely, their own which is on the wane. The institutional Roman Catholic Church squandered the political clout it once enjoyed. Clergy sexual abuse cases and their cover-up by bishops are unspeakable crimes that cost more than just the billions of dollars spent to adjudicate cases and compensate victims. They cost credibility...The bishops remain dissatisfied with the Obama compromise and vow to fight on. Most Catholics are just glad that most women will have access to contraception, provided that the insurance companies step up to the plate. But the question that is far from settled in a democracy is how one huge religious group gets its many voices heard. Catholic voters will have a chance to express their commitment to women at the ballot box"

'Call to Disobedience': A Rift in the German-Speaking Catholic Church

2012-02-21T16:00:00.000-05:00

A call by reform-minded Catholics in the German-speaking world for the
church to soften its stances on homosexuality, divorce and celibacy
among priests and to end its ban on women in the clergy is drawing loud
criticism from conservatives. They argue the group is threatening to
create a schism within the Catholic Church.
You can download the complete article over the Internet at the following
URL:
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,816528,00.html

More about this issue
---------------------------

Assessing the Pope's Visit: Germany At Odds With Benedict XVI
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,788388,00.html

The World From Berlin: 'The Pope Can't Neglect What's Happening in His
Own Church'
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,788048,00.html
Mission Clarity: Pope Benedict's Blunt New World
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,788054,00.html

The Pope Comes Home: Benedict Criticizes Lack of Religiosity in Germany
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,787791,00.html

Fighting the Dictatorship of Relativism: The Pope's Role in the New
Battle for Religion
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,787808,00.html

Theologian Hans Küng on Pope Benedict: 'A Putinization of the Catholic
Church'
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,787325,00.html

Disillusioned German Catholics: The Pope's Difficult Visit to His
Homeland
http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,787314,00.html

Santorum Exalts Inequality/ Op. Ed. New York Times/ Mentions Women Priests Hiring as Example of Employment Discrimination Issues

2012-02-19T21:59:00.000-05:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/18/opinion/blow-santorum-exalts-inequality.html?_r=1&src=recg

Then again, Santorum is becoming increasingly unhinged in his public comments. Last week, he said that the president was arguing that Catholics would have to “hire women priests to comply with employment discrimination issues. Also last week, he suggested that liberals and the president were leading religious people into oppression and even beheadings. I kid you not. Santorum said: “They are taking faith and crushing it. Why? When you marginalize faith in America, when you remove the pillar of God-given rights, then what’s left is the French Revolution. What’s left is a government that gives you rights. What’s left are no unalienable rights. What’s left is a government that will tell you who you are, what you’ll do and when you’ll do it. What’s left in France became the guillotine.”
Bridget Mary's Reflection
It is hard to imagine that Rick Santorum is serious, but apparently he is. Yes, indeed, women priests would make a difference, a huge structural change in the Catholic Church that would be welcomed by millions of Catholics. It is true that gender inequality is at the heart of the institutional church's major issues. This is rooted in sexism and yes, results in discrimination against women in barring the doors to priestly ministry, However, the Roman Catholic Women Priests Movement have found a way around the hierarchy and are now serving in grassroots communities in 8 countries.
Bridget Mary Meehan
sofiabmm@aol.com
http://www.associationofromancatholicwomenpriests.org/

"What People Talk About Before They Die" by Kerry Egan

2012-02-18T20:59:00.000-05:00

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/01/28/my-faith-what-people-talk-about-before-they-die/

"Even in these cases, I am amazed at the strength of the human soul. People who did not know love in their families know that they should have been loved. They somehow know what was missing, and what they deserved as children and adults.When the love is imperfect, or a family is destructive, something else can be learned: forgiveness. The spiritual work of being human is learning how to love and how to forgive. We don’t have to use words of theology to talk about God; people who are close to death almost never do. We should learn from those who are dying that the best way to teach our children about God is by loving each other wholly and forgiving each other fully - just as each of us longs to be loved and forgiven by our mothers and fathers, sons and daughters."

"Bad Reaction"/Commonweal Editorial on Bishops and Contraception Mandate/ Attack on Women's Health Care Rights/Conscience/Religious Freedom

2012-02-18T20:50:00.000-05:00

http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/print/6166#.Tz_wJz6Yyl0.mailto

"Even before all the details of the president’s proposal were known, the bishops rejected it and then upped the ante by insisting that the only possible solution was to repeal the mandate altogether. In other words, the bishops are now demanding that no employer be required to offer free contraception coverage to its employees. To justify their response, they offered only the most tendentious reading of the possible flaws in Obama’s proposal. Now the USCCB is threatening a concerted political and public-relations campaign—during an election year—that casts the president as a determined enemy of religious freedom."

Bridget Mary's Reflection
The bishops attempt to demand the mandate is an attack on women's rights to health care, their conscience and religious freedom. Why do the bishops have the right to impose their views on Catholics and non-Catholics alike? We do have separation of church and state in the U.S. Isn't that one of the basic tenets of our democracy?

Darrell Issa's First Panel on Contraception Coverage Had Zero Female Witnesses

2012-02-18T20:29:00.000-05:00

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2012/02/16/issa_s_first_panel_of_witnesses_on_contraception_hearings_included_no_women_.html
"Refusing to acknowledge that their stated concerns were addressed is simply revealing that the Republican war on contraception coverage is in fact a war on contraception itself, and no amount of hyperbole Rep. Darrell Issa uses in titling hearings can change that..."
Bridget Mary's Reflection:
It appears that the Republicans are following the U.S. bishops in their war on contraception and on women by excluding them from sharing their experiences about family planning and women's health care issues. Like the Panel on Contraception, the U.S. Bishops have zero females in decision making and they certainly did not consult any woman. 98% of Roman Catholic women have used contraception at some point in their reproductive lives, and a survey by the Public Religion Research Institute reported that even among Catholics, 52 percent back the Obama policy: they believe that religiously affiliated universities and hospitals should be madated to include birth control coverage in insurance plans. The majority of Catholics are supportive of this policy because it protects women's health. So are women and the rest of the population. Women's health and well-being should be discussed by a panel that includes women in proportion to the population. By excluding women from the Panel on Contraception, the Republicans are following the example of the bishops whose misogynist behavior excludes women from the priesthood and decision-making in issues that impact their lives including human sexuality. The agenda is elimination of contraception not just for Catholic women, but for all women. Is this the Republican agenda too? Listen carefully to what the candidates are saying about contraception.

"Contraception Crusade" on Colbert Report/ On the Lighter Side

2012-02-17T23:43:00.000-05:00

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/408347/february-14-2012/contraception-crusade?xrs=playershare_fb

Catholic Bishops Step Up Campaign Against Contraceptive in Parishes Across U.S./Time to Oppose Bishops by Calling Representatives to Support Contraceptives and Family Planning as Pro-Lfe and Pro-Woman

2012-02-17T23:33:00.002-05:00

The USCCB has sent out a bulletin insert to be included in parish bulletins. Please include this in next weekend's bulletin, as its timeliness is dependent upon Congressional action. If you have other methods of distributing this content (websites, Facebook pages, etc), that would be wonderful. More information regarding the HHS Mandate is likely forthcoming. Thank you for your support in this effort to restore religious liberty and freedom of conscience!

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
3211 Fourth Street NE - Washington DC 20017-1194 - Fax 202-541-3166
BULLETIN INSERT
Sweeping HHS Mandate Stands, Violating Conscience Rights and Religious Liberty
Congress Must Act to Fix the Problem

On January 20, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reaffirmed a rule that virtually all private health care plans must cover sterilization, abortifacients, and contraception. The exemption provided for "religious employers" was so narrow that it failed to cover the vast majority of faith-based organizations-including Catholic hospitals, universities, and charities-that help millions every year. Ironically, not even Jesus and his disciples would have qualified for the exemption, because it excludes those who mainly serve people of another faith. On February 10, the Obama Administration made this rule final "without change"; delayed enforcement for a year against religious nonprofits that were still not exempted (our charities, hospitals, and colleges); and promised to develop more regulations to "accommodate" them by the end of that additional year. But, as explained below, that promised "accommodation" still forces them to pay for "services" that violate their religious convictions. The original rule that violated our religious liberty so severely has not been changed, but finalized. After touting meaningful changes in the mandate, HHS instead finalized the original rule that was first issued in August 2011 "without change." So the offensive definition of "religious employer"-which excludes our charities, hospitals, and colleges because they serve people of other faiths-is still in place, and those institutions are still subject to the mandate. HHS has promised some kind of "accommodation," but only after the election. HHS said it would take an additional year to develop more regulations to "accommodate" religiously-affiliated charities, schools, and hospitals that still fall outside the "religious employer" exemption. The impact of these additional rules will not be felt until after the election, the only point of public accountability for the Executive Branch. This eliminates an important incentive for HHS to provide the best protection for religious liberty The promised "accommodation"-even at its best-would still force our institutions to violate their beliefs. Under the proposed "accommodation," if an employee of these religious institutions wants coverage of contraception or sterilization directly from the insurer, the objecting employer is still forced to pay for it as a part of the employer's insurance plan. Since there is no other source, the funds to pay for that coverage must come from the premiums of the employer and fellow employees, even those who object in conscience.
There is no exemption for objecting insurers, secular employers, for-profit religious employers, or individuals.
The U.S. bishops defend religious liberty for all, and so have repeatedly identified all the stakeholders in the process whose religious freedom is threatened by the mandate-all employers, insurers, and individuals, not just religious employers. Now, all insurers, including self-insurers, must provide the coverage to any employee who wants it. In turn, all individuals who pay premiums have no escape from subsidizing that coverage. And only employers that are both non-profit and religious may qualify for the limited "accommodation." We urgently need legislation to correct the mandate's threats to religious liberty and conscience rights. The Respect for Rights of Conscience Act has been introduced in Congress (H.R. 1179, S. 1467) to ensure that those who participate in the market for health insurance "retain the right to provide, purchase, or enroll in health coverage that is consistent with their religious beliefs and moral convictions."
ACTION: Contact your U.S. Representative by e-mail, phone, or FAX letter:
Call the U.S. Capitol switchboard at: 202-224-3121, or call your Members' local offices. Send your email to Congress through http://www.flacathconf.org/religiousfreedom Additional contact info can be found on Members' web sites at: www.house.gov and www.senate.gov.
MESSAGE: "Please co-sponsor and support the Respect for Rights of Conscience Act (H.R. 1179, S. 1467). The Obama administration's decision to mandate coverage of sterilization and contraceptives, including drugs that can cause an abortion, makes passage of this measure especially urgent. Please ensure that the religious liberty and conscience rights of all participants in our nation's health care system are respected."

Billy Atwell
Director of Communications
Diocese of Venice in Florida
941-484-9543 (office)
941-484-1121 (fax) www.dioceseofvenice.org
www.facebook.com/DioceseofVenice
www.vimeo.com/DioceseofVenice
Bridget Mary's Reflection;
Contact your congressional representatives to oppose the bishops campaign and provide cover for women's health and reproductive family planning as a matter of their conscience and freedom of religion. The U.S. bishops do not represent the majority of Catholics. Tell Congress and the White House that the health of women including contraceptive coverage is what you support as a Catholic and a citizen of the United States. This is an issue of human rights and justice for women as equal images of God who can and should make their own moral decisions on family planning including use of contraceptives.
Jesus had no policy on contraceptives so the bishops should not act as if this is an issue for him. Jesus treated all with compassion and non-judgment. One could argue that Jesus would be angry with the bishops as he was with the religous leaders of his time for placing heavy burdens on the people. Now the bishops are imposing their ethics on women, specifically women who cannot afford children and do not want to became pregnant. They are denying women their rights to be free moral agents who make these decisions according to conscience.
What ever happend to the bishops pro-life stance that aimed to prevent abortions? Contaceptives prevent unwanted pregnancies and abortions.
Yes, indeed, get in touch with your congressional representative as the bishops advise, but tell him to support women's health, freedom of conscience and religious liberty to chose when to bring children into this world. 98% of Catholic women have used contraceptives, the bishops do not represent them in this campaign. The bishops cannot continue to discrimnate against women and blame Obama for it. (as in Obama health care that mandates insurance coverage for contraceptives.)
Bridget Mary Meehan
Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests
sofiabmm@aol.com

Cardinal Cushing Had No Desire to Impose Church's Moral Judgments on all Faiths/in Contrast to U.S. Bishops Today

2012-02-16T22:30:00.000-05:00

Boston College Magazine

Legal aid
by Seth Meehan
"When the Massachusetts legislature voted in 1966 to end the last all-out ban on contraceptives in the nation, it was with the approval and assistance of the Boston Archdiocese On February 15, 1963, Boston’s cardinal Richard James Cushing (1895–1970) was the guest on “Conversation Piece,” an afternoon talk show on local radio station WEEI. Not for the first time since the campaign and election of President John F. Kennedy, a Boston Catholic, Cushing addressed public concerns about the role of the Catholic Church in politics. As Kennedy himself had done, Cushing offered the assurance that Catholics did not believe religious viewpoints should control political decision making in the democratic arena. The leader of 1.8 million Catholics in the Boston Archdiocese, Cushing told the radio audience that he had no desire to impose the Church’s moral judgments, by using his considerable influence over Massachusetts legislation, on people of other faiths. .."

Seth Meehan is a Ph.D. student in history at Boston College. His essay is drawn and adapted from an article titled “From Patriotism to Pluralism: How Catholics Initiated the Repeal of Birth Control Restrictions in Massachusetts.” Published in the Catholic Historical Review in July 2010, the article earned Meehan the Peter Guilday Prize from the American Catholic Historical Association.

Winnipeg Statement of Canadian Bishops Dissenting from Contraception Teaching

2012-02-16T21:05:00.000-05:00

Below are key passages giving reasons for Canadian Conference of Bishops dissent on contraception:
17. It is a fact that a certain number of Catholics, although admittedly subject to the teaching of the encyclical, find it either extremely difficult or even impossible to make their own all elements of this doctrine. In particular, the argumentation and rational foundation of the encyclical, which are only briefly indicated, have failed in some cases to win the assent of men of science,or indeed of some men of culture and education who share in the contemporary empirical and scientific mode of thought. We must appreciate the difficulty experienced by contemporary man in understanding and appropriating some of the points of this encyclical, and we must make every effort to learn from the insights of Catholic scientists and intellectuals, who are of undoubted loyalty to Christian truth, to the Church and to the authority of the Holy See. Since they are not denying any point of divine and Catholic faith nor rejecting the teaching authority of the Church, these Catholics should not be considered or consider themselves, shut off from the body of the faithful. But they should remember that their good faith will be dependent on a sincere self-examination to determine the true motives and grounds for such suspension of assent and on continued effort to understand and deepen their knowledge of the teaching of the Church.
Preliminary Pastoral Guidance
26. Counsellors may meet others who, accepting the teaching of the Holy Father, find that because of particular circumstances they are involved in what seems to them a clear conflict of duties, e.g., the reconciling of conjugal love and responsible parenthood with the education of children already born or with the health of the mother. In accord with the accepted principles of moral theology, if these persons have tried sincerely but without success to pursue a line of conduct in keeping with the given directives, they may be safely assured that, whoever honestly chooses that course which seems right to him does so in good conscience.

27. Good pastoral practice for other and perhaps more difficult cases will be developed in continuing communication among bishops, priests and laity, and in particular in the document we have promised to prepare. In the meantime we earnestly solicit the help of medical scientists and biologists in their research into human fertility. While it would be an illusion to hope for the solution of all human problems through scientific technology, such research can bring effective help to the alleviation and solution of problems of conscience in this area.

"Birth Control,Bishops and Religious Authority" by Gary Gutting/New York Times/Canadian Bishops Dissent on Contraception/Winnipeg Statement

2012-02-15T22:25:00.000-05:00

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/15/birth-control-and-the-challenge-to-divine-authority/?src=twrhp

"Since, as I’ve argued, members of the church are themselves this source, it is not for the bishops but for the faithful to decide the nature and extent of episcopal authority. ...The mistake of the Obama administration — and of almost everyone debating its decision — was to accept the bishops’ claim that their position on birth control expresses an authoritative “teaching of the church.” (Of course, the administration may be right in thinking that the bishops need placating because they can cause them considerable political trouble.) The bishops’ claim to authority in this matter has been undermined because Catholics have decisively rejected it. The immorality of birth control is no longer a teaching of the Catholic Church. Pope Paul VI meant his 1968 encyclical, “Humanae Vitae,” to settle the issue in the manner of the famous tag, “Roma locuta est, causa finita est.” In fact the issue has been settled by the voice of the Catholic people."

Bridget Mary's Reflection
I agree. The bishops, indeed the institutional church's position on Humanae Vitae, reflects the minority opinion and has been soundly rejected by the Catholic people. If teaching is not received by the faithful, it is not valid teaching. This is often referred to as the "sense of the faithful".

"Although many Episcopal Conferences published statements regarding Humanae Vitae, it is the Canadian Bishops' statement which has been the subject of the most controversy, as has been widely interpreted as a loophole whereby Catholics may feel permitted to use birth control. Central to the debate is the role and importance of personal religious freedom of conscience." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnipeg_Statement

"Quite Serious" by Bridget Mary Meehan/ Naples Daily News

2012-02-15T22:01:00.000-05:00

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2012/feb/15/letter-quite-serious/ Naples Daily News
I am responding to some misperceptions about me and about the Roman Catholic Women Priests movement in a letter to the editor titled "Are you serious?

"Beneath the Conflict" by Joan and John Houk

2012-02-15T21:53:00.000-05:00

The contraception -- freedom of conscience conflict set new records for speed of bishops’ reaction and administration accommodation. Never before have our bishops responded in a matter of hours to anything. Years of collective discernment has been the norm. Never before has any administration reacted in a bureaucratic flash to any critique by anyone. One may guess that both bishops and administration saw this conflict coming a long time ago. In that sense alone, it was (past tense) a manufactured conflict.
The U.S. Bishops know they lost the war on contraception years ago so it wasn’t about contraception unless you are an exceedingly dense bishop. It wasn’t really about freedom of conscience either. No one was being required to use contraceptives, and the bishops had already accepted alternative policies in various states. So what is left? There is good reason to suspect an orchestrated attempt by our bishops to discredit President Obama and his administration, and at least for some bishops, it may be a case of “scarlet fever,” i.e., how does this look at promotion time.
There may be something to be gained by continuing to dissect this make-believe conflict, which is to remember an often forgotten teaching from Jesus himself. Woe also to you lawyers! For you load people with burdens hard to bear, but you yourselves do not lift a finger to ease them. (Luke 11:46) It is not right to lay burdens of the law on people that because of your wealth, position, gender or race you yourself do not have to carry.
Our bishops never need to make a decision of conscience regarding the personal use of contraceptives. Then by what Christian judgment do they lay their anti-contraception burden of law on others? We can turn this dust-up into an opportunity to remember how Jesus taught us to live together. We can make people’s lives better from the bottom up by avoiding laying on heavy burdens, especially those that we ourselves don’t have to carry.
Joan and John Houk
2/13/12

Strong Majority Support Contraceptive Coverage/Not U.S. Bishops by Marjorie Connelly/ New York Times

2012-02-15T18:46:00.004-05:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/15/us/politics/poll-finds-support-for-contraception-policy-and-gay-couples.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha23
"Majorities in the New York Times/CBS News poll backed an insurance requirement for religiously affiliated employers and legal status for same-sex unions. On contraceptive coverage, 65 percent of voters in the poll said they supported the Obama administration’s requirement that health insurance plans cover the cost of birth control, and 59 percent, said the health insurance plans of religiously affiliated employers should cover the cost of birth control. "

On the contraception mandate: Can the bishops speak credibly about a women's health issue? by Bryan Cones- in US Catholic

2012-02-14T21:42:00.000-05:00

http://www.uscatholic.org/blog/2012/02/contraception-mandate-can-bishops-speak-credibly-about-womens-health-issue
By Bryan Cones - in US Catholic
..."The fact is, church teaching addresses women's bodies and their health care in profoundly intimate and different ways than it does the bodies of men. (One wonders how the conversation would be different if we were talking about prostate exams or erectile dysfunction.) It does not help the bishops' credibility that women have had no deliberative voice in the creation of church teaching on birth control, and since none of the bishops are married, they are not in the position to consider more than intellectually the economic, emotional, and psychological dimensions of an unplanned pregnancy.The fact remains that half of pregnancies in this country are unplanned, and half of those end in abortion. The emotional, psychological, economic, and moral costs of these pregnancies (and abortions) fall most heavily on the women affected, and I think it incumbent upon Christians to consider these women and their children--born and unborn--as we examine this moral issue.I do not see how preventing a woman from using a legal medical means to decide when or if she becomes pregnant impinges on my right to excercise my faith. Indeed, my hope that greater access to birth control would reduce the number of abortions more than makes up for any concerns I have about the legal complexities surrounding the mandate's effect on Catholic employers."

WHO'S CONTROLLING WHOM?/Bishops at War About Women and Reproductive Capabilities

2012-02-14T20:59:00.001-05:00

http://www.concordmonitor.com/article/311102/whos-controlling-whom?SESSb1e1ef98fce7d4a918305aa2a63a1dad=google
Church is not the victim here
By Katy Burns
..."Make no mistake. It is a war. And it's not a war about "religious freedom," as the crusading bishops and their conservative supporters, including a parade of pandering Republican presidential wanna-bes, would have you believe. It's a war about women and who will control their reproductive capabilities. It is a war about birth control, especially the relatively easy, inexpensive and effective birth control provided by the Pill, IUDs and other devices that have in the past 50 years revolutionized the world. For the first time in human history, women have been able to participate fully in the world in which they live. The results have been dramatic as women have moved in force into academe and into the workforce.This includes millions of Catholic women, in this country and elsewhere, despite the fact that their church holds that using artificial birth control of any kind whatsoever is a "grave" sin. Such liberation - particularly when some of those women start questioning their subservient role in the Church as well - doesn't sit well with many members of the Catholic hierarchy, an authoritative and autocratic bunch of celibate men who seem obsessed with controlling the reproductive lives of the rest of the world...."
Bridget Mary's Reflection:
Excellent analysis that leads to the heart of the problem- sexism and sad, but true, misogyny. Until we have women priests and a married priesthood in the institutional church, the Roman Catholic hierarchy will attempt to control women's sexuality as they have in the past. We have a prophetic movement of Roman Catholic Women Priests that is causing a holy shakeup in the Vatican now. We stand in solidarity with women worldwide in opposition to the U.S. bishops over this latest affront threatening contraceptive coverage as an issue of human rights and religious freedom for women worldwide. And the majority of Catholics affirm our position.
Women of the U.S. and world are waking up to the bishops' debacle as a power and control grab by the institutional Roman Catholic Church! I agree that it is a war of the male hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church against contraceptives for women of the world.
Bridget Mary Meehan
sofiabmm@aol.com
Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests
http://www.associationofromancatholicwomenpriests.org/

Birth Control Debate: Why Catholic Bishops Have Lost Their Grip on U.S. Politics—and Their Flock m Padgett/TIME

2012-02-14T09:44:00.000-05:00

http://swampland.time.com/2012/02/13/birth-control-debate-why-catholic-bishops-have-lost-their-grip-on-u-s-politics-and-their-flock/

"Yet in his refusal to cave completely to the religious liberty campaign, Obama has illustrated the reality that the bishops no longer speak for most U.S. Catholics—the nation’s largest religious denomination and a critical swing-voter group—on a host of moral issues, according to polls.

Not on abortion or the death penalty (a majority of Catholics believe those should remain legal); on divorce or homosexuality (most say those are acceptable); on women being ordained as priests and priests getting married (ditto); or on masturbation and pre-marital sex (ditto again, Your Excellencies). And especially not on contraception. Ever since Pope Paul VI reaffirmed the Church’s senseless ban on birth control in 1968, few doctrines have been as vilified, ridiculed and outright ignored by Catholics – evidenced by a recent study showing that 98% of American Catholic women have used some form of contraception. It’s hard to believe, as the bishops would have it, that those women simply succumbed to society’s pressure to do the secular thing. They’ve decided, in keeping with their faith’s precept of exercising personal conscience, that family planning is the moral and societally responsible thing to do—for example, preventing unwanted pregnancies and therefore abortions. And it explains why a recent Public Religion Research Institute poll found most Catholics support the contraception coverage mandate even for Catholic-affiliated organizations. Presumably most endorse Friday’s compromise."
Read more: http://swampland.time.com/2012/02/13/birth-control-debate-why-catholic-bishops-have-lost-their-grip-on-u-s-politics-and-their-flock/#ixzz1mMqDNOlX

"Birth Control and Bloviators- What Just Happened?" by Angela Bonavoglia

2012-02-13T23:26:00.000-05:00

http://www.womensmediacenter.com/feature/entry/birth-control-and-the-bloviators-what-just-happened
"That is why the targets of the church’s sexual repression—right here, right now—are not just Catholic women, but all American women. If that feels like mission creep, it is. If that scares you, it should."
Angela makes argument for women priests in article above as part of structural change necessary for true equality of women in the Catholic Church. I agree. Bridget Mary Meehan, sofiabmm@aol.com

"Did the Bishops Forget About Women?" by Jon 'Brien/Washington Post/ Bishops' Actions Hostile toward Women, not Christ-like

2012-02-13T23:03:00.000-05:00

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/guest-voices/post/did-the-bishops-forget-about-women/2012/02/10/gIQAnIwo4Q_blog.html.

"It’s perplexing that the bishops have used their authority to declare that the vast majority of Catholic women who do use a modern form of birth control--only two percent rely on the natural family planning method endorsed by the Vatican--are beyond the pale. So much so that the campaign to avoid paying for this birth control overshadows any analysis of these women’s needs.The bishops’ media firestorm is hollow, because it reflects a failure of the imagination. Instead, the bishops are called to a different, quieter kind of action. It starts with asking, “What do you need, my sister?” and being patient and humble enough to really listen. If the bishops are going to go around yelling to the heavens about their conscience rights being abrogated and their religious liberties being threatened, and all the while ignoring the health needs of women right in front of them, they’re never going to hear the conscience where it already is: quietly, assuredly, directing ordinary people in the sacred task of living everyday life."

Bridget Mary's Reflection:
This latest fiasco with the U.S. hiearchy reminds us how much we need women priests, women bishops and women in leadership positions in every area of decision-making in the Catholic Church. We are visbile reminders that women are equal images of God. Indeed ,Rick Santorium may be half right, if we had women priests in every parish in the Catholic Church, the bishops would not have embarked on this ill-advised campaign to cut contraceptive coverage. Presidential candiate, Rick Santorium recently said that Obama would force U.S. bishops to put women priests in every Catholic parish!
Just imagine what that could mean!! First, women priests would speak truth to power as we are doing now.
The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests issued a news release on Feb. 10th (see blog below that castigated the U.S. bishops for demanding an exemption to the mandate of providing contraceptive coverage in the Affordable Care Act.
Can you imagine Jesus who lambasted the religious leaders for putting heavy burdens on the people allowing the male hiearchy to condemn Catholic women for using contraceptives to plan families and avoid unwanted pregancies. Many women were among Jesus closest disciples. (Luke 8.), The bishops' attempts to exempt themselves from the demands of justice, lacks compassion, and is hostile toward Catholic women, and all their employees who depend on contraceptive coverage for responsible family planning. It is time for the bishops to treat women as Jesus did, beloved sisters and equal partners in the Gospel.
Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP
Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests
703-505-0004
sofiabmm@aol.com
http://www.associationofromancatholicwomenpriests.org/

"Beyond Pelvic Politics" by Nicholas Kristof in today's NewYork Time's Sunday Review./Bridget Mary's Commentary on Kristof's Op.Ed.

2012-02-12T22:34:00.001-05:00

"Does America’s national health policy really need to make a far-reaching exception for Catholic institutions when a majority of Catholics oppose that exception?"
at http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/opinion/sunday/kristof-beyond-pelvic-politics.html?_r=1&hp
"Kristof: The cost of birth control is one reason poor women are more than three times as likely to end up pregnant unintentionally as middle-class women. "
Bridget Mary: Contraceptives prevent unwanted pregnancies that often result in abortion. It makes no sense for the bishops who claim to be pro-life to oppose contraceptives that could possibly reduce the number of abortions. Or is the real agenda here something else, control of women's sexuality. Read article below on Minority report- the reason the Vatican rejected contracpetives is fear of loss of power and control. Another major point is that the Vatican's teaching prohibiting birth control has never been "received"by the church. Here are the reasons: 1 )the teaching must reflect the faith of the people of God, the Catholic community; 2) the teaching must be affirmed the majority of the church's theologians and 3) the teaching must be proclaimed by the pope and bishops in communion with him-- not by the pope alone or a minority.

Kristof:... a survey by the Public Religion Research Institute reported that even among Catholics, 52 percent back the Obama policy: they believe that religiously affiliated universities and hospitals should be obliged to include birth control coverage in insurance plans.
Bridget Mary: The majority of Catholics are supportive of this policy because it protects women's health. That should be the bishop's pastoral concern too. Vatican II taught that the people of God are the church, not the bishops alone.

Kristof: After all, do we really want to make accommodations across the range of faith? What if organizations affiliated with Jehovah’s Witnesses insisted on health insurance that did not cover blood transfusions? What if ultraconservative Muslim or Jewish organizations objected to health care except at sex-segregated clinics?
Bridget Mary: And the furor is all about protecting the Catholic hierarchy's freedom of religion even though it is well known that they do not reflect their fellow Catholics views or practices. Will our political leaders give the same protection to Sharia Law as they are to Church Law in the name of freedom of religion? This debate will open more questions and issues than the politicans can imagine. But right now, by promoting the U.S. hiearchy's rejected teaching, the politicans have walked into a hornet's nest that has already done a lot of damage. They have certainly alienated many Catholics and Catholic women!

Kristof: In this case, we should make a good-faith effort to avoid offending Catholic bishops who passionately oppose birth control. I’m glad that Obama sought a compromise. But let’s remember that there are also other interests at stake. If we have to choose between bishops’ sensibilities and women’s health, our national priority must be the female half of our population.

Bridget Mary: I agree completely! Catholic women perform about 80% of the ministry in Catholic parishes. Now that we have women priests, we are finding that more and more Catholics want a more inclusive, egalitarian church. Catholics are finding a spiritual home with married priests and women priests in new Eucharistic communities where all are welcome to receive sacraments. So, perhaps, it is ironic, but the alienation of Catholics and specifically ofwomen in the church may result in the growth of a renewed Catholic Church.
Bridget Mary Meehan
sofiabmm@aol.com

Homily Reflection by Woman Priest Katy Zatsick on History of Teaching on Contraception/ Minority Report is Shocking which 98% of Catholic Women Reject

2012-02-12T20:49:00.000-05:00

Katy Zatsick, ARCWP, shares Eucharist with community

The Minority Report:

"This would mean that the leaders of the Church, acting with extreme imprudence, had condemned thousands of innocent human acts, forbidding, under pain of eternal damnation, a practice which would now be sanctioned. The fact can neither be denied nor ignored that these same acts would now be declared licit on the grounds of principles cited by the Protestants, which popes and bishops have either condemned or at least not approved.”

"Who is the Leper of our Time?"
by Katy Zatsick
Reading my newspaper this week I was struck by front page articles challenging the requirement that the RCC must provide support for contraceptives through their employee health care benefit plan. Every report I heard or read this week presented that Roman Catholic women use birth control at the rate of over 90% the same as all American women. In our dialogue homily last week we addressed the demon of exclusion in the RCC. I argue Human Sexuality is the leper for the RCC hierarchy in our time. Reading comments and listening to them all week, I would like to have us reflect on the RCC understanding and theology of responsible human sexuality.
Let us go back to the beginning as most of us were alive at the time of Vatican II.
The Pontifical Commission on Birth Control was established in 1963 by John XXIII before his death. Paul VI enlarged the commission to 72 members from 5 continents (16 theologians, 13 physicians, 5 women without medical credentials, with an executive committee of 16 bishops, including 7 cardinals) The commission produced a report in 1966 proposing that artificial birth control was not intrinsically evil and that Catholic couples should be allowed to decide for themselves about the contraceptive methods to be employed. According to the majority report, use of contraceptives should be regarded as an extension of the already accepted cycle method.

A minority report (4 theologian priests, 1 cardinal, 2 bishops) spelled out the negative side’s rational:
1. “If it should be declared that contraception is not evil in itself, then we should have to concede frankly that the Holy Spirit had been on the side of the Protestant churches in 1930 (when Casti Connubii was promulgated).
2. “It should likewise have to be admitted that for half a century the Spirit failed to protect Pius XI and Pius XII, and a large part of the Catholic hierarchy from a very serious error. This would mean that the leaders of the Church, acting with extreme imprudence, had condemned thousands of innocent human acts, forbidding, under pain of eternal damnation, a practice which would now be sanctioned. The fact can neither be denied nor ignored that these same acts would now be declared licit on the grounds of principles cited by the Protestants, which popes and bishops have either condemned or at least not approved.”
Humanae Vitae by Paul VI in 1968 explicitly rejected the majority report and let the prohibition against contraception stand. This doctrine has not been accepted as today we have 98% of RC women using birth control at sometime in their lives.
The same RC hierarchy that brought us the pedophile crisis now argues against the provision of contraceptives to ALL women who are connected to Catholic institutions, not only Roman Catholic women. My questions are: What does this stand mean for us and what does it mean for generations of women and men to come and their relationships? What is the sexual theology and legacy of moral behavior will we leave the next generations? I argue we cannot sit on the sidelines, we must speak up now.
This homily starter, included after the liturgy outline, sparked a lot of “What do we do?’s” last evening.

I have also included ARCWP’s press release which I gave out before the liturgy.

Also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pontifical_Commission_on_Birth_Control
for the quotes used in homily starter above.

During the dialog homily and after the following some ideas were generated:
-a condom in every collection basket, to the bishops etc. with attached info. No money.

-protest, march, vigil with signs; some version of “I use contraceptives” or a C on the forehead.

-What about a tour of Bob McClory and discussion of “Turning Point…?” Panels/discussions etc.
These actions are “all about power/authority over.”
I see the issue of contraception as more unfinished renewal ministry from Vatican II and Humanae Vitae.
We the Church need to take a strong stand and clearly state a healthy theology and praxis of sexuality.
Remember these are the same men (used exclusively) that bring us the ongoing pedophile crisis.

Roman Catholic Woman Priest Katy Zatsick gave this overview of the history of the Pontifical Commission on Birth Control and the rejection of its proposal to allow contraception because they feared loss that if they world knew they were wrong on this issue, that would undermine their "so called" power and control ! Read it and weep the entire minority report below. This is an excerpt!

Judge Scalia 's Opinion in 1990 May Impact Current Bishops' Campaign to Deny Contraceptive Coverage

2012-02-11T21:09:00.001-05:00

At http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/02/10/1063513/-Justice-Scalia-solves-the-contraception-debate is a Daily Kos reference to a history of circumstances similar to the current contraception issue, going back to 1879.
Here's an excerpt from Scalia's opinion on this topic in 1990:
"... We have never held that an individual's religious beliefs excuse him from compliance with an otherwise valid law prohibiting conduct that the State is free to regulate. On the contrary, the record of more than a century of our free exercise jurisprudence contradicts that proposition...".

Press Release: from Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests Supporting Contraceptive Coverage for Women/ Opposition to U.S. Bishops

2012-02-10T17:15:00.000-05:00

Press Release: from Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests: February 10, 2012
Media Contact: Janice Sevre-Duszynska, rhythmsofthedance@msn.com, 859-684-4247
Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan, sofiabmm@aol.com, 703-505-0004
See http://www.blogger.com/goog_470927499
http://bridgetmarysblogspot.com/

Who Better to Speak for Roman Catholic Women Than Women Priests and Women Themselves?
The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests support contraceptive coverage for women as an issue of conscience and religious freedom. We applaud the part of President Obama's plan that would require that insurance companies offer contraceptive coverage at no cost.
The U.S. bishop have no right to impose their dogma in the public sphere.
Who are they to take from women power over their own bodies?
Who are they to withhold from women their God-given authority to make their own choices, including reproductive choices?
We women priests of ARCWP stand in solidarity with Roman Catholic women and all women. We believe all women have the divinely human right to make reproductive decisions on their own behalf -- without consulting male priests or bishops.
We know from Catholics for Choice that 98% of sexually active Catholic women use a method of contraception banned by the U.S. bishops.
We are also aware of our sisters who live in abject poverty in the U.S. and across the globe. Many of these women may have been denied access to affordable birth control by their governments. Others are forcibly denied the use of contraceptives by husbands or male partners who have no regard for their female partner's safety or volition. Complicit in this suffering is the all-male boys' club at the Vatican and their male bishops throughout our world community who influence public policy at all levels including the United Nations, that affects women, their choices and their children.
We continue to pray for our spiritually bereft brother priests at the Vatican and U.S. bishops. The scandalous behavior of too many across our world community and their idolatry of male power and privilege is a sin against women and our our Loving God who calls both men and women to the priesthood.
Republican Presidential Candidate Rick Santorum who has a zero track record on women's rights, has said that ..."President Obama may force Roman Catholic churches to hire women priests." Despite his facetious remark, women priests exist and their communities are growing. The Vatican is running scared. We celebrate Eucharist and speak out for the voiceless in the U.S. and in eight other countries. We remember what Jesus taught us and are consciously living out the Gospel mandate to empower and liberate.
"The Spirit blows where She will."
The days of the Vatican's influence are numbered.

Santorum: "President Obama may force Roman Catholic churches to hire women priests". ..

2012-02-09T21:52:00.000-05:00

http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/09/10363693-santorum-fear-the-guillotine
Santorum: Fear the guillotine

Just over the past couple of days, Santorum argued that evidence from climate scientists are an elaborate "hoax"; he said President Obama may force Roman Catholic churches to hire women priests; and he argued gas prices "caused the housing bubble to burst."

Bridget Mary's Reflection:
Talking about bizarre, this comment by Santorum is clearly over the top! But it sure does appear that the bishops and Santorum are on the same page about women priests. We are among their worst nightmares, along with contraceptive coverage for women! I believe I see a pattern here, do you? Power and control over women's bodies and sexuality, sexism, patriarchy.....

Furor Over U.S. Bishops on Contraception/Women, Stand Up to U.S. Catholic Bishops on Contraceptive Coverage/"Tales from Kitchen Table" by Gail Collins/NYTimes

2012-02-09T21:07:00.002-05:00

Gail Collins hits the nail on the head in her New York Times article below. The U.S. Catholic bishops are desperately trying to impose a rejected dogma on the prohibition of contraception on the public. It is hard to believe that these bishops have any moral credibility left after their cover-up of pedophile priests who sexually abused thousands of children. Now the bishops are trying to dictate public policy that will deny contraceptive coverage to women! This is truly outrageous. Women of all faiths and no faith should demand that their freedom of conscience and their freedom of religion be honored in all public policies since our country was founded on the separation of the church and state. Women, stand up to U.S. Catholic bishops on contraceptive coverage or face rejected Catholic dogma becoming the law of the land!
Bridget Mary Meehan,
Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests
sofiabmm@aol.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/09/opinion/collins-tales-from-the-kitchen-table.html?hp

February 8, 2012
By GAIL COLLINS
EXCERPTS:
The problem here is that they’re trying to get the government to do their work for them. They’ve lost the war at home, and they’re now demanding help from the outside.
Religions don’t get to force their particular dogma on the larger public. The government, in return, protects the right of every religion to make its case heard.

Catholic Women Priests Served Church Before, Can Do Now/ By John McNally

2012-02-08T22:29:00.001-05:00

http://www.news-press.com/article/20120208/OPINION/302080006/1015/opinion/Guest-opinion-Catholic-women-priests-served-church-before-can-do-now?odyssey=nav%7Chead

Ordination Liturgy- Judy Beaumont in Ft. Myers, Florida

The argument for women priests in the Catholic Church is based in Scripture, where we find that Jesus Christ had many women associates in his ministry on Earth.
Besides his own mother and other women he had a close relationship with Mary of Magdala, who was the first of his disciples to learn that he had risen from the dead. And St. Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, who was the first to write any of the New Testament scriptures, writes of several women who were his very close associates and whom he refers to as deacons.
Scripture scholars now realize that Jesus did not ordain anyone, and that the first bishops and priests to serve the church were installed long after Jesus had left the Earth. They probably came to be as a result of the destruction of the Jewish temple in 76 A.D. and the consequent demise of the Jewish priesthood. At any rate, the Bible indicates that Jesus thought women and men were equals and should be treated as such.
Our Catholic bishops today like to characterize themselves as successors of the apostles. However, most of the apostles were dead and gone before we ever had any bishops in our church. And our leaders like to describe our church as a monarchy. But in reality our church started out as a democracy. The first religious services in our church were conducted by mothers and fathers and laymen and laywomen in private homes, in secret, because it was dangerous to be identified as Christian or Catholic in the Roman Empire at that time.
Leaders of these services were chosen by their peers. Thus the Catholic Church was originally a democracy and did not identify herself as a monarchy until the fourth century, when the Roman Emperor Constantine became her protector. The church then patterned herself after the Roman Empire. And don’t let anyone tell you that it is an unbroken tradition in the church that women can not be priests. Dorothy Irvin, a local scholar, has done a lot of research in Rome and early Christian sites and located engraved inscriptions which depict women as bishops and priests. And up until the ninth century, women were being ordained as deacons. It is worthwhile noting that a lady, Ludmila Javorova, was ordained a priest secretly on Dec. 28, 1970, behind the Iron Curtain when male priests were not allowed to function. She was able to give the sacraments to people without the authorities getting suspicious by virtue of the fact that she was female.
Today women are no longer asking church authorities to be ordained. They know that’s a dead end. They are taking back their God-given place in the church. They are demanding equal rights with men and want to be treated as Jesus treated them. They want to function again as women did in the early church.
They do not believe that it is as important to obey a man-made law as it is to serve God’s people. Their idea is that an unjust law (women can’t be priests) is no law at all.
They will not go away. Since women were first ordained in 2002 there are women priests in 23 states. Judy Lee and Judy Beaumont are women priests serving in Fort Myers.
Since church authorities bar them from serving as parish priests they have made serving the homeless in our area their ministry, finding housing, clothing, transportation, and government help for them, and providing meals for them. Yes, indeed, there is good reason why women should be priests as well as men.
John W. McNally is secretary of the Catholic Call to Action Conference of Southwest Florida. He lives in Estero.

Statistics Show Catholics Use and Support Access to Contraception/ Majority of Catholic Women Do NOT Follow Church Teaching/ Catholic Hierarchy on Contraceptive Use

2012-02-08T22:09:00.001-05:00

According to these statistics, the U.S. hierarchy's efforts to bully the Obama administration into granting an exemption to coverage for contraceptives is out of touch with the majority of Catholic women. US Catholics, including Catholic women, follow their conscience and support contraceptive coverage. Catholic women are the experts on birth control, not the male celibate hierarchy. Their wisdom speaks for itself in the statistics below. It is time for the bishops to "listen up" since women are half of the church's membership!
Bridget Mary Meehan
sofiabmm@aol.com

Catholics Use Contraception.
98% of sexually experienced Catholic women have used a contraceptive method other than natural family planning as compared to 99% of the general population. "Countering Conventional Wisdom: New Evidence on Religion and Contaceptive use, Guttmacher Institute, April 2011.
Only 2 % of Catholic women, including those who attend church once a month or more, rely on natural family planning. Guttmacher Institute, April 2011

Catholics Support Contraceptive Coverage.
More than 6 in 10 Catholic voters surveyed in 2009 supported health insurance coverage- whether it is private or government insurance - for contraceptives. (Belden Russonello &Stewart , "Catholic Voters Views on Health Care Reform and Reproductive Health Care Services," Catholics for Choice, 2009
A 2010 poll showed that Catholic women voters are more likely to support health plan coverage for birth control- 77% versus 71% of the population at large. (Hart research, "Survey: Nearly Three in four Voters in America Support Fully Covering Prescription Birth Control," Planned Parenthood, October 12, 2012
85% of Catholics believe in extending birth control coverage to those who want it but cannot afford it- this is more than 82% of the general population.( Public Religion Research Institute, "The Morning Buzz," January 23, 2011)

Catholics Support Contraceptive Access for Minors
Catholics (55%) are as likely as the general population (57%) to believe that 14 to 16 year-olds should be able to access contraception, even if their parents do not approve. (General Social Survey 2007.

Catholics Believe in Limits on Religious Exemptions
Two thirds (65%) of US Catholic voters believe that hospitals and hospitals and clinics taking taxpayers dollars show not be allowed to refuse to provide certain medications or procedures.
((Belden, Russonello &Stewart , "Catholic Voters Views on Health Care Reform and Reproductive Health Care Services," Catholics for Choice, 2009)
Nearly 8 in 10 Catholics (78%) oppose allowing pharmacists to refuse to fill birth control prescriptions. ((Belden, Russonello &Stewart , "Catholic Voters Views on Health Care Reform and Reproductive Health Care Services," Catholics for Choice, 2009)

Catholics Put Conscience First
A 2011 survey revealed that only 10% of US Catholics believe that church leaders have the final say about contraception. 66% believe individuals alone decide what is right or wrong about abortion. (National Catholic Reporter, "Right and Wrong: Who has the Final Say?" , October 24, 2011. )
When a 2005 poll asked whether they were more likely to follow the pope's teaching or their own conscience on difficult more questions, 74% of US Catholics questioned said they would follow their conscience. (Jeffrey M. Jones, "US Catholics' Reaction to Pope Benedict XVI More Positive Than Negative,' Gallup News Service, April 20, 2005.

Catholics Support Changing Church Teachings
When asked in 2005 about the next pope, 78% of US Catholics polled said that birth control should be allowed by the church. (CNN/Gallup/USA Today Poll, April 2005.

(Source: Jon O'Brien, Catholics for Choice)

Majority of Catholics Support Coverage for Contraception/ Majority of Women Support Coverage for Contraception/Catholic Hierarchy Should Provide Contraception Coverage: Issue of Conscience for Catholics and for Women

2012-02-07T21:07:00.000-05:00

Here are some telling statistics from a Public Religion Research Institute survey published today at http://publicreligion.org/research/2012/02/january-tracking-poll-2012/

Roughly 6-in-10 Catholics (58%) believe that employers should be required to provide their employees with health care plans that cover contraception. This percentage is actually three points higher among Catholics than the national average of 55%. Among women nationwide, it is 62%.

A majority of Catholics (52%) say that religiously affiliated colleges and hospitals should have to provide coverage that includes contraception.

Bridget Mary's Reflection
Since the majority of Catholics support coverage for contraception, it indicates the obvious, the sense of the faithful. Unfortunately, the hierarchy has abandoned this cornerstone principle of Catholic theology. Church teaching should reflect the faith of the believing community. In this issue, over 98 percent of Catholic women do not follow the ban on artificial birth control. Once again, the bishops are tone deaf and have lost credibility by attempting to bully the Obama administration into giving them an exemption that the majority of their fellow Catholics do not support. The male conservative pundits who are the hierarchy's cheer leaders should get in touch with the people in the pews , who are the church, and not presume that the hierarchy is the church. Just because the bishops oppose contraception coverage in the Affordable Care Act, does not mean millions of Catholics do too!
Bridget Mary Meehan
sofiabmm@aol.com

Congratulations, President Obama, for Safeguarding Religious Freedom! by Angela Bonavoglia in Huffington Post

2012-02-07T20:32:00.001-05:00

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/angela-bonavoglia/congratulations-president_1_b_1256228.html?ref=email_share
"So thank you President Obama. You protected the religious liberty of the hundreds of thousands of Catholic women -- and non-Catholic women -- who work for these important institutions. You saw to it that these women have this crucial element of primary care, which, by helping them to space births, will go a long way towards protecting their health as mothers and the health of their infants. Actually, it was a very pro-life move. "
Bridget Mary's Reflection;
Amen, Angela Bonavoglia! One wonders, as I have said before, how can a pro-life hierarchy oppose contraception which prevents abortions? Makes no sense! Women should rise up for their rights - primacy of conscience and religious liberty. They should demand that the bishops treat them as equals images of God with the ability to make their own moral decisions motivated by conscience. I believe this is another reason that the male bishops are threatened by the Roman Catholic Women Priests Movement. Women priests are visible reminders that women are equal images of God and therefore, worthy to preside at the altar and to fill any position of ministry for which they are qualified.

Church's Ban on Contraception Starves Families and Damages Ecosystem/ Jamie L. Manson/ NCR

2012-02-06T22:02:00.000-05:00

http://ncronline.org/blogs/grace-margins/churchs-ban-contraception-starves-families-and-damages-ecosystem
"As the battle over contraception coverage raged in our national debate last week, a small report on "PBS NewsHour" demonstrated the devastating effects that the Catholic church's ban on contraception has on poor nations..."

Bridget Mary's Reflection:
If we had a married priesthood, do you think they'd have large families? Would contraception be even an issue? I know that women priests are affirming primacy of conscience on this issue as well as other moral issues. The institutional church's ban on contraception contributes to global poverty in the third world as Jamie Manson argues. Is this not a serious sin? Can you imagine Jesus of Nazareth supporting the Catholic Church's ban on contraception? Jesus criticized the religious leaders for placing heavy burdens - rules and rituals- on the people that did not draw them closer to God. Catholic hierarchy, take heed!

"Workers, Not Catholic Hierarchy, Should Choose Their Health Care"/Washington Post/ Time to Hear from Millions of American Women and Men Who Practice Contraception

2012-02-04T22:24:00.000-05:00

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/workers-not-catholic-hierarchy-should-choose-their-health-care/2012/01/31/gIQAMRW9pQ_story.html?tid=pm_opinions_pop

..."Michael Gerson imputed nefarious motives to President Obama for his administration’s requirement that contraception be made more affordable and available for American workers. He lamented the decision’s effects on a bishop, a priest and the vice president. Tellingly missing from this analysis: the profound and beneficial effects on the millions of American women and their families, Catholic and non-Catholic, Democrat, Republican and independent, whose health-care decisions are too often thwarted by a small, powerful cadre of men who have zero credibility with many lay Catholics when it comes to contraception. Churches across the country are filled with good Catholics, the majority of whom use contraception and have no objection to it...."

Catholics, Speak Up for Conscience, Do not let U.S. Bishops Bully Politicans or Control Women's Access to Contraceptives/Affordable Health Care

2012-02-03T19:21:00.003-05:00

http://ncronline.org/blogs/grace-margins/unconscionable-consequences-conscience-exemptions
...."The provision is called the Affordable Care Act. This new law is intended to ensure the just treatment of women and couples who cannot afford adequate medical treatment when it comes to contraceptives and who want to raise families in a safe, responsible manner.This act is a promising attempt to prevent unwanted pregnancies and offers perhaps the most ethical and realistic approach to reducing the abortion rate.
The bishops' reaction was characterized by increasingly typical cries of victimization and hysteria. This self-pity only further diminishes the seriousness with which U.S. Catholics take the hierarchy. The sad truth is, if the numbers of Catholics leaving the church are any indication, most Catholics in the United States probably see the hierarchy more as victimizers than victimized.Some have labeled this decision as President Barack Obama's attack on Catholics, echoing the inflammatory, paranoid spin bishops are putting on any government decision that doesn't go their way lately. This decision is not an attack on Catholics, but rather a groundbreaking move to protect women and to guarantee them greater access to adequate, affordable health care...."
[Jamie L. Manson received her Master of Divinity degree from Yale Divinity School, where she studied Catholic theology and sexual ethics. Her columns for NCR earned her a first prize Catholic Press Association award for Best Column/Regular Commentary in 2010.]
Bridget Mary's Reflection:
I agree with Jamie Manson that the bishops are not the church. The Catholic Church's "official teaching" on contraception has not been accepted by the majority of Catholics. According to the Guttmacher Institute 98 percent of sexually active Catholic women have used some form of contraception. The Affordable Care Act does not violate the consciences of Catholic women as the hierarchy claim, but rather helps them get the health care they need. In claiming an exemption, the bishops will be imposing their beliefs on birth control on their employees and forcing them to follow a teaching that the majority of Catholics do not even obey. How can the bishops who claim to be "pro-life", refuse to support contraceptives that will prevent abortions? It makes no sense. The outrage here is not the Obama administration's policy, but the Roman Catholic bishops who, if this exemption was given, would deny contraceptive coverage to their employees, and enforce their teachings on others in violation of their employees' consciences. The bishops are not the church, the people are the church and that includes women who practice birth control according to their consciences. One could certainly argue that this is yet another attempt of the Catholic hierarchy to control women's sexuality when they have failed to control male celibate priests who have sexually abused thousands of children worldwide. Catholics, it is time to speak up and make your views heard! Don't let the bishops bully politicans when they do not reflect you beliefs and practices. We, the people, are the church!

A PhD Student of Liturgics and Homiletics Affirms Roman Catholic Women Priests Liturgies

2012-02-02T21:26:00.003-05:00

Grace and Peace -
I am a PhD student studying homiletics and liturgics.
We've never met, but I wanted to share an amazing experience that I recently had - that has to do with you and your spiritual kinfolk. I'll try to be brief - this actually just occurred yesterday. I am currently taking a readings course on preaching and liturgy - the class consists of two students (the other doctoral student in my program and I) and the professor is brilliant.
The three of us gather once a week and discuss academic readings from within the liturgical movement and prepare various documents, exam questions, and teaching aids that will assist us later in life when we are (hopefully) teaching MDiv students at a seminary or div. school.
This week we read history and historiography about the liturgical reform movement in the twentieth century - Theresa Berger's fantastic, reflective work examining that history in "Women's Ways of Worship." The assignment was to analyze an interesting theme within the readings and find a video or audio recording that was somehow related to the readings. Ideally, something we could show a classroom of students - something that would spark conversation centered on and informed by the readings.
There are millions and millions of youtube videos out there to choose from - we do this sort of thing quite often.The video I chose for reflection was your Holy Thursday Foot Washing liturgy. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6P7xL_GanI)
It is such an incredibly moving video. The conversation was brilliant and fascinating - I love everything about that video. I love the way it is framed, the way the music seems to start and stop and start again, the sense of togetherness and comfort - it is liturgically fascinating! This isn't the important part - I just wanted you to know that I was deeply moved by that brief presentation. Here's the really wild part -
After my presentation, my cohort showed her video. There stood a row of women in vestments behind the communion table, the three of us watched together for a full minute before we realized it was you again! It was the video of the eucharist consecration at the ordination service: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsBgK3c-Ymo&feature=youtu.be
It was amazing! We were stunned by the participatory movement - the lifting of hands toward the chancel. And suddenly, incredibly, the entire church lifted their voices and joined the words of consecration! I again felt deeply moved by witnessing this event. It felt profoundly holy.
I was saddened by the comments left below the videos. There is work to do, I suppose.
I wanted to let you know that you are doing a good work - and, I think, enriching the creation - by having these videos posted online. Our conversation continued beyond the classroom and throughout the day.
Please keep posting the videos and doing this important work and thank you!
In Christ,
A Ph.D. Student/Liturgics/Homiletics
(Shared with Permission, Letter directed to Bridget Mary Meehan/See links to liturgies above)

St. Brigit of Kildare- Abbess and Bishop of Kildare/Table Blessing

2012-02-01T20:43:00.000-05:00

St. Brigit of Kildare in St. Patrick's Chapel in Ballyroan, Ireland

"Then, being filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit, Bishop Mel read the form of ordaining a bishop over Brigit. While she was being consecrated, a brilliant fiery flame ascended from her head...."

St.Brigit’s Table Blessing

I should welcome the poor to my feast,
for they are God’s children.
I should welcome the sick to my feast
for they are God’s joy.
Let the poor sit with Jesus at the highest place
and the sick dance with the angels.
Bless the poor, bless the sick,
bless our human race.
Bless our food, bless our drink, all homes,
O God embrace.
Praying with Celti Holy Women by Bridget Mary Meehan and Regina Madonna Oliver
on http://www.amazon.com/Praying-Celtic-Regina-Madonna-Oliver/dp/0764809296

"One Person’s Response To Bede Griffith’s Vision" by John Chuchman

2012-01-31T22:23:00.000-05:00

The beauty of language can be found

not only in the Greek epics "Iliad" and "Odyssey"

but also in the Indian epics of "Ramayana" and "Mahabharata".

An understanding of Christian expressions of Truth

from the Eastern Orthodox

can be read in

"The Chronicles of Kiev"

and the epic-like tales of "Marko" coming out of Serbia.

Native American, Asian and tales from Oceania

present the highest qualities of humanity

(and love of God---however God was called.)

Where did this goodness,

this desire for truth,

and the exhibition of natural dignity come from?

Is it only to be found in the Western world?

Is it found only in writings of those who belong to the Catholic Church?

The study of the World's great literature

can be a foundation

to uncovering the greatness of humanity's desire

to reach to the stars,

to touch the face of God,

and then to be hugged by that God in return.

The Catholic Church has long listed “Universal” as one of its Marks.

But the term “universal” is deceptive.

Is it that the Church is found all over the world

(a tribute to the men and women missionaries)?

That is only a geographic sense of universality,

and the Church isn't thinking here about possible intelligent beings

on other solar systems---when using the term “universal.”

While geographic universality is no small achievement,

geography does not even begin to touch upon

the spiritual/philosophical concepts of universality.

Bede Griffiths' vision is so much wider, deeper and more sensitive

than anything we have seen expounded

recently from the Catholic Magisterium.

Since the pontificates of John Paul II and Benedict XVI,

Christian denominations seeking to become part of the Catholic Church

must adopt its doctrine, discipline and also its schizophrenia

especially in dealing with married men as priests,

women as priests, and with the lives of gays/lesbians.

The Catholic Church has shown little desire to discuss

with an open mind

the universality of the separated churches that are called "Christian".

If the Catholic Church is unable to engage in dialogue

(openness to listening as well as to speaking)

with other Christian confessions,

how will it be able to dialogue with peoples of other cultures, other religions?

What the hierarchy is doing now

is beating a retreat back to the fortifications of Trent.

That world is structured, settled,

and has a hierarchically ecclesiastical typology

that, in reality, thumbs its nose at those who are searching,

who value the prophetic and the charismatic,

at those who call themselves the People of God.

Benedict XVI favors Augustine's concept of reality,

the City of God (Benedict's concept of Church)

vs. the City of Man,

the relative, secular modern world.

In Benedict's "City of God"

the inhabitants must be prepared to engage in battle with

the pagan concepts of secularism and relativism.

Those who do combat

must embrace obedience, unity of thought,

compliance, docility, regimentation,

and discipline under their superiors:

the hierarchy and of course, the Curia and the Pope

(Commander in Chief).

The real tragedy is that

instead of helping people of all religions grow in their Faith,

Catholicism has been relegated by its hierarchs into being

just another competing "ism."

Fr. Anthony Ruff, OSB- Refusal to Endorse "New" Vatican Liturgy

2012-01-30T20:29:00.000-05:00

Father Anthony Ruff, OSB to U.S. bishops, in which he explains his reasons for withdrawing from a speaking tour to introduce the new missal translation across the country. He had served as chairman of the music committee of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL), the group at the center of the English translation process until the Vatican rejected its work and imposed its own version.

http://www.americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=12688&comments=1

http://www.praytellblog.com/

http://futurechurch.org/podcasts/#ruff

"Bless You" by William J. Schuch, Naples and East Aurora, N.Y./ Naples News

2012-01-29T19:30:00.001-05:00

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2012/jan/29/letter-bless-you/
Notwithstanding Bishop Frank Dewane's stern warning to former nun Judy Beaumont not to attempt ordination to the Roman Catholic priesthood ("Church warns for woman's soul,'' Jan. 21 Daily News), I attended her valid ordination later that day at Lamb of God Lutheran-Episcopal Church in Fort Myers, which has been supporting Beaumont and Roman Catholic woman priest Judy Lee in their ministry to the needy and homeless at Joshua House, which the two women founded.
It was an inspiring event despite the mean-spirited threat of automatic excommunication for those participating in the ordination. Who knows? Maybe even I qualified for that badge of distinction.
Prior to the ordination and Mass, presided over by Bridget Mary Meehan, one of 12 validly consecrated female Roman Catholic bishops in the world, the crowd viewed the film "Pink Smoke Over the Vatican," a well-documented history of the first 12 centuries of the Church when there were married priests and female priests and bishops, and the centuries since then when females have been arbitrarily denied response to Christ's call to the priesthood by our male hierarchs who insist they are Christ's only sanctioned intermediaries.
I'm appalled at women's willingness to accept second-class church citizenship.
Maybe if they all stayed home next Sunday, the semi-empty churches might send a message to the wannabe monarchs in the chanceries throughout the Catholic world?
Be true to your gender and give it a try, ladies. Make us men proud of you.

"PINK SMOKE OVER THE VATICAN" by Jules Hart CAN NOW BE PURCHASED ONLINE

2012-01-27T20:49:00.002-05:00

The DVD Pink Smoke Over the Vatican by Jules Hart can now be purchased online!

Go to http://www.pinksmokeoverthevatican.com/

Vatican Official Warns Pope of Corruption/Needed a "Vatican Vigil" by a People-Empowered Church/ and Women Priests

2012-01-26T21:55:00.003-05:00

http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2012/01/26/vatican_official_warns_pope_of_corruption/
By NICOLE WINFIELD, Associated Press Nicole Winfield, Associated Press
– VATICAN CITY – An Italian news program has obtained letters from a top Vatican official to the pope in which he begs not to be transferred after exposing corruption in the awarding of Vatican contracts that cost the Holy See millions of euros (dollars).
Bridget Mary's Reflection
Anyone ready for another movie like the Da Vinci Code? We need a "Vatican Watch" Vigil by a people-empowered Catholic Church!

Slideshow of Judy Beaumont's Ordination as a Roman Catholic Woman Priest on Jan. 21, 2012, Ft. Myers, Fl./Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests

2012-01-24T22:43:00.000-05:00

Judy Beaumont's Ordination as a Roman Catholic Woman Priest in Ft. Myers, Florida- Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests- Clips of Videos on Youtube

2012-01-24T11:50:00.002-05:00

Litany of Saints:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKHFzsltk90&feature=youtu.be

Homily:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQ7hpuaRcXQ

Approximately 300 P:eople Attended Ordination of Judy Beaumont in Ft. Myers, Fl. on Jan. 21, 2012

Link to Picasa Album for Ordination Photos of Judy Beaumont's Ordination in Ft. Myers, Florida on Jan. 21, 2012

2012-01-24T00:44:00.001-05:00

Newly Ordained Priest Judy Beaumont gives communion to Joelle, a child from Good Shepherd Community

https://picasaweb.google.com/113861846354577318112/JUDYBEAUMONTSORDINATIONJanuary212012?locked=true#

Homily: Martha: "A Gutsy Woman With Apostolic Authority" by Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan at Ordination of Judy Beaumont

2012-01-22T20:29:00.000-05:00

We "rejoice always, and give thanks for everything" because Judy Beaumont will be ordained today as a Roman Catholic Priest in a historic ordination here in Ft. Myers, Florida. Judy Beaumont joins Judy Lee in sacramental ministry with you, the beloved community, as an ordained woman priest serving The Good Shepherd Community. Together they serve the Body of Christ on the table, at the table and around the table as they stand on the margins with you, living God’s compassion and doing justice!

The ministry of Judy Beaumont and Judy Lee in Good Shepherd Ministries is a living witness to our liberating God’s transforming action in this local community. Because of their outreach, over 65 people have come from homelessness to having a home. They are living witnesses to the exhortation of the prophet Isaiah who calls us to stand in solidarity with the oppressed and to work for justice. Their ministry has been to “bring Good News to those who are poor, to heal broken hearts and to proclaim release to those held captive and liberation to those in prison.” (Isa 61: 1-2)

As some of you know, I love to write. I wrote Praying with Women of the Bible to share the stories of our biblical sisters as great women of faith and powerful role models who are relevant for contemporary women and men. The research that I share with you today on our sister Martha is found in this book and is rooted in the scholarship of contemporary biblical studies.

Martha was certainly a gutsy woman and close friend of Jesus. She shared her grief, anger, frustration and deep faith with him. She is a role model for all of us especially those who believe that we are called to live Gospel equality.
The gospels record three encounters between Martha and Jesus.
In John 11:1–45, Martha and Mary send a message to Jesus that their brother Lazarus is sick. When Jesus arrived in Bethany, Lazarus had been dead for four days. Martha went to meet Jesus and told him about Lazarus’ death. Jesus assured her that her brother would rise again. Martha replied that she knew that he would rise again on the last day. “Jesus then said to her, ‘I am the Resurrection, and I am Life: those who believe in me will live, even if they die; and those who are alive and believe in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ Martha replied, ‘I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, God’s Only Begotten, the One who is coming into the world’” (11:25–27, The Inclusive New Testament ).

The Gospel of John puts on Martha’s lips a profession of faith in Jesus as Messiah that the author of Mark assigns to Peter. In the Gospel of Mark, Peter responds to Jesus’ question: “who do you say that I am?” with the response: “you are the Messiah.” (Mark: 8:29)

Both Martha and Peter proclaim Jesus as Messiah. Furthermore, scholars conclude that the Johannine community affirms Martha as having authentic apostolic authority (John 11:25-27). This certainly indicates that Jesus treated women as equals, empowered with spiritual authority. Yet, according to the institutional church, popes still relate their primacy to Peter’s profession of faith, while ignoring Martha’s.

Now how many sermons have you heard about Martha’s profession of faith and apostolic authority as similar to Peter’s? The good news is that Jesus treated women as spiritual equals. It is time the institutional church did the same.
Sisters and brothers, let us proclaim this from the house tops!!

The bishop of Venice, Frank Dewane, claims that the ban on the ordination of women is in the Deposit of Faith! Really! Since Jesus did not ordain anyone, this prohibition is a rewrite of the Gospels. It contradicts the Pontifical Biblical Commission’s own scholarship which concluded that there is nothing in scripture to prohibit the ordination of women.

In Luke’s account Martha takes the initiative and welcomes Jesus to her home. She protests that she has to do the household chores alone, while her sister Mary sits at Jesus’ feet and listens to his words (10:38–42). A few of us here might possibly identify with Martha, especially those of us who don’t like to wash dishes or scrub pots and pans! Do you know any women like Martha or Mary?

Jesus is portrayed in these passages as a religious teacher who is comfortable in the company of women. He converses and eats a meal with Martha and Mary. I can imagine Jesus relaxing and enjoying himself as he shares food and friendship with the women. Yet, by eating with women, Jesus broke the gender taboos, which did not allow women to serve or even to enter the dining area where male guests were eating. Jesus challenged patriarchy’s oppression of women and set the standard of gender equality as God’s vision in the kindom. And again just six days before Passover Jesus was honored at a banquet given by the family in Bethany- and who served? It was Martha once again taking her rightful place in the dining hall- not hiding herself in the kitchen while the men served at the table. (John 12: 1-2) Another example of Gospel equality!

In Luke’s church well-to-do Hellenistic women hosted the Eucharistic celebration in their homes. Yes, this means that women presided at Eucharist in what is referred to in the New Testament as house churches. St. Paul in Romans 16 greets women leaders like Deacon Phoebe, apostle, Junia, Prisca and many others who worshipped in homes and risked their lives for the gospel. Scholars, like Gary Macy, in The Hidden History of Women's Ordination, present evidence that women were ordained during the first twelve hundred years of the church's history. One could say that is the church's best kept secret, but NO MORE- with the women priests movement, we have come full circle with a renewed priestly ministry in a community of equals!!

Roman Catholic Women Priests are ordained in apostolic succession because a male bishop with apostolic succession and in communion with the pope ordained our first bishops! He told the women that he ordained them to promote justice in our church.

It has been ten years since seven courageous women were ordained on the Danube in 2002. In 2006, 12 women were ordained in Pittsburgh in the first U.S. Ordinations. Now there are approximately 124 Women Priests in Europe, U.S., Canada, and Latin America.

As part of an international Roman Catholic Women Priests initiative, the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests claims justice as constitutive of the Gospel and equality as a human right. Our vision is justice for all, justice for the poor, justice for women, and justice for women in the church including ordination.

Women priests are visible reminders that women are equal images of God, and therefore worthy to preside at the altar. We are living prophetic obedience to the Spirit by disobeying an unjust, man-made, canon law that discriminates against women in our church. Sexism, like racism, is a sin. Like Rosa Parks, whose refusal to sit in the back of the bus helped to ignite the civil rights movement, the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests are not leaving the church, but leading the Catholic Church into a new era of justice and equality. No punishment, including excommunication, can stop this movement of the Spirit. In fact, one could argue that Pope Benedict, who has canonized two excommunicated nuns, has made excommunication the new fast track to canonization!

In both the Hebrew and Greek languages Wisdom is feminine, the feminine aspect of the one God and is personified as a woman. Sophia is the Greek word for wisdom. The New Testament identifies the crucified Christ with the Wisdom of God. …”to those who are called, whether they are Jews or Greeks, Christ is the power and the wisdom of God.”(1 Cor. 24) In this liturgy today we integrate this powerful image of Christ Sophia in our prayer and song. We are grateful to Kathleen Rosenberg, our music leader, for her beautiful Mass of Christ Sophia.

Now we ordain our beloved Sister, Judy Beaumont. Like Martha, she is a gutsy woman who reminds us that women are spiritual equals, that all are called to serve those in need and to transform unjust structures in our church and world . Like Martha, Judy will serve at the banquet of Christ’s compassion, and welcome all to the table of plenty. Wouldn’t Martha be proud of her? … and of us!!
Amen!
Bridget Mary Meehan, D.Min., a Sister for Christian Community, was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 31, 2006. Dr. Meehan is currently Dean of the Doctor of Ministry Program for Global Ministries University, and is the author of 19 books, including Praying with Women of the Bible, and Living Gospel Equality Now: Loving in the Heart of God.She presides at liturgies in Mary, Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community in Sarasota, Florida and celebrates liturgies with groups in N.Va. She was ordained a bishop on April 19, 2009. Dr. Meehan can be reached at sofiabmm@aol.com

(Special thanks to Bill Schuch for photos of ordination)

Pictures from Judy Beaumont's Ordination in Ft. Myers, Florida

2012-01-22T20:15:00.001-05:00

More than 200 People Attend Ordination of Judy Beaumont as a Roman Catholic Woman Priest/ News Stories

2012-01-21T22:43:00.002-05:00

LIVE STREAM of ORDINATION of JUDY BEAUMONT

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/19913635

More than 200 People Attend fort Myers Woman's Ordination as Roman Catholic Priest
http://www.news-press.com/article/20120121/NEWS0110/120121014/0/NEWS0104/More-than-200-attend-Fort-Myers-woman-s-ordination-Roman-Catholic-priest?odyssey=nav%7Chead

Fort Myers woman to be ordained Catholic priest; church leaders warn of consequences to her 'immortal soul' By STEPHANIE BORDEN /Naples Daily News
http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2012/jan/20/fort-myers-woman-to-be-ordained-catholic-priest/

..."But Beaumont said she rejects any excommunication."I will still consider myself a faithful Catholic," she said. "We are not leaving the church. We are creating a new model of the church."Beaumont replied to Dewane in a late-December letter."I understand that you are fulfilling your obligation as Bishop and I take your words seriously," she wrote. "However, I must reply that as I have tried throughout my life to answer the call of the Gospel to serve God's people, I must again answer this new call to sacramental ministry with the poor and otherwise marginalized people in our midst."
"Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan, who will preside over Beaumont's ordination, says she considers several letters of excommunication she received following her own ordination "as badges of honor.""The church has a habit of excommunicating holy women and men, such as burning Joan of Arc at the stake," she said. "Pope Benedict himself has canonized two previously ex-communicated nuns — Mother Theodore Guerin and Mary MacKillop — making excommunication a new fast-track to canonization. Meehan said she has the apostolic succession required by the Roman Catholic Church to ordain Beaumont as a priest because she herself was ordained by Bishop Patricia Fresen in 2009, who was ordained by a male bishop in communion with the Pope."Social justice, a love of the Church, the Church liturgy, and the holy people of the Church," Beaumont said. "Those were the values instilled in me as a child."

http://www.abc-7.com/story/16571136/2012/01/21/local-woman-fights-catholic-church-to-be-ordained
"local woman trying to bring change to the Catholic church has been automatically expelled after taking on a role only held by men. Judy Beaumont spent 74 devoting her life to Catholicism. But now, the former nun is challenging the church. "This ordination means I will become a Roman Catholic priest," she says.
Beaumont's ordination means she is automatically expelled from the church. "We reject that excommunication. We are loyal, faithful members of the church," she says. "

Judy Beaumont's Ordination Will Be On Live Streaming on Sat. Jan. 21st. 2012- 3PM-5PM,The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests Leads the Church Toward Justice and Equality

2012-01-17T21:48:00.001-05:00

http://www.lambofgodchurch.net/
3pm to 5 pm (approximately) Sat. Jan. 21, 2012
Watch history in the making live!Go to videos on left hand side and the live streaming will come up.

"Fort Myers Woman Defies Church to be Ordained Roman Catholic Priest" by Mary Wozniak/Fr. Myers News Press

2012-01-15T18:01:00.001-05:00

http://www.news-press.com/article/20120115/NEWS0110/301150049/1014/business/Fort-Myers-woman-defies-church-ordained-Roman-Catholic-priest?odyssey=nav%7Chead
The News-Press
"Judy Beaumont plans to take a historic step Saturday, one that will jeopardize her immortal soul.

Beaumont, 74, of Fort Myers, is defying centuries-old doctrine in becoming the first woman in Southwest Florida to be ordained a Roman Catholic priest. The church decrees this role is reserved for men. Bishop Frank Dewane of the Diocese of Venice, which oversees the Catholic faithful in 10 counties, including all of Southwest Florida, has warned her not to cross that patriarchal line.
“It has been brought to my attention that you purportedly reside in the Diocese of Venice in Florida and may attempt to be ‘ordained’ to the ministerial priesthood here within this Diocese,” Dewane wrote in a letter to Beaumont. “This is a most grave and serious matter of consequence for your soul.”

The consequence is automatic excommunication, or expulsion from the church, the bishop wrote. The same penalty applies to anyone who participates in the ordination ceremony.
Beaumont says she will follow her conscience and take the consequences. The ordination will be held at 3 p.m. at Lamb of God Church, a Lutheran-Episcopal congregation on Cypress View Drive in Fort Myers.
“Of course, we all reject that excommunication, because it’s a man-made rule that does not really follow what we know of Jesus, what Jesus would do,” said Beaumont, who entered the convent at 17 and was a Benedictine nun for 35 years. “How can any group of human beings say to God, ‘You can’t call a woman.’?”
She is one of more than 124 women priests and 10 woman bishops who say they have been called to serve in the Catholic Church. Most are in the United States, but others are found in South America, Germany, Austria, France, Ireland, Canada and other countries. The movement began in 2002 with the ordination of seven women by a male priest on the Danube River....
But the idea women can’t be priests also is a man-made rule, said Bridget Mary Meehan, a woman Catholic bishop who is based in Sarasota and will preside over Beaumont’s ordination.Women priests, their supporters and some scholars claim scripture and other documentation shows women as well as men were called by Jesus and shared equally as his followers. They particularly note a 2007 book by Jesuit scholar Gary Macy called “The Hidden History of Women’s Ordination.”The bishop’s letter reflects “the misogynist tradition in the Roman Catholic Church” about women’s rights, Meehan said.“Women priests are the Rosa Parks of the Catholic Church,” she said. “We are no longer going to sit in the back of the Catholic bus in subordination to the hierarchy. We are not leaving the church. We are leading the church into a new era of justice and equality for women.”
Beaumont said the gospels that name the 12 men came out of a time when men dominated the culture.
“There were women in the first 1,200 years of the church who were serving in the ministerial roles of deacon, priest and bishop,” she said. “There is documented history for that even though the bishops reject that scholarship.”

Judy Beaumont (left) visiting a member of community

"No Longer, I will no longer debate the issue of Women's Ordination..." by John Chuchman

2012-01-14T19:14:00.000-05:00

I will no longer debate the issue of women’s ordination in the church with anyone. I will no longer engage the biblical ignorance
that emanates from so many right-wing Christians
about how all of Jesus’ Apostles were male,
as if that point of view still has any credibility.
I will no longer discuss with them or listen to them tell me
how “only males can be representations of Christ,"
about how women have a “different role” in the Church,
or about how male-only ordination is “the Church’s Tradition.”
Those arguments are no longer worthy of my time or energy.
I will no longer dignify by listening to the thoughts of those
who advocate that women be happy being nuns and priests’ helpers.
I will no longer talk to those who believe
that the unity of the church can or should be achieved
at the expense of the dignity of women.
I will no longer take the time to refute
the unlearned and undocumented claims
of certain gynophobic religious leaders
who advocate for Male Superiority.
I will no longer listen to that pious sentimentality
that certain Christian leaders continue to employ,
which suggests some version of that strange and overtly dishonest phrase that
"Male-Only Ordination is the Church’s Tradition."
That statement is nothing more than a self-serving lie
designed to cover the fact that these people fear women,
yet somehow know that this fear is incompatible
with the Christ they claim to profess,
so they adopt this face-saving and absolutely false statement.
I will no longer temper my understanding of truth
in order to pretend that I have even a tiny smidgen of respect
for the appalling negativity that continues to emanate from religious circles
where the church has for centuries conveniently perfumed
its ongoing prejudices against blacks, Jews, women and homosexual persons
with what it assumes is "high-sounding, pious rhetoric."
The day for that mentality has quite simply come to an end for me.
I will personally neither tolerate it nor listen to it any longer.
The world has moved on,
leaving these elements of the Christian Church that cannot adjust
to new knowledge or a new consciousness
lost in a sea of their own irrelevance.
They no longer talk to anyone but themselves.
I will no longer seek to slow down the witness to inclusiveness
by pretending that there is some middle ground
between prejudice and oppression.
There isn't.
Justice postponed is justice denied.
That can be a resting place no longer for anyone.
An old civil rights song proclaimed that
the only choice awaiting those who cannot adjust to a new understanding
was to "Roll on over or we'll roll on over you!"
Time waits for no one.
It is time for the Church to announce that there are no longer two sides
to the issue of full Equality for Women.
There is no way that justice for Women
can be compromised any longer.
I will no longer act as if the Papal office is to be respected
if the present occupant of that office is either not willing or not able
to inform and educate himself on public issues on which he dares to speak
with embarrassing ineptitude.
I see no way that ignorance and truth can be placed side by side,
nor do I believe that evil is somehow less evil if the Bible is quoted to justify it.
It is time to move on.
The battle is over.
The victory has been won.
There is no reasonable doubt
as to what the final outcome of this struggle will be.
Women have a legitimate claim on every right
that both church and society have to offer any of us.
The ordination of Women
is recognized by the state
and must be pronounced holy by the church.
Can any of us imagine
having a public referendum on whether slavery should continue,
whether segregation should be dismantled,
whether voting privileges should be offered to women?
I will also no longer act as if I need a majority vote of some ecclesiastical body
in order to bless, ordain, recognize and celebrate the lives and gifts
of Women in the life of the church.
No one should ever again be forced
to submit the privilege of citizenship in this nation
or membership in the Christian Church to the will of a majority vote.
The battle in both our culture and our church
to rid our souls of this dying prejudice is finished.
A new consciousness has arisen.
A decision has quite clearly been made.
Inequality for Women is no longer a debatable issue
in either church or state.
Therefore, I will from this moment on
refuse to dignify the continued public expression of ignorant prejudice
by engaging it.
I do not tolerate racism or sexism any longer.
From this moment on,
I will no longer tolerate our culture's various forms of homophobia.
I do not care who it is who articulates these attitudes
or who tries to make them sound holy with religious jargon.
Things do get settled and this issue is now settled for me.
I do not debate any longer with members of the "Flat Earth Society" either.
I do not debate with people who think we should treat epilepsy
by casting demons out of the epileptic person;
I do not waste time engaging those medical opinions
that suggest that bleeding the patient might release the infection.
I am tired of being embarrassed by so much of my church's participation
in causes that are quite unworthy of the Christ I serve
or the God whose mystery and wonder I appreciate more each day.
Indeed I feel the Christian Church should not only apologize,
but do public penance
for the way we have treated people of color, women, adherents of other religions
and those we designated heretics, as well as gay and lesbian people.
Life moves on.
As the poet James Russell Lowell once put it more than a century ago:
"New occasions teach new duties, Time makes ancient good uncouth."
I am ready now to claim the victory.
I will from now on assume it and live into it.
I am unwilling to argue about it
or to discuss it as if there are two equally valid, competing positions any longer.
The day for that mentality has simply gone forever.
No longer . . .
For more books and poems by John Chuchman, visit:

http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B002BLJKAW

and

on KINDLE:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?ie=UTF8&rh=n%3A133140011&field-keywords=John%20Chuchman&page=1

"The Ordination of Women: Infallibly Taught?" by Peter Burns, S. J.

2012-01-13T18:32:00.005-05:00

http://astro.temple.edu/~arcc/burns.htm

..."Ordinatio sacerdotalis was declared by the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to be a teaching act that was, and I quote, "not itself infallible." It was made explicit by the Congregation at the press conference held to publicize its Responsio ad dubium (relating to the Apostolic Letter) that ordinatio sacerdotalis was NOT an exercise of the pope's extraordinary infallible magisterium. ..

Although it conceded that the teaching contained in OS was not infallibly taught in virtue of the extraordinary papal magisterium, the CDF nonetheless gave its opinion that the teaching contained in OS was an infallibly taught doctrine in virtue of the ordinary magisterium of the Church as explicated in section 25 of Lumen gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church issued by Vatican II. That is, it was the opinion of the CDF that the doctrine had already, prior to and independently of OS, been taught infallibly by the College of Bishops in union with the pope as a teaching that must be definitively held (tenenda definitive) to belong to the deposit of faith. This mode of infallible teaching requires a clear, constant teaching on the part of the bishops as a moral whole that some point of doctrine has been divinely revealed (cf. Lumen gentium, 25)

There are 3 modes of infallible teaching:
an infallible ex cathedra definition by the pope (this need not follow a consultation with the College of Bishops, though this was the practice in the two clear cases of such a definition, the Immaculate Conception (Pius IX, 1854) and the Assumption of the BVM (Pius XII, 1950);

a solemn definition by a valid ecumenical council of the Church (e.g. the dogmatic decrees on the divinity and humanity of Christ etc, at Nicaea and Chalcedon and many other dogmas); and

a constant teaching, not with any specific definition or formula, by the College of Bishops while dispersed around the world, but maintaining communion with the pope, that a doctrine belongs to the deposit of faith and must be held definitively as such by all the faithful (an example would be the Resurrection of Christ). What the CDF said clearly enough was that OS contains a teaching which has been infallibly taught in the third of these modes. It also EXPLICITLY said that OS was NOT an instance of the first of these modes. And obviously the matter has not been solemnly defined in the second (conciliar) mode.That is the official Catholic position. I won't enter any dispute about this, because it's silly to argue about facts. And these are the facts about the official position of the Church. They can readily be verified by reading the documents issued by the CDF and the relevant issues of L'Osservatore Romano..."

"Now, the next question we must ask: is the CDF's opinion about the infallible status of the doctrine itself infallible? The answer is definitely NO. Why? Because NOTHING the CDF says is EVER infallibly said. The CDF is not the pope speaking ex cathedra, nor is it a valid ecumenical council, nor is it the College of Bishops in union with the pope. The only way a doctrine can be infallibly taught is by one of the 3 modes of infallible teaching I described above. The CDF can give an opinion about if or when a teaching has been infallibly taught, but ITS OPINION IS ITSELF ALWAYS FALLIBLE. THE CDF IS NOT ENDOWED WITH INFALLIBILITY. Of course, the CDF can state a doctrine which has been infallibly taught. But so can anyone. If I simply repeated an infallibly defined doctrine, such as the Assumption, I would say something which has been infallibly taught. I would be uttering an infallible truth. But I would not be infallible then or ever. Same with the CDF. Its opinion on this as on any other matter is fallible. "

"WHAT will life be like for the wives of Roman Catholic priests? "/ More Evidence of Hierarchy's Misogyny from History of Church

2012-01-13T18:12:00.000-05:00

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/13/opinion/for-priests-wives-a-word-of-caution.html?_r=2&hp

"On Sunday, the Vatican announced the creation of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter, a special division of the Roman Catholic Church that former Episcopal congregations and priests — including, notably, married priests — can enter together en masse. The Vatican has stressed that the allowance for married priests is merely an exception (like similar dispensations made in the past by the Vatican) and by no means a permanent condition of the priesthood. If a priest is single when he enters the ordinariate, he may not marry, nor may a married priest, in the event of his wife’s death, remarry. Nonetheless, the Roman Catholic Church is prepared to house married priests in numbers perhaps not seen since the years before 1123, when the First Lateran Council adopted canon 21, prohibiting clerical marriage... By the time of the First Lateran Council, the priest’s wife had become a symbol of wantonness and defilement. The reason was that during this period the nature of the host consecrated at Mass received greater theological scrutiny. Medieval theologians were in the process of determining that bread and wine, at the moment of consecration in the hands of an ordained priest at the altar, truly became the body and blood of Jesus Christ. The priest who handled the body and blood of Christ should therefore be uncontaminated lest he defile the sacred corpus. The priest’s wife was an obvious danger. Her wanton desire, suggested the 11th-century monk Peter Damian, threatened the efficacy of consecration. He chastised priests’ wives as “furious vipers who out of ardor of impatient lust decapitate Christ, the head of clerics,” with their lovers. According to the historian Dyan Elliott, priests’ wives were perceived as raping the altar, a perpetration not only of the priest but also of the whole Christian community... "
Sara Ritchey is an assistant professor of medieval European history at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette.

Bridget Mary's Reflection
Let's hope that Pope Benedict will acknowledge the institutional church's horrific history of misogyny in their treatment of women including the wives of priests in the 11th century.
The policy of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter prohibiting a priest to remarry after his wife dies certainly does not inspire confidence that change is in air! Equality, mutuality, partnership are words we would like to hear in describing "What will life be like for the wives of Roman Catholic priests?" Roman Catholic Women Priests are living the vision of Jesus now in inclusive communities of equals and it is time for the institutional church to do so too.
Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP

"To Obey" by John Chuchman

2012-01-13T17:37:00.002-05:00

To Obey
The word Obedience
comes from the root audire
to hear.

Obedience,
in its essence,
is Listening followed by Acting Free!
(not simply doing what another tells me).

Jesus,
time and again,
is quoted as
calling us to Listen.

It seems there are a number of areas
in my life
to which I must be tuned in.

I try to listen to
the wild word of God
as presented in Scripture,
hoping it warms my heart
and pierces it
with Love.

I try to listen to
Church,
as defined in Vatican II
as We, the Body of Christ,
men and women of all denominations and faiths
whose judgment I respect.

I try to listen to
Unbelievers,
who speak their Truth,
knowing I can learn from them,
also Children of God.

I try to listen to
the signs of the times,
the voice of social change
in society,
knowing human experience to be
the very stuff of Spirituality.

I try to listen to
Children, The Handicapped, The Sick,
The Dying, The Bereaved, The Aged
by tapping in to their
directness and simplicity
which offer a special access
to Truth.

I try to listen to
The Word of God in My Heart,
guided by conscience,
motivated by the promptings of
the Holy Spirit.

Simply doing as I am told
by whatever authority,
without Listening
to all possible sources of Wisdom,
is spiritual death.

I can
live and act with Wisdom
only
if I heed the call of Jesus
to
Listen.
http://poetmanjohn@cox.net/

"Messages from God"/ Homily by Deacon Donna Rogeux, ARCWP

2012-01-12T18:30:00.000-05:00

Messages from God

First reading: 1Samuel 3:1-10, 19-20
Gospel: Mark 1:29-39
Do you ever feel like you are being swamped with messages? Because of the sophisticated technology that surrounds us, we have at our fingertips many different ways to communicate with others. We have email, text messages, instant messages, face time, Skype and cell phones. When we are surrounded by all of these ways to communicate it is possible to become overwhelmed with too much information. It can be challenging to sift through it all keeping the focus on the important messages that need our attention. It seems that a constant theme throughout history has been the issues around being able to communicate with others and with God. Even though we are light years away from the story we just heard in first Samuel, the problem of recognizing the voice of God seems to be a constant. With all of our modern ways of communicating one might think it would be easier now than in Samuel's time to communicate with God. But another way of looking at this goes back to the overloaded feeling we can have in this information age. There can be too many messages and we can miss the important ones. We can even miss the messages God sends us. So we must take Eli's advice to Samuel and Say "Speak YHWH, for your servant is listening." When we truly say these words and mean them we open ourselves up for unexpected experiences of God and may even find ourselves being led in directions we never imagined.

How do we listen to God’s voice in this world of many voices. How do we discern which voice is God’s voice and which voice is leading us away from God? Have you ever found yourself in a situation that is similar to the reading we just heard in the book of first Samuel? Have you ever heard the voice of God and thought it was someone else’s voice? Or have you ever tried desperately to hear God’s voice and become confused about which voice is truly coming from YHWH.

In today’s Gospel reading we see Jesus in the midst of his ministry going from place to place spreading the good news, healing Peter’s mother-in-law, teaching his disciples, only to find himself still ministering to others after sunset as they brought people to him who were ill and possessed with demons. This story illustrates that Jesus had the potential of feeling overloaded. An important detail in this story gives us insight about being able to discern God's voice even when we feel overloaded. The story reads, “Rising early the next morning, Jesus went off to a lonely place in the desert and prayed there.” Herein lies a key to hearing the voice of God and to warding off problems that come from being overloaded. Being alone in the desert opens up a space that can connect us to God. Taking quiet time away from our responsibilities spending quiet time of prayer and reflection can be the breath of fresh air that revives us when we feel overloaded. But ready or not God speaks to us with words, symbols, with music,without words, in quiet alone times, in community gatherings, in our happiest moments and in our saddest moments and moments in between. God seeks us even more than we seek God.

What does the voice of God sound like? Is it audible? How do we distinguish God's voice from other voices? These questions can be answered in many different ways because even though God probably doesn't Skype us or email us or call us on the cell phone there are many different ways to hear God speak. Samuel heard God at night when he was awakened from sleep. Moses heard God in the burning bush. God speaks to us in dreams and visions but the culture we live in seems more interested in scientific evidence than in a spiritual realm of unknowns. It can be very risky to tell about an experience of hearing God speak. The difference between our technological, scientific world and the place where we can hear God speak is one world emphasizes being able to figure everything out logically and the other is a place that allows mystery and just being open to the experience. When we truly say the words "Speak YHWH your servant is listening," we are opening ourselves up to this other place. In this other place we learn to see and hear differently. Fr. Richard Rohr explains this well in a meditation called "Learning to See." He reflects on a verse of scripture in Genesis that says,

“God, you were here all along, and I never knew it” (Genesis 28:16), says Jacob on awakening from his stone pillow.

Fr. Rohr's meditation says,

"The essential religious experience is that you are being “known through” more than knowing anything in particular yourself. Yet despite this difference, it will feel like true knowing. This new way of knowing can be called contemplation, nondualistic thinking, or “third-eye” seeing. Such prayer, such seeing, takes away your anxiety about figuring it all out fully for yourself, or needing to be right about your formulations.

At this point, God becomes more a verb than a noun, more a process than a conclusion, more an experience than a dogma, more a personal relationship than an idea. There is Someone dancing with you, and you are not so afraid of making mistakes. You know even those will be used in your favor. At that point you also have awakened from your stone pillow, and you know with a new clarity what you partly knew all along."

With this new ability to see without fully understanding it is possible to hear God in our experiences of this dance we encounter with God. We open ourselves to being able to see and hear God in a wide variety of experiences and we find ourselves on the path to fullness of life and kinship with God.

It is not always easy to hear God speak because sometimes we don't want to hear what God has to say. It can take courage to acknowledge the voice of God when this seems to be leading us into unfamiliar territory. But the rewards of liberation and life await us if we listen and follow God's call.

Have you ever tried to tell someone about a personal experience of hearing God speak? I will attempt to do that myself but with this disclaimer: it is hard to give the full picture because something seems to get lost in telling about it. And it is common to have very personal messages when God speaks. It is like you had to be there to get the full effect. We just find it hard to describe encounters with God. But I will give it a try.

I had been struggling with a situation that my son was involved in because my son's description of an incident was different than another persons description. I really wanted to believe my son's version but was unsure of who to believe. As I was driving one day the situation with my son was not in my mind at all and out of the blue came this thought that seemed very different from my own thoughts and it began with the words,"this is the boy who in second grade... "the voice continued and connected the second grade incident with the current situation. I found myself driving along with tears streaming down my face knowing that God just spoke to me and comforted me about the situation with my son. God was telling me that I could believe what my son had told me. This was a huge relief to me. And I know this was God speaking to me.

Simone Weil in her book,"Waiting for God" describes the natural longings that we all have to be in communion with God and directs our attention to God's role in this relationship dispelling the idea that encountering God is all up to us. On the contrary she illustrates beautifully that our part is small in comparison to God's. She writes

“The longing to love the beauty of the world in a human being is essentially the longing for the Incarnation,” “It is mistaken if it thinks it is anything else. The Incarnation alone can satisfy it” (109). “We do not walk vertically. We can only turn our eyes toward God. We do not have to search for God, we only have to change the direction in which we are looking. It is for [God] to search for us.”

Hopefully when we feel overwhelmed with too much information or with too much responsibility or with too much of anything or when we don't understand messages we are receiving because we are having trouble discerning whose voice we hear we will take Eli's advice to Samuel and say "Speak YHWH your servant is listening" and we will hear a message from God.

Deacon Donna with Bridget Mary on Sept. 10, 2011

"The Disconnect Between Bishops and Other Catholics"/ Riichard McBrien/NCR

2012-01-11T19:09:00.000-05:00

http://ncronline.org/blogs/essays-theology/disconnect-between-bishops-and-other-catholics
"This is confirmed in a recent survey of U.S. Catholics, commissioned by the National Catholic Reporter and published in its Oct. 28-Nov. 10, 2011, issue. On the matter of Catholic attitudes toward the credibility of the bishops' teachings, the survey found that relatively few Catholics look to church leaders as the sole moral arbiters.This is particularly true with regard to official teachings on such issues as divorce and remarriage, abortion, nonmarital sex, homosexuality and contraception."

"Bishops' Birth Control"/Sarasota Herald Tribune/Jan. 10, 2012/Bridget Mary Meehan, Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests

2012-01-10T18:00:00.018-05:00

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20120110/LETTERS/120109578/2163/OPINION?p=3&tc=pg

In response to Gail Collins' column "Reproductive rights debate creates early holiday hangover": The U.S. Catholic bishops' lobbying efforts for exemption for employers who object to artificial birth control is unjust. The hierarchy is out of touch with their fellow Catholics on this issue. Ninety-eight percent of sexually active Roman Catholic women in the United States use birth control; 70 percent use sterilization, the birth control pill or an intrauterine device (Guttmacher Institute, 2011). The teaching of the church since Pope Paul VI wrote "Humanae Vitae" in 1968, regarding the use of birth control, has never been accepted by most Roman Catholic men and women. If the institutional church approved of women priests, then women's voices would be heard and certainly included in decision-making that affects women's lives and well-being. Women and men have the human right to act as their own moral agents and make responsible decisions on family planning. How can pro-life church leaders oppose contraceptives that prevent unwanted pregnancies and abortions? The bishops should not impose the church's official beliefs on employees or on Catholics who dissent from this teaching. This violates a core Catholic teaching, primacy of conscience, which also applies to non-Catholics. Dozens of Catholic hospitals and universities offer contraceptive coverage now. Justice toward all, a core biblical value, should guide the bishops in their coverage of contraceptives for their employees.

This is what, I believe, Jesus would do and so should the bishops.

Bridget Mary Meehan,

Sarasota

"Woman Makes Stand at Altar by Leading Local Mass"/ Mary Smith, Roman Catholic Woman Priest

2012-01-09T10:04:00.000-05:00

http://www.sctimes.com/article/20120109/NEWS01/101090023/Woman-makes-stand-altar-by-leading-local-Mass

“I have seen women in tears — I’ve seen them weeping — when they come up to me after a Mass because they are so moved to finally be able to see a woman at the altar,” she said. About 35 people attended the Mass on Sunday; Mary Magdalene, 1st Apostle, is the parish that Smith presides over and has services at St. John’s Episcopal Church.

"Cardinal George Apologizes for Linking Pride Parade to KKK" By Manya A. Brachear/Tribune

2012-01-07T14:41:00.002-05:00

January 06, 2012 Chicago's Cardinal Francis George apologized Friday for remarks aired on Christmas Day comparing the gay pride parade to the Ku Klux Klan."I am truly sorry for the hurt my remarks have caused," George said in an interview with the Tribune. "Particularly because we all have friends or family members who are gay and lesbian. This has evidently wounded a good number of people. I have family members myself who are gay and lesbian, so it's part of our lives. So I'm sorry for the hurt."

"Pushing Away the Marginalized to Reach Out to the Fringe" by Jamie L. Manson

2012-01-07T13:40:00.000-05:00

http://www.ncronline.org/blogs/grace-margins/pushing-away-marginalized-reach-out-fringe
..."It's remarkable how a hierarchy that routinely appeals to the unchangeable nature of its doctrine of the priesthood to defend its stance against women's ordination can become so flexible about its priesthood when reaching out to those who will help toe their misogynist line. It's extraordinary the lengths the hierarchy will take to welcome a fringe group of evangelical Episcopalians who support their anti-gay marriage agenda...."The real tragedy behind these stories is that the hierarchy is using its creativity, its money and, saddest of all, its sacraments to welcome individuals that will bolster its drive to exclude many of its baptized faithful.. ..Our church was founded on Jesus' call to honor everyone's dignity as beloved children of God and to be one with the poor, the suffering and the outcast. "

Protesters Continue Occupy 440 movement by Dale Mezzacappa on Jan 04 2012 Posted in Latest news/ Eileen DiFranco, RCWP/a Leader in the Protest Movement

2012-01-06T21:14:00.000-05:00

http://www.thenotebook.org/blog/124393/protesters-continue-occupy-440-movement

"Who is talking about this gross misallocation of resources?" DiFranco asked. "Are we the only ones who care?"She criticized not just the mayor, but Gov. Corbett and state legislators. But she said that Nutter and the School Reform Commission are culpable because they have "settled for less" without complaint.
Corbett and the General Assembly cut state education aid by a billion dollars this year, with fully one-quarter of that total falling on Philadelphia...

Link to Television Coverage of Fasting Vigil To End Torture in Lexington, Kentucky/Janice Sevre Duszynska and Donna Rougeux/Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests

2012-01-06T11:41:00.001-05:00

http://www.wtvq.com/content/localnews/story/Protests-Continue-In-Downtown-Lexington/gUiEOYAo50uWmE4W2x4pow.cspx
Above is the clip of the Jan. 3rd interview with Donna Rougeux and me (Janice Serve-Duszynska) in downtown Lexington where we are from vigiling Jan. 2- Jan. 10. We are now in the fifith day of our fast.

"Table Manners"/Christianity Today/All Belong at Christ's Banquet Table

2012-01-05T12:00:00.001-05:00

christiancentury.org/article/2011-12/table-manners

Dec. 28,2011
by Andrew Packman

"The whole scene was awkward. With 20 or so people still in line to receive the Eucharist, this Bosnian Franciscan took a handful of the host and sought me out of the crowd. Nearly out of breath, he lifted the small plate toward me. I stood up from my pew."Will you have communion?" My heart beat faster, the way it does if you get asked to speak when you're not expecting it, or when you're breaking a rule and know you may get caught.I muttered, "Yes, I will.""Christ's body, broken for you." He placed the host in my hand. I raised it to my lips and carefully set it down on my tongue. ..I imagine this is what the prodigal son felt when he watched his aged father risk looking like a fool as he sprinted out to meet his son. Priests don't run during the mass; they certainly don't leave the 99 sheep behind to seek out the one who's lost, the one who needs to feel the warm embrace of full inclusion in a Christian community."

Bridget Mary's Reflection:
This is what it means to share Eucharist with the Body of Christ. Everyone is welcome at the table.
Roman Catholic Women Priests preside at liturgies where all are invited to receive Eucharist every week. This is what the inclusive priestly ministry is all about- welcoming with open arms, like the priest in this story above- and like Jesus did when he said: "Come to me all you who labor and are burdened.. Take and eat, this is my body, given for all. " All God's family -especially the broken, marginalized and needy, are embraced by God's love and belong at Christ's Banquet
Table. Eucharist is not a reward for those who keep the rules, but for nourishment for the journey.

Changing Church: Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan: videos on Women Priests in the Roman Catholic Church and excerpts from an ordination service

2012-01-04T21:55:00.002-05:00

http://jannaldredgeclanton.com/blog/

Changing Church: Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan: videos on Women Priests in the Roman Catholic Church and excerpts from an ordination service

Published: January 2, 2012
Dr. Bridget Mary Meehan
Read Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan’s story in Changing Church: Stories of Liberating Ministers: https://wipfandstock.com/store/Changing_Church_Stories_of_Liberating_Ministers%20;%20condensed%20version%20on%20this%20blog:%20http://jannaldredgeclanton.com/blog/?p=157

Bishop Resigns After Disclosing he fathered Two Children

2012-01-04T21:44:00.000-05:00

http://ncronline.org/news/people/bishop-resigns-after-disclosing-he-father-two-children

VATICAN CITY -- Los Angeles Auxiliary Bishop Gabino Zavala has resigned after disclosing to superiors that he is the father of two children.The Vatican announced the bishop's resignation Jan. 4 in a one-line statement that cited church law on resignation for illness or other serious reasons.

Bridget Mary's Reflection:
More evidence that mandatory celibacy does not work and should be changed to follow Jesus' example. In the 12th century, the pope mandated celibacy for priests, and threatened to sell the priests' wives into slavery if they did not conform. Now that the Vatican is accepting Anglican married priests and their wives, it is time to affirm that marriage and ordination can go together for Catholic priests. Peter was married, so why does the Roman Catholic Church refuse to follow his example? Let us pray that for change in the institutional church's unjust treatment of its own priests
Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP
Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests
sofiabmm@aol.com

"Pressure on Dutch Church After Report"/ Between 10,000 and 20,000 Dutch Children Abused/Call for Resignations of Catholic Bishops in the Netherlands

2012-01-03T22:04:00.000-05:00

http://www.ncronline.org/news/global/pressure-dutch-church-after-report
"Two leading politicians in the Netherlands, both from conservative parties, have called for the resignations of Catholic bishops in the wake of a damning report on sexual abuse in the Dutch church.The country’s prime minister, Mark Rutte, also announced that his cabinet is considering lifting a statute of limitations to allow criminal prosecutions. A complaint has already been filed with the public prosecutor’s office against a former bishop of the Rotterdam diocese, Philippe Bär. An attorney representing alleged victims has charged Bär with covering up abuse during his tenure from 1983 to 1993..."Released on Dec. 16, the report found that somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000 Dutch children suffered abuse by Catholic personnel, ranging from unwanted sexual advances to rape, during the period of 1945 to 2010. A commission sponsored by the Catholic bishops and religious orders of Holland produced the report. On Dec. 17, Holland’s deputy prime minister, Maxime Verhagen, himself a Catholic, said the church has been “profoundly damaged,” and bishops should consider resigning. Verhagen is a member of the Christian Democratic Appeal Party, a center-right faction seen as friendly to the church."

Janice Sevre-Duszynska, ARCWP and Donna Rougeux, ARCWP Join Witness Against Torture Fast

2012-01-02T21:47:00.001-05:00

Join us at Triangle Park Jan. 2-10 from 5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. as we fast and witness in solidarity with folks in the nation's Capitol and across the globe on the 10th anniversary of the arrival of the first detainees at the U.S. controlled detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. We are demanding an end to torture and indefinite detention at Guantanamo, Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan, and elsewhere, and that the president reject the just-passed National Defense Authorization Act. (The Act would allow the military to detain terror suspects on U.S. soil and hold them indefinitely and without trial. It would place restrictions on resettling the 60 men in Guantanamo who have been cleared for release.)
For local information contact Janice Sevre-Duszynska, 859-684-4247.
See WitnessAgainstTorture and Amnesty International websites.

Janice Sevre-Duszynska, Fr. Roy Bourgeois, Donna Rougeux

"Plans for New Year Include Education, Being Inclusive"/Winona Daily News

2012-01-02T21:38:00.001-05:00

Kathy Redig, RCWP

"The Rev. Kathy Redig of All Are One Roman Catholic Church, has a New Year's Resolution for her congregation to be more inclusive, a goal that is personal to her....Redig was ordained into Roman Catholic Womenpriests in 2008, an organization that seeks to ordain women in the Catholic Church and whose priests and bishops face excommunication for doing so. 'Everyone should be welcome to come to the table,' she said. 'I want to let everyone be welcome and listen more and judge less.'"
Read more:
http://www.winonadailynews.com/news/local/article_058f1878-34ff-11e1-84b2-0019bb2963f4.html#ixzz1iMJ4ReqQ

Olga Lucia, Roman Catholic Woman Priest, Celebrates Liturgy in House Church in Colombia, South America

2012-01-01T21:11:00.001-05:00

This is a verbal and pictoral record of a Eucharistic celebration in the home of a "country" couple and their family. Olga Lucia is the presider. It is a beautiful celebration like the first house churches in the New Testament

"Some Anglicans Apply to Join the Catholic Church"/Washington Post

2012-01-01T20:27:00.002-05:00

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/some-anglicans-apply-to-join-the-catholic-church/2011/12/30/gIQAQdHRTP_story.html
“It’s the largest reunification effort in 500 years,” said Susan Gibbs, a spokeswoman for the new body, called an ordinariate.The possibility of dozens of married Catholic priests could provide fodder for Catholics who want the Vatican to open up on the issue of priestly celibacy. There are about 40,000 Catholic priests in the United States.Gibbs declined to say which priests and parishes have expressed interest. But congregants at St. Luke’s, and others who call themselves Anglo-Catholics, tend to be theological and social conservatives who say they like the clear, single authority of a pope. However, they also want to hold onto aspects of Anglicanism, including retaining more authority in governing and certain music and rituals, such as kneeling for Communion..."
Bridget Mary's Reflection:
In this historic structural change, the Vatican is expanding a married Catholic priesthood to include Anglcian priests in the United States as well as in England. They did so without dialogue with the Episcopal Church, a slap in the face to a Sister- Church.
It is time that the Vatican makes celibacy optional for priestly ministry. The best we can hope is that this is a first step in that direction.

Bishop to Bishop: Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan Responds to Bishop Frank Dewane About His Letter to Deacon Judy Beaumont Regarding Her Upcoming Ordination as Priest

2011-12-30T20:49:00.006-05:00

Bishop Frank :
It has been brought to my attention that you purportedly reside in the Diocese of Venice in Florida and may attempt to be " ordained " to the ministerial priesthood here within this Diocese on January 22 , 2012 . This is a most grave and serious matter of consequence for your soul.

Bishop Bridget Mary:
Under all circumstances, the church teaches that one must follow one’s conscience. So how can serving God as a woman priest cause a problem for one’s soul? I wish our male bishops would be as concerned about the thousands of victims of sexual abuse as they appear to be about the souls of women priests!

Bishop Frank :
The Catholic Church has always taught that the Church has no authority to confer priestly ordination on women.

Bishop Bridget Mary:
Jesus set the example by calling women and men to be his disciples. Witness his relationship with Mary and Martha and Mary of Magdala for example. He did not ordain anyone. Ordination was developed much later, in the early centuries of the church. According to historians, such as Gary Macy, The Hidden History of Women’s Ordination, women were ordained for twelve hundred years before the patriarchy abandoned the practice.

Bishop Frank:
The Church shares this teaching with our Orthodox Christian brothers and sisters. The ministerial priesthood is a gift from God, not something that someone " earns, " " deserves " or has a "right " to, due to advanced education, devoted service in the Church, or simply because of one's own personal desire. The reasons for this include : the example recorded in sacred Scripture of Christ choosing His Apostles ; the constant practice of the Church, which imitated Christ in choosing only men ; and the Church's living teaching authority.

Bishop Bridget Mary:
This is a complete re-write of the Gospels! The Risen Christ appeared first to Mary of Magdala and called her to be the apostle to the apostles (John 20:17). Paul affirmed Junia as an apostle, who was his mentor and teacher in Romans 16. Note (Luke 10:42) Jesus' words to Mary, sister of Martha and Lazarus, as she sat at Jesus' feet listening to what he said(as disciples do)"Mary has chosen what is better,and it will not be taken away from her." Bishop Frank, neither you nor church tradition since the 12th century are powerful enough to take away what Jesus has clearly given to Mary and countless women disciples like Judith Beaumont-"it will not be taken away from her".

Bishop Frank:
In calling only men as His Apostles, Christ acted in a completely free and sovereign manner . Throughout His earthly ministry, Our Lord also emphasized the dignity a n d the vocation of women , and in so doing , did not conform to the prevailing customs, traditions , and legislation of the time. Still , among His twelve Apostles , Jesus Christ did not include any women. This fact withstands any so-called "scholarship" to the contrary. Sacred Scripture further reveals that Jesus did include the participation of women in His public ministry in ways that shows a differentiation of roles between men and women . Together both worked to build up the unity of the Church, avoiding divisiveness . Specific to the role of women, the Church gives thanks for the feminine "genius",
appearing in the course of history, in the midst of all peoples and nations, and for the charisms of the Holy Spirit on women's manifestations of faith, hope and love .

Bishop Bridget Mary:
Luke 8 affirms that women were not only among Jesus disciples, but that there were many of them and they were leaders in supporting his ministry. Jesus was a radical feminist in his vision of a “discipleship of equals”. He had a theological conversation with the Samaritan woman, who became the first evangelist to bring her whole village to him. Martha’s profession of faith parallel’s Peter’s and her table ministry indicated that women presided at Eucharist in house churches in early Christianity. Jesus never spoke of feminine “genius", he treated women as equals to men, a reality lost on our present hierarchy, who try to wax eloquent about women’s second class citizenship in their own church by use of lofty phrases like you, Bishop Frank, used above. Roman Catholic Women Priests are the "Rosa Parks" of the Catholic Church. We will no longer settle for sitting in the back of the Catholic bus. Sexism, like racism is a sin and always wrong.

Bishop Frank:
Through the Sacrament of Baptism, all Christians , both men and women , share equally in the " common priesthood of believers . " Through the Sacrament of Holy Orders , priests also share in the " ministerial priesthood " of Christ , the High Priest . However, no individual has the "right" to be ordained to the ministerial priesthood. Ordination to the ministerial priesthood must be conferred by a validly ordained bishop on a baptized man. A candidate must receive the authorization of the Church, which has the authority and responsibility to determine if a true call to the priesthood exists for the said candidate.

Bishop Bridget Mary :
Jesus did not see himself as a “High Priest”. He came among us to transform our lives and world so that the kindom of God would be manifest through our witness to justice, inclusion and compassion. He showed us that those who are leaders/ ministers must serve our sisters and brothers in the washing of the feet ritual at the Last Supper. Jesus challenged the religious leaders of his time for their abuse of spiritual power and hypocrisy. Judith Beaumont's Ordination will be conferred by a validly ordained bishop as we (our bishops) clearly stand in the line of apostolic succession through the male bishop in standing with the pope who ordained the first women bishops.

Bishop Frank:
Below is a 1995 responsum, issued by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger [now Pope Benedict XVI] , then Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith , in response to the to the question of ,
"whether the teaching that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women , which is presented in the Apostolic Letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis to be held definitively, is to be understood as belonging to the deposit of faith , '

Bishop Bridget Mary:
This is the ultimate cop-out. Of course, the church has authority to ordain women. It did so for twelve hundred years. There are thousands of ordained women in church history. The institutional church can no longer discriminate against women and blame God for it.

Bishop Frank:
Responsum : In the affirmative. This teaching requires definitive assent , since, founded on the written Word of God , and from the beginning constantly preserved and applied in the Tradition of
the Church , it has been set forth infallibly by the ordinary and universal Magisterium (cf Second Vatican Council , Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium 25 , 2). Thus, in the present circumstances , the Roman Pontiff, exercising his proper office of confirming the brethren (cf Lk 22:32) , has handed on this same teaching by a formal declaration, explicitly stating what is to be held always , everywhere , and by all , as belonging to the deposit of the faith .

Bishop Bridget Mary :
The Catholic faithful, including the world’s theologians, many priests, some bishops, did not affirm this teaching. Therefore, it is not infallible teaching because it does not reflect the faith of the believing community, the entire, universal church. It does not reflect the "sensus fidelium".

Bishop Frank :
Further, as you may know, on May 30, 2008 The Congregation for the Doctrine
of the Faith issued the general decree , "On the Delict of Attempted Sacred Ordination of
a Woman . " The decree affirms that , "he who shall have attempted to confer holy orders
on a woman , as well as the woman who may have attempted to receive Holy Orders , incurs in a latae sententiae excommunication," that is, an automatic excommunication. Further, reconciliation for this excommunication must come through the Holy See in Rome .

Bishop Bridget Mary:
We do not fear excommunication. Actually, we are walking in the footsteps of giants such as St. Joan of Arc, who was burned at the stake for following her conscience. Pope Benedict canonized two excommunicated nuns: Mother Theodore Guerin from the United States and Mother Mary MacKillop from Australia, thereby making excommunication a possible fast track to canonization! One day a future pope, perhaps, a woman, will probably say, according to the common and constant tradition of the church, taught by the apostles and lived through the history of the church for many centuries, we ordain women deacons, priests and bishops.

Bishop Frank:
As your Bishop , I urge you , to refrain from participating in what will be an invalid attempt at "ordination ." This opportunity is taken to inform you that, should you proceed with this action , you would in fact, separate yourself from the Catholic Church, by your own free choice .

Bishop Bridget Mary:
Nothing can separate us from God, nothing can cancel our baptism, nothing or no one can stop us from living the fullness of Christ’s love in a more open, just and inclusive Catholic Church. We are faithful women living Christ’s call to serve those in need and on the margins offering the church the gift of a renewed priestly ministry in a Christ-centered, inclusive Catholic Church.

Bishop Frank:
With this in mind, for the good of your immortal soul , I exhort you to choose not to participate i n this attempted " ordination . "

Bishop Bridget Mary:
Our souls are in God’s hands. We answer the call in prophetic obedience. We walk in faith and love, trusting in Christ and with Holy Wisdom, Sophia’s guidance, as we serve our beloved faith communities. Each week Catholics affirm women priests as they celebrate inclusive liturgies in Florida and in more and more places in the U.S. and abroad with our 124 ordained priests and deacons.

+ Frank Dewane
Bishop of the Diocese of
Venice in Florida

+Bridget Mary Meehan
Bishop, Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests (USA and South America)

"Fort Myers Woman Taking on Catholic Church"- NBC TV Story on Deacon Judy Beaumont's Upcoming Ordination in Ft. Myers, Florida on Januaray, 21st, 2012

2011-12-30T07:37:00.001-05:00

http://www.abc-7.com/story/16414897/2011/12/29/fort-myers-woman-taking-on-the-catholic-church
WZVN-TV
They're part of a worldwide group called the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests. ..
... "to Beaumont, this is about more than seeking the role of priest. She's hoping to be part of a movement to bring equality among church leadership."We're the Rosa B. Parks of the Catholic Church trying to bring about change," Beaumont said. And despite the consequences, she says she isn't holding back The ceremony for Beaumont will be January 21 at 3 p.m. It will be held at the Lamb of God Lutheran-Episcopal Church."

Link to Songs:"NO" and "Rock Me Gentle" from Album "Her Wings Unfurled" by Colleen Fulmer

2011-12-30T07:29:00.004-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_N6ypnl8lA&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PL48C6F50EA3D5360B

Enjoy this beautiful,woman-affirming, life-affirming, inspirational music by Colleen Fulmer!

Deacon Judy Beaumont Responds to Bishop Frank Dewane's Letter About Her Upcoming Ordination as Priest- Prophetic Obedience to Spirit Trumps Threat of Excommunication

2011-12-29T21:43:00.010-05:00

Deacon Judy Beaumont's Response to Bishop Frank Dewane's Letter
December 26, 2011
Dear Bishop Dewane:
I have received your letter regarding my ordination on January 21, 2011. I understand that you are fulfilling your obligation as Bishop and I take your words seriously. However, I must reply that as I have tried throughout my life to answer the call of the Gospel to serve God’s people, I must again answer this new call to sacramental ministry with the poor and otherwise marginalized persons in our midst. Members of the Catholic community here including the people of the Good Shepherd Inclusive Catholic Community and the Bishop of the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests have affirmed my call, in fact, they also have called me forth to serve.

While a Benedictine sister, I served as theology teacher, sacristan, trainer of altar boys and member of liturgy committees. I never thought of myself as being called to the existing all-male clergy. However in recent years, it has become clear to me that I am called by God to take on the sacramental ministry with our people. Four of the formerly homeless persons from our ministry presented me to Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan for my ordination to the diaconate.

I am convinced that in spite of Ordinatio Sacerdotalis women are being called by God to ministerial priesthood. In prophetic obedience we must answer and my answer is “Yes”. Surveys of Catholic faithful have reported that the majority are in favor of the ordination of women. Recognition of a woman’s call to ordination by the Vatican probably won’t happen in my lifetime nor in yours, but I do believe it will happen.

As a member of the Pontifical Peace and Justice Commission and attendee at the Bejing Conference on Women, you must be aware of the many injustices suffered by women worldwide. What a difference it will make for all women in our world when the Roman Catholic Church recognizes that God calls women as well as men to ministerial priesthood. What a blessing for the Church and our world it will be.
Thank you for your concern. Oremus pro invicem.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Deacon Judith Beaumont

BISHOP DEWANE'S Letter:
December 1, 2011
Dear Ms. Beaumont:
Greetings in Christ!
It has been brought to my attention that you purportedly reside in the Diocese of
Venice in Florida and may attempt to be "ordained" to the ministerial priesthood here
within this Diocese on January 22, 2012. This is a most grave and serious matter of
consequence for your soul.

The Catholic Church has always taught that the Church has no authority to
confer priestly ordination on women. The Church shares this teaching with our Orthodox
Christian brothers and sisters. The ministerial priesthood is a gift from God, not
something that someone "earns," "deserves" or has a "right" to, due to advanced
education, devoted service in the Church, or simply because of one's own personal
desire. The reasons for this include: the example recorded in sacred Scripture of Christ
choosing His Apostles; the constant practice of the Church, which imitated Christ in
choosing only men; and the Church's living teaching authority.
In calling only men as His Apostles, Christ acted in a completely free and
sovereign manner. Throughout His earthly ministry, Our Lord also emphasized the
dignity and the vocation of women, and in so doing, did not conform to the prevailing
customs, traditions, and legislation of the time. Still, among His twelve Apostles, Jesus

Christ did not include any women. This fact withstands any so-called "scholarship" to the
contrary. Sacred Scripture further reveals that Jesus did include the participation of women
in His public ministry in ways that shows a differentiation of roles between men and
women. Together both worked to build up the unity of the Church, avoiding divisiveness.
Specific to the role of women, the Church gives thanks for the feminine "genius",
appearing in the course of history, in the midst of all peoples and nations, and for the
charisms of the Holy Spirit on women's manifestations of faith, hope and love.
Through the Sacrament of Baptism, all Christians, both men and women, share
equally in the "common priesthood of believers." Through the Sacrament of Holy Orders,
priests also share in the "ministerial priesthood" of Christ, the High Priest. However, no
individual has the "right" to be ordained to the ministerial priesthood. Ordination to the
ministerial priesthood must be conferred by a validly ordained bishop on a baptized man.
A candidate must receive the authorization of the Church, which has the authority and
responsibility to determine if a true call to the priesthood exists for the said candidate.

Below is a 1995 responsum, issued by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger [now Pope
Benedict XVI], then Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, in response
to the to the question of, "whether the teaching that the Church has no authority
whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women, which is presented in the Apostolic
Letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis to be held definitively, is to be understood as belonging to
the deposit of faith,'
The answer follows:
Responsum: In the affirmative.
This teaching requires definitive assent, since, founded on the written Word of
God, and from the beginning constantly preserved and applied in the Tradition of
the Church, it has been set forth infallibly by the ordinary and universal
Magisterium (cf Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on the Church
Lumen Gentium 25, 2). Thus, in the present circumstances, the Roman Pontiff,
exercising his proper office of confirming the brethren (cf Lk 22:32), has handed
on this same teaching by a formal declaration, explicitly stating what is to be held
always, everywhere, and by all, as belonging to the deposit of the faith.
Further, as you may know, on May 30, 2008 The Congregation for the Doctrine
of the Faith issued the general decree, "On the Delict of Attempted Sacred Ordination of
a Woman." The decree affirms that, "he who shall have attempted to confer holy orders
on a woman, as well as the woman who may have attempted to receive Holy Orders,
incurs in a latae sententiae excommunication," that is, an automatic excommunication.
Futher, reconciliation for this excommunication must come through the Holy See in
Rome.
As your Bishop, I urge you, to refrain from participating in what will be an invalid
attempt at "ordination." This opportunity is taken to inform you that, should you proceed
with this action, you would in fact, separate yourself from the Catholic Church, by your
own free choice.
With this in mind, for the good of your immortal soul, I exhort you to choose not to
participate in this attempted "ordination."
+ Frank Dewane
Bishop 0f the e Diocese of
Venice in Florida

Three Media Stories About Roman Catholic Women Priests: Florida, Minnesota, Califoria/ CBS TV in Ft. Myers Covers Judy Beaumont's Upcoming Ordination

2011-12-28T21:03:00.002-05:00

Judy Beaumont, in green stole on day of ordination as deacon,
was called by leaders of her Ft. Myers' Community. Women in Vestments
are Priests from Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests

1) Local woman to be ordained priest, faces excommunication WINK Television Interview with Deacon Judy Beaumont, ARCWP
http://www.winknews.com/Local-Florida/2011-12-28/Local-woman-to-be-ordained-priest-faces-excommunication
FORT MYERS, Fla.- "Judy Beaumont of Fort Myers will be ordained as a priest in the Roman Catholic Church that she has served her entire adult life. Then, she will be excommunicated from the church, because only men are allowed to be priests. Our mission is to bring about a new church. A church that is inclusive of all people," Beaumont told WINK News.The 74-year-old operates the Good Shepard Ministry in Fort Myers, helping the poor and homeless. Beaumont says the people she serves have called her to be a priest, so she will be ordained in a ceremony in January. "It will be a joy for me to celebrate the eucharist and to lead the mass for the people at Good Shepard," Beaumont says. "I do look forward to celebrating mass and performing the sacrements."

2) Women priests seen as both threat, solution

ScrippsNews
"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."
http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/66331

3) “Far from Rome”
California Catholic Daily

The Catholic Church is an anti-woman and homophobic institution requiring ... and a member of the Roman Catholic Womenpriests movement agreed during a ...

http://www.calcatholic.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?id=e9c75d90-ee73-4480-bdac-8053ed312e3e

Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests: A Renewed Priestly Ministry in a Community of Equals

2011-12-27T20:57:00.001-05:00

The ordained women of the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests (ARCWP) live and minister in the United States and South America. We prepare and ordain qualified women to serve the people of God as priests. We use equal rites to promote equal rights and justice for women in the church. We affirm that justice for all of God’s people is constitutive to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Roman Catholic Women Priests (RCWP) initiative is a renewal movement within the Roman Catholic Church. Our goal is to achieve full equality for all within the Church as a matter of justice and faithfulness to the Gospel. The Women Priests movement advocates for a new model of inclusive priestly ministry in the church. We stand in the prophetic tradition of holy obedience to the Spirit who calls all people to discipleship. The movement began with the ordination of seven women on the Danube River in 2002. Today there are over 124 women priests and 10 bishops worldwide. Our women priests are ordained in Apostolic Succession. The first women bishops were ordained by a male Roman Catholic bishop in apostolic succession and in communion with the pope.

The Vatican states that we are excommunicated, however, we do not accept this and affirm that we are loyal members of the church. We continue to serve our beloved church in a renewed priestly ministry by welcoming all to celebrate the sacraments in inclusive, Christ-centered, Spirit-empowered communities wherever we are called. There are women priest communities in Germany, Austria, France, Scotland, Canada, the United States, and South America. From our birth on the Danube River, RCWP has evolved into two streams in Europe (West and East), two in Canada (West and East), and two in the United States (RCWP USA and ARCWP. Someday streams will flow in Latin America and elsewhere.

The specific charism of ARCWP within the broader global Roman Catholic Women Priests initiative is to live Gospel equality and justice for all including women in the church and in society now. We work in solidarity with the poor, exploited, and marginalized for structural and transformative justice in partnership with all believers. Our vision is to act as a community of equals in decision-making both as an organization and within our faith communities. We advocate for the renewal of Jesus’ vision as found in the Gospel for our church and our world.

The unique focus of the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests is on justice and equality:

1. We seek equality for women in the church including decision-making and ordination.

2. We minister with the poor and marginalized.

3. We live the spiritual and social justice tradition of the church serving inclusive communities of equals.

4. We actively and openly participate in non-violent movements for peace and justice.

FOR MORE INFORMATION
http://www.associationofromancatholicwomenpriests.org/

Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan http://www.blogger.com/goog_2030030847

Judy Lee, Circle Leader judyabl@embarqmail.com 239-454-7426

Janice Sevre-Duszyska, Media Contact rhythmsofthedance@msn.com cell: 859-684-4247

A Message from Priests and Clergy Childhood Sexual Abuse Survivors

2011-12-27T19:07:00.001-05:00

Some of us are priests of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and some of us are survivors of childhood rape and sexual assault by priests. In the wake of the bankruptcy filing by the archdiocese this year, we have joined together as survivors and clergy in an ongoing dialogue about the clergy sex abuse crisis and what we can do about it.
The sexual abuse of a minor by a priest is a crime and a sin. If you were sexually violated by a member of the clergy it was not your fault. We want you to know:

• If you suffered this violation you are not alone.
• There are many survivors who have come forward and are receiving the care and assistance that they need.
• There are many resources in our community that are available to assist you and you can choose to use them or not.
We stand by you and support you.
• To be believed you must be heard. No one else will know unless you tell them.

EACH OF US BELIEVES that at the center of the human heart is
an absolute longing for justice. We are committed to creating among
priests and survivors a true and lasting community of justice.
Over the next months we want to widen our conversation to include
other priests and survivors in the archdiocese, especially those that
have already expressed a desire to join with us.

AS PRIESTS AND PASTORS OF THE ARCHDIOCESE,
we publicly declare our unqualified support to every victim/survivor.
We hold ourselves and our institution fully accountable for any action
or inaction that may have allowed these crimes to occur, the
offender to go unpunished, and other children to be harmed. We areWe believe that, in order for our church and our community to heal,
truly sorry that this happened to you.

there will need to be a full institutional accounting of the crimes
that have taken place in the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. Victim/Survivors
and their families have told us how important it is that they
know the truth about what happened to them in their church. But,
it is also important for each one of us.
Obviously, we are very tardy in making this public statement of
apology, support, and accountability. But, making this statement
now is better than remaining silent.

AS VICTIM/SURVIVORS OF THESE CRIMES, we declare our
unqualified support for every priest who takes the courageous step
of publicly standing with survivors.
Shame is logically and naturally created when a child is sexually
violated. But that shame is rarely, if ever, felt by the offender.
Instead, the offender pours that shame into the body of the child.
If justice does not intervene to lift that weight, eventually the soul and
aspirations of that child will be crushed by it.
If even the possibility of spiritual repair with the church is to become
real and effective for survivors, priests of the archdiocese must
courageously join us and insist upon a full and public confession,
which must include the open publication of all abuse related
documents in possession of the archdiocese and of the religious orders
serving in the archdiocese, detailing a full and explanatory
list of all clerics and employees who have harmed children and minors.

THE SEX OFFENDER ALWAYS commits two crimes: first he
steals the body, and then he steals the voice. The first and last moment
of the miracle of recovery from sexual violence—for the victim,
for the offender, and for an institution--is the resurrection of the
voice through words of truth.

We want there to be hope. We want there to be healing.
We want a new day for the church.
For victim/survivors who may still be living in silence or shame,
we hope this public plea from us—as survivors and priests working
together--to come forward before the February 1, 2012 court date
for filing a case for restitution through the bankruptcy process and
to seek help and guidance with this decision through the resources
we have posted below will be a beginning in creating together the
community of justice, which we all long for.

Mike Sneesby, SNAP Milwaukee Director (survivor)

Karen Konter, female advocate, (survivor)

Peter J. Isely, MS, M.Div, LCSW, SNAP Midwest Director (survivor)

John Pilmaier, MSW, APSW, SNAP Wisconsin Director (survivor)

Vicky A. Schneider, MAPS (survivor)

Marilynn Pilmaier, RN, BSN (mother of survivor)

Fr. Richard Cerpich
Fr. James Connell

Fr. Gregory Greiten
Fr. Howard G. Haase

Resources in our community:

The Healing Center: 414-671-4325

http://thehealingcenter.org/

Wisconsin Coalition Against Sexual Assault:

608-257-1516 608-257-2537 (TTY) www.wcasa.org

Sexual Assault Treatment Center:

414-219-5555 (A crisis counselor is available 24 hours a day. Non-crisis

information/referral is available M-F 8:30-5:00)

http://www.aurorahealthcare.org/services/sexual-assault/satc.asp

Counsel for Creditor’s Committee (of survivors)

for information regarding the bankruptcy: 1-888-496-8643

SNAP (Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests)

Peter J Isely: 414-429-7259

John Pilmaier: 414-336-8575

Mike Sneesby: 414-915-4374

www.snapwisconsin.com

Archdiocese of Milwaukee:

414-758-2232 www.archmil.org

Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office:

Sensitive Crimes Division: (if you would like to speak to a member

of the law enforcement community concerning a sexual assault)

414-278-4617

Your local police department or county office for health and human

services.

Any other resource that you trust.

If you would like to contact one of us whose names are listed above,

call Fr. Jim Connell at 414-940-8054 or John Pilmaier at 414-336-8575.
Today we are making an urgent appeal to victim/survivors

to come forward before the closing of the February 1, 2012

bankruptcy bar date, and offer our help.

"Christmas Pondering" by Sr. Anne Brooks

2011-12-26T23:33:00.000-05:00

WHAT WAS IT LIKE?

What was it like,

O God, Creator of the seemingly infinite universe,

to chose the Star of Bethlehem timeless eons before the earth was formed

so the length of those light years' distance

would be a perfect co-incidence for the birth of your Son?

And what was it like,

O amorphous cloud of interstellar gasses,

to birth a light-bearing mass from the inky-ness of the black-hole-depths of space

specifically to honor the King of Kings?

And what was it like,

O Sun,

to allow gravity to form, in this universe,

to rein in your planets,

to measure the perfect distance for life to form

and to hear God call you to rule over the Day on this yet-to-be perfect world

where God would walk in the cool of the evening, and later in the heat of the day?

And what was it like,

O World,

when people were formed from the mud of the earth,

molded by the loving hands of God,

life-breath transmitted into them by the Spirit of God,

interstellar dust in their sinews and bones,

and yet who failed to obey their Creator,

allowing evil to attempt to try to change civilization?

And you,

O Star of Wonder,

your light speeding through space,

what did you think of how the stage was being set

for a Redeemer

for these troubled and battered people?

And what was it like,

O Star, when that wondrous night finally arrived in the Fullness of Time?

Did you see His mom? Did you see Him? Was He cute?

And did He cry?

And did you dance for joy?

And you,

O Star of Night,

did you see the Magi pointing at you, night after night, mile after mile after mile?

And did you hear them murmuring about your beauty

and pondering your reason to be there?

and what did you think of that dangerous journey you guided them on

so they could see what you had seen?

And what has happened to you,

O Starlight, which reached our world that night?

You didn't go out, like the flame of a candle --

your source of Light continues burning on

Instead, you keep on shining even now, into our own lives,

giving our civilization an inheritance to treasure

so that we see the light tonight that saw God's only Son

and now we know that

we must look with God's Eyes

and listen with God's Ears

and love with God's Heart which is beating in our hearts

and do God's Work on this Earth in such a way

that it will become as bright as your light,

as eternal as your light

full of praise for God, Whose children we are

and who can live forever, endless as your light, eternal as our God...
Christmas, A.D 2011

Popular Irish Journalist, Olivia O'Leary Leaves the Catholic Church Over Stance on Women Priests/ Roman Catholic Women Priests Stand on Prophetic Margins for Justice and Equality

2011-12-26T22:29:00.000-05:00

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/republic-of-ireland/oleary-leaves-catholic-church-over-stance-on-women-priests-16095543.html
"Veteran Irish broadcaster Olivia O'Leary has made a very public departure from the Catholic Church. The Carlow-born journalist, best known for her "we were a bit worried about the curtsy" tribute to the Queen during the monarch's State visit, renounced Catholicism because of the church's refusal to ordain women, though the institutional cover-up of clerical child sex abuse was a "proximate factor"... "No longer at my age can I accept a subordinate role; not for myself, not for my daughter, not for my sisters, my nieces or friends," the 61-year-old current affairs presenter declared. She added that other women had walked out of the church a long time ago. "
Bridget Mary's Reflection:
I hope that Olivia O' Leary is aware of the international Roman Catholic Women Priests Movement. I spoke to the Irish press about our movement over a year ago and RTE aired a special program on women's ordination. Roman Catholic Women Priests are the "Rosa Parks" of the Catholic Church. We refuse to accept second class citizenship in our own church. We are not leaving the church, but leading the church into a new era of justice and equality for women.
Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP
Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests
http://www.associationofromancatholicwomenpriests.org/
sofiabmm@aol.com

We, from the Good Shepherd Inclusive Catholic Community in Fort Myers, Florida wish you a Blessed Christmas!

2011-12-25T22:50:00.000-05:00

Here are some pictures of our young people who acted out the Christmas Story with the Luke 2 Gospel Reading during Christmas Eve Mass. Ty is 18 today, and Jolinda is 14 and Keion is 10 and Jakeriya 9. Jakeriya took me to task to make sure girls could be shepherds! She was so right. We had no camera during Mass so these pictures were taken afterward during our fellowship, hot Christmas Meal and Sunday School Classes. Only three years ago our children had no idea of what happened on Christmas or Easter, now they are all baptized and deeply love the Christ they celebrate at Christmas. We are so thankful for our whole community, and for those who could not be there and for our faithful supporters. About 35 people attended our special Christmas Eve Mass and celebration. There was such joy and love-we knew Christmas had really come and we wish all of you the love of Christmas.

Pastor Judy Lee, ARCWP,Priest

Judy Beaumont, ARCWP Deacon

Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde, first female Episcophal bishop of the Washington DC Diocese, Interviewed on Diann Rehm Show

2011-12-25T21:50:00.000-05:00

http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-12-21/bishop-mariann-edgar-budde
A decade of schism in the American Episcopal Church has taken a toll. New polls show the number of Episcopalians in the U.S. has dipped below two million for the first time in modern history. The church is losing conservatives who say it is too secular and accepting of gays and lesbians. Liberals are leaving to find spirituality not based on a centuries-old theology. The first female bishop of the Washington D.C. diocese -- one of the nation’s largest and home to the National Cathedral -- has a plan. She’s looking for ways to grow the church and bring people together. Diane talks with the Right Reverend Mariann Budde about saving the Episcopal Church.

Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community Celebrates Christmas in Sarasota, Florida

2011-12-25T00:15:00.002-05:00

"We Are Called"/ A Meditation Slideshow of ARCWP/Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests

2011-12-23T23:24:00.003-05:00

A Musical "Tribute" to Corporations/ Let the 99% Rejoice!

2011-12-23T23:03:00.000-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws0WSNRpy3g

"A Christmas Story" by Judy Lee, ARCWP/Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests

2011-12-23T22:23:00.024-05:00

Ben

Ben and Judy Lee

Judy Beaumont and Ben

Good Shepherd Ministries of SWFL, INC.

Dear Friends,
As we approach Christmas 2011 and the indwelling of Christ that brings new life, once again our hearts are full of gratitude for the love you have shown us and our people. We continue our work of housing the homeless and feeding the hungry. When Deborah age 60, moves into Goodwill Housing next week, she will be the 66th person we have housed. We also have expanded our ministry with children and youth. We now serve 20 youngsters full of life and joy and growing in their understanding of God’s love and Jesus’ way. This year has been full of stories of transformation, hope, growth and life that Christmas brings. We share our joy with you.
We are invited to Ben’s home.

A Christmas Story

His Christmas tree stands proudly on a table

and he offers us homemade soup

as he brings his handcrafted ships for us to admire.

They are perfect replicas and one could never guess they

are meticulously and carefully carved from pop sticks.

His home is lovely and smoke free as a heart attack

last year gave him the strength to

put smoking and alcohol aside for good.

He leans back in his chair and recalls the day

we collected him from his Dumpster and

brought him to this home three years ago.

“I would have died there, I am sure of it”

he said. “And now I love my life and cannot say

thank you enough to God, and to you, my friends.”

“No” we say, “thank you, Ben, you are a master craftsman

carving a new life with the Carpenter of Nazareth.

It is a joy to share your life, Thank you, Ben”.

And a blessed Christmas and New Year to all.

(Judy Lee, ARCWP and Judy Beaumont, ARCWP, serve the poor and low-income people in the Ft. Myers area. They have a weekly Inclusive Catholic Mass at Joshua House. For more information, email: judyabl@embarqmail.com , judybeaumont@embarqmail.com )

Promote Justice and Equality for Women in the Church With Your Financial Support of the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests

2011-12-22T21:35:00.000-05:00

Dear Supporter of the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests,

Our Spirit-led movement for Gospel equality, nonviolence, justice and a people-empowered Church continues to grow.
At the end of March our second woman priest was ordained in Latin America! We now have candidates in the U.S. and Latin America! We are in a new moment! On September 10, 2011, two women were ordained priests, including our first from Texas, 84-year-old Adele Jones and our first from Connecticut, Dorothy M. Shugrue and Donna Rougeux from Kentucky was ordained deacon. In November Judy Beaumont was ordained a deacon. Judy has been involved with our movement almost since the very beginning and we are thrilled that she is on the journey toward priesthood. We are planning for the ordination of our five deacons in 2012.
Media – television, radio, print and Internet – have helped get the word out. We collaborate with Women's Ordination Conference and Call to Action to support Fr. Roy Bourgeois who said. “...it is my conscience that compels me to say publicly that the exclusion of women from the priesthood is a grave injustice against women, against our Church and against our Loving God who calls both men and women to the priesthood.”
A new vision is rising up: one of Gospel equality, nonviolence and justice in our church and world community!
That’s what ARCWP is about. In the friendship that Jesus offers us, we work to bring about the Kin-dom by serving and being with the grassroots, the poor and marginalized and “being out there” for justice and peace challenging the powers that be. As a branch of the international women priest movement, our charism calls us to name the connections between sexism and violence toward women, children and the planet. We do this locally, nationally, and internationally.
We know that we can count on you to support our efforts. Make your tax-deductible donation to
ARCWP
18520 Eastshore Drive
Ft. Myers, Florida 33967
Check out Bridget Mary’s blog for the latest in the movement! http://bridgetmarys.blogspot.com/
and our website: http://www.associationofromancatholicwomenpriests.org/
Blessings as we move forward together...
Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests
P.S. Don't miss "Pink Smoke Over the Vatican" when it comes to your community!

Historic Ordination of Judy Beaumont of Ft. Myers as a Roman Catholic Woman Priest / Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests

2011-12-22T07:57:00.001-05:00

Release date: December 22, 2011
Contact: Janice Sevre-Duszynska at 859-684-4247, rhythmsofthedance@msn.com
Bridget Mary Meehan, 941-955-2313, 703-505-0004, sofiabmm@aol.com
Judy Beaumont, 239-454-7426, judybeaumont@embarqmail.com
See http://www.associationofromancatholicwomenpriests.org/
http://bridgetmarys.blogspot.com/

On Saturday, January 21, 2012 at 3:00 p.m. Judy Beaumont of Ft. Myers will be ordained a priest in the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests. The presiding bishop will be Bridget Mary Meehan of Sarasota and Falls Church, Virginia. The ceremony will take place at Lamb of God Lutheran-Episcopal Congregation, 19691 Cypress View Drive, Ft. Myers, Florida 33967 (239-267-3525, Walter Fohs, Senior Pastor). Prior to the ordination, at 1:00 p.m. there will be a viewing of "Pink Smoke Over the Vatican," the award-winning documentary of the struggle for justice for women in the Roman Catholic Church. All are welcome to attend.

The ordinand, Judy Beaumont, 74, has a rich and varied background as a religious sister, peace activist and as a minister to the poor and homeless. She entered the Benedictine Sisters of Chicago at seventeen and remained in their service for 35 years as a teacher and a volunteer resettling Vietnamese refugees. During this time she earned a bachelor's degree from Mundelein College and a Masters in Religious Education from Loyola University. In 1981 she left Chicago for Connecticut to join the anti-nuclear peace witness near Groton, Connecticut, at that time the home of the Trident Submarine, an instrument of mass death. In 1982, she was a member of the Trident Nein Plowshares nonviolent action which resulted in prison time. Later she helped to start My Sisters' Place, a shelter for homeless women and children in Hartford.

In 1989, she and Judy Lee, her partner in ministry, left Connecticut. Judy worked in two mission parishes and also became the director of religious education for a large parish in Fort Myers. This service was interrupted by her bout with a rare leukemia which she miraculously vanquished with the help of God in 2007. In 2008 she helped establish Good Shepherd Ministries of SW Florida, Inc. and works tirelessly serving the poor and homeless of Fort Myers. She is called forth by Call to Action of Southwest Florida and the Church of the Good Shepherd: an inclusive Catholic Community where she has served in a deacon's role since 2007. The church is located at 2621 Central Ave., Ft. Myers, FL 33901.
"Although immersed in all things Catholic since birth, I never experienced a call to the 'males-only' clerical priesthood." said Judy Beaumont. "After witnessing the renewed priestly ministry of women, it only seems right that I follow their example and call to join in bringing about a new inclusive church leading in the work for justice and equality in solidarity with marginalized and oppressed persons. It is so unfortunate that the Vatican takes a fundamentalist view of the Gospel when claiming that women cannot be ordained since Jesus chose only male apostles. Their failure to listen to contemporary Catholic Biblical scholars who find no basis in Scripture for a male-only clergy continues to relegate women to second class membership. Just think what it would do for women's rights worldwide, if the Vatican were to recognize and allow women's ordination."

The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests rejoices in a "holy shakeup" that millions of Catholics worldwide welcome. The good news now is that male priests, bishops, a cardinal as well as theologians have expressed their support of female priests. They are following in the footsteps of Maryknoll Roy Bourgeois whose prophetic call for a dialogue on women priests is being heard in more and more places today in our church.

Fr. Roy Bourgeois attended, delivered the homily and participated in the ordination rite of Janice Sevre-Duszynska on Aug. 9, 2008. This resulted in his excommunication and Vatican attempts to pressure Maryknoll to dismiss him from the Order.

"Nothing can stop the movement of the spirit toward human rights, justice and equality in our world and in our church," said Bridget Mary Meehan. "The full equality of women is the voice of God in our time."

The Women Priests movement in the Roman Catholic Church advocates a new model of priestly ministry united with the people with whom we minister. We stand in prophetic obedience to Jesus who calls women and men to be disciples and equals. The movement began with the ordination of seven women on the Danube in 2002. Today there are over 124 in the movement worldwide. ARCWP is in the United States and Latin America. Our specific charism within the broader global Roman Catholic Women Priests initiative is to live Gospel equality and justice for women in the church and in society now. We work in solidarity with the poor and marginalized for transformative justice in partnership with all believers. Our vision is to live as a community of equals in decision-making both as an organization and within all our faith communities. We advocate for a renewal of the vision of Jesus in the Gospel for our church and our world.

The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests: A Slideshow Meditation Created by Deacon Donna Rougeux, ARCWP

2011-12-21T22:21:00.001-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_yF0GlnwO4

Enjoy this beautiful slideshow of our women priests and deacons serving God's people in inclusive, egalitarian communities in the United States and Latin America. Deacon Donna Rougeux created this prayerful reflection of our call to live Gospel justice and equality in solidarity with the marginalized, poor and oppressed in the church and world.
We wish you a blessed Christmas and New Year.
Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP
http://www.associationofromancatholicwomenpriests.org/

"Is it OK to Elect Catholics?" By NEIL STEINBERG /Chicago Sun Times

2011-12-21T22:14:00.000-05:00

http://www.suntimes.com/news/steinberg/9524518-452/is-it-still-ok-to-elect-catholics.html
nsteinberg@suntimes.com

December 18, 2011 5:38PM

".... The cardinal might not like it — I’m sure he doesn’t. But plenty of the faithful join the governor in considering themselves good Catholics while conducting parts of their lives in ways “not consistent” with church policy — just last week a survey showed 98 percent of Catholic women use birth control banned by the church. (We’re fortunate that the cardinal has not challenged the governor over which form he uses, at least not yet). Much Catholic doctrine isn’t even followed by Catholics, yet church leaders would dragoon government to force it upon the rest of the state anyway.What Quinn has done to draw church censure — for those of you not up to date — is present an award to a rape victim at a pro-choice dinner, and lead a state whose laws forbid discrimination against citizens due to their sexual orientation, which means the church had to decide whether to place homeless children with gay couples, or get out of the adoption business. It chose to get out of the adoption business — you can debate among yourselves whether that is a choice a loving God would smile upon..."

..."If at election time I were to say, “You can’t vote for Pat Quinn — he’s a Catholic and will be bullied into strictly following church doctrine” — I’d be accused of bias and rightly so. Yet the cardinal is trying to do exactly that, to exercise an authority over public life he does not and should not possess.Quinn attended 13 years of Catholic school — the church already had its chance to mold him. Now he is 63 and an adult. It is Quinn, and not Cardinal George, who gets to decide how his faith influences his life. I’m sorry to be the one to deliver the news."

Bridget Mary's Reflection:
Neil Steinberg hits the nail on the head! How dare Cardinal George bully Governor Pat Quinn to impose the hierarchy's teachings on the Illinois voters. It is true that Catholics follow their consciences on the hot button issues mentioned in the article above, and many dissent from the official teaching of the institutional church.
What the Cardinal George needs to learn is that Pat Quinn and many other Catholics no longer fear the crack of a crozier across the knuckles.
Another example is the Irish Governmentwhich closed the Irish embassy in Rome and is holding the Vatican accountable for the sexual abuse cover-up.