Kentucky woman ordained as priest by dissident Roman Catholics
John Sommers / Reuters
Ordaining Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan (C) presents Rosemarie Smead (R), a 70-year-old Kentucky woman, to the audience after she was ordained as a Roman Catholic priest during a Celebration of Ordination at St. Andrew's United Church of Christ in Louisville, Kentucky April 27, 2013.
18 hours ago
By Sofia Perpetua, NBC News
A dissident Roman Catholic group ordained a 70-year-old woman a priest in Louisville, Kentucky, during a ceremony attended by hundreds on Saturday.
About 150 women from all over the world have been ordained in defiance of the Roman Catholic Church that bans them from becoming priests.
Rosemarie Smead will be starting her own congregation and she told Reuters she is not worried about being excommunicated.
"It is a medieval bullying stick the bishops used to keep control over people and to keep the voices of women silent, she said. I am way beyond letting octogenarian men tell us how to live our lives."
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/28/17959215-kentucky-woman-ordained-as-priest-by-dissident-roman-catholics?lite
georges641
(123 posts)Besides having no respect for God's shepherds.
rug
(82,333 posts)Personally, I think these ordinations do something to raise questions about the role of women in the Church and the nature of priesthood but, if there is to be change, the impetus has to be from inside not from factionaliing the issue.
hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)They are entitled to do this even thought they are not Roman Catholic priests. We have female priests in the Episcopal Church and it works out fine. I understand you don't want woman priests and that is your right, but claiming they have no respect is saying something that is not true.
IrishAyes
(6,151 posts)There are countless ardent Catholics who do want women priests, and we get to say whether we're good Catholics or not. That's between us and God, not us and Rome.
hunter
(38,264 posts)We have a Byzantine Catholic service in our community. These are autonomous, self-governing churches in full communion with the Pope. Extending out a little further, what about other Orthodox churches? Or the church of mainland China? Or the Polish National Church?
Where do you draw the line?
Do you respect the shepherds of these churches? Are they "God's shepherds?"
georges641
(123 posts)but see the article. It claims she was "ordained a Roman Catholic priest." That's impossible.
hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)okasha
(11,573 posts)that women pursued toward ordination in the Episcopal church. The first women priests were ordained "illicitly," by "maverick" bishops. When the church faced up to reality on the issue and admitted women to the priesthood, those ordinations were "regularized."
It's confrontational, but it worked for the Episcopal church and may in the long run work for the RCC.
hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)and heroic. Bishop Paul Moore of NY was brave to do it as well.
IrishAyes
(6,151 posts)Fortinbras Armstrong
(4,473 posts)When they preach equality of the sexes, but do not practice it, then they are being hypocritical.
IrishAyes
(6,151 posts)I don't think I'm spelling it right, but I know what it means. And I know it when I see it.