Yesterday I went to Philadelphia for the celebration of the ordination of two women to deacon and priest by the Roman Catholic Womenpriests. What a fabulous occasion it was! Of course, it wasn’t held in a Catholic Church. In fact, the women were excommunicated the moment of their ordinations. These brave women, both of whom have graduate theology degrees and have been working in religious education and pastoral care of the sick and poor for decades, were ordained in a Reconstructionist synagogue in the same city where the first Episcopal female priests were ordained, contrary to church law at the time, in 1974. Unfortunately, the Catholic Church hasn’t caught up to the Episcopal Church or many others in opening the priesthood to women. So these women and others around the world — nuns, mothers and grandmothers — have determined to break this unjust Catholic law. They deem their ordinations valid in that their bishop (Patricia Fresen, a former nun and seminary teacher) was ordained by a male bishop in good standing with the Catholic Church. His name has been locked in a safe. She, in turn, has ordained others, thus retaining the apostolic succession that is prized in the Catholic Church. This is not merely a feminist movement as was evident by the number of males in attendance. It is a movement of justice and renewal of the Catholic Church, which is suffering from a lack of priests. Enrollment at American seminaries last year was less than half the number it was in 1965. As a result, seminary standards have declined, churches have closed, and more foreign priests have been given parishes in the U.S. The elderly man who stood next to me leaning on his cane finally gave up on his local New Jersey pastor this spring. At the ordination mass he whispered to me as the homily began, “The women are usually better than the men.” It’s unfortunate that the Catholic hierarchy, which appears to have made an idol of its own celibate (or professed celibate) maleness, doesn’t recognize that these women could be the key to the survival of the Catholic Church in America.
If you want to know more, read yesterday’s article in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

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