By Michael Paulson
Boston Globe
January 30, 2009
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles_of_faith/2009/01/women_to_pope_u.html
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| Photo shows a ceremony in Boston last summer at which a group advocating for the ordination of women said it ordained Gloria Ray Carpeneto of Maryland as a priest. The Catholic Church said the ceremony was not a valid ordination Photo by Travis Dove |
The main group advocating for the ordination of women as Catholic priests, taking note of Pope Benedict XVI's decision to lift the excommunication of four conservative Lefebvrist bishops (one of whom denies the Holocaust) who were ordained without papal sanction in 1988, is asking the pope to also lift the excommunications of women who participated in ceremonies that they call "ordinations," in violation of Catholic church teaching prohibiting the ordination of women. The statement from Roman Catholic WomenPriests, an organization that church officials say is not Catholic:
"Roman Catholic Womenpriests call on Pope Benedict to lift the decree of automatic excommunication issued on May 29, 2008 against all in our movement as a gesture of reconciliation and justice toward women in the church.
As is well known, the Congregation for Bishops, instructed by the Pope, removed the excommunication of four traditionalist bishops on Jan. 21, 2009. Therefore, Roman Catholic Womenpriests call on the Pope to lift the decree of excommunication against us. This gesture will be a step away from the institutional church’s treatment of women as second-class citizens.
We stand firmly in the tradition of Vatican ll which declares: "Any kind of social or cultural discrimination in basic personal rights on the grounds of sex, race, color, social conditions, language or religion, must be curbed and eradicated as incompatible with God's design." (Gaudium et Spes, art. 29, 2)
No priest pedophiles have been excommunicated. No bishops who were responsible for their continued placement in parishes after their pedophile history was known have been excommunicated. Theologians who teach and support Vatican II teachings and who support women's ordination are silenced and/or excommunicated. Women ordained as priests are excommunicated. Priests and laity who support women priests are excommunicated. But, priests who reject Vatican II and who deny the holocaust and who openly deny the full equality of women are "rehabilitated" after earlier excommunication?
What's wrong with this picture?"
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