Former Nun Courts Controversy by Ordaining Women, Tampa Bay Online, February 14, 2010

Former Nun Courts Controversy by Ordaining Women

Tampa Bay Online
February 14, 2010

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/feb/14/former-nun-courts-controversy-ordaining-women/life/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+tbo%2Flife+%28TBO+%3E+Life%29

SARASOTA (FL) -- A former nun who the Vatican says has been excommunicated ordained two women priests and one deacon in Sarasota, part of a growing and controversial movement claiming to be an offshoot of the Catholic church.

The ordinations were the first in Florida by the group known as Roman Catholic Womenpriests, which preaches equality for women by allowing them into the priesthood and plays down allegiance to the pope.

The official Catholic church calls the movement and the ordinations illegitimate, and the local diocese sent letters to parishes saying any Catholics who support the ordination of women by attending the ceremony will be automatically excommunicated — a banishment from participating in church sacraments such as baptism and communion until forgiveness is given by a priest.

Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan, left, ordains Katy Zatsick of Lexington, Ky. and Dena O'Callaghan of Ocala, Fla., as Roman Catholic Womenpriests.

"Good!" said Bridget Mary Meehan, the former nun who performed the ordinations and is one of five bishops in the national movement. "They're upping the ante. People will have to be courageous to support us and that is what this is about. Like our sister Rosa Parks, we refuse to sit on the back of the bus any longer."

Bishop Frank J. Dewane, leader of the Diocese of Venice, which includes Sarasota, refused through a spokesman to be interviewed about the ordinations. The diocese said its warning that any Catholic attending the ceremony will be excommunicated follows orders set forth from Rome.

The Catholic Church's position is that women cannot be priests because it says that Jesus chose men as disciples, and because the priest is meant to be an icon for Jesus, he needs to be male.

"This situation is sad for the entire Church," according to a written statement by the Venice Diocese. "The Diocese prays that all those involved in this attempt to 'ordain', 'Roman Catholic Womenpriests' will be reconciled with the Church, and that the harm and division caused will be healed."

The Catholic womenpriests movement was born in 2002 in Europe, where a bishop broke Catholic law and ordained seven women. It has thrived primarily in the U.S., where about 70 of the world's 100 womenpriests now live. Most are married, many are former nuns, and some are openly gay.

Meehan, who was born in Ireland, spent 25 years in the convent and now lives half the year with her father in his Sarasota mobile home, was among the first dozen American women to be ordained by the movement in 2006.

She began celebrating Mass for neighbors in her father's mobile home. In her version, God is called both father and mother, and the priest leads a full-church discussion instead of giving a sermon.

Weekly attendance has grown to about 50 people and she has begun renting space for Mass at St. Andrew United Church of Christ, the site of the ordination.

Priests in the movement say they are acting on the Catholic teaching that you can disobey a church law you believe in your heart is unjust, in this case the one prohibiting women from being priests.

While there are other organizations critical of Catholic doctrines that hold alternative Masses, the womenpriests group is the only one ordaining female priests to perform the most sacred part of the Mass, where the priest transforms bread into the body of Jesus and gives it to congregants through communion. Sacraments delivered by the womenpriests, according to the official church, are invalid.

Whether the Vatican considers the sacrament performed by a woman priest valid does not matter to Dick Fisher, who left his Catholic church in Osprey, calling it "lifeless," to attend Meehan's Mass.

"I like it because everybody's included and nobody's left out, and that was the policy of Jesus," Fisher said.

Momentum is behind women becoming priests, said James Cavendish, a professor of sociology and Catholic studies at the University of South Florida. Polls show that about two-thirds of U.S. Catholics believe women should be ordained, about 20 percent higher than the numbers obtained from similar polls in the 1980s.

A Pew Research Center survey showed that treatment of women in the church was cited by 39 percent of former Catholics as part of the reason they left.

But the impact of this women's movement on the church is likely many years off, if any change comes at all, Cavendish said. The official church has said it is unwilling to even consider ordaining women, even despite what has become a shortage of priests in the U.S.

The ordination reflects the movement's growth in Florida. There will be three female priests in Florida besides Meehan, all surrounding her base in Sarasota: one to the north in New Port Richey, one to the south in Fort Myers, and one to the east in Ocala.

"This will be a little nucleus of vibrant Roman Catholicism renewed," Meehan said.

To become a priest in the movement, candidates must have already studied theology and have already worked in a ministry such as the convent or for a charity. For one year the candidates study with a current female priest who acts as a mentor. The more mentors in Florida, the more women will be able to go through the training and potentially start their own churches, Meehan said.

Already two more women, both former Catholic nuns, are preparing to go through training locally, Meehan said.

Dena O'Callaghan, who was be ordained, is already helping host Mass with her husband, a former Catholic priest, in their home in Ocala. With her ordination she hopes to begin renting space in another church and foster growth of a congregation similar to Meehan's.

She left the convent and took classes with priests in training at the seminary, but when they graduated to take vows, she stood by and watched.

"All this time I could not say yes to God," O'Callaghan said. "Now that I have the opportunity I can't say no. If I'm excommunicated, I'm in good company. Look at Joan of Arc and all the others. My conscience tells me what I'm doing is right."