By Natalie Stechyson
The Telegraph-Journal
April 20, 2011
http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/news/article/1399383
 |
| After ripping a banner, an unidentified man tells Elizabeth McGahan and others protesting outside the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Saint John that 'the Pope has spoken' on the issue of women in the priesthood and that they should leave. The protesters were outnumbered by traditional Catholics who showed up to stage a counter-protest. |
 |
| From left, Lorraine Shonaman, Paula Faye Dobbelsteyn and Cindy Mayo wear white scarves to show they stand with the Catholic church's teaching, while Purple Stole Society members Paula MacQuarrie, Marilyn Rowan and Rose Lenahan hold a vigil in front of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception on Waterloo Street. |
SAINT JOHN - As a man ripped a gash across a banner that called for the Catholic Church to reverse its ban on women in the priesthood, the people gathered in the parking lot of a Saint John cathedral tried to keep him calm.
"This is a holy place!" the man shouted over and over, while the women who were part of the Purple Stole Vigil Tuesday evening held fast to their torn banner. The agitator was eventually ushered away by another man. Defeated, he jumped into a red truck and took off.
It was an evening of firsts for the men and women in the vigil: their first assault, their first time encountering an organized movement of women against women as priests and, perhaps most unexpectedly, the public support by some priests to the idea that women have a place in the priesthood.
"I have no difficulty whatsoever with this," Rev. Kevin Barry, a priest from Hampton Parish, said outside the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. "I know the dedication they have and I know the abilities they have and I know what it takes, and they have it."
"I'm not naïve. It's not going to happen tomorrow," Barry said. "It's going to take a long, long time."
Tuesday marked the ninth Purple Stole Vigil in Saint John. Most of the supporters were affiliated with the New Brunswick Catholic Network for Women's Equality, a branch of a national group that has been lobbying the Catholic Church to reverse its ban on women entering the priesthood for decades.
The exclusion calls into question the equality of Catholics, said Cathy Holtmann, one of the founders of the New Brunswick chapter.
"Catholics believe they are equally baptized in Christ, and in that equality there should be no difference between either men or women discerning their call to ministry."
The vigils are set to coincide with the Mass of the Chrism, held during holy week to celebrate the church's sacraments and the ordination of the priests. The pews were packed with parishioners as priests from around the Diocese of Saint John descended on the cathedral.
To the left of the cathedral doors, about 15 women and men in purple stoles - the colour of reconciliation - held signs and handed out pamphlets.
To the right, a group of 30 women in white scarves also passed out pamphlets: "Why women can't be priests." Their protest was a first, organized by women in the church.
"We are women who stand with the church on the teachings of ordination," said Gabrielle Burnham, 18.
Pope John Paul II, in his 1994 Apostolic Letter, wrote that "the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church's faithful." The Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith responded a year later, supporting the document.
But Susan Roll, an associate professor in the Faculty of Theology at Saint Paul University in Ottawa, says scholarship in the last 20 years shows "considerable evidence" for the ordination of women as priests and deacons in the early church.
"As a scholar, I think that the scholarly evidence...needs to be taken seriously," Roll said. "This was not even seriously studied until about 15 years ago."
The women and men who took part in Tuesday's vigil say they believe change will come, but not any time soon.
"This is probably the most difficult question in the Catholic Church today but absolutely necessary if the church wants to retain the majority of its members," Holtmann said.
Rev. Peter Bagley greeted the men and women on both sides of the cathedral doors as he arrived, shaking hands and laughing with both groups.
"They have a legitimate right in the church and to be involved in leadership," he said of the women as he walked inside for the mass. "I really think we need to make room for their dreams and hopes."
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.