Catholic Church Ordains Woman As Priest, by Michael Clancy, Arizona Republic, August 31 2010

Catholic Church Ordains Woman As Priest

By Michael Clancy
Arizona Republic
August 31 2010

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/2010/08/31/20100831arizona-woman-ordained-catholic-priest.html

Elaine Groppenbacher hugs Bishop Peter Hickman on Saturday after being ordained at the Guardian Angels Catholic Community at Community Christian Church in Tempe. Groppenbacher is the fourth woman to be ordained as a priest in the Valley.

A woman was ordained as a Catholic priest in the Valley on Saturday in the kind of ceremony the Vatican recently condemned as one of the church's most serious crimes.

Elaine Groppenbacher received holy orders from Bishop Peter Hickman of the Ecumenical Catholic Communion, one of several liberal Catholic offshoots in the Valley. The ceremony took place at Guardian Angels Catholic Community, which meets in Tempe.

Groppenbacher is the fourth woman to be ordained as a Catholic priest in the Valley.

The issue of women's ordination has been the subject of debate in recent years. The Vatican recently condemned the action as a grave sin, on par with the sexual abuse of children.

"The Catholic Church teaches that only a baptized man can be validly ordained to the ministerial priesthood," said Rob DeFrancesco, spokesman for the Diocese of Phoenix. "The Catholic priesthood mirrors the actions of Christ, who lived as a celibate male and sought to ordain only men. Therefore, the attempted ordination of a woman to the priesthood in the Catholic Church constitutes a grave offense."

Saturday's ceremony also confirmed another woman priest, the Rev. Sue Ringler, and her parish as part of the Ecumenical Catholic Communion.

Participating in the ceremony were five bishops of independent churches, including Hickman, as well as the Rev. Vernon Meyer, a Catholic priest who resigned from the diocese this month.

DeFrancesco said independent churches "are not in communion with the Roman Catholic Church and should not identify themselves as Catholic" because of potential confusion. He had no comment on Meyer's participation.

Elsewhere, the church has excommunicated the person ordained and those who took part in the ordination. But neither Groppenbacher nor Ringler said she considered herself subject to the rules of the Roman Catholic Church, and therefore could not be excommunicated.

Groppenbacher, who has had a career as a social worker, said before the ordination, "I have always been a person who approached my life as ministry." As for the ordination, she said, "People who know me say it is about time."

A cradle Catholic, Groppenbacher said she began to drift from the Roman Catholic Church in college. She tried a non-denominational Bible church for a while, but realized, "Tradition is in my blood."

"I missed the sacramental, liturgical nature of the Catholic Church," she said.

Once she found alternatives to the standard Roman church, her path to the priesthood became clear.

Ringler, also born Catholic, said she and Groppenbacher are not part of the Roman Catholic Womenpriests organization, which has attracted the attention of Catholic bishops in the United States and in Rome.

"We have more problems with the church than just its treatment of women," Ringler said.

Among those issues are lay participation, active membership for gay and lesbian members, and openness on women's health concerns, notably birth control and abortion. The churches typically invite everyone to take communion, church members or not.

Ringler said Guardian Angels attracts about 40 people to Mass every week - a Mass that closely follows the Roman Catholic version.

Hickman was direct in discussing the ordination of a woman.

"A great movement of the Holy Spirit is at work among us," he said. "The Blessed Virgin Mary has been praying for acceptance of women all these centuries. It is the just and right thing to do."

Both Ringler's and Groppenbacher's beliefs track with much of Catholic theology, the women said.

"God's love is actively engaged with humanity," Groppenbacher said. "My ordination is a public acknowledgement that this is first and foremost for me."

Ringler said: "I am Catholic. There is something about that worth holding on to. Other groups are not the same. The Episcopalian Church comes close. But we feel we are a part of the long history of the Catholic Church, and we want to carry it into the future."