February 11, 2009 2:36 PM

Activist Group Ordains Women Priests

(AP)  An activist group hoping to pressure the Roman Catholic church into dropping its long-standing prohibition barring women from the priesthood says it ordained three women on Sunday.

Church officials did not recognize the ordination, and the Vatican has previously warned that women taking part in ordination ceremonies will be excommunicated.

The group known as Roman Catholic Womenpriests held the ceremony at the Church of the Covenant, a Protestant Church in Boston.

The group said the three women — Gloria Carpeneto of Baltimore, Judy Lee of Fort Myers, Fla., and Gabriella Velardi Ward of New York City — are responding to a heartfelt call to serve the church as priests.

A fourth woman, Mary Ann McCarthy Schoettly of Newton, N.J., was ordained as a deacon, the group said.

The Archdiocese of Boston issued a statement decrying the ceremony.

"Catholics who attempt to confer a sacred order on a woman, and the women who attempt to receive a sacred order, are by their own actions separating themselves from the church," the archdiocese said.

The group says the women who are ordained remain loyal members of the church and will act as priests whether they are excommunicated or not.

Sunday's ordination ceremony was performed by two women the group describes as bishops — Ida Raming of Struttgart, Germany, and Dana Reynolds from California.

The ceremony "is not in compliance with their man-made rules, but it's certainly in compliance with the Roman Catholic ordination rituals because our bishops were ordained by all-male Roman Catholic bishops who are in good standing with the church," as provided by the church's ordination rituals, said Bridget Mary Meehan, the group's spokeswoman.

The group, which was formed in 2002, has conducted similar ceremonies in the U.S. and other parts of the world.

In March, the archbishop of St. Louis excommunicated three women — two Americans and a South African who were part of the Womenpriests movement — for participating in a woman's ordination.

Pope Benedict XVI, like his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, has rebuffed calls to change traditional church teachings on the requirement that priests be male.

Catholics who are excommunicated cannot receive sacraments. The penalty can be lifted if those who have been punished are sincerely repentant.

© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Add a Comment See all 33 Comments
by barbaram99 July 22, 2008 5:13 PM EDT
The witch hunt in the old days. Ye forget that. It came to America. New England. Today we know they were killed for being blind,epslipsy,psoratsis,palsy etc. Things they were born with. The dam churches allowed the killings in the name of well ye know..men..It still goes on..
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by xmanborg July 22, 2008 12:30 PM EDT
Its about time.
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by kansas1946 July 21, 2008 11:11 PM EDT
(AP) An activist group hoping to pressure the Roman Catholic church into dropping its long-standing prohibition barring women from the priesthood says it ordained three women on Sunday.

*****************************

Activist today, mainstream tomorrow. Watch out boys, the girls are movin'' up!! :o)
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by minnick8-2009 July 21, 2008 4:58 PM EDT
I''m quite certain that the Priesthood was taken off the Earth at the deaths of the apostles. After that, everyone in the Catholic Church as been self-appointed. That being the case, what difference does it make if the rites and ceremonies are performed by a self-appointed male or a self-appointed female in the Catholic Church?

I''m not Catholic for a number of reasons.
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by perm3800 July 21, 2008 4:28 PM EDT
Shucks, can''t count (actually, I edited in one place and forgot to do so in the other) THREE of the SEVEN sacraments are wholey reserved to the priest: Confimrantion, Ordination and Marriage. The remaineder have exceptions for exteremis and Marriage has a quasi-stated where the act can be performed but isn''t valid until it is blessed.
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by perm3800 July 21, 2008 4:25 PM EDT
The ordination of the three ladies is without meaning. It won''t be recognized by the Vatican and the ladies are self-excommunicated. They might as well have founded their own Church. That said, the validity of the Churches doctrine on the ordination of women is wrong. They state that Christ had only male Apostles but who knows? That book wasn''t written until he had been dead almost 300 years. Mary Magdalene, Mary and Martha - sisters of Lazarus: these ladies are all mentioned in more than one place as being disciples of Christ and Mary Magdelene is the one to whom He appeared upon his resurrection (or maybe it was Martha''s sister? Nah, the Magedelena.) It was the ladies who hung around until His death, the ladies who kept watch - but the RCC doesn''t think ladies are good enough to perform the transubstantiation. Go figure. Confirmation, Ordination and Marriage are the only two sacraments wholey reserved for the clergy. The laity may perform Baptisms in extermis, hear confession in exteremis and provide last rites in extermis (meaning, on the death bed or when there is absolutely no posibility for the presence of a priest: say, being abandoned on a desert isle.) There is even a limited option on Marriage - it can be performed and then validated at the soonest accessible priest. Again, the desert isle analogy.
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by barbaram99 July 21, 2008 4:25 PM EDT
It is men holding them back. The mass is meaningful. Not every woman is a wife,mother. I don''t have family ties. Not every woman is a Sister. I love the nuns. I was told I could not do this/that. Now ladies are in a war zone. Some man thinks he know what is best for us women,when he don''t. In America, the churches are businesses. Did the pope over look that. peace be with ye,
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by perm3800 July 21, 2008 4:24 PM EDT
soldat: the only ''married'' priests within the RCC are those who were ''absorbed'' due to schisms within their churches, where married clerics were accepted along with other clergy abandoning their own churches. The RCC accepted Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, Episcopal and Byzantine Rite priests within my lifetime due to various schism. If the priest was already married (most of those faiths allowed married men to enter and a few allowed the ordained to marry,) the RCC accepted them. If they were accepted unmarried, they lost the right to marry. If they entered married, they could not divorce and they could not remarry upon the death of the wife. However, men reared or converted to RCC who are married MAY NOT become priests until they are widowed. To be a married priest in the RCC, you must have been ordained in a different faith while married and then accepted into the RCC clergy as a part of schismatic action (such as what is ocurring with the Anglicans and gay Bishops.)

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by akpals July 21, 2008 1:34 PM EDT
I think that if these women sincerely felt the need to teach the word of God they would not be so hell bent to only do so in the position as a priest. What is wrong with becoming a nun? Mother Theresa didn''t feel the need to become a priest to do the work she felt God put her here to do. Become a pastoral associate, or a religious education teacher. This isn''t about the priesthood, this is about power. This is about women who want something they can''t have. People need to realize that sometimes you can''t just walk in and change the rules to suit your own wishes. If what they want is to be a leader, then there are many positions in the Catholic church that would suit them. It seems that what they want is to be in control and call the shots, well they should start their own church where they can make up their own rules.
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by soldat44 July 21, 2008 12:46 PM EDT
soldat44: You can say anything you want about any church, why would I care? Unlike most of the posters here, I don''''t get on my high horse about every little opinion that doesn''''t agree with mine. I''''m not sure why anyone would put that much negative energy into anything, let alone a comments section of a news story. What''''s the matter, did I hit a nerve? And why do you want to know if I "go?" Does that somehow make my opinion more or less valid to you? Am I only allowed to comment if I follow along with you in lock step?

Posted by elicatlover at 09:21 AM : Jul 21, 2008

If you are not Catholic, why do care? If you do not take Jesus Christ as your Savior, why do you care?

No one is asking/demanding you to go through life ''lock-step'' with any one. It''s your life. You have Free Will.

BTW - I do not comment on anything that is none of my business or on a subject that I obviously know nothing about or know enough about.

Peace be with you.

BTW - I have a right to my opinion as much as the next person and so do you.

Take care.
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