In the news yesterday, Mary Magdalene's feast day, In 3 Countries, Challenging the Vatican on Female Priests. Here's just the beginning of The New York Times story ...
More than 150 Roman Catholic priests in the United States have signed a statement in support of a fellow cleric [Fr. Roy Bourgeois] who faces dismissal for participating in a ceremony that purported to ordain a woman as a priest, in defiance of church teaching. The American priests’ action follows closely on the heels of a “Call to Disobedience” issued in Austria last month by more than 300 priests and deacons. They stunned their bishops with a seven-point pledge that includes actively promoting priesthood for women and married men, and reciting a public prayer for “church reform” in every Mass. And in Australia, the National Council of Priests recently released a ringing defense of the bishop of Toowoomba, who had issued a pastoral letter saying that, facing a severe priest shortage, he would ordain women and married men “if Rome would allow it.” After an investigation, the Vatican forced him to resign ..... for the first time in years, groups of priests in several countries are standing with those who are challenging the church to rethink the all-male celibate priesthood ...
Will anything come of this - will Fr. Bourgeois get to keep his job, will an open discussion on women's ordination be allowed by the Vatican? I'm not holding my breath. But still, I think people should speak against what they see as unfair, whether anyone listens to them or not.
