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2017-05-02 10:14:29 UTC
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/living/religion/article147737594.html
Rebel Catholic group defies church, ordains woman priest in NC
BY TIM FUNK
***@charlotteobserver.com
ORDER REPRINT OF THIS STORY
An international group defiantly opposed to the Roman Catholic
Church?s ban on women priests Sunday ordained its first woman Catholic
priest in the 46 counties that make up the Catholic Diocese of
Charlotte.
The ordination ceremony for Abigail Eltzroth happened in Asheville at
Jubilee! ? a nondenominational faith community ? with Bishop Bridget
Mary Meehan presiding.
Eltzroth, 64, said she is the second woman in North Carolina ordained
by the rebel group, called the Association of Roman Catholic Women
Priests.
?It?s time for a change and we?re in the forefront, leading the
charge,? Eltzroth told the Observer on Sunday. ?We expect that
eventually everybody is going to follow us.?
Eltzroth said, she now plans to to start a Catholic worship community
in the Asheville area.
But reached for comment Sunday, David Hains, spokesman for the
Catholic Diocese of Charlotte, said: ?I hope that Catholics in the
diocese will understand that it would be sinful to receive a fake
sacrament from a woman priest and that includes attending a fake
Mass.?
According to a news release about the Sunday ordination from the
Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, 250 women in 10 countries
have been ordained as Catholic priests. In the United States, it said,
women priests serve in 65 ?inclusive churches.? That includes women
priests affiliated with the association and with a second allied group
? Roman Catholic Women Priests ? that has the same mission.
Many, but not all, Protestant denominations in the United States have
women clergy. The Episcopal Church and the United Methodist Church do,
but most Southern Baptist churches do not. The Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America ordains women, but the Lutheran Church-Missouri
Synod does not. And the Presbyterian Church (USA) has women clergy,
while the Presbyterian Church in America does not.
Most American Catholics say they?d like their church to ordain women.
A Pew Research Poll in 2015 found that about six in 10 American
Catholics said they favored allowing women to be Catholic priests.
But the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy has stood by its longtime
prohibition against women becoming priests.
Not only that. In 2007, the Vatican?s Congregation for the Doctrine of
the Faith, with the blessing of then-Pope Benedict XVI, decreed
automatic excommunication against anyone ?who attempts to confer a
sacred order on a woman, and the woman who attempts to receive a
sacred order.?
Excommunication means the person cannot receive the sacraments or
participate in the liturgy unless he or she repents.
Citing Jesus
Pope Francis, who has proven to be more liberal than Pope Benedict on
some issues, briefly raised hopes among Catholic reformers when he
established a commission to study whether women could be ordained as
deacons. Catholic deacons cannot celebrate Mass or hear confessions,
but they do perform some priestly functions, including marrying
couples, baptizing babies and others and giving homilies, or sermons,
during Mass.
But, when asked last year about the prospect of female priests in the
next few decades, Pope Francis said the church?s teaching banning
women priests was likely to last forever.
He said Pope John Paul II had the ?last word? on the issue ? a
reference to a 1994 apostolic letter that said ordaining women was not
possible because Jesus chose only men to be his 12 apostles.
But Bridget Mary Meehan, a Florida-based bishop with the Association
of Roman Catholic Priests, pointed to Mary Magdalene, also a major
disciple of Jesus in the Gospels.
?The risen Christ appeared first to Mary Magdalene, not to (apostle)
Peter, and called on her to announce the good news of Christianity ?
the resurrection being the central message of Christianity,? Meehan
said. ?Mary Magdalene was the apostle to the apostles.?
The association also claims that their ordained women priests are true
priests because a male Roman Catholic bishop, acting as a spiritual
descendent of those first apostles, ordained their first women
bishops.
On its web site, the group says that ?we stand in the prophetic
tradition of holy obedience to the Spirit who calls all people to
discipleship. The movement began with the ordination of seven women on
the Danube River in 2002. Today there are (250) women priests and 10
bishops worldwide.?
Catholic convert
Eltzroth, the woman who was ordained Sunday, grew up Presbyterian but
became a Catholic in her 50s. ?It?s the most ancient tradition,? she
said of Catholicism. ?It?s the tradition that we all look to.
Everybody looks to what the pope and the Catholic leaders are doing.?
Her resume includes several pastoral jobs: jail chaplain in Saginaw,
Mich.; pastoral associate on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in
Montana; and pastor to two churches in the sand hills of Nebraska.
Eltzroth, who is divorced, is the mother of two grown children.
She said she sent an invitation to her ordination to Bishop Peter
Jugis, who heads the Catholic Diocese of Charlotte. She received no
response.
Asked about Pope Francis, Eltzroth said, ?He?s a great leader. I?m
very pleased with his stands on social justice. I hope the same social
justice will be brought not only to the civil world but to the the
religious (Catholic) world, too.?
As for the threat of excommunication, Eltzroth said: ?I?m sure that I
will be (excommunicated) if I haven?t been already. But there are
plenty of saints who have been excommunicated. So that?s not going to
stop us.?
THE NEW YORK TIMES CONTRIBUTED.
Rebel Catholic group defies church, ordains woman priest in NC
BY TIM FUNK
***@charlotteobserver.com
ORDER REPRINT OF THIS STORY
An international group defiantly opposed to the Roman Catholic
Church?s ban on women priests Sunday ordained its first woman Catholic
priest in the 46 counties that make up the Catholic Diocese of
Charlotte.
The ordination ceremony for Abigail Eltzroth happened in Asheville at
Jubilee! ? a nondenominational faith community ? with Bishop Bridget
Mary Meehan presiding.
Eltzroth, 64, said she is the second woman in North Carolina ordained
by the rebel group, called the Association of Roman Catholic Women
Priests.
?It?s time for a change and we?re in the forefront, leading the
charge,? Eltzroth told the Observer on Sunday. ?We expect that
eventually everybody is going to follow us.?
Eltzroth said, she now plans to to start a Catholic worship community
in the Asheville area.
But reached for comment Sunday, David Hains, spokesman for the
Catholic Diocese of Charlotte, said: ?I hope that Catholics in the
diocese will understand that it would be sinful to receive a fake
sacrament from a woman priest and that includes attending a fake
Mass.?
According to a news release about the Sunday ordination from the
Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, 250 women in 10 countries
have been ordained as Catholic priests. In the United States, it said,
women priests serve in 65 ?inclusive churches.? That includes women
priests affiliated with the association and with a second allied group
? Roman Catholic Women Priests ? that has the same mission.
Many, but not all, Protestant denominations in the United States have
women clergy. The Episcopal Church and the United Methodist Church do,
but most Southern Baptist churches do not. The Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America ordains women, but the Lutheran Church-Missouri
Synod does not. And the Presbyterian Church (USA) has women clergy,
while the Presbyterian Church in America does not.
Most American Catholics say they?d like their church to ordain women.
A Pew Research Poll in 2015 found that about six in 10 American
Catholics said they favored allowing women to be Catholic priests.
But the Roman Catholic Church hierarchy has stood by its longtime
prohibition against women becoming priests.
Not only that. In 2007, the Vatican?s Congregation for the Doctrine of
the Faith, with the blessing of then-Pope Benedict XVI, decreed
automatic excommunication against anyone ?who attempts to confer a
sacred order on a woman, and the woman who attempts to receive a
sacred order.?
Excommunication means the person cannot receive the sacraments or
participate in the liturgy unless he or she repents.
Citing Jesus
Pope Francis, who has proven to be more liberal than Pope Benedict on
some issues, briefly raised hopes among Catholic reformers when he
established a commission to study whether women could be ordained as
deacons. Catholic deacons cannot celebrate Mass or hear confessions,
but they do perform some priestly functions, including marrying
couples, baptizing babies and others and giving homilies, or sermons,
during Mass.
But, when asked last year about the prospect of female priests in the
next few decades, Pope Francis said the church?s teaching banning
women priests was likely to last forever.
He said Pope John Paul II had the ?last word? on the issue ? a
reference to a 1994 apostolic letter that said ordaining women was not
possible because Jesus chose only men to be his 12 apostles.
But Bridget Mary Meehan, a Florida-based bishop with the Association
of Roman Catholic Priests, pointed to Mary Magdalene, also a major
disciple of Jesus in the Gospels.
?The risen Christ appeared first to Mary Magdalene, not to (apostle)
Peter, and called on her to announce the good news of Christianity ?
the resurrection being the central message of Christianity,? Meehan
said. ?Mary Magdalene was the apostle to the apostles.?
The association also claims that their ordained women priests are true
priests because a male Roman Catholic bishop, acting as a spiritual
descendent of those first apostles, ordained their first women
bishops.
On its web site, the group says that ?we stand in the prophetic
tradition of holy obedience to the Spirit who calls all people to
discipleship. The movement began with the ordination of seven women on
the Danube River in 2002. Today there are (250) women priests and 10
bishops worldwide.?
Catholic convert
Eltzroth, the woman who was ordained Sunday, grew up Presbyterian but
became a Catholic in her 50s. ?It?s the most ancient tradition,? she
said of Catholicism. ?It?s the tradition that we all look to.
Everybody looks to what the pope and the Catholic leaders are doing.?
Her resume includes several pastoral jobs: jail chaplain in Saginaw,
Mich.; pastoral associate on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in
Montana; and pastor to two churches in the sand hills of Nebraska.
Eltzroth, who is divorced, is the mother of two grown children.
She said she sent an invitation to her ordination to Bishop Peter
Jugis, who heads the Catholic Diocese of Charlotte. She received no
response.
Asked about Pope Francis, Eltzroth said, ?He?s a great leader. I?m
very pleased with his stands on social justice. I hope the same social
justice will be brought not only to the civil world but to the the
religious (Catholic) world, too.?
As for the threat of excommunication, Eltzroth said: ?I?m sure that I
will be (excommunicated) if I haven?t been already. But there are
plenty of saints who have been excommunicated. So that?s not going to
stop us.?
THE NEW YORK TIMES CONTRIBUTED.