Catholic Chicago Group Takes On Church's Stance On Women's Ordination, Other Issues

Chicago News Cooperative:

It's a long way from the Vatican to Roscoe Village, but a group based in that North Side neighborhood is leading a high-profile protest among American priests that challenges the Roman Catholic Church's ban on ordination of women.

The group, Call to Action, an organization for reform-minded Catholics, has collected signatures of more than 150 priests -- including 8 in Chicago -- on a petition defending a liberal priest, the Rev. Roy Bourgeois, who is being threatened with dismissal for his public support for ordaining women. In an increasingly conservative church, the rebellion has been hailed as a remarkable moment for liberals in the church.

Read the whole story: Chicago News Cooperative

Comments

[Jenguter]

01:39 PM on 08/05/2011

I am so grateful to Call to Action and Fr. Roy for everything they have done. The fact that there is discussion about this at all is a huge step, but there is much more to go. I hope and pray for a respectful continuing dialogue.

[CodyMaynus]

01:37 AM on 08/04/2011

Those of you who are talking about religion being homophobic or irrational or outdated really have no conception of what Call to Action is like. The annual gathering is not forced and is completely organic--people are there because they want to be and/or they're drawn by some higher calling or transcendence. It's the one weekend during the year where being Catholic and gay is welcomed and embraced. Women priests--sufficiently trained and validly ordained--walk around in collars and stoles. Nuns mill about by the dozen. There is a thriving group of bright young people in their 20s and 30s who aren't willing to mindlessly accept what the institution throws at them.

What really bugs me is when atheists and/or agnostics treat Christians or other people of faith as if they are complete and total idiots who are incapable of thinking. As a Christian, I respect your right to believe or not believe as you wish. Please show human decency and do likewise.

[gregory57]

12:28 AM on 08/05/2011

There is no such thing as a "validly ordained" Roman Catholic woman priest. Wishing doesn't make it so. Anyone who attempts to ordain a female is automatically excommunicated, as is the woman attempting to be ordained. It's nothing more than playing dress-up, and not just as a female priest, but as a Catholic as well.

[CodyMaynus]

03:46 AM on 08/05/2011

I suspect God has a different opinion on the issue, Gregory. I do not, however, make universal claims to know what God thinks/feels on any one particular issue, because I think that God is more concerned with the bigger picture. In the end, I am not the arbiter of God's graces, nor is any human being. God is God. We are not. Thanks be to God.

[KennebunkportIndependent]

08:38 PM on 08/03/2011

I believe the response will be one worded:

'Heretics!"

[Binea]

08:41 AM on 08/03/2011

This shouldn't even be an issue.The Bible lays out how the church is to be set up.It clearly say's that women are not to teach or have authority over men.If you are a follower of a religion,you should not look to "change" it's rules..it's not like the US Constitution,you can't ammend it.All it's ammendments were made when Christ went to the cross.So,if you claim to be a Christian you need to at least follow to the best of your human ability,what it says.
1 Tim 2:9 In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array;
1 Tim 2:10 But (which becometh women professing godliness) with good works.
1 Tim 2:11 Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.
1 Tim 2:12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
1 Tim 2:13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve.
1 Tim 2:14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.
If you can't obey that,then you need a differnt Religion ( btw..that refers to within the church..not in places like this where you make comments) at least,I hope so

[cysocial]

01:35 AM on 08/03/2011

Personally I always liked the idea of goddesses and priestesses, but I don't see how this is going to fly. Vatican I & II were ill conceived. It STILL took the church a couple of decades after Vatican II to let Galilleo off the hook. The church is still very selective about how they deal with the present and the future. Then we have the Sede Vacante who question if the current pope and priests ordained since Vatican II are even LEGAL!

NOT changing its core is the reason that the chirch has persevered for 2000 years and is generally the only one in science fiction books to make it through dystopia. I am torn in that I love the idea of Mary Magdelne and think she was screwed out of the gospels. Also I really think St. Paul was chauvinist pig. Come on you know he was. Yeah I'm one of those people who had to search around for a parish still allowed to do the Trenitide (Latin) for of the mass. If mass is not a transendental experience why go?

If you want priestess go Episcapian (Anglican.) Of there too there are enough of them not liking the changes such that the Vatican opened a special avenue for them to enter the Roman Church. Don't me started with Charismatics. There I think the church realized it was gloing to loose people to the pentacostals so Voila! Holy spirit, Batman. Oh if only haldol was available OTC.

[DemFem]

12:24 AM on 08/03/2011

I applaud Call to Action on their efforts. The Church badly needs gadflies!

[Jeff Rosenbury]

04:28 PM on 08/03/2011

Yes, because Christ called us to argue with and hate one another. [sarcasm]

[goatini]

03:30 PM on 08/08/2011

Evidently, you think that's what Christ wants YOU to do.

Sorry, but we will not let bullies like you run us off from our Church.

[anniewheelr]

10:10 PM on 08/02/2011

Why waste the time...break away as others have done and form your own church...yes, you wouldn't have those big churches, nice living quarters...might actually have to work and preach but in the long run you won't win by fighting....you win by leaving and taking like mined people with you....as others have done in the past....

[SimonBao]

02:52 PM on 08/04/2011

I'm afraid you really misunderstand the relationship of Catholics to their church.

It is not similar to that found between Protestants and their churches, as Protestantism is founded on the premise that it's quite reasonable to break away and form another denomination.

Catholics are, in general, loathe to do that. That's never an easy option, and folks wince at a mention of the word "schism."

For the foreseeable future, most Catholics will prefer to stay in their church and just keep working at reform from within, reforms that they hope will benefit everyone.

[Cat-Lover]

07:58 PM on 08/02/2011

Reverend Roy Bourgeois and his supporters will be put down as sharply as Pope John Paul ll put a screeching halt to Liberation Theology, wherein the Catholic Church began to lead movements in several countries for freedoms never permitted within those Catholic countries. Pope Benedict XVI is even more conservative than his predecessor.

[dunphyp]

07:51 PM on 08/02/2011

Join the Episcopal Church. It has everything the Catholic church has minus the pope!

[anniewheelr]

10:14 PM on 08/02/2011

And a lot of the trappings that separate the preacher from the people...went to an Episcopal service and thought I'd made a mistake and found the Catholic Church. This one was just as formal and stiff and unyielding as the Catholic Church in some areas.
That is why the Methodist and Episcopal Church broke apart a number of years ago...I say if you want a more open and accepting church where you are there to gain inspiration to be a better person and do more good and less evil...try the Methodist Church...

[Marisa Stein]

08:18 AM on 08/03/2011

I think the methodist church is too radical

[KennebunkportIndependent]

08:40 PM on 08/03/2011

The Episcopal Church has 1) the best music and 2) the best pot luck dinners.

[ahumbleopinion]

06:37 PM on 08/02/2011

It's time to create an American Catholic church. Why continue to be under the thumb of the Vatican when so many of its rules have more to do with power and money than they do with the teachings of Christ?

[Jeff Rosenbury]

04:35 PM on 08/03/2011

American Catholic... How does that work? The universal church, but only including Americans?

What about that carpenter from Palestine, is He a member?

[ahumbleopinion]

10:08 AM on 08/05/2011

Sure, it is based on his teaching, not a corrupt organization that has in many ways been more interested in power and money than the carpenter from Palestine.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Catholic_Church_in_the_United_States

http://independentoldcatholicchurch.com/

http://www.orthodoxcatholicchurch.org/

There are others, but I don't want to do all your work for you.

[gregory57]

05:53 PM on 08/08/2011

See also: Schism.

[gregory57]

10:48 PM on 08/04/2011

Why not just start a branch of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association here in North America.

I bet they'd go for female ordination, and it would be a good opportunity to suck up to our new overlords, while rejecting the authority of the Vatican.

[goatini]

03:32 PM on 08/08/2011

Why not just practice your faith and stop trying to run off others practicing their faith?

Geez, who made you Vatican Hall Monitor?

[daleksrevolt37]

06:21 PM on 08/02/2011

As an atheist, I guess I don't have a particular view or interest in this story. But at this point, Catholicism and other religious beliefs are so outdated that maybe people should just leave it alone? People who truly believe their religion's doctrines are never going to change their minds because those are their beliefs.

Throughout history, when people have been unhappy with a religious establishment, they just created their own sect (kind of like Henry the VIII when he wanted his divorce... And now there is Anglicanism). So maybe a church can be formed that allows women to be priests and for gays to be married?

[mary clyne]

08:08 PM on 08/02/2011

AGREE 100%!

[Marisa Stein]

08:19 AM on 08/03/2011

since you are an atheist your opinions don't really matter because you wont be going to the church.

[daleksrevolt37]

08:44 AM on 08/03/2011

I believe that as my opinion, it matters to me and not to others, just as your opinion matters to you and not to others. That is the nature of an opinion.

[LMPE]

04:07 PM on 08/02/2011

It'll be a great day when religion dies out.

[wssweeps]

03:56 PM on 08/02/2011

Looks like some democrats from the aclu have joined the church. They will destroy it if they can.

[LMPE]

04:07 PM on 08/02/2011

And the Roman Catholic Corporation is the panacea of civilization, right?

[wssweeps]

04:17 PM on 08/02/2011

I prefer them to people who demean religions.

[redbuns]

06:15 PM on 08/02/2011

they're miles ahead of any other institution...especially the political parties in this country.

maybe we should all listen to the wisdom of the Dali Lama more often. he is a true man of wisdom and peace.

[rinpochet]

07:20 PM on 08/02/2011

One can only hope!

[Arrech]

03:27 PM on 08/02/2011

DOOMED IN THE END. THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IS NOT A DEMOCRACY.

[RageVsMachine]

08:37 PM on 08/02/2011

unfortunately, neither is America.

[KennebunkportIndependent]

08:41 PM on 08/03/2011

Bbut..we have 'super committees!!'

[Jeff Rosenbury]

04:43 PM on 08/03/2011

One in favor, seven billion opposed. The ayes have it.

God casts a big vote.