Higher Calling

A woman is ordained to the Catholic priesthood. Not surprisingly, the hierarchy does not approve.

By Karen Springen | Newsweek Web Exclusive
Sep 12, 2007 | Updated: 12:09  p.m. ET Oct 11, 2007

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  • Posted By: Wilter65 @ 11/21/2007 4:39:39 AM

    I fully support a woman priest. There is nothing wrong with it. In the Bible, God used women many times to do his will. For example, Deborah was a judge, a leader of Israel for a time. Catherine Booth held leadership positions in the church. God used Esther to save the Jews. God can still use women today in modern times. In the sight of God, men and women are equal. He calls both to ministry. God also gives each person their talents and abilities. If a woman's gift happens to be preaching and leading others, by all means, let her use the gift that God has given her. Women are not limited to just teaching Sunday school. When a person is chosen by God, they have his support though it is not given by others. He uses the most unlikely people to show his power. Through our limitations and weaknesses, God shows his power and strength. God can use people who completely surrender themselves to the will of God even women. The thing I do not agree with is homosexuality. Yes, God loves the person but the sin is wrong. For gay and lesbians to be priests glorify the sin they are living in. All people sin but to be openly living in sin does not uplift the name of Christ.

    • Posted By: ncpatl @ 11/15/2008 12:29:40 PM

      Women were ordained in the early church. For example, Phoebe, a deaconess, is singled out for praise by Paul-- not exactly known as a feminist kind of guy. And of course early priests were married, too. The Church has betrayed this Christian tradition and its own history by insisting on a heirarchy made up only of men trying to be celibate. The excuse you always get is that priests have to be men because Jesus chose men to be apostles. Well, Jesus chose Jewish fishermen and tradesmen, and the Church doesn't insist on that. Having a Y chromosome is equally irrelevant.

      As a person who was raised Catholic-- CAtholic schools and an excellent Jesuit college-- I have seen first-hand the damage done when the Church restricts the priesthood to men, and to men who think they can manage celibacy.

      Vatican II said "The Church is the peope of God." The Church's priesthood should reflect that. Especially because the US bishops have said that sexism is a sin.

      My choice has been to worship elsewhere-- I can't deal with the hypocrisy of the Catholic church anymore. But as a cultural CAtholic, I cheer on this wonderful woman and others trying to change the church from within, or through splinter groups.

  • Posted By: dva_tsenta @ 05/09/2008 1:13:57 AM

    +1 - This woman is not a Catholic at all, much less a Catholic priest. She is very mistaken and lost. I wish journalists would be more precise with their wording - misleading information like that in this article could lead those who know nothing or very little of the Catholic Church to incorrect conclusions. I must also object to the following comparison: "It [the Church] does, however, recognize the more than 100 already married men who became priests after a conversion to Roman Catholicism." It is very misleading to juxtapose the Church's recognition of married men (mostly Protestant ministers) who converted to Catholicism and were ordained priests with the woman in question here. The Church's tradition of the celibate priesthood is not written in stone as is the tradition, supported by well-considered theology, of only men being ordained as priests. I hope that the author, Karen Springen, will be more precise in the future.

  • Posted By: mmsiciliana@dls.net @ 05/08/2008 9:00:51 PM

    Sorry, Jessica Rowley is not a "Catholic" priest. The community she "ministers to is Catholic" in name only. Unlike the Catholic Church, which is the Church founded by Jesus Christ, the organization she belongs to was founded by a human being. The Catholic Church is universal, worldwide, not simply for people who live in Webster Groves, MO. And Jesus did not "welcome everyone to the table." Read what he had to say to the Pharisees who thought they knew how God operated.

  • Posted By: BATPAX @ 12/03/2007 7:58:55 PM

    i have attended st clare and francis on and off for the past year. i have never felt a church environment so full of god's love. as jessica has stated, EVERYONE is welcome at the table there. the people of this church really live the words of jesus.......really live a life of faith that they joyfully share with everyone. it reminds me what the early christians must have felt---the joy, the faith sharing,the love.........all before organized religion highjacked christianity

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