Originally published by Voices of Faith
Mary McAleese grew up the eldest of nine children in a tumultuous time in Northern Ireland. Her family was forced to leave the area by Loyalists when The Troubles broke out. She was the first Irish President to come from Northern Ireland and the first woman to succeed another woman as the eighth President of Ireland from 1997 – 2011.
Article posted from www.ncronline.org
His Mema, Denise Donato, had just been ordained the first female bishop in the Ecumenical Catholic Communion (ECC). Psalm 82 speaks about wisdom coming “from out of the mouths of babes.” One day Miles will learn that his sweet farewell was also a revolutionary statement. – Read full article
From left to right, Bishops Raphael Adams, Peter Hickman and Francis Krebs pray the litany of the saints with the community during the prayer over Denise Donato, who lies prostrate for her ordination as bishop in the Ecumenical Catholic Communion church. (NCR photo/Jamie Manson)
The door into the old boys club, through which only whispers emerged about the abusive gender relations that were tolerated within, has been unlocked and flung wide open.
The assumed privileges of mostly white men which has allowed society to turn a blind eye to various levels of molestation of women, children and LGBTQ people, has been revealed for what it is in the light of day: an abuse of power which leads to violence. And in a perverse way, the vulgar and demeaning statements of from the President of the United States have unmasked the ugly face of the system that put him there in the first place and continues to maintain him in power.
Click on image below to open pdf file.
Roy Bourgeois joined us in Calgary, Alberta, Canada for a special talk about Women’s Ordination, The School of the America’s and LGBT Equality.
“Holy Thursday Vatican Embassy Witness : From Condemnation to Conversation: Vatican Nuncio Dialogues with Women Priests” by Roy Bourgeois, Jane Via and Janice Sevre-Duszynska
From 2002 through 2016, the Vatican has condemned the ordination of women priests. Since the ordination of “The Danube Seven” in 2002, the Vatican has tried a number of strategies to quash our movement: excommunication, silencing, shunning, firing and ignoring. Now ten years since the first U.S. ordinations on the boat in Pittsburgh, the door has been opened for the first time. During Holy Week, March 24, the feast day of Oscar Romero, in the era of Pope Francis and his Year of Mercy, a conversation — turbulent at first — began.
Outside the Vatican Embassy on Massachusetts Avenue in Washington, D.C. on Holy Thursday, March 24th the three of us — two women priests – Jane Via and Janice Sevre-Duszynska, and one excommunicated male priest –Roy Bourgeois — washed the feet of supporters on the sidewalk in front of the embassy as cars and buses passed on the busy road.
We prayed and shared our statement of purpose to Pope Francis and the Catholic Church calling for the full and equal inclusion of women and GLBT people. We read from Scripture, and prayed again this time that church leaders would remember Jesus’ teaching to be servant leaders and love all disciples as Jesus had. We thanked those who gathered with us, re-read our statement of purpose lifted up our signs, and – still in albs and stoles – stepped onto Vatican property and walked toward the door. We had no idea how our action would play out.
Read more
