A theologian has become the first Swiss woman to be ordained a Roman Catholic priest, despite Church laws decreeing only men can enter the priesthood.
Monika Wyss, a divorced mother of four, feels she has the right to become a priest even though she will probably be excommunicated.
The ceremony, organised by the West European Roman Catholic Womenpriests organisation, took place on Saturday on board a passenger ship on Lake Constance between Switzerland and Germany.
In addition to Wyss, two other women joined the priesthood: Regina Nicolosi, a German living in the United States, and Jane Via, an American. Another woman from the US, who wishes to remain anonymous, was ordained a deacon, a rank below a priest.
For Wyss, currently a deacon, becoming a priest has been a lifelong ambition.
"It was an idea that came to me at the age of 12," she told swissinfo. "At the time, my brothers could be Mass servants but I couldn’t, so I played the priest at home and they were my servants."
Well I guess some things don’t change, she is still play-acting being a priest as a grownup. Though I can see how this attitude has been growing since so many people never get past the idea that fairness means being openly available to both sexes. I guess men can really be equal to women if they can’t get pregnant. In an age that sees the fact that Jesus was a man as unfortunate or a detail that holds no significance the rise of these stories is predictable. The fact that from the Old Testament to the New Testament that it was only men who were ordained to the priesthood is seen as just an cultural artifact despite the fact that the Israelites were surrounded by religions that pretty much all had priestesses. Again I can understand this view since this teaching is one of the more difficult ones to easily understand as to why God choose that only men should be ordained. But the fact is that this is the case and the Church has no ability to change this.
Once again though these mock ceremonies have been on a ship. I guess this has become a tradition for those who have jettisoned tradition or maybe they think by doing this they come under the authority of the Holy Sea. Possibly it is a Freudian slip and and unconscious acknowledgment that there theology is all wet. Though I once parodied this inclination in my Sea Priestess post.
Here is the part of the ceremony where they undergo a lice inspection.
The thing that most annoys me about these articles is that they are usually so gushy with enthusiasm with no critical eye to the facts. Sure sometimes they will quote somebody that the Church just doesn’t have the authority to ordain women, but it is usually just an afterthought sentence. I am sure that if I showed up for work at one of these newspapers and said my lifelong ambition was to be a reporter and I decided I was called to be one at this particular newspaper that they would soon throw me out. They would understandably argue that I had no authority to do this. If I subsequently went around town claiming that I was a reporter working for their paper I am sure that I would be sued or that a court order would be issued to prevent me from such a claim. But if a women decides that she should be a priest and a Catholic priest at that then the paper sees no problem with this situation.
35 comments
Rose, more hilariously, the first comment wasn’t sarcastic. That group has been making the rounds in cyberspace.
She’s a theologian. It’s reasonable to assume that she has given serious thought to this. I’m sure she would disagree that the record confirms only men have been Roman Catholic priests. She surely has facts and scholarly opinions on her side.
Do you expect a news report to be a scholarly article? To ignore the personal facts. Come on! Be real.
What is your real beef? Tell us where you are really coming from?
Bishops have the authority to ordain deacons and priests. That’s it.
Better get used to it.
These women are NOT Roman Catholic Priests.
This was completely invalid (and, I might add, pretty gross).
From the Catechism:
1577 “Only a baptized man (vir) validly receives sacred ordination.”66 The Lord Jesus chose men (viri) to form the college of the twelve apostles, and the apostles did the same when they chose collaborators to succeed them in their ministry.67 The college of bishops, with whom the priests are united in the priesthood, makes the college of the twelve an ever-present and ever-active reality until Christ’s return. the Church recognizes herself to be bound by this choice made by the Lord himself. For this reason the ordination of women is not possible.68
I resent you telling me to ‘get used to it’…who are you to tell the Catholic Church to change its doctrine?
But I’d say the article gets right down to it when it says that the woman “feels she has a *right* to become a priest”, and points out that “becoming a priest has been a lifelong *ambition* ” (emphasis mine). Even if you feel called to be a priest, ordination is not by any stretch a right, and the discernment isn’t yours alone.
Very well said Mandamum.
A vocation is a gift and a blessing…
not a ‘me’ thing or ‘what I want’ thing.
You have to love, “I played the priest at home and *they” were *my* servants.”
I wonder how her brothers turned out.
Sorry, the ‘She’s a theologian, therefore she must know what she’s doing’ claim is pure carp!
How many heretics were theologians?
If anything a theologian says contradicts the consistant teaching of the Magesterium, it would be wise to ignore the theologian, no matter how many degrees they have.
sorry for the rant, but my pastor just pulled a, “Dr. P___ and I have our STL’s, and since you don’t have a theology degree we’re right” on me, when a glance at the Catechism proves my point.
Lord, save us from the turk and the theologian!
I can’t find any books of theology that this “theologian” has published. I found a Monika Wyss that’s co-editor of a few books on plays and grammer.
Also, I found a Monika Wyss who’s a secretary to Prof. Walter K�lin at the University of Bern, but her photo doesn’t resemble the Monika Wyss from this more complete article:
Swiss Woman Ordained
There’s no “Prof.” or “Dr.” in front of her name in any reference I can find of her. The article doesn’t call her “Dr.”. Nor does the romancatholicwomenpriests.org site which lists her name.
But it wouldn’t matter to me if she has a BA, MDiv or a Phd. She’s wrong.
Members of this organization have been posting angry letters on Catholic sites throughout the blogosphere when this ceremony is dismissively mentioned… just like the one at the top of the thread. They want the publicity
The article mention two mysterious male bishops. I doubt that they are Catholic bishops. Perhaps they were both albino bishop assassins?
OK, I found their claim for apostolic succession, the original “ordinations” were performed by a Romulo Braschi, a former priest who claims now to be an archbishop of some schismatic sect.
So much for apostolic succession.
I still can’t believe that these people don’t just join the Eposcopal Church.
And they always wear such SNAZZY vestments!
It’s a bit weird, but straightforward, too:
If there really was a Bishop who ordained women, he’d be excommunicated, I assume, and his ordinations proclaimed invalid.
Thus his “spiritual progeny”, including this new generation, would all be de facto excommunicate.
Not exactly a far-reaching reform of the Church…
I just don’t understand. Why don’t they just become ordained Episcopalian or UCC or start their own independent churches? Why try to be a Catholic priest when they know it is impossible and they don’t believe Catholic teachings anyway? Its easy to start one’s own church. People do it all the time.
I guess it’s time to bring out the laughing cat again. “I’m Jane Doe, and I’m a Roman Catholic woman priest” (activate laughing cat).
LMAO on the lice inspection. Speaking of which, does the ordination continue if one checks positive?
BMP
Why don’t they join the Episcopagans?
Their goal is to change the apostolic church (Catholic and Orthodox), practically the last bastion against revisionism. If they can change the one, holy, apostolic Church, they will have won and their agenda can march forward. What is that agenda? From http://www.romancatholicwomenpriests.org/:
Cheryl Bristol, lesbian by birth, Catholic by choice, has felt called to ministry for 25 years. Born on an apple farm north of Detroit, worked as a Paralegal while raising her son, Richard. Living in Jerusalem from 1999-2002 deepened her interest in justice and interfaith relations. In 2005 Cheryl served as a delegate to the United Nations Non Governmental Organization Conference. She is currently a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, rights activist working with Catholics and other groups to end intolerance and religion abuse. Other ministries include chaplaincy, playing the harp, and performing Holy Unions.
I think you can guess their agenda. It involves genitalia more than it does worshipping Christ in spirit and truth. To them God is just a concept. If they believed in Jesus Christ, they’d take his teachings, and those of his successors, seriously.
There wasn’t a bishop. There was an ex-priest who declared himself an archbishop and ordained another male bishop. The two of them performed the 2002 ordination. The women “bishops” claim succession from him.
Monika Wyss, a divorced mother of four, feels she has the right to become a priest even though she will probably be excommunicated.
This line pretty much sums up the entire article. Change “divorced mother of four” to “lesbian rights activist” or “ex-nun” and you’ve got 99% of all these cases described. If this movement continues, expect increasingly cookie-cutter reporting.
Maybe you can expect it even if we hear no more about women’s ordination.
“Bishops have the authority to ordain deacons and priests. That’s it.”
Not quite. Bishops have the authroity to ordain priests and deacons so long as the ordinand is valid matter. Can a bishop ordain a non-Christian? No. Can a bishop ordain a woman? No, only males are valid matter for the sacrament. I have authority to consecrate the Body and Blood of Christ, but that doesn’t mean that I could do it with pizza and beer.
“She surely has facts and scholarly opinions on her side.”
‘Facts’ and scholarly opinions are very plastic. I am sure that somewhere out there there is a theologian who believes in a Fourth Person of the Blessed Trinity whose name is ‘Bob’ (especially if it were to fit in with the latest ideology). What matters is not ‘facts’ or scholarly opinion is, but rather what is taught by the Church founded by Christ and imbued with the charism of infalibility.
Man,
I thought for sure that first post was just being sarcastic.
Guess I have to read a bit deeper 🙂
I will admit that this ‘ceremony’ does seem… umm… bizarre!
However, the Catechism is not the word of God – that is the Bible. And there is plenty of evidence in the Bible to suggest that there is nothing wrong with women becoming priests, in my opinion.
*Cringes and expects backlash :S*
P.S. Am I the only one to find the use of the word “herself” in the Catechism a tad ironically amusing?
Averla writes:
“She’s a theologian. It’s reasonable to assume that she has given serious thought to this. I’m sure she would disagree that the record confirms only men have been Roman Catholic priests. She surely has facts and scholarly opinions on her side. “
There never were any women priests, period. The stuff they feature at womenpriests.org is not scholarly information. Of course, you are a radical feminist, so that kind of knowledge might not matter to you.
As usual the media’s coverage of such non-ordinations treats them with all due seriousness and frequently their stories make it look like these running jokes done by the religiously addled could somehow actually be ordinations. Yet how would the media treat a politician who said he was entitled to be president and found a renegade judge (and there are many) to administer the oath of office to him. They would HOO-HAW the supposed swearing in and cover the event as if there was no doubt the two were insane–if they even gave two words about it.
“Here is the part of the ceremony where they undergo a lice inspection.”
When I read that, I spewed water all over papers on my desk. Thank goodness I missed the keyboard. Can’t stop laughing.
And what’s with the barefoot one? Are they inspecting for athlete’s foot, too?
I could declare myself a bishop and say the words of ordination over a fire hydrant. But that wouldn’t make me a bishop or the fire hydrant a priest.
My cat has had a lifelong ambition to the priesthood too. She thinks that we are her servants, so we’re good to go. I think I’ll have my four-year-old daughter has always been precocious too, so she can declare herself Pope and then we can ordain the cat.
I find it infinitely interesting that the Catholic Church seems to be the only religion plagued by people like these freaky feminists just itching to undo and overthrow its established system, teachings and beliefs. You don’t hear of outsiders demanding for radical changes in the internal functions of Islam, Judaism or even of the Eastern Orthodox. It’s the Apostolic Church these people want to see turned inside out until it is virtually destroyed. They can demand and rant all they want in their pathetic posturing. God is in control of his ship and that is what these people don’t get. They target the Church because they see it as nothing but an old humanistic institution that needs modernizing and reforming. They don’t want to start their own religion or go bug someone else’s. But they’re bashing their heads against the wall and are wasting their precious time here on earth. These women could be doing something productive with their lives instead of play acting as wannabe “priests”.
Jane, your idea is brilliant! There’s nothing in scripture that expressly says your cat can’t be a priest, so it must be OK. Good luck with that.
In fact, Jane, could you afterwards please send photos of this blessed event to Jeff for posting on this website. I would particularly enjoy seeing the “head-lice inspection” ceremony.
You might contact the reporter who did the article about ordinations. He’s so credulous that we’ll doubtless all read about your cat’s ordination in the New York Times.
I think you should make Fluffy a bishop. Possibly a cardinal.
Do you plan to dress him up in the colorful mumus these priestesses wear?
Why don’t these types of women ever get a decent hairdo? Or at least comb their hair? At least the new Episcopalian “Popessa” has a neat coif to go with her magenta shirt and white collar!!
Theologian of what for goodness sake???
My guess she has a PhD in ‘Navel gazeing’ from the University of LaLa Land.
Please, PLEASE will the Bishops DO SOMETHING to stop this sacriligeous behaviour. Please endorse a FULL excommunication of these ‘lunatics’ from the Roman Catholic Church.
They’ve pretty much excommunicated themselves.
BMP
I may be mistaken, but it really seems to me that the first comment was simply sarcastic. Just about everything was ridiculous, from “disagree[ing] that the record confirms only men have been Roman Catholic priests,” and yet still believing that it’s okay, to the idea that bishops on their own have the authority to ordain.
Isn’t there something in canon law about having to wear shoes for Mass? Why is this lady not wearing shoes. Now I am sandalized!!!
I am surprised to read such comments full of hatred from so-called catholics.
I think that the inquisition is still alive and well in the hearts of many.
Women will be priests and the gesticulations of some obsolete biggots will not stop that justice will be done for the women that are otherwise abused, raped, beaten, used, sold, bought and despised by some men that pretend to be in the liking of God or to speak in His name!.
When women will become normally priests, like men are, maybe all that sexist hatred will come to an halt and maybe, more peace and harmony will reign in that poor world.
Bus maybe it is what men fear : that they might have to abandon the power they use mainly to evil deeds.
“…maybe it is what men fear : that they might have to abandon the power they use mainly to evil deeds.”
You’re saying that most men are evil and most women good. That is a startlingly bigoted statement.
But more importantly, Fran�oise, there is not a trace of God in your post. We Catholics are maintaining the truths handed down to us from our Lord and the saints who have followed him. We maintain the teachings of Jesus Christ, not man-made fashions.
The WomenPriests organization is acting immorally when it attempts to usurp the magisterium of the Church. It isn’t just women priests, they want homosexual and married priests… among other changes. They should be condemned for this.
There is a religion that currently oppresses, sells and often abuses women, but it isn’t the Catholic faith.
You might read here about the inquisition, there’s a ton of false scholarship and old myths about it: Catholic Answers: The Inquisition
Your hatred of men seems to run so deep, I’m not sure dialog is possible. I don’t know what caused your hurt. I pray that you can overcome it.
From the article:
“It was an idea that came to me at the age of 12,” she told swissinfo. “At the time, my brothers could be Mass servants but I couldn’t, so I played the priest at home and they were my servants.”
So now she is “playing the priest” for an international audience. 🙂
Looking through their website, one of the “womynpriests” the following from her Bio:
Jane Via … is a county prosecutor in San Diego, California and teaches Religious Studies part time. She is the convener of a small church community, whenever possible a participant in CTA
CTA is Call to Action, well known to all here as a schismatic and excommunicated group. The agenda is clear, to take down the church.
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