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I really love stories like this.

On July 22, 2007, I was ordained to the diaconate by Bishop Patricia Fresen, of Germany and South Africa who was ordained by three male bishops in Germany for the group called Roman Catholic Women Priests. The ordination took place at the Santa Barbara Immaculate Heart Spiritual Center. Because neither Patricia Fresen nor myself were given permission for the ordination by Pope Benedict XVI, the ordinations were illegitimate and not recognized by the Roman Catholic Church. Thus an excommunication process called Latae Sententiae occurred, excommunicating oneself by failure to observe the Canon Laws of the Church.

I wish to renounce the alleged ordination and publicly state that I did not act as a deacon as a part of this group except on two occasions, when I read the gospel once at mass and distributed communion once at this same mass. I withdrew from the program within two weeks of the ceremony because I realized that I had made a mistake in studying for the priesthood. I confess to the truth of Pope John Paul II’s Apostolic Letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis. I confess the authority of the Holy Father on these issues of ordination and recognize that Christ founded the ordination only for men.

Formally, I relinquish all connection to the program of Roman Catholic Women Priests and I disclaim the alleged ordination publicly with apologies to those whose lives I have offended or scandalized by my actions. I ask God’s blessings upon each of these folks and their families.

Norma Jean Coon, RN, MFCC, PhD
San Diego, California
Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Via The Last Papist Standing whose writer was an acquaintance of this women.

I was wondering when we would have an update on this story.

Bishop Tod Brown of Orange has placed Father Augustin Escobar on leave following reports that he permitted a Protestant pastor to act as a concelebrant during Mass and to distribute Holy Communion.

Concelebrating Mass with ministers of ecclesial communities that do not have apostolic succession is an “exceptionally serious” crime against the sacraments, according to canonical norms currently in force. Violation of the norm falls under the purview of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and may result in dismissal from the clerical state without an ecclesiastical trial. [Source]

Fr. Escobar has responded.

“Church law (canon 908) prohibits ‘Catholic priests from concelebrating the Eucharist with priests or ministers of Churches or ecclesial communities which are not in full communion with the Catholic Church,” wrote Fr. Agustin Escobar in a letter dated Feb. 15. “That is why last Monday, when he learned of my actions, Bishop Brown immediately suspended my faculties to carry out any priestly sacramental activities. That is why you will not see me celebrating Masses here at St. Norbert. The Bishop was right to do so. What I did was a grave error on my part.”

“What I told the bishop, I wish to publicly say to you, the priests and parishioners of St. Norbert: I am very sorry for what I did,” wrote Fr. Escobar. “Although the great hope for all Christians is that we shall be one body as Jesus has asked us to be, we are not there at this time and it was not my place to take actions which only the leadership of the Catholic and Presbyterian Churches can sanction at such time as they agree to do so. I promise to do all I can to make amends for my actions and I am willing to be obedient to Bishop Brown in whatever recourse he or those at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith judge to be appropriate for me.”

“I hope one day to be allowed to serve as a priest again, which I will certainly do with a great deal more humility since I see the confusion and anger my actions have caused,” Fr. Escobar’s letter concluded. “I beg all of you to forgive me.”

That’s a fairly decent apology and way above the usual “non-apology apologies.”

Even those who first brought the incident to the attention of Bishop Brown are now calling for fence-mending and reconciliation. In an email addressed to Orange County Catholics, one parishioner at St. Norbert’s who asked not to be identified by name said the suspension of Fr. Escobar “is not a cause to rejoice.”

Exactly.

Maria Jesus Galan had 600 Facebook friends. She liked to communicate with them, to spread good news.

However, her Facebook habit has lost her something very dear–her habit.

Galan, you see, spent 35 years inside the Santo Domingo el Real convent in Toledo, Spain. It’s an introspective place that doesn’t encourage its nuns to have too much contact with the outside world.
However, according to the Telegraph, the convent allowed a computer into its midst 10 years ago.
Sister Maria saw the future that this computer offered. She digitized the Dominican convent’s archives. The computer also offered more mundane assistance.

“It enabled us do things such as banking online and saved us having to make trips into the city,” she told the Telegraph.

The local government even gave her a prize for her digital initiatives. Oh, but with the prize came the fame. She began to collect more friends on her Facebook page. It seems, though, that this made her enemies within her own walls.

Her fellow nuns reportedly claimed that Sister Maria’s Facebook activity “made life impossible.” She was therefore asked to leave and now lives with her mother.

The Dominican order has refused to comment on Sister Maria’s departure. However, her Facebook page is overflowing with sympathy. Some posters tell her that now that she has her freedom, she can travel to places like Australia. Some declare themselves sad that she was the victim of such an injustice. [Source]

The rest of the article is the old Church is out of touch with new technologies. The question here had nothing to do with social networking, but whether the hours of activity was interfering with her vocation as a nun or the charism of the order. We don’t know the details here to make a judgement of this on our own other than that the order certainly saw this as a problem. Though it has turned here friend count from 700 to more than 5,000 – so hopefully she will continue to evangelize and not whine about the situation.

Green Bay Bishop David Ricken has ordered Catholic parishes in the diocese to cut corporate ties to JOSHUA and other non-Catholic social justice organizations.

Ricken complimented the work being done by the Green Bay-based JOSHUA and the Appleton-based ESTHER, but he expressed concerns that, without Catholic oversight, the groups’ political positions could stray from Catholic teachings.

“An undesirable result of dual affiliations could be that a conflict could place our parishioners in a very difficult position of having to choose between their Catholic Church authority and another parallel organization,” Ricken said in a prepared statement. “Therefore, I am directing our parishes to withdraw their corporate membership in these organizations, effective July 1, 2011.”

…

A statement from the diocese cited an episode almost a year ago, in which an announcement from an abortion rights coalition appeared on ESTHER’s website. ESTHER staff removed the announcement shortly after it appeared, but the appearance raised Rickens’ concerns, and he met with ESTHER and JOSHUA leaders to discuss the issue.

ESTHER and JOSHUA are members of WISDOM, a statewide network of congregation-based social justice organizations. [Source]

These types of conflicts are going to continue to happen considering that the majority of these social justice umbrella groups are infected with supporters of abortion, homosexual acts, other aspects of the Culture of Death. Hopefully more bishops will become as proactive as Bishop Ricken to prevent such scandals and promote true Catholic social justice.

Last year the bishop had been working with ESTHER and JOSHUA suggesting that they cut ties with WISDOM, which obviously they were not willing to do.

VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI has long championed organ transplants, but don’t expect an organ donation from him. The Vatican says his body belongs to the whole church.
While the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has possessed an organ donor card since the 1970s when he lived in Germany, it was rendered void when he became pope in 2005, his secretary said.

Monsignor Georg Gaenswein addressed the issue in a letter to a German doctor who has been using the fact that Benedict possessed a donor card to recruit other donors. Vatican Radio reported on the letter in a German language broadcast this week.

Gaenswein sought to put the matter to rest, saying any references to the now invalid document are mistaken. [Source]

It does bring up an interesting question. If you received an organ from a person later canonized in your own lifetime, you would have a first class relic with you at all times.

About.com’s 2011 Readers’ Choice Awards will showcase the best products, features and services in multiple categories, from technology to hobbies to parenting to religion. Nominations are now open, and will be accepted from 12:00 A.M. EST on January 13, 2011, until 11:59 P.M. EST on February 4, 2011.

On the About.com Catholicism GuideSite, we are accepting nominations in the ten categories listed below. Nominations can be entered in each of the categories using a single nomination form, though you can feel free to leave some of the fields blank; you are not required to make a nomination in every category. If you want to make more than one nomination in a particular category, simply fill the nomination form out twice.

Feel free to nominate yourself or your product for any of the appropriate awards, and spread the news to your friends. Finalists are chosen based on popularity, as long as they meet the eligibility requirements listed in each category.

Up to five finalists in each category will be announced on February 11, and voting will run from February 11 through March 8. (To be notified automatically when voting opens, simply sign up for the About.com Catholicism Newsletter). The winners will be announced on March 15.

Awards are for [Best Catholic …] blog, podcast, site, Facebook page, Twitter user, iPad App, iPhone App, Newspaper, Magazine, etc.

“The words ‘mother’ and ‘father’ will be removed from U.S. passport applications and replaced with gender neutral terminology, the State Department says.

‘The words in the old form were ‘mother’ and ‘father,’” said Brenda Sprague, deputy assistant Secretary of State for Passport Services. ‘They are now ‘parent one’ and ‘parent two.’….

Allan Sherman would certainly have had a problem rhyming his classic song if he lived in politically correct Obama Administration where everything must bow to same-sex rights groups.

So are we allowed to call the people behind the decision, “Idiot 1”, “Idiot 2”, etc.

Hat Tip Father John Mallow, SDB