The Catholic Action Network has been quite busy lately protesting the church’s stand against gay marriage. No surprise there. The group describes itself as “a network of progressive Catholics seeking justice both in the Catholic Church and in the world.”
Well, today they’re holding a workshop called the “Creative and Liberating Liturgies Workshop Facilitated by Victoria Rue, Ph.D.” Rue claims to be an ordained Roman Catholic priest as well as a feminist and lesbian.
Sorry I didn’t inform you of this earlier as it’s scheduled for today. Just imagine the hilarity of sending some CMR readers to this workshop with some hidden cameras. I know you’re kicking yourself for not signing up for it earlier but if you read this you’ll get a pretty good feel for what’s going on.
Oddly, even though it’s a liturgy workshop I didn’t see the word “Tridentine” mentioned anywhere in their application form but there were a few mentions of “a sense of shared presence” and “Feminist ritual” as you might imagine.
CAN warns:
Bring your frustrations, your hopes and a willingness to explore new paths. Please wear comfortable clothes and shoes that would allow you to engage in movement.
The Learning Goals of the seminar are what, you might ask? Get ready. This is where you get on the express to Crazy Town. Keep your hands outside the vehicle at all times because otherwise you might be tempted to pull out your hair.
Learning Goals:
•To provide participants with seeds that can flower into ideas and inspirations for their own creation of liturgies
•To offer theatre skills that can be utilized in creative and liberating liturgies such as characterization, improvisation, monologue writing.
•To understand and appreciate the value of embodied worship as well as experience it as vital to a worshipping community
•To challenge each participant to dream and act anew for the renewal of ourselves, our communities and our world.
Druid attire is optional, I guess.
Come on folks. A bunch of druidesses raising beer steins while shouting incantations in pig latin doesn’t make it Mass.
Mind you, not one mention of Jesus anywhere but what were you expecting? I mean, what’s the meaning of this talk about “seeds that can flower into ideas?” Are they admitting that they can only aspire to “seeds” that one day maybe kinda’ could perhaps become a full fledged idea?
And all this talk of monologue and improvisation sounds like a bad version of Jay Leno or maybe a really boring version of “Rent.” Oh wait…
And what does “embodied worship” mean? Sign me up for disembodied worship. I’ll just tell them I astrally projected myself to the workshop instead of actually having to show up. And I won’t have to wait on those long airport lines.
But wait. Here’s the best part. The question at the bottom of the form is for lunch.
Are you a Vegetarian or Vegan?:
Yes! I can honestly say I’ve never attended anything where they even had to ask me that question. Probably never will unless McDonald’s brings back the Veggie burger.
Mad Props to Saint Louis Catholic for this one. Check him out over there. There was a really funny comment too saying “You didn’t mention that way down on the bottom it says B.Y.O.B. “Bring Your Own BROOM.”
December 11, 2009 at 4:52 am
Is she wearing Buddhist mala beads?
Get your own religion instead of bastardizing everyone else's, Rue baby.
December 11, 2009 at 4:53 am
So here's the new question I'm going to ask the pro-women priest crowd:
How does making a woman a priest work to ensure and obtain salvation for Catholics within and what is the theological reasoning for your point of view?
December 11, 2009 at 5:01 am
Two old Benedictines are at a liturgical conference. An unveiled nun begins her presentation. She begins, "I specialize in eco-spirituality and feminist ritual."
The first Benedictine, hard of hearing, leans over to his brother and asks, "What did she say?"
He yells back, "She's a witch!"
December 11, 2009 at 5:43 am
Well, Gather Us In and Sing A New Church! You guys are just getting too exciting. So she's an "ordained" Catholic priest, is she? Presumably by someone in a past life regression…maybe one of those Felini film satyr priests of the 4th Century? This is the stuff of involuntary commitments not so long ago and now instead she's holding seminars instead of playing scrabble with the psych nurses.
December 11, 2009 at 5:57 am
Some of this womenpriest stuff is so bizzare. I did a bit of searching, and this comes from the blog of "Sophia in Trinity" which I guess is when they perform their "liturgies" at an Episcopal church. Here are a few gems from one of the blog postings, "Holy Saturday Morning: A Ritual for all those wounded by religion"
"Michael Busk then led us in a game of musical chairs—that was really about experiencing disempowerment and exclusion by religious authorities."
"Evelie Delfino Posch led us with heart beat drumming out the doors of the chapel into the courtyard"
"In each of the four directions there were two sound-healing artists, and two prayer-healing persons…. One participant said she had never felt such deep healing enter her through the vibrations of sound."
Sophia in Trinity
December 11, 2009 at 6:17 am
"One participant said she had never felt such deep healing enter her through the vibrations of sound."
I know what she means…I get that healing too, listening to my old Peggy Lee records. Especially "Fever"!
December 11, 2009 at 12:15 pm
Don't know if those are Buddhist beads, but of course it's a pottery chalice!
December 11, 2009 at 12:23 pm
With all due respect to all of your comments you missed THE issue.
A liturgy workshop that teaches "monologue" writing.
I guess "we" are the Church only is the cry until "we" get ordained.
As one Abbot I knew always said, "Guys, they always give themselves away"
December 11, 2009 at 12:52 pm
Sign me up for disembodied worship.
Good idea – you skip the admission fee that way!
All the comedic writers in Hollywood couldn't come up with anything like this…of course, they would find this serious.
December 11, 2009 at 1:24 pm
I'm going to reserve my ridicule until after I've read the article. The subtitle definitely has my interest piqued: "Why Victoria Rue and other ordained Roman Catholic Womenpriests are suddenly raising eyebrows in the Vatican." What, did they do one of those Womenpriests Revealed calendars?
Sorry, I guess I couldn't wait.
December 11, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Oh, gee. The article is no longer available. How disappointing.
December 11, 2009 at 1:48 pm
This comment has been removed by the author.
December 11, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Hey, don't these ladies know that a pottery chalice violates a liturgical norm? Where did they attend seminary?
December 11, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Follow with a palette cleanser:
Peter Kreeft "Women and the Priesthood" MP3 free download
http://www.peterkreeft.com/audio/09_priestesses.htm
December 11, 2009 at 1:53 pm
I can see why people are drawn to this stuff, but I don't see why they want to be Catholic. What does Catholic even mean to them? There are other religious groups where they'd be a perfect fit yet they insist instead on being dissident Catholics.
December 11, 2009 at 2:35 pm
I wonder if these gals support choice?
December 11, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Sorry, but that's a dude.
December 11, 2009 at 3:01 pm
Hey, don't these ladies know that a pottery chalice violates a liturgical norm?
Correct. But since they cannot confect the true Eucharist anyway, I suppose it doesn't make a difference.
December 11, 2009 at 4:06 pm
I wonder if these gals support choice?
Naturally, they do. The goal of women priests is one thing: to bring abortion, contraception, and same-sex marriage into "acceptance" in the Catholic Church.
December 11, 2009 at 4:41 pm
Don't forget that a female priest is called a priestess.