Wow. They’ve been pretty much saying these types of things for many years but to publicly proclaim themselves pro-female ordination despite Church teaching, is still pretty shocking.
In a stunning editorial from The National Catholic Reporter in defense of the laicized priest Roy Bourgeois, the editors not only officially endorsed female ordination but called the Church’s teaching “unjust.”
Bourgeois was excommunicated and laicized from the Maryknoll order following his participation in the ordination of Roman Catholic Womanpriest Janice Sevre-Duszynska in August 2008.
NCR‘s editorial staff argues that, “Bourgeois, attuned by a lifetime of listening to the marginalized, has heard the voice of the faithful and he has responded to that voice.”
They conclude by saying, “NCR joins its voice with Roy Bourgeois and calls for the Catholic [C]hurch to correct this unjust teaching.”
In a statement approved by Pope John Paul II, the Vatican announced in 1995 that Roman Catholics must consider their Church’s doctrine that only men can be priests to be “infallibly” taught.
December 3, 2012 at 6:52 pm
The latest Motu Proprio means that, should they wish to continue to promote dissent, they'll have to stop using the term "Catholic" in the title (assuming they claim charitable status) and the bishops and priests will have to stop it being distributed in Catholic churches…
December 3, 2012 at 7:10 pm
Interesting read, as the article continues.
I've thought that the touchy-feely 'catechism' of the hippie Jesus I was taught in the 70s and 80s was merely childish and shallow. Maybe I'm being naive. Perhaps the powers that be were deliberately trying to raise a generation of poorly educated Catholics. The better to deceive you with, my dear…
December 3, 2012 at 7:49 pm
Mac – if I remember correctly, they were long ago told to stop calling themselves "Catholic".
What always confuses me is why there are no apparent individual penalties for scandalizing the faithful as they routinely do. I know that it causes great harm. It is very public and objectively deliberate. Shouldn't an equally public response be warranted to protect the Church?
The author is named. The first comment is from a PRIEST who is fully supportive.
December 3, 2012 at 8:15 pm
This paper ought not to be available in churches or any Church outlet.
December 3, 2012 at 9:26 pm
George, they were, but they sued the bishop in civil court, which then told the bishop to back off…
December 4, 2012 at 12:30 am
“Bourgeois brings this issue to the real heart of the matter. He has said that no one can say who God can and cannot call to the priesthood, and to say that anatomy is somehow a barrier to God’s ability to call one of God’s own children forward places absurd limits on God’s power. The majority of the faithful believe this.”
The Pope is a Servant of the Servants of God. The Pope is the Vicar of Christ. Christ is the Revelation of God. The priest acts in Persona Christi at the Consecration of the Mass and at the Sacrament of Reconciliation. How can a woman act in Persona Christi unless she repudiates the maleness of Christ, God as the Father, and the Holy Spirit, as the Sanctifier of the Catholic Church? Only sins against the Holy Spirit are unforgiveable, hence the excommunication of Bourgeois.
December 4, 2012 at 7:00 am
Fishwrap (as Fr. Z calls it) by any other name … still stinks!
December 4, 2012 at 4:37 pm
ollowing is an excerpt of text of a statement issued by Bishop Charles H. Helmsing of Kansas City – St. Joseph (Mo) Diocese. The statement pertains to the National Catholic Reporter, which is published in the diocese and is an outgrowth of its diocesan newspaper. In 1968, so they have been doing this for years.
IN AS MUCH as the National Catholic Reporter does not reflect the teaching of the Church, but on the contrary, has openly and deliberately opposed this teaching. I ask the editors in all honesty to drop the term "Catholic" from their masthead. By retaining it they deceive their Catholic readers and do a great disservice to ecumenism by being responsible for the false irenicism of watering down Catholic teachings.
I further ask the editors and the board of directors, for the love of God and their fellow men, to change their misguided and evil policy; for it is evident to me that they have already caused untold harm to the faith and morals not only of our laity, but of too many of our priests and religious.
I make this statement with apostolic freedom as given by our Lord to His followers; I make it conscious of the heavy burden that is mine as a bishop, as one enjoined by the Holy Spirit through the pen of St. Paul: "Reprove, entreat, rebuke in all patience and doctrine; for there will come a time when they will not endure the sound doctrines; but having itching ears, will heap up to themselves teachers according to their own lust, and they will turn away their hearing from the truth and will turn aside rather to fables." (2 Tim. 4:2-4) http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=00Cofv
Full text here;
December 5, 2012 at 12:47 am
I'm shocked….I thought NcR officially began supporting pretend female ordinations years ago. Forgive my confusion, but several of their writers have been very supportive for as long as I can remember, I guess now the publication itself is supportive rather then just giving a platform to those who are supportive.