So, who did you see in the video?
Rosa Parks, Sojourner Truth, Dorothy Day, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Harriet Tubman, Alice Paul.
All of these courageous people either fought against or broke an unjust law. So what is an unjust law? Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail " writes: "How does one determine when a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law, or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas, an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law."
In the words of Bishop Patricia Fresen, D.Th: “Now we in the Church are on another 'long walk to freedom', this time freedom from sexism, from unjust discrimination against women in the church, freedom from oppression by the privileged clerical caste in the church. Once again, we need to stand together in protest, to break the unjust laws because we cannot wait forever.”
Womenpriests remind us that women are equal symbols of the holy and therefore should preside at the celebration of the sacraments. Like Rosa Parks, whose refusal to sit in the back of the bus ignited the civil rights movement, Roman Catholic women priests are leading the Catholic church into a new age of equality for women in the church.
So how did this 54 year old, Italian stocky woman become a Roman Catholic woman priest? Well let me tell you about my journey. I must confess, I was born at a very early age.
I was born in Bronx, NY and have two older brothers and one younger sister. I am a cradle Catholic, where the church was a big part of our lives. I went to Catholic school through fourth grade. I recall after having received my first Holy Communion, I was so drawn to the Eucharist that as an eight year old I insisted upon attending daily mass before going to school. So by myself, I walked the three blocks to church for daily mass [which was still said in Latin] then walked to school with some of the nuns who taught there. I also remember as a youth in the Bronx, how I would love to “say mass” with my friends and I was always the “priest” and used white bread to make the “communion wafers. Since I was a “tom-boy” and was able to do anything as well as any boy or better, I guess I did not see anything wrong with me playing priest.
My parents were always very active in the parish doing much volunteer work and always were friendly with the parish priest having them over for dinner was not unusual. When we moved to New Jersey to the “country”, the local Catholic Church we could no longer walk to and needed to drive there, however the parish continued to be a big part of our lives and my parents did more and more volunteer work there and eventually got involved with Marriage Encounter and giving ME weekends. Once we moved to NJ, we no longer went to a Catholic school but had to attend the local public school. We also continued our Catholic education through CCD. I received all my sacraments and attended Sunday mass regularly with my parents. As I became an adolescent attending mass became more of an obligation/requirement by my parents and not something I looked forward to. My image of God was of an old man somewhere out there who was watching me and keeping track of my sins.
My interest in playing sports continued throughout my youth. I played field hockey, basketball, track and field at school, and also played softball in a township league. While I was a strong athlete and very good at most sports, I physically matured early and was endowed with a large chest which made me very uncomfortable in my body except for when I was competing in sports. Academically, I was an average student and had to study hard just to get a “B”. During my freshman and sophomore years of high school, I became active in the CYO at my church, which consisted mainly of social activities. At this stage, prayer was nearly non-existent but I still attended Sunday mass. My first real experience of God happened on a weekend youth retreat that was given by a new young charismatic priest that came to our parish. It was this priest who convinced my best friend and I to go on the retreat. We were very reluctant, but we were able to convince our boyfriends to go with us and that sealed my fate. It was on this first retreat that despite not really wanting to be there, and sneaking out at night with my friends to drink beer in the parking lot, we all learned about a God we could have a personal relationship with. I experienced Jesus’ unconditional love and nothing was ever the same. It was this same young priest who wanted to expand on the success of this first youth retreat by doing away with the traditional CYO and start building a much more balanced Youth Ministry, where youth retreats were the cornerstone. For some reason, Father saw some kind of leadership potential in me and asked me to be the Youth Leader of the Youth Ministry. Although not having a lot of self-confidence, I knew what experiencing a personal relationship with Jesus did for me, that I wanted all teenagers to have the same experience, so I jumped in. By the time I was a senior in high school, I was completely running the youth ministry myself. Father was involved less and less and gave me complete autonomy including planning, training the youth and adults and directing the youth retreats which was attracting around 100 teenagers each time we offered it. Eventually, Father offered me a part time job as the official Youth Minister for the parish with my own office for a mere stipend. Youth Ministry became the center of my life which I took very seriously. I tried to fulfill the active youth ministry members’ needs socially and spiritually. Although a mere teenager myself, I did much “peer ministry” which included very basic counseling to the younger youth. I can remember vividly feeling the burden of responsibility for these youth and thinking I was doing everything the “priest should be doing” except for saying mass and hearing the teens confessions. I continued as the youth minister throughout my college years too for I did not go to school that far away and could still get home weekends to be with the teens and give retreats etc.
While in college, in addition to leading the Youth Ministry I was working part time as a laboratory technician at Pfizer, which is where I met the man whom I thought I would marry. He was 4 years older than me and was my first serious relationship. As I look back, we really did not have much in common. He was not Catholic and had a hard time understanding why my faith was so important to me, even to the point that he resented my time with the youth ministry which took me away from him. He was also an only child and had difficulty relating to my big Italian family whom I did spend a lot of time with and took me away from him. Despite all these red flags [I can see now], I loved him and so we got engaged when I was a junior in college and planned to wed in October 1982.
Upon graduation from college I found it difficult to find a full time job but was still working for the church as a Youth Minster. I finally found a job as a Chemist the beginning of August and was very busy planning my wedding [virtually alone] when two weeks into the job and six weeks before my wedding, at the age of 21 I had a stroke. The stroke was fairly severe, leaving me completely paralyzed on my left side. Needless to say, the whole course of my life changed in that moment. While my fiance was very attentive and supportive at first, over time while recovering in the in-patient rehab facility, he began to visit less frequently. When I was released from re-hab and trying to start my life again as a disabled young women, my fiance decided he did not want to get married anymore. It was a lot for me to handle all at once. But over the years and through lots of psycho-therapy, I have come to recognize these wounds needed to be embraced by me as a sacred part of myself. I also realize that my woundedness affords me more compassion so I can more authentically companion people in their suffering and woundedness.
I have noticed over my adult the years, that my faith grew the most when I was a part of a small faith community. Starting with the youth ministry community as a teenager, we really enfleshed the Gospel message and loved each other, cared for each other, and grew in our faith in God together. I experienced this community feeling in two separate youth ministries [once as a teenager and once as an adult adviser]. I also have had this small faith community experience during my formation as a Spiritual Director with my practicum group and with my peer supervision group. I have not had this sense of community in the parishes I have belonged to over the years even though I was very active in most of the parishes volunteering for various ministries, I never truly felt welcomed or that I belonged. This experience of not feeling welcomed or of belonging led to me to explore the St. Mary Magdalene community which is led by two Roman Catholic Women Priest in Drexel Hill, PA. From the first time I attended liturgy there, I knew I was home and that is where I could grow in my faith and serve God’s people. It was in this faith community that I was asked to give a homily and even to preside over liturgy when the priest were unavailable, that I knew that God was calling me to priesthood.
Roman Catholic Women Priests are at the forefront of a model of service that offers Catholics a renewed priestly ministry in vibrant grassroots communities where all are equal and all are welcome. The voice of the Catholic people has spoken. We women are no longer asking for permission to be priests. Instead, we have taken back our rightful God-given place ministering to Catholics as inclusive and welcoming priests.
Yes, we have challenged and broken the Church's Canon Law 1024, an unjust law that discriminates against women. Despite what some bishops may lead people to believe, our ordinations are valid because we are ordained in apostolic succession within the Roman Catholic Church.
The Catholic people have accepted us as their priests and they continue to support us as we grow from the seven bold women first ordained on the Danube River in 2002. Ordained women are already ministering in over 32 states across the country and about 150 strong world-wide. We are here to stay.
Rosa Parks, Sojourner Truth, Dorothy Day, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Harriet Tubman, Alice Paul.
All of these courageous people either fought against or broke an unjust law. So what is an unjust law? Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail " writes: "How does one determine when a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law, or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas, an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law."
In the words of Bishop Patricia Fresen, D.Th: “Now we in the Church are on another 'long walk to freedom', this time freedom from sexism, from unjust discrimination against women in the church, freedom from oppression by the privileged clerical caste in the church. Once again, we need to stand together in protest, to break the unjust laws because we cannot wait forever.”
Womenpriests remind us that women are equal symbols of the holy and therefore should preside at the celebration of the sacraments. Like Rosa Parks, whose refusal to sit in the back of the bus ignited the civil rights movement, Roman Catholic women priests are leading the Catholic church into a new age of equality for women in the church.
So how did this 54 year old, Italian stocky woman become a Roman Catholic woman priest? Well let me tell you about my journey. I must confess, I was born at a very early age.
I was born in Bronx, NY and have two older brothers and one younger sister. I am a cradle Catholic, where the church was a big part of our lives. I went to Catholic school through fourth grade. I recall after having received my first Holy Communion, I was so drawn to the Eucharist that as an eight year old I insisted upon attending daily mass before going to school. So by myself, I walked the three blocks to church for daily mass [which was still said in Latin] then walked to school with some of the nuns who taught there. I also remember as a youth in the Bronx, how I would love to “say mass” with my friends and I was always the “priest” and used white bread to make the “communion wafers. Since I was a “tom-boy” and was able to do anything as well as any boy or better, I guess I did not see anything wrong with me playing priest.
My parents were always very active in the parish doing much volunteer work and always were friendly with the parish priest having them over for dinner was not unusual. When we moved to New Jersey to the “country”, the local Catholic Church we could no longer walk to and needed to drive there, however the parish continued to be a big part of our lives and my parents did more and more volunteer work there and eventually got involved with Marriage Encounter and giving ME weekends. Once we moved to NJ, we no longer went to a Catholic school but had to attend the local public school. We also continued our Catholic education through CCD. I received all my sacraments and attended Sunday mass regularly with my parents. As I became an adolescent attending mass became more of an obligation/requirement by my parents and not something I looked forward to. My image of God was of an old man somewhere out there who was watching me and keeping track of my sins.
My interest in playing sports continued throughout my youth. I played field hockey, basketball, track and field at school, and also played softball in a township league. While I was a strong athlete and very good at most sports, I physically matured early and was endowed with a large chest which made me very uncomfortable in my body except for when I was competing in sports. Academically, I was an average student and had to study hard just to get a “B”. During my freshman and sophomore years of high school, I became active in the CYO at my church, which consisted mainly of social activities. At this stage, prayer was nearly non-existent but I still attended Sunday mass. My first real experience of God happened on a weekend youth retreat that was given by a new young charismatic priest that came to our parish. It was this priest who convinced my best friend and I to go on the retreat. We were very reluctant, but we were able to convince our boyfriends to go with us and that sealed my fate. It was on this first retreat that despite not really wanting to be there, and sneaking out at night with my friends to drink beer in the parking lot, we all learned about a God we could have a personal relationship with. I experienced Jesus’ unconditional love and nothing was ever the same. It was this same young priest who wanted to expand on the success of this first youth retreat by doing away with the traditional CYO and start building a much more balanced Youth Ministry, where youth retreats were the cornerstone. For some reason, Father saw some kind of leadership potential in me and asked me to be the Youth Leader of the Youth Ministry. Although not having a lot of self-confidence, I knew what experiencing a personal relationship with Jesus did for me, that I wanted all teenagers to have the same experience, so I jumped in. By the time I was a senior in high school, I was completely running the youth ministry myself. Father was involved less and less and gave me complete autonomy including planning, training the youth and adults and directing the youth retreats which was attracting around 100 teenagers each time we offered it. Eventually, Father offered me a part time job as the official Youth Minister for the parish with my own office for a mere stipend. Youth Ministry became the center of my life which I took very seriously. I tried to fulfill the active youth ministry members’ needs socially and spiritually. Although a mere teenager myself, I did much “peer ministry” which included very basic counseling to the younger youth. I can remember vividly feeling the burden of responsibility for these youth and thinking I was doing everything the “priest should be doing” except for saying mass and hearing the teens confessions. I continued as the youth minister throughout my college years too for I did not go to school that far away and could still get home weekends to be with the teens and give retreats etc.
While in college, in addition to leading the Youth Ministry I was working part time as a laboratory technician at Pfizer, which is where I met the man whom I thought I would marry. He was 4 years older than me and was my first serious relationship. As I look back, we really did not have much in common. He was not Catholic and had a hard time understanding why my faith was so important to me, even to the point that he resented my time with the youth ministry which took me away from him. He was also an only child and had difficulty relating to my big Italian family whom I did spend a lot of time with and took me away from him. Despite all these red flags [I can see now], I loved him and so we got engaged when I was a junior in college and planned to wed in October 1982.
Upon graduation from college I found it difficult to find a full time job but was still working for the church as a Youth Minster. I finally found a job as a Chemist the beginning of August and was very busy planning my wedding [virtually alone] when two weeks into the job and six weeks before my wedding, at the age of 21 I had a stroke. The stroke was fairly severe, leaving me completely paralyzed on my left side. Needless to say, the whole course of my life changed in that moment. While my fiance was very attentive and supportive at first, over time while recovering in the in-patient rehab facility, he began to visit less frequently. When I was released from re-hab and trying to start my life again as a disabled young women, my fiance decided he did not want to get married anymore. It was a lot for me to handle all at once. But over the years and through lots of psycho-therapy, I have come to recognize these wounds needed to be embraced by me as a sacred part of myself. I also realize that my woundedness affords me more compassion so I can more authentically companion people in their suffering and woundedness.
I have noticed over my adult the years, that my faith grew the most when I was a part of a small faith community. Starting with the youth ministry community as a teenager, we really enfleshed the Gospel message and loved each other, cared for each other, and grew in our faith in God together. I experienced this community feeling in two separate youth ministries [once as a teenager and once as an adult adviser]. I also have had this small faith community experience during my formation as a Spiritual Director with my practicum group and with my peer supervision group. I have not had this sense of community in the parishes I have belonged to over the years even though I was very active in most of the parishes volunteering for various ministries, I never truly felt welcomed or that I belonged. This experience of not feeling welcomed or of belonging led to me to explore the St. Mary Magdalene community which is led by two Roman Catholic Women Priest in Drexel Hill, PA. From the first time I attended liturgy there, I knew I was home and that is where I could grow in my faith and serve God’s people. It was in this faith community that I was asked to give a homily and even to preside over liturgy when the priest were unavailable, that I knew that God was calling me to priesthood.
Roman Catholic Women Priests are at the forefront of a model of service that offers Catholics a renewed priestly ministry in vibrant grassroots communities where all are equal and all are welcome. The voice of the Catholic people has spoken. We women are no longer asking for permission to be priests. Instead, we have taken back our rightful God-given place ministering to Catholics as inclusive and welcoming priests.
Yes, we have challenged and broken the Church's Canon Law 1024, an unjust law that discriminates against women. Despite what some bishops may lead people to believe, our ordinations are valid because we are ordained in apostolic succession within the Roman Catholic Church.
The Catholic people have accepted us as their priests and they continue to support us as we grow from the seven bold women first ordained on the Danube River in 2002. Ordained women are already ministering in over 32 states across the country and about 150 strong world-wide. We are here to stay.
OUR PHILOSOPHY
We are an inclusive Community, and a division of St. Mary Magdalene Communities and Dignity Philadelphia.
