Kentucky woman ordained as priest in defiance of Roman Catholic Church

By Mary Wisniewski Sat Apr 27, 2013

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (Reuters) - In an emotional ceremony filled with tears and applause, a 70-year-old Kentucky woman was ordained a priest on Saturday as part of a dissident group operating outside of official Roman Catholic Church authority.

Reuters) - In an emotional ceremony filled with tears and applause, a 70-year-old Kentucky woman was ordained a priest on Saturday as part of a dissident group operating outside of official Roman Catholic Church authority.

Rosemarie Smead is one of about 150 women around the world who have decided not to wait for the Roman Catholic Church to lift its ban on women priests, but to be ordained and start their own congregations.

In an interview before the ceremony, Smead said she is not worried about being excommunicated from the Church - the fate of other women ordained outside of Vatican law.

"It has no sting for me," said Smead, a petite, gray-haired former Carmelite nun with a ready hug for strangers. "It is a Medieval bullying stick the bishops used to keep control over people and to keep the voices of women silent. I am way beyond letting octogenarian men tell us how to live our lives."  To Read More.......

My Take – I really find stories such as this amazingly interesting because it establishes what I think is a strange mind set in so many people, and it will be interesting to see how the Roman Catholic Church deals with this.  I do have some thoughts.  First of all….they aren’t Catholic…at least not Roman Catholic…..not any longer.  I keep being amazed at accounts where supposedly large percentages of people disagree with some major doctrine of the church and still claim to be Catholic, including a number of those I have known that work for the church.  Why?  If you claim to be part of any organization it is because you believe in their teachings.  If you don’t believe in their teachings then you aren’t part of that organization.  No matter what you claim publically.  That’s like claiming to be a Christian but you don’t’ believe in anything the Bible says, or that you don’t believe Christ lived.   So, if you don’t believe in Roman Catholic doctrine then leave and create your own ‘Catholic’ church, as others have done over the years. 

There are some things I would like to point out from the article;

“The Catholic Church teaches that it has no authority to allow women to be priests because Jesus Christ chose only men as his apostles. Proponents of a female priesthood said Jesus was acting only according to the customs of his time.  They also note that he chose women, like Mary Magdalene, as disciples, and that the early Church had women priests, deacons and bishops.”

First of all, Christ chose his apostles from men because that is the pattern that was to be followed forever.  The apostle Paul noted that “I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet” in 1 Tim. 2:12.   “Also 1 Corinthians 14:34, “Women should remain silent in the churches. They are not allowed to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says”, and Titus 2:5 “to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God.”  There never were women priests, deacons or bishops in the first century.  

Anything after the first century is up for grabs though, as the apostle John found it necessary to condemn the “sect of Nicholas”.  The early church was already segmenting by the end of the first century and continued ever after.  However, women were permitted to share in the work of the congregations including spreading the word to the general population, but they weren’t permitted leadership positions. 

To now claim that Jesus was merely following local custom is to suggest he feared offending them, but really wanted women in positions of authority.  Well, if his concern was offending the local customs he went about it in a strange why, like whipping the money changers out of the temple and referring to the religious leaders as, “serpents, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the judgment of Gehenna?” and he further intoned, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.”  Somehow that doesn’t appear to be someone overly worried about offending the leadership or the general population over custom. 

At any rate….this will be an interesting story to watch, especially when a person is quoted as saying, ‘"People like me know it's something the Catholic Church will have to do."  Really?  The last time I looked the Roman Catholic Church wasn’t a democracy, and whatever other issues there may be with Roman Catholic doctrine, on this they are on solid Biblical ground.  Which of course leaves this conundrum for the dissenters.  What is the moral foundation for your position if it isn't the Bible?  And if that isn't foundational to your views, then what is? 

I do have one final thought.  How do those who profess to be Roman Catholic, are at the same time, members of the Democratic Party.  The church they profess to follow as the moral foundation for their lives teaches....absolutely....that abortion is murder.  The party they belong to teaches .....absolutely.....that abortion is a right.  So then....who are they really?   What is it they actually believe?  Since they vote for those who support abortion there can only be one conclusion; they're heretics!   Clarity is essential to understanding

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