The Vatican has finally spoken out against pornography and pedophilia but while it was doing so, it managed to ramp up its insult to women, claiming that those who are ordained and the men who participate in an such ordinations are no better than those who prey upon children or distribute porn. In this press release sent to The Toronto Star, Alice Iaquinta, one of the women ordained at West Hill in 2007, responds on behalf of the Womenpriests movement.
Vatican: Ordination of Women a Grave Crime - Roman Catholic Womenpriests Respond with demand for Justice for Women in the Church and for Survivors of Sexual Abuse
The ordination of women appeared on the list of most serious crimes against Roman Catholic canon law, or "delicta graviora" – putting it in the same category as sexual abuse of children by priests - according to Vatican Information Service http://visnews-en.blogspot.com/2010/07/publication-of-cdf-norms-on-most.html .
Roman Catholic Womenpriests respond to the Vatican’s equating women’s ordination with pedophilia by priests, by demanding the Vatican affirm women's full equality in the church including priestly ministry.
We demand an end to misogyny in the Catholic Church.
We demand that the Vatican adopt reforms to transform church laws and practices to reflect transparency, accountability, justice and equality for all.
Roman Catholic Womenpriests believe that the document from the Vatican is intended to specifically scare off male priests who choose to walk in solidarity with us for justice for women in our church. Priests like Roy Bourgeois, Maryknoll priest of 38 years, founder of the School of the Americas Watch and 2010 nominee for the Nobel Prize for Peace. Bourgeois participated in the ordination of Janice Sevre-Duszynska in Lexington, Kentucky, on Aug. 9, 2008.
We are welcomed with open arms and hearts by the people at the grassroots of the church. Yet, our brother priests- the Vatican’s all-male hierarchy- in May 2008, declared that we and the person ordaining us would be self-excommunicating ourselves. The Vatican has also said that anyone who attends ordinations would be excommunicated. That threat has not deterred the faithful who come in droves to Roman Catholic women’s ordinations all over the United States. Roman Catholic Womenpriests numbers have erupted from seven to over 100 in the last eight years since the first ordination in 2002 on the Danube in Europe. The Vatican continues to respond to women’s ordinations with condemnation of everyone who supports the movement for women priests within the Catholic Church. However, Womenpriests are being supported widely by the hundreds of Catholics attending every public ordination.
Instead of excommunications and condemnations, the Vatican would do well to correct the damaging behaviors of patriarchy, the abuse of spiritual power. We suggest that the Vatican begin true renewal of itself by ending clergy abuses of power of all kinds towards nuns, women priests, and lay women in the Church who have been oppressed and exploited for millennia. As with those who have survived the sexual abuse of clergy, these women are likewise victims of the abuse of clerical power.
RCWP has asked the member states of the United Nations to support us in our quest for and for women within the Roman Catholic Church and for justice for victims of Catholic clergy sexual abuse. It is unjust and discriminatory that the males at the Vatican continue to deny us employment and decision-making within the Roman Catholic Church. This behavior is a violation of international law, our human rights, the example of Jesus and the integrity of conscience.
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Tickets are selling quickly. Buy your tickets soon for ANNE WALKER IN CONCERT at the church on Saturday, September 18. Tickets only$20.00. All proceeds to West Hill United Church. The Curtain Call Café will be selling refreshments. Contact the church office to purchase your tickets. Bring your family, friends and neighbours, reserve a table ot two!
