Catholic women ordained priest and deacons in Ky.

Charlie White, The (Louisville) Courier-Journal10:57 p.m. EST December 8, 2013

Catholic Church has disavowed the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests.


(Photo: David R. Lutman, The (Louisville, Ky.) Courier-Journal)

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

  • Four other women were ordained as deacons
  • Mary Sue Barnett, who was raised in the Catholic Church, is married and has two sons
  • Association's first seven women were ordained as priests in 2002



LOUISVILLE — Mary Sue Barnett lay prostrate Sunday before members of the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests and others laid their hands on her in solemn reverence and prayer.

They had a clear message for the Vatican on Sunday, ordaining Barnett as its latest female priest.

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"The time has come for a holy shake-up that will bring new life, creativity and justice to the church and beyond," the Rev. Bridget Mary Meehan, the ordaining bishop from the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, said during the ceremony.

More than 200 people attended the afternoon ceremony for Barnett at Central Presbyterian Church in Old Louisville, Ky.

Four other women were ordained as deacons: Denise Menard Davis and Betty Smith of Louisville, Mary Weber of Indianapolis and Ann Harrington of Greenville, N.C.

It was the second such ceremony in Louisville in the past year.

"It's a very natural next step for me, a joy-filled step," Barnett, 51, said after the ceremony, adding there are "women of all ages who need to be visible and need to be heard."

Barnett, who is married and has two sons, was born and raised in the traditional Roman Catholic Church. She also has taught at Catholic institutions.

There are now more than 160 female priests in the association, said Meehan, of Mother Mary of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community in Sarasota, Fla.
“It's a very natural next step for me, a joy-filled step.”
— Mary Sue Barnett, newly ordained priest

The association's first seven women were ordained as priests in 2002 on the Danube River in Europe, and a dozen more were ordained in the first U.S. ordination in Pittsburgh in 2006.

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville officials have said Catholics should not support or participate in events held by the association,
maintaining it has no connection to the Roman Catholic Church.

Some association supporters who attended Sunday's ceremony sat on the upper level to avoid having their photos taken because they said they would be excommunicated if they were seen at the ceremony.

Pope Francis, like other pontiffs before him, has rejected the idea of female priests, although he is trying to include them more in the church.

The Rev. Janice Savre-Duszynska, an association member, said priesthood "goes beyond gender."

She's among those who say frescoes the Vatican recently restored in the Catacomb of Priscilla — including one that appears to show a woman being ordained by a bishop — are evidence of female deacons and priests.

But the Vatican has a different interpretation.

"This is an elaboration that has no foundation in reality," Barbara Mazzei of the Pontifical Commission on Sacred Archaeology told Reuters last month.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...tucky/3913855/