Archbishop Burke places interdict upon women who underwent "ordination" ceremony

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Ordination of Women

Comments: 5

St. Louis, Mo., Nov 13, 2007 / 10:36 am (CNA).- Two women who took part in a ritual they claimed was an ordination ceremony have been placed under interdict, the Associated Press reports.

Rose Marie Dunn Hudson, 67, and Elsie Hainz McGrath, 69, underwent the ceremony at a St. Louis synagogue. The ceremony was led by a South African former nun who claimed to have been ordained a bishop by a German bishop in communion with Rome. The two women plan to "co-pastor" a community, starting December 1, in a space offered by a local Unitarian church.

Archbishop Raymond Burke of the archdiocese of St. Louis sent a three-page letter to the women after they underwent the ceremony. He ordered the women to "renounce any attempts" to celebrate Mass, hear confessions, or officiate at any other sacrament. The letter summoned them to appear before a church tribunal on December 3.

In the archdiocesan newspaper on Friday the archbishop wrote that the women would confuse and lead astray the faithful by their "sinful action."

Ms. McGrath claimed the two women are helping to "bring about badly needed reforms," to heal the church's "dysfunction."

Reverend Arthur Espelage, executive coordinator for the Canon Law Society of America, said the actions of Archbishop Burke are "extremely formal" measures.
He said each rite the women preside over creates a deeper separation from the church.
"He knows the law very well," he said, speaking of the archbishop. "He's a very conservative archbishop, he's going to take a severe stand here. But even if you had a very liberal bishop, you'd have the same response.
"Civil disobedience doesn't change laws in the church."

Catholic teaching holds that an attempted ordination of women would be invalid.

Comments: 5

Subscriber comments:

Published by: Warren Anderson
Victoria, BC, Canada 11/15/2007 01:56 AM EST

Pardon the bluntness, but to which version of history is Mr. Kelty referring? Such a blatant revision of history is not worthy of comment. Regarding the Archbishop’s actions - the good Archbishop of Saint Louis has done what his office requires and what is confirmed in Scripture. Namely that, for the sake of each and every eternal soul, we should reprove those who merit fraternal correction so that their error does not infect the faithful. The women in question have had every opportunity to dialogue and abide by the unchanging and unchangeable teaching of the Church. Instead, like so many heretics and schismatics before them, they have chosen to place themselves above and outside the Church by claiming an authority beyond that of the Pope. The question of who can be ordained is closed. Roma locutus est, causa finis est. To those women and their supporters who would persist in or promote disobedience and heresy, a word of advice: stop your rather petulant whining, come to your senses and show a little old fashioned humility by respecting a successor to the Apostles.

Published by: Professor Thomas Jennings
Tuscaloosa, AL USA 11/14/2007 11:39 PM EST

ValatieNYUSA, you are completely mistaken on the history of married clergy. In the beginning, married and celibate clergy existed side-by-side, but when Rome fell in the west in 476 AD, education declined to almost nothing. Many priests dedicated themselves to the preservation of both the church and education, and founded monasteries, thanks to the efforts of St. Basil and St. Benedict. To root out corruption and improve their spiritual life, they took more strict vows than ordinary parish priests, and became monks. They continued to enjoy the benefits of education, while despite their best efforts, the isolated parish priests of western Europe lacked these opportunities for training. Some, sadly, became corrupt, by lavishly supporting their wives and the careers of their children using church funds and through simony, the sale of church offices. Married Catholic parish priests continued to be known in the West until around the year 900, when increasing corruption, especially involving investiture and simony caused a reform movement to start among the Cluny monks in France. This quickly caught on, spawning over 1200 new monasteries and mandating, among other things, seminary training for all priests and the celibacy of priests, to prevent such abuse of church funds and offices. The pope, seeing the effectiveness of this reform movement, finally instituted it among the entire western branch of the church around 1100. From that time on, married clergy were only permitted in the

Published by: Mudbug
Beaumont,Tx. 11/14/2007 04:38 PM EST

Tom...Too bad you don't know your church history as well as you apparently think you do.
Besides there is no battle, the church has never ordained women and never will, it can't because it doesn't have the authority to change the teachings of its founder.

Published by: Brian Kelly
Ayer, MA USA 11/14/2007 09:05 AM EST

Tom Kelty historian ala Dan Brown. Bishops charging knights to "slaughter" married priests, families, and worshippers? Tell enough lies, enough times and stupid people will believe them. Why an interdict? Just declare the two women excommunicated in the external forum. They already have apostatized from the Body of Christ in the internal forum.

Published by: Tom Kelty
ValatieNYUSA 11/13/2007 03:14 PM EST

Rate: Regular

These are the first skirmishes in what promises to be a long and bloody battle. History teaches us that those in power will do what they have to do to keep that power. Thank God the good Bishop does not have knights on horses to enforce his rule. That is how they finally got rid of the married clergy. They slaughtered the priests and their families and all those who worshiped with them. All for the glory of God!!

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