Winona, Minn., Apr 15, 2008 / 23:58 pm
The Bishop of Winona has said that a woman will excommunicate herself for undergoing an ordination ceremony administered by the excommunicated Roman Catholic Womenpriests movement, the Winona Daily News reports.
Bishop Bernard Harrington said the situation was “very, very sad.”
He praised the work of Kathy Redig, a chaplain at Community Memorial Hospital who plans to undergo an ordination ceremony on May 4. However, the bishop said her participation in the ceremony purporting to ordain her to the Catholic priesthood “will cause more confusion than good.”
Bishop Harrington said the Church’s teaching that women cannot be ordained was exhaustively outlined in Pope John Paul II’s 1988 apostolic letter Dignitatis Mulierem. He explained that Catholic teaching was rooted in Christ’s actions when he called only men to be his 12 apostles.