Chicago, Ill., Nov 5, 2008 / 04:42 am
A woman claiming to be a Catholic bishop “ordained” a so-called womanpriest and three “women deacons” at St. Paul’s United Church of Christ in Chicago on Saturday. In response, a spokeswoman from the Archdiocese of Chicago said that her act automatically excommunicates the participants.
Dana Reynolds, from Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, claims that she was ordained a womanpriest in 2006, the California Catholic Daily reports. At an April 9, 2008 ceremony in Stuttgart, Germany, she became the first self-described U.S. bishop for the dissenting Roman Catholic Womenpriests movement.
A May 29 statement from the Holy See’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith reiterated traditional Church teaching that the Church has no power or authority to ordain women as priests. The statement also noted such attempted ordinations incur an automatic, latae sententiae excommunication for both the ordainer and the would-be ordinand.
On Saturday Reynolds “ordained” 60-year-old Barbara Zeman as a womanpriest. Speaking to the Chicago Tribune, Zeman claimed she was disobeying an “unjust law.”