By: Christine McConville
Local Catholic observers aren’t expecting the church to loosen its ban on women priests any time soon, even though a former Kentucky nun has just become the newest member of this controversial but growing group.
“The church in many ways has declared that priesthood is reserved exclusively for men,” said Boston College theology and religious education professor Thomas Groome. “The church has said this is the design of Jesus Christ. Many theologians have challenged this, but nonetheless, that’s the church’s official position, and it’s not likely to change soon.”
This weekend, the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, a dissident group that operates outside official Roman Catholic Church authority, ordained Rosemarie Smead, 70. Smead told The Associated Press that church law against women priests is “a medieval bullying stick the bishops used to keep control over people and to keep the voices of women silent.”
“I am way beyond letting octogenarian men tell us how to live our lives,” she told reporters.
Massachusetts advocates for ordaining women as Catholic priests could not be reached for comment yesterday. The modern woman priest movement began in Austria in 2002. About 150 women have been ordained since then.
Catholic Action League of Massachusetts Executive Director C.J. Doyle called Smead’s move “a sacrilegious parody of holy orders, conducted by a group of non-Catholics.” Doyle said there’s no way Smead can be a Catholic priest, or her supporters Catholic, because her ordination violated church law.
