*** Action Alert and News Update ***
April 24, 2006
Action Alerts:
1. Write a letter of support to Fr. Ed Cachia, public supporter of women’s ordination!
2. Witness for women outside male ordinations in May!
3. Rise up to support historic African American parish in New Orleans!
Women's Ordination News:
1. 2006 World Day of Prayer for Women’s Ordination was the biggest celebration ever!
2. Holy Thursday Event in Philadelphia a major success
3. Women’s Ordination Supporters Honored at two Catholic Universities’ Commencement Ceremonies
Action Alerts
1. Write a letter of support to Fr. Ed Cachia, public supporter of women’s ordination!
Canadian priest excommunicated on Palm Sunday for holding services
After months of discernment and prayer, on April 2nd, Fr. Ed Cachia held the first services at his newly formed church community, Christ the Servant Church, in Cold Springs, Canada. More than 300 people from Lakefield and Peterborough, and as far away as Montreal, attended the service and showed their support for Fr. Cachia.
Last fall, as reported in these action alerts and NewWomen, NewChurch, Fr. Cachia was fired as the pastor of St. Michael's Parish in Cobourg and was asked to leave the Peterborough diocese by Bishop Nicola De Angelis because
of his public support for the St. Lawrence ordinations of women as priests and deacons. Fr. Cachia lost his small salary, his pension, and his benefits along with his ministry. He had served the Peterborough diocese for 20 years.
Bishop Nicola De Angelis ordered that the notice of Fr. Cachia’s excommunication be read in all parishes immediately on Palm Sunday, April 9th. In it, he stated, “(Fr. Cachia) has incurred automatic excommunication by virtue of the law of the Church.”
"The Church has no moral or theological basis for excluding women from ordination. The Church has all the authority it needs to stop this injustice to women.... The Church will be ineffective in challenging others on issues of social justice as long as it continues to oppress women,” Fr. Cachia responded to the statement.
Write a letter or send a card to support Fr. Cachia for taking courageous steps to support women’s justice and equality in our church! Send your letter and/or card to Mark King, who handles all of Fr. Cachia’s correspondence: marking@bellnet.ca
Read More:
Click here to read Father Ed's response to Bishop De Angelis' public announcement regarding his excommunication, and the bishop's statement itself.
Link to article in Canada’s National Post on April 22, 2006:
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=88e16670-a1cd-4387-8329-efa59b4c136f&k=15190&p=2
2. Witness for women at male ordinations in May!
May is Ordination Month! Organize a witness event to bring attention to women’s ordination and challenge the Roman Catholic Church to create a renewing priestly ministry during the ordinations of male seminarians in May.
Southeastern Pennsylvania Women's Ordination Conference (SEPA WOC) will host an event outside the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul on Ordination Day, May 20 th, where inside the Cathedral, the Cardinal will be ordaining the dwindling number of men, and outside, women’s ordination activists will celebrate priestly women, protest the exclusion of women, and present candidates for ordination. Click here for more information.
If your local group is organizing an action on or around Ordination Day, please let us know! Contact Nidza Vazquez at nvazquez@womensordination.org.
3. Rise up to support historic African American parish in New Orleans
St. Augustine's was the first African American church in the U.S. and it remains the center of Catholic Creole culture. It also welcomes people of all races and ethnic groups. Pope John Paul II in 1987 praised its cultural diversity as a model for all parishes.
Since Hurricane Katrina, St. Augustine's, in a relatively undamaged area, has partnered with service and government agencies offering meals, health care, and technical assistance for reconstruction of homes. Most parishioners have returned, and new residents are moving in.
As part of diocesan downsizing after Hurricane Katrina, St. Augustine's, the most historic African American parish in North America, was set to be closed. The Pastoral Council was never consulted about the closure and Archbishop Alfred Hughes of New Orleans would not even discuss it. Letters to Hughes were urgently requested, and Call to Action National asked their members through e-mail alerts to send letters to Hughes.
Thanks to the activism of Catholics in New Orleans, united with many emails and letters from church reformers, St. Augustine's Church will remain open! But the struggle is not completely over! Negotiations between Archbishop Hughes of New Orleans and the parish council led to an agreement that the church will remain open for the next 18 months, during which various administrative goals must be met. Sandra Gordon, president of the parish council, has expressed confidence that the parish will rise to meet these challenges. The campaign to save St. Augustine's asks us to offer our support.
With the help of your calls, e-mails and letters, this vibrant church will be able to continue its critical ministry to parishioners and the surrounding neighborhood. Send a letter of thanks to Archbishop Hughes and a letter of encouragement to the St. Augustine's Parish Council (contact information below).
Archbishop Alfred C. Hughes
7887 Walmsley Avenue
New Orleans, LA 70125
Email: abpno@archdiocese-no.org
St. Augustine's Parish Council
c/o Sandra Gordon
St. Augustine Catholic Church
1210 Gov. Nicholls Street
New Orleans, Louisiana 70116
Email:sjgmaj@yahoo.com
Women's Ordination News:
1. 2006 World Day of Prayer for Women’s Ordination was the biggest celebration ever!
To bring about a renewing priestly ministry and draw attention to the lack of women in church governance, we celebrated the 11th Annual World Day of Prayer for Women’s Ordination with over 30 national and international events and more than 600 people participating!
Click here to enjoy some of the stories and pictures of our global action called “Good Catholic Girls Stand Up for Women’s Ordination” on March 25th, the feast of the Annunciation.
Click here to read articles and view pictures of Bishop Patricia Fresen’s Midwest Speaking Tour.
2. Holy Thursday event in Philadelphia a major success!
Southeastern Pennsylvania WOC (SEPA WOC) organized a successful Holy Thursday event across the street from the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul in Philadelphia before the Chrism Mass on April 13th. Bern McBride and Maureen Tate planned a beautiful service, and a group of over 40 people gathered in prayer, song and activism. SEPA WOC would like to thank everyone who attended and those who led, read, spoke, carried, sang and moved. Aisha Taylor, WOC’s new Executive Director, came from Washington, D.C. to participate as well. Alice Foley staffed the table, and Tom and Marianne Tucker led the music.
The banners, made by Maureen and Laura McHugh, were spectacular colors of royal purple, bright blue, lime green and hot pink. The banners featured women leaders in the early church including Mary Magdalene, Phoebe, Junia, and Bishop Theodora. The banner featuring Phoebe, so clearly documented in scripture, was taken to the open door of the Cathedral by four courageous women.
Eileen DiFranco, Maria Marlowe, and Marianne Jann handled publicity, and the event received a good deal of exposure. Judy Heffernan, ordained by the Community of the Christian Spirit twenty-five years ago, was interviewed April 14th on WHYY, and Eileen DiFranco was interviewed on KYW radio. Almost all of the television news stations featured the event. The day before, the Philadelphia I nquirer ran a story about Eileen DiFranco’s upcoming ordination in Pittsburgh, which attracted new people to the event, as did an email flyer, and nineteen new people signed up for more information about SEPA WOC. The Philadelphia Inquirer also ran a photograph of Regina Bannan leading the group in song on April 14th.
View pictures of the event: http://www.woc.smugmug.com/gallery/1366223/1/64441290
Read more about SEPA WOC’s tradition of witnessing on Holy Thursday:
http://www.womensordination.org/pages/art_pages/art_HolyThurs06
3. Women’s Ordination Supporters Honored at Two Catholic Universities' Commencement Ceremonies
St. Joseph College Honors Elizabeth A. Johnson, CSJ; Notre Dame Honors Ireland’s President Mary McAleese
Sr. Elizabeth A. Johnson , Distinguished Professor of Theology at Fordham University, will serve as Commencement Speaker at Saint Joseph College's 71st Commencement Exercises on Sunday, May 21, 2006. She will also receive an honorary degree from the College during the ceremony in West Hartford, Conn. Sr. Elizabeth is an internationally renowned scholar and writer who often deals with the themes of feminist theology and the role of women within the Roman Catholic Church. Johnson has been a vocal supporter of a renewing priestly ministry, saying the Vatican’s policy of the male-only priesthood is a "patriarchal resistance to women's equality." Johnson is also the author of seminal feminist theology book "She Who Is: The Mystery of God in Feminist Theological Discourse."
St. Joseph College Announcement:
http://www.sjc.edu/content.cfm/pageid/6907
Irish President Mary McAleese will be the principal speaker at the University of Notre Dame’s 161 st Commencement exercises May 21 st. McAleese, now in her second term as Ireland’s president, will receive an honorary doctor of laws degree.
Notre Dame President Rev. John Jenkins, C.S.C., has described McAleese as "an inspiring model for women" and "a passionate voice within the Catholic Church."
Two years after Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI) tried to make infallible Pope John Paul II’s 1994 Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, which stated only men can be priests and attempted to close public discussion, McAleese stated in The Tablet (International Catholic Newspaper) that she refused to "humbly submit to an edict which purports to bind in perpetuity."
Speaking at the Women’s Ordination Worldwide Conference in Dublin, Ireland in 1995, McAleese said, "They say the debate is closed… If I truly believed that Christ was the authority for the proposition that women are to be excluded from priesthood by virtue simply of their gender, I would have to say emphatically that this is a Christ in whose divinity I do not and will not and cannot believe."
McAleese was also the founding legal advisor to the Campaign for Homosexual Law Reform, whose lawsuit to overturn laws against same sex activity motivated the Irish parliament in 1993 to pass a law legalizing it.
Notre Dame Announcement
http://newsinfo.nd.edu/content.cfm?topicid=16862
“The Church has no moral or theological basis for excluding women from ordination. The Church has all the authority it needs to stop this injustice to women. The Church is operating more out of fear of women and fear of losing control. The Church will be ineffective in challenging others on issues of social justice as long as it continues to oppress women.”
~ Fr. Cachia said in his response to Bishop De Angelis’ Palm Sunday statement announcing Cachia’s excommunication.
*** This ACTION ALERT and UPDATE E-MAIL is from the Women's Ordination Conference. Send comments, e-mail address changes, or information for future ACTION ALERTS to Nidza Vazquez, at nvazquez@womensordination.org ***
*** Founded in 1975, Women's Ordination Conference (WOC) is the world’s oldest and largest national organization working solely for women to be ordained as deacons, priests and bishops into a renewing priestly ministry in the Catholic Church. For more information about WOC and how to become a WOC member, visit http://www.womensordination.org ***
