"It's a typically hierarchical form of intimidation, and we will not be intimidated"

Two St. Louis face excommunication for planned Womenpriests ordination ceremony next Sunday.



Archbishop Burke warns against women's ordination

By CHERYL WITTENAUER
Associated Press Writer
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ST. LOUIS (AP) -- St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke has warned two Roman Catholic women that they will be excommunicated if they proceed with a planned ordination Sunday.

The two women - Rose Marie Dunn Hudson of Festus and Elsie Hainz McGrath of St. Louis - are set to be ordained as part of the Roman Catholic Womenpriests movement that began in 2002.

Only men are ordained priests and deacons in the Catholic Church. The Womenpriests and the advocacy group, the Women's Ordination Conference, are among Catholics pressing to change that tradition.

Both women said they will ignore Burke's warning.

"It's a typically hierarchical form of intimidation, and we will not be intimidated," McGrath said.

In letters delivered by courier to the women's homes Monday evening, Burke warned the women they would be committing a "grave error" and "act of schism" by trying to receive priestly ordination.

He reminded them that the pope has stated infallibly that only men can receive a valid ordination.

"Should you refuse to comply ... in order to protect the faithful from grave spiritual deception ... you will incur automatically ... the censure of excommunication," wrote Burke, who is also a church lawyer.

He said "additional disciplinary measures will also have to be imposed."

The archdiocese declined to comment about the letters.

"What is he going to do, burn us at the stake or what?" Hudson asked. "We're going to just totally ignore it. This is not unexpected. We wondered why it took so long."

Both women have graduate degrees in theology or pastoral studies and have been active in ministry for years.

McGrath, 69, is the widow of a Roman Catholic deacon. She has worked for the archdiocese, for the theology department at Saint Louis University, has been a campus minister and edited for a religious publisher. She and her late husband were part of a national leadership team for marriage preparation and enrichment programs.

Hudson, 67, is a retired teacher who has been active in parish life. She's done prison ministry for the last 15 years.

Of the roughly 100 women who have been ordained as priests or deacons worldwide in the Womenpriests movement, including 37 in the U.S., only the first seven were officially excommunicated by the Vatican, said spokeswoman Bridget Mary Meehan. Others have received letters from their bishop like that sent by Burke, she said.

"It means you are no longer a Catholic in good standing, that by your very own decision you have chosen to separate yourself from the church," Meehan said. "But we are disobeying an unjust law that discriminates against women.

"Baptism makes us full members of the church for life."

McGrath also was penalized by the Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, a Roman Catholic graduate school and seminary founded by the Dominican order.

The school said she was asked to withdraw from a class she was auditing for "taking part in ordination, which "undermines and shows disrespect for Catholic Church teaching and practice."

The service is taking place at Central Reform Congregation, a synagogue in St. Louis. In response, the archdiocese said on its Web site it would no longer partner with the congregation on any interfaith activities.

Rabbi Susan Talve said she and the congregation's board agreed to allow the ordination in their sacred space. She said hospitality and providing sanctuary are among their core values.

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On the Net:

Archdiocese of St. Louis: http://www.archstl.org/

Roman Catholic Womenpriests

http://www.romancatholicwomenpriests.org/

Central Reform Congregation: http://www.centralreform.org/