St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke has declared two Roman Catholic women who live in the archdiocese, and another who lives in Germany, excommunicated.The area women, Rose Marie Hudson and Elsie Hainz McGrath, were ordained as priests in an organization called Roman Catholic Womenpriests in November.
Their ordinations were not recognized by the church, which does not ordain women as priests.
In a "Declaration of Excommunication" letter delivered by messenger to the two area women Wednesday night, Burke accused them of schism, defined by the catechism of the Catholic Church as "the refusal of submission to the Roman Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him."
Burke also declared the woman who led Hudson's and McGrath's ordinations excommunicated. Patricia Fresen, a former Dominican nun from South Africa, is now a Roman Catholic Womenpriests bishop who lives in Germany.
The Roman Catholic Womenpriests excommunications will be the first since 2002, when the organization was founded in Germany. That year, seven women were ordained aboard a boat on the Danube River. All those women, dubbed the Danube Seven, were later declared excommunicated.
Bridget Mary Meehan, a spokeswoman for Roman Catholic Womenpriests, said there were 53 ordained North American members of the organization, which Burke, in the document sent to Hudson and McGrath, called "a new and separate sect."
Excommunication, according to the catechism, is a grave penalty that "excludes the offender from taking part in the Eucharist or other sacraments and from the exercise of any ecclesiastical office, ministry, or function."
Meehan said she didn't believe Burke had the authority to declare Fresen excommunicated because she did not live in the St. Louis archdiocese. "We think he's overreaching," she said.
But Monsignor Thomas Green, a professor of canon law at Catholic University, said a bishop was responsible for canonical infractions that happened in his diocese, regardless of where the person who committed the infraction lived.
"The reason for that is because the problem surfaces on his turf, and he's responsible for restoring order in his local church," said Green.
Monsignor John Shamleffer, the archdiocese's chief canon lawyer, said Burke had sent three letters to Hudson and McGrath in the last four months, asking them to meet with him "to give them the opportunity to recant, hoping that through pastoral means this could be resolved."
Hudson, 68, of Festus, and McGrath, 69, of St. Louis, co-pastor a faith community and hold a worship service for about 35 people Sunday evenings at the First Unitarian Church of St. Louis in the Central West End.
In a statement Thursday, Hudson and McGrath said that they "and all Roman Catholic Womenpriests, reject the penalties of excommunication, interdict, and any other punitive actions from church officials. We are loyal daughters of the church, and we stand in the prophetic tradition of holy (canonical) disobedience to an unjust man-made law that discriminates against women."
Shamleffer said the women could appeal the excommunication to Burke, and if that failed, to the Vatican.
Shamleffer said, "The archbishop made this declaration in the hope that they would seek to return to communion with the church, publicly declare their repentance for their actions and disavow that ordination."
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