When Dena O’Callaghan graduated from St. John Provincial Seminary in 1980, she looked on as her male classmates took their vows. She remembers feeling she hadn’t fulfilled her passion for Christ.
Thirty years later, the 73-year-old Saginaw native, now a resident of Ocala, Fla., has realized her long-ago wish.
O’Callaghan was ordained as a Catholic priest recently by Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan of the Roman Catholic Womanpriests at the St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Sarasota, Fla., making her the first woman in Florida to do so.
“You can be whoever you want to be or are called to be,” O’Callaghan said as a message to young women.
“Just remember to hang in there because I did it.”
Since its founding in 2002, the Roman Catholic Womanpriests has ordained more than 100 women internationally as bishops, priests and deacons, according to O’Callaghan.
But it’s not a practice supported by the Roman Catholic Church.
Bishop Frank J. Dewane from the Catholic Diocese of Venice in Florida threatened excommunication to the Roman Catholic Womanpriests and anyone in attendance at the ceremony for defying the church’s Code of Cannon Law 1024, which states that only a baptized man is allowed to be ordained in the Roman Catholic Church.
“We just think that’s just atrocious,” O’Callaghan said. “It’s not just the physical resemblance, its the spirit and soul of how to imitate Jesus. It’s not just anatomy.”
Erin Looby Carlson, co-director of communications for the Catholic Diocese of Saginaw, said statements made by the Catholic Diocese of Venice reflect the viewpoint of the church.
“The organization known as Roman Catholic Womenpriests is not affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church,” Looby said in a statement on behalf of the diocese.
Excommunication from the church is a banishment from Holy Communion as well as services and privileges of the church. O’Callaghan said excommunication is simply something she and other female priests reject.
“We do not accept that because that says we have left the church, but we have not left the church,” she said. “We just want to follow Jesus instead of following a law that says only men can be ordained.”
O’Callaghan said she was thrilled to pursue her dream of becoming an ordained priest upon meeting Meehan in January 2009 and finally realized that dream in front of about 300 people who attended last month’s ordination.
“They cheered, applauded, rose and brought us to tears,” she said.
“I keep saying I am still on a spirit-filled high, I can still hear the enthusiasm of the crowd.”
O’Callaghan served as an assistant to the Rev. John O’Callaghan at the St. John Vianny Catholic Parish, 6400 McCarty in Saginaw Township, after graduating from the St. John Provincial Seminary in Plymouth in 1980.
Then known as Dena Baronn, she later served at St. Michael Catholic Parish, 17994 Lincoln in Maple Grove Township, until she and John O’Callaghan married in 1996 and retired to Florida.
John O’Callaghan said he has served as a pastor since 1960 and functions as a married priest since his marriage to Dena. Priests are forbidden to marry in the Roman Catholic Church.
“They will not budge on the issue of ordaining women or married priests,” he said. “It needs to be undone.”
Paul Weisenberger, a founding member of St. John Vianny Catholic Parish and friend of the O’Callaghans, said Dena O’Callaghan was active in the day-to-day operation and presentation of the church. He said he was surprised to hear that she had been ordained a priest.
“I was happy for her because it’s been a lifelong dream (of hers),” said Weisenberger, of Saginaw Township. “She just had a deep desire to become a priest.”
O’Callaghan and her husband both act as ministers on Saturdays in their church home in Ocala.
“We’re taking the risk, but Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan calls us the Rosa Parks of the church because we are not sitting back,” O’Callaghan said.
“We have each received a call from God and we intend to do that.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to us or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that we agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
SIC: MLIVE