Mary Magdalene Apostle Catholic Community ordained a female pastor Saturday, risking excommunication despite assertions that it represents the true roots of Roman Catholicism. Nancy Corran was ordained by roughly 150 parishioners rather than a bishop.
The ceremony at a rented church in Serra Mesa hearkened back to ancient communities that called forth and ordained women, some religious scholars said.
Associate Pastor the Rev. Rod Stephens opened the evening with a warning: Any woman attempting to be ordained, or anyone who ordains a woman is automatically excommunicated. “Right on!” one woman cried out.
The ordination of Corran, 37, dramatically revealed the state of moral disorder in the Vatican, Pastor Rev. Jane Via said.
“Tonight, we claim the priesthood of believers for all the baptized,” said Via, the county’s first female priest. “We claim the ability and authority to govern ourselves on behalf of the whole church.”
The pomp and circumstance came two weeks after the Vatican referred to the movement for the ordination of women as a “grave crime,” listed in the hierarchy of offenses alongside pedophilia. The ordination was under a strict embargo for fear of protesters, and some in the church would not give their identity because of possible reprisal.
While the San Diego Archdiocese declined to comment on the independent church, a Roman Catholic canon states that only baptized men may be ordained.
“A woman is not an appropriate subject of the sacrament of priestly ordination and therefore she cannot receive it,” said Sister Sara Butler, a teacher of dogmatic theology at St. Joseph’s Seminary in New York and the author of “The Catholic Priesthood and Women: A Guide to the Teaching of the Church.”
“The people who adopt that point of view have departed from church teaching and therefore no longer accept the authority of the Catholic Church.”
The movement to ordain Catholic female priests begun in Europe where a bishop ordained seven women in 2002.
The organization Roman Catholic Womenpriests, which preaches equality by allowing woman into the priesthood while downplaying allegiance to the pope, has 78 female candidates, deacons, priests and bishops in 23 states, and more than 100 worldwide.
One of its founders, Victoria Rue, said female priests are ordained in apostolic succession, the same way as men, in order to claim equality and validity of orders. Rue, a lecturer at San Jose State University and a priest at Sophia in Trinity in San Francisco, called on the organization to accept the ordination.
“There are many ways to be ordained. And we certainly consider [Saturday’s ceremony] a valid ordination,” said Bridget Mary Meehan, one of five bishops in the national movement and an excommunicated nun. “Actually, it’s quite historic.”
Leading up to the 12th century, women served as deacons and priests and were chosen by their local church communities, said Gary Macy, a theology professor at Santa Clara University. Female priests and deacons heard confessions, preached and did the liturgy, Macy said.
“The best scenario, of course, would be if the bishop of San Diego would recognize and do this ordination. Their beliefs, apart from the ordination of women, are very similar,” said Macy, author of “The Hidden History of Women’s Ordination: Female Clergy in the Medieval West.”
“Under rather difficult circumstances, the church community is doing the best they can. They’re aware of their options and they consciously made this decision.”
Mary Magdalene Apostle Catholic Community, led by Via and Stephens, promotes itself as “A new way to be Roman Catholic.” The parish’s 150 members, 80 of whom attend weekly services at Gethsemane Lutheran Church, reach out to those who feel marginalized by traditional services.
Via, a county prosecutor, said the parish is committed to equality through “radically inclusive” language, worship and ministry.
“Ordained leaders of the Roman Catholic Church have just lost touch with the basic gospel message to love all, give all, forgive all and judge no one but yourself,” she said. “They have confused authority with power over one another and the people of God. The pope may wear Prada shoes, but the emperor has no clothes.”
The parish called for Corran to lead amid Via’s battle with breast cancer.
“I see her as someone who can serve as a good example of our church,” said Esther La Porta, a board member at Mary Magdalene. “We haven’t done a lot of outreach, or advertisement, and I know Nancy will be a great representative.”
Corran holds a masters in divinity from the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley and studied theology and biblical languages in Switzerland.
After returning to San Diego to care for her ailing father, she became “certified and ready for call” to ordination in Presbyterian Church (USA). But intrigued by Mary Magdalene, she attended its first liturgy and noticed the shift in the locus of power.
“It was really a movement of Roman Catholic people who could not worship with integrity in the Roman Catholic Church,” said Corran, of San Diego, noting the affect the appointment could have on parish children.
“You look at the all-male image. It trickles down to the community, to the children. They know there is nothing they can’t do.”
SIC: SDUT