A former advocate of women's ordination, who later renounced her
attempt to be ordained as a deacon and declared her adherence to Church
teaching, announced on March 25 that she has been fully reconciled with
the Church following a decree from the Vatican.
“The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has lifted any
canonical sanctions that I incurred by attempting ordination as a
deacon,” wrote Dr. Norma Jean Coon, in an online update to an earlier
letter in which she acknowledged that her actions had resulted in
excommunication.
Dr. Coon said the bishop of her diocese, Bishop Robert H. Brom of San
Diego, had written to inform her of the Vatican congregation's decision
that she “may now return to the full practice of our Catholic faith.”
Under new rules established in July 2010, attempts to ordain women now
fall under the jurisdiction of the doctrinal office, along with other
offenses against the priesthood and sacraments.
“I have been very touched at the remarkable support of my actions and
the prayers offered in my behalf during this trying time,” said Coon.
“I wish to thank all those who have prayed for me and for my family.”
On July 22, 2007, Coon participated in an attempted ordination to the
diaconate. The event was led by Patricia Fresen, a former Dominican
sister from South Africa who claims to have been consecrated as a
bishop.
The Catholic Church holds that Fresen – who has been excommunicated –
is not a bishop, and that her attempts to ordain other women or men
have no sacramental validity.
In her earlier letter renouncing her “alleged ordination” to the
diaconate, Coon said she acknowledged “the authority of the Holy Father
on these issues of ordination,” including the judgment that Pope John
Paul II confirmed in his encyclical “Ordinatio Sacerdotalis.”
In that encyclical, the Pope declared that “the Church has no
authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women,” and stated
that this judgment was to be “definitively held by all the Church’s
faithful.”
Coon had previously sought to become a priest through a program
offered by Fresen's group.
But she reconsidered soon after participating
in one of the organization's liturgies.
“I withdrew from the program
within two weeks of the ceremony,” she recounted, “because I realized I
had made a mistake in studying for the priesthood.”
Although the attempt to ordain women has no sacramental effect, it is
a serious offense from the perspective of moral theology and canon law.
The Church regards a simulated ordination, and any subsequent action
in which a non-ordained person acts as a member of the clergy, as a form
of sacrilege.