Mary Frances Smith realizes what she is doing is shocking to some or blasphemous to others.
Smith risks being excommunicated by the Catholic Church for celebrating Mass on Sunday at St. John’s Episcopal Church in St. Cloud.
“We’re always encountering people who are surprised by what we’re doing,” said Smith, a deacon and a priest who is part of the Midwest Region of the Roman Catholic Womenpriests movement.
The Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis issued a statement that “women who claim to have been ordained Catholic priests in fact have no relationship to the Catholic Church because their ordination is not valid.”
“To have women being denied their calling to do that, and for them to have the bravery to do this ... that’s very inspirational,” said Kelly Doss, a Catholic from St. Cloud.
Smith is a self-described “cradle Catholic,” raised in Catholicism.
She was ordained a priest in 2009. The wife and mother earned a master’s degree in theology from the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul in 2008.
“As a young adult, I tried to ask questions of the male clergy, which were the only clergy we had, and they seemed uncomfortable answering my questions, and I went away in kind of a disappointment for a number of years,” she said.
Risk-takers
Smith works full time as a registered nurse but meets the second Sunday of every month at the church on Cooper Avenue South to celebrate the liturgy.
“I have seen women in tears — I’ve seen them weeping — when they come up to me after a Mass because they are so moved to finally be able to see a woman at the altar,” she said.
About 35 people attended the Mass on Sunday; Mary Magdalene, 1st Apostle, is the parish that Smith presides over and has services at St. John’s Episcopal Church.
“This church has been so kind to host us,” she said of St. John’s and the Rev. John Jankowski.
“There are other people who would say, ‘They’re not legitimate,’ and so they’re dismissive of us.”
Roman Catholic Womenpriests — USA Inc. is a California-based nonprofit that “promotes and supports the ordination of women and men in a renewed priestly ministry in the Roman Catholic Church.”
“The door has been opened. We’re doing it. We’ve decided to roll up our sleeves and not wait any longer,” said Smith, who was ordained in apostolic succession.
St. Cloud Bishop John F. Kinney, however, agreed with the statement by the Archdiocese of St. Paul-Minneapolis about women as priests, according to Rebecca Kurowski, director of communications for the diocese.
“We have some community members who cannot be visible in the press as they risk a great deal to be present at our liturgies,” said Smith, a resident of Long Lake.
'Archaic beliefs'
Roman Catholic Womenpriests would alleviate a shortage of male priests, which has led parishes in the St. Cloud diocese to cluster and share pastors.
“I feel it’s very unjust,” Doss said of the Catholic Church’s stand on women as priests.
The 33-year-old was raised Catholic and said her family celebrated Mass every Sunday while she was growing up.
“I actually almost joined a convent at one point in my life,” said Doss, a practicing Catholic and member of the Cathedral of St. Mary in downtown St. Cloud.
Doss is the vice-chairwoman of the leadership committee of Mary Magdalene, 1st Apostle. She also helps plan the liturgy.
“It just feels right to be at a Mass with a woman priest; there’s just something very natural about it, and I feel that the Holy Spirit is definitely present,” Doss said.
“But it’s really the person presiding that really makes Jesus present in the Eucharist for me. ... It’s the people that make the church.”
Doss attended a Catholic university and works as part-time preschool teacher, bookkeeper and research assistant. She said she plans to be ordained someday.
“I think the reasons (by the Catholic Church) for women not being able to be priests just don’t hold water. It’s based on archaic beliefs about women and what their role in church should be,” she said.
New Testament
Sister Margaret Michaud of St. Benedict’s Monastery in St. Joseph is a Scripture scholar and theologian.
“It is not permitted by the Roman Catholic Church,” Michaud said of Smith’s ordination. “It says only a baptized man validly receives sacred ordination. It says the Lord, Jesus, chose men to form the college of 12 apostles.”
“However, if you look at the New Testament, there’s a lot of sections where it talks about women who really do apostolic work.”
Michaud was the prioress at St. Bede Monastery in Eau Claire, Wis., for six years. St. Bede was started back in 1892 by several nuns from St. Benedict’s Monastery.
“We do know that there were a lot of women who did a lot of work in the early days of the church, particular in Paul’s writings, where he talks about them a lot. Women have had leadership positions in the Church,” she said.
Roman Catholic Womenpriests — North America’s mission is “to spiritually prepare, ordain and support women and men from all states of life ... who are called by the Holy Spirit and their communities to minister.”
“Like Mary Magdalene, apostle to the apostles, and the women deacons, priests and bishops who served in the early centuries of our church, we are offering a model of a renewed priesthood in a community of equals,” according to the website for the Midwest Region of the Roman Catholic Womenpriests.
Smith was among the second ordination of Roman Catholic Womenpriests in the state; she was ordained a deacon. The first Midwest Region ordination of women to the priesthood and to the diaconate was in Minneapolis in 2007.
“My roots are in Catholicism. I love it, it is my way of, in some ways, viewing the world. If I leave the Church, nothing changes anyway,” Smith said.
“I feel that if all I ever, ever do is plant a seed, expose people to the view of a woman at the altar, then in a way that’s almost enough.”