Word: churches
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...stolen moment of authority for Mary Ramerman, one of many that she has shared with the rebels of Corpus Christi as they stand up to Rome. After joining the church in 1983, the 43-year-old mother of three ministered to her flock, preaching on a weekly basis, hearing confession and presiding at Mass. And though she neither granted absolution nor consecrated Communion, five years ago, the congregation recognized her leadership by vesting her with an alb and a half-stole. It was a gift that unleashed a host of hidden enemies...
Stoles have a very particular meaning in Roman Catholicism: they signify ordination. But Ramerman is a woman and, according to church doctrine, cannot be ordained. It did not help that she stood next to the priest during Mass, read the preface to the Eucharistic prayer and raised the chalice of wine at the end of the prayer--activities that are the purview of the ordained. For years the Vatican peppered the Bishop of Rochester with complaints about Corpus Christi and probably made its feelings clear during his official visit to Rome this year. The message: Such heresies must...
Defiance is a Corpus Christi tradition. The month before, the Bishop removed the church's maverick priest, Father Jim Callan, who had pushed his parish beyond Catholic extremes. In 1974, during his very first homily as a priest, he called for the ordination of women. He also welcomed all to partake of Communion (with no baptism and no belief required). In 1993 he began blessing gay unions. He characterizes many of the Vatican's policies as "sinful and discriminatory...
...Eucharist. It maintains that the gender of a priest is not accidental but essential. Christ was male, he appointed male apostles, so the minister who absolves sins and personifies Christ in celebrating Mass must be male. "I declare," wrote Pope John Paul II in 1994, "that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women...
...priests severely diminished, some women in so-called priestless parishes conduct Communion services on their own, refraining from the Eucharistic prayer and consecration. "Some of these women are well intentioned, but the bulk of them are power-hungry witches," says a Vatican functionary. "They have no concern for the church and for souls...