{"id":1647,"date":"2007-07-31T07:56:00","date_gmt":"2007-07-31T07:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2007\/07\/i-am-womanpriest-hear-me-roar.html"},"modified":"2007-07-31T07:56:00","modified_gmt":"2007-07-31T07:56:00","slug":"i-am-womanpriest-hear-me-roar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/07\/i-am-womanpriest-hear-me-roar.html","title":{"rendered":"I am “womanpriest,” hear me roar"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> You might think that an organization named for the patron saint of lawyers would have a better sense of what’s legit, and what isn’t. <\/p>\n

But then again, maybe not<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The St. Thomas More Society of San Diego has invited \u201cwomanpriest\u201d Jane Via to speak at a meeting on Friday, Aug. 3, even though Via is under interdict by San Diego Bishop Robert Brom, who last summer forwarded her case to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome for further action, possibly a formal declaration of excommunication. (Via is seen in the photo on the left, in the middle, at her “ordination.” — GK)<\/i><\/p>\n

The Via invitation has sparked internal discord among members of the St. Thomas More Society of San Diego, with some members objecting that inviting someone in open defiance of ecclesiastical authority is not in keeping with the group\u2019s mission. A special meeting of the society\u2019s board of directors was reportedly scheduled for Monday, July 30, to discuss the matter. <\/p>\n

St. Thomas More, patron saint of attorneys, was ordered beheaded by King Henry VIII in 1535 after More refused to accept the king\u2019s claim to be supreme head of the Church of England. \u201cIt is in the spirit of St. Thomas More that we strive to practice law in accordance with our Catholic faith, remembering that \u2018in Christ Jesus the life-giving law of the Spirit has set you free from the law of sin and death\u2019 (Romans 8:2),\u201d says the web site of the St. Thomas More Society of San Diego. <\/p>\n

Last year, the society invited pro-abortion state Assemblyman Juan Vargas, D-San Diego, to speak. Despite his pro-abortion voting record, Vargas persists in calling himself a Catholic. And this is apparently not the first time Via has been invited by the St. Thomas More Society. In 1985, while teaching at the University of San Diego, Via signed a statement challenging Church teaching on abortion published in the New York Times, and then Bishop of San Diego Leo Maher also placed her under interdict. \u201cThe Thomas More Society in San Diego had scheduled a speech by Jane Via… but later canceled — by order, she was told, of the bishop of San Diego, acting in response to instructions from Rome to silence her. Via was also told that she would not be able to speak at any public Catholic forum in the diocese until she retracted the statement,\u201d says an article, \u201cCatholics and Abortion: Authority vs. Dissent,\u201d by well-known Church dissident Rosemary Ruether. The article was published on religion-online.org. <\/p>\n

Via, 59, has maintained that when Bishop Maher died in 1991, the interdict died along with him. <\/p>\n

California Catholic Daily has learned that invitations to Via\u2019s Aug. 3 appearance acknowledged the controversial nature of the event, but asked members of the society to remain courteous and collegial. <\/p>\n

Via, a deputy district attorney who also teaches part-time at the University of San Diego, a \u201cCatholic\u201d institution, claims she was ordained a priest on a boat in the St. Lawrence River on July 24, 2006. <\/p>\n

Via, openly defying Bishop Brom, currently leads the Mary Magdalene Apostle Catholic Community, which rents space for its meetings at a Methodist church in San Diego. She \u201ccelebrated\u201d her first Mass at the community on July 30, 2006. According to the community\u2019s web site, \u201cMary Magdalene Apostle Catholic Community, founded and convened by a Roman Catholic womanpriest, welcomes all and reaches out to those who are marginalized… We are committed to the full equality of women and men in a transformed Roman Catholic Church and world…\u201d <\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, her “ordination” means that Via is excommunicated. <\/p>\n

What part of “excommunicated” do the good people involved in the St. Thomas More Society not understand?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You might think that an organization named for the patron saint of lawyers would have a better sense of what’s legit, and what isn’t. But then again, maybe not: The St. Thomas More Society of San Diego has invited \u201cwomanpriest\u201d Jane Via to speak at a meeting on Friday, Aug. 3, even though Via is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nI am "womanpriest," hear me roar - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2007\/07\/i-am-womanpriest-hear-me-roar.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I am "womanpriest," hear me roar - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You might think that an organization named for the patron saint of lawyers would have a better sense of what’s legit, and what isn’t. 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