A Catholic Priest even when I  am not. H/T Get Religion.

The headline screams “Congregation ordains Catholic female pastor”

Notice how the first letter of Catholic is capitalized when the other words are not (except the first word).

It gets worse.

“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.”

The problem with the article?  There are so many false statements in this article that I could write a book in response. Let me count just a few of the ways the article is a farce and an insult to faithful Catholics.

Nancy Corran may have been ordained as a minister in a church community. But she most assuredly was not ordained as a Catholic priest by the Catholic Church. It is not possible for a woman to be ordained in the real, as opposed to the fantasy, Catholic Church. It will never be possible.

While The Mary Magdalene Apostle Catholic Community church began in 2005 by a former Catholic priest, Rod Stephens, and a former Catholic Jane Via who describes herself as a Catholic Priest, This is Not a Catholic Church. The writer should have made this clear at the outset. Instead the relevant information is buried in the body of the article:

“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.”

Further it is not clear from the article that the women being “ordained” was ever a Catholic. The only biographical information states

“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.”

Perhaps I am wrong. But the brief bio leads me to think that she is a Protestant, and not a baptized Catholic, that wandered into this schismatic Church. (a quick Google search did not turn up anything) Therefore, she has not been automatically excommunicated.

Excommunicated means that you are no longer in communion with the Church. BTW when one breaks communion with the Church and excommunicates oneself, it is not final. Any one who commits a grave sin has broken communion. That is why we have the Sacrament of reconciliation. Our communion with the Body of Christ can always be restored when we repent, turn back to God, and do penance.

Excommunication is not a punishment it is medicine.

In conclusion women can call themselves Catholic Priests, but that does not make it so.

I feel that I would be a great Supreme Court Justice.

You may call me Justice Kehoe.