Pages

Monday, October 4, 2010

A Saint for Women Priests?


Catching up on some news, I see in Luke Coppen of the Catholic Herald's daily "Must Reads" an item from the ABC.  According to the article, Peruvian Catholic officials are requesting the canonisation of an Australian sister,a member of Blessed Mary McKillop's congregation, the Sisters of St Joseph.  Sr Irene McCormack was murdered by the Shining Path militia in 1991.   It is proposed that she is a martyr.  I know nothing about this sister, but given the congregation she was a member of, I am wary - unfortunately many of the Sisters of St Joseph have embraced the canon of dissent.  I am open to anyone giving me some information on Sr Irene, because my initial research is not positive. 

Supporters of women priests maintain that she exercised a priestly ministry - she did lead Communion services when priests were not available, and that would be interpreted by some as support for the ordination of women - but that would be an interpretation and not necessarily a fact. However, disturbing developments. In one of her letters home, dated 17th July 1990, Sr Irene, now regularly leading Communion services, writes:
"A few weeks ago I celebrated with an extended family a ‘misa de honras’ for the grandfather, dead many years. Note I’ve given up trying to use the terms ‘paraliturgy’ or ‘liturgy of the word’or any of the other ‘excuses’ the official Church uses to deny collaborative ministry it’s rightful place to women and married lay people. Try to do the ‘right’ thing and correct the people when they came asking us to celebrate their ‘misas’. I've become convinced that they are closer to the truth and were ‘freeing’ me to exercise ministry amongst them...
It seems to me, therefore, that the preoccupation of our Church leaders with power and control over who can celebrate the Eucharist, who can and who can’t receive the Eucharist, is right up the creek. It’s a contradiction to be talking about a ‘sacred meal’, and have to sit and watch, not participate. Quite apart from the lack of the atmosphere of a fellowship meal, or lack of basic symbolism when only one person drinks from the cup and we use a tasteless wafer in place of bread. Of course too our preoccupation with the only reality being the scientific, the empirical makes it hard for us to accept the validity of symbolism. Not only is it a contradiction to the proclamation of Jesus that there is no distinction between male and female, but a lack of appreciation of the plight of villagers like ours all over the world, that our Church continue denying in its official ministry that it is by natural ‘communion’. As we in our little Christian communities, high up in the Andes, gather in memory of Jesus, there is no power or authority on earth that can convince me that Jesus is not personally present. I feel grateful that these months on end without the ‘official mass’ and in a culture where I’m experiencing new symbols, has gifted me with a new appreciation of the Eucharist.”
Now this is quoted on a pro-women's ordination website, so it might be doctored.  If these are the words of Sr Irene, unless there was a sign of her accepting the Church's teaching before her death, a Cause is unlikely.

No comments:

Post a Comment