Local Take on Local Lunacy

Dream of priesthood realized
Jessica Rowley ordained in ECC
By Todd Smith
Tuesday, September 18, 2007 4:11 PM CDT

Jessica Rowley has become one of seven women in the United States who has been ordained as a priest as part of the Ecumenical Catholic Communion, a group of churches that refuse to recognize the authority of the pope but see themselves nevertheless as Catholic.

"We see ourselves as part of the Catholic tradition," Rowley said.

I'll bet she does...But "Catholic tradition" sees her and others like her as confused and misguided. But then, intellectual honesty doesn't seem to be high on the priority list for those who think they can be Catholic yet reject the authority of the Church and the Pope - and who, by doing so, reject Jesus Christ, Himself.

Rowley, who lives with her husband, Joe, in Webster Groves, said she was raised in the Roman Catholic tradition in the Chicago suburbs. She then studied theology and communications at Marquette University, a Jesuit institution in Milwaukee.

Ah, the prodigy of a "Jesuit" institution - coincidental? Perhaps being at Marquette, she was influenced by the resident dissident "theologian" and ex-priest Dan Maguire?

"Sts. Clare and Francis Parish resonated with me and its spirit of Catholicism and what nurtured me as a child," Rowley said. "I missed the liturgy and sacraments of Catholicism."

Those with eyes to see and ears to hear will understand that it is not the "Spirit of Catholicism" which resonates with such people. Satan has ingenious ways of confusing and fooling mankind.

[Frank] Krebs, 60, [pastor at Sts. Clare and Francis] had been a Roman Catholic priest until 1990 and had been a pastor of Sts. Peter and Paul Parish in the Soulard neighborhood. He left because he would have been unable to be celibate in having a partner.

As previously reported here and elsewhere, that "partner" was another male...He chose the homosexual lifestyle and in so doing, rejected God.

Krebs said the ECC traces its origin to 1870 -- the date of the First Vatican Council -- when a group of European bishops refused to accept the idea that the pope was infallible in matters of church doctrine, and rejected allegiance to Rome.

Schismatics, heretics, and apostates - not much of a surprise, really.

One thing is for certain - they are not "Catholic" but are in need of our prayers.