Former Priest "Reflects" on Upcoming Women's "Ordinations"

Received this evening:

Pastoral Comments
Franks’s Reflection on Roman Catholic WomenPriests’ Ordination

Ree Hudson, who has been visiting us from time to time since April of 2006, and Elsie McGrath, who also has visited Sts. Clare & Francis, are set to be ordained by Bishop Patricia Fresen at 3:00 pm on Sunday, the 11th of November at the Central Reform Congregation. Ree stood up last Saturday and welcomed all who wish to attend.

We at Sts. Clare & Francis belong to a branch of Catholicism that is not under the jurisdiction of Rome. We belong to the Ecumenical Catholic Communion (ECC). Ree and Elsie are doing something different. Their intention is to remain within the Roman Catholic Church and to take actions which we could call “civil disobedience.” Civil disobedience has a long and honored tradition for effecting social change, e.g., the Indian resistance to the British Empire, the Civil Rights Boycotts in the US, and the anti-Apartheid movement of South Africa. Ree and Elsie belong to a group of Roman Catholics (http://www.romancatholicwomenpriests.org ) who believe that by intentionally disobeying their church law and living as if it has no hold on them, they will be able to help effect change in the Roman Catholic Church. They are like Rosa Parks who refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man and who said by her action, “Your rules are unjust; and I will not obey them.”

What we are doing is different. To use the Rosa Parks example, we have chosen to live in a city, as it were, where people can sit wherever they want on the bus. Our bishop is thrilled about the ordination of women, including our own Jessica Rowley. We are not fighting any battles about women’s ordination. Of course, just like in the 1960’s, we hear of the struggles in places that border us, and our hearts are glad that someone has the courage to struggle for the full acceptance and integration of women. (We cannot ignore the fact that Patricia Fresen, the bishop who will be ordaining Ree and Elsie was herself a strong fighter against apartheid in South Africa.) Our sincerest congratulations to Ree and Elsie!

The world needs fighters and architects. We at Sts. Clare & Francis have chosen the latter path of imagining, designing, and building boldly. We intend to model a church in the Catholic tradition where all are truly welcome to participate. As we have open-house after open-house in our new “structure,” many will find that this is the model of Church they have been looking for. And they will want to move here, to live here. So let us continue to build in earnest. We are building for the same reason they are fighting: no one should be told they are less important on a bus that Jesus is supposedly driving.

Your brother,
Frank [Krebs]

An ex-priest, Mr. Krebs apparently left the Catholic Church years ago to pursue his relationship with his homosexual partner. He is now the "pastor" of Sts. Clare and Francis Ecumenical Catholic Church - a group with a changeable creed and beliefs with Catholic "symbols."

Regardless of the intentions of Hudson and McGrath, should they proceed with their attempts to be ordained, they will no longer be members of the Roman Catholic Church - they will have voluntarily separated themselves from Holy Mother Church and from Jesus Christ.

And the claim that this act of rebellion and disobedience to Christ and His Church is similar to "civil disobedience" is, at best, specious.

In Luke 10:16 we read the words of Christ:

"He who hears you hears Me, and he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me."

Two weeks ago we read this Gospel and the commentary which states:

On the evening of the day of His resurrection, our Lord entrusts His Apostles with the mission received from the Father, endowing them with powers similar to His own (John 20:21). Some days later He will confer on Peter the primacy He had already promised him (John 21:15-17). The Pope is the successor of Peter, and the bishops the successor of the Apostles (cf. "Lumen Gentium", 20).

Therefore, "Bishops who teach in communion with the Roman Pontiff are to be revered by all as witnesses of divine and Catholic truth [...]. This loyal submission of the will and intellect must be given, in a special way, to the authentic teaching authority of the Roman Pontiff, even when he does not speak "ex cathedra" (Vatican II, "Lumen Gentium", 25).

It is absolutely necessary for the salvation of our souls that we obey the law of God and live in accordance with His will - and He willed to leave us a Church and shepherds, invested with His authority to bind and loose, to guide us on our pilgrimage toward heaven.

If we refuse to listen to the Church, we refuse to listen to Christ - it's really that simple! It is not hard to understand!

Some, however, would rather follow Satan, who in his rebellion in submitting to God, cried out "I will not serve!" They, likewise, cry out to God and the Church, "I will not serve You! My will be done!"

One must not despise obedience, because obedience is divine, and the divine is not despicable. Divine, not only because, as St. Paul says, "Authority comes from God only" (Rom. xiii, I), but also because of Christ's example:

"He dispossessed himself, accepted an obedience which brought him to death, death on a cross." (Philippians 2:7-8)

While Obedience may at times be difficult, disobedience and rebellion are easy - because they are the tools of the devil, used by us to separate ourselves from God.

Unfortunately, these women and those who support their act of defiance against Christ and His Church, are sowing the seeds of eternal death and eternity apart from God. Pray that they might repent and seek His mercy.