Women as priests? Plans test alliance...

Next, men will pretend to be women priestettes...

Tim Townsend, from the Post Dispatch, appears to be quite busy these days, following stories of "Catholic" dissent and rebellion...

A ceremony set for Sunday to ordain two women as priests in a Central West End synagogue is testing long-standing alliances among St. Louis religious leaders...

St. Louis Archbishop Raymond Burke has reacted strongly, and Jewish leaders are questioning the synagogue's decision to host the ceremony.

The president of the Interfaith Partnership of Metropolitan St. Louis, who is Jewish, said the decision by Central Reform Congregation may have been a mistake.

May have been a mistake? There's no question about it. Nevertheless, these two grandmothers, would have found some other place to exercise their defiance and rebellion...

Hudson, 67, is a grandmother of 11 from Festus who retired three years ago after 40 years as a teacher, the last 21 in the St. Louis public school system. McGrath, 69, of St. Louis, has eight great-grandchildren and recently retired after a dozen years as an editor at a Catholic publishing house. Before that, she was a campus minister at St. Louis University.

I wonder if anyone has interviewed the children or grandchildren? Are they Catholic, quasi-Catholic, anti-Catholic, or what? What sort of problems will such matronly arrogance and pride bring to the children and grandchildren? Are they supportive of such lunacy?

Yes, children, actions have consequences...

The two women will be ordained as priests of an organization called Roman Catholic Womenpriests, which, in its constitution, defines itself as "an international initiative within the Roman Catholic Church"...

The group insists that it is Roman Catholic, but the church says it is not. Church leaders say that Womenpriests is like any other Christian denomination that breaks away from the church because it dislikes its doctrine.

Some mentally challenged individuals insist that they are God, Superman, or who knows what else...and all of them are wrong.

...in letters delivered by courier Monday evening, Burke told Hudson and McGrath "to renounce your intention to attempt to receive priestly ordination." If not, he said, "you will incur automatically … the censure of excommunication. …"

The women agreed to allow a Post-Dispatch reporter to read most of Burke's letter, including his signature, Wednesday. But they refused to reveal parts of it.

The new priestettes evidently don't advocate a policy of openess and transparency.

Harvey Schneider, president of the Interfaith Partnership of Metropolitan St. Louis, said Talve made a mistake. "Susan may have meant well, but in retrospect it may not have been such a great idea," he said. "I hope if there is a chasm that develops, it can be healed."

Talve appears to be unreliable - it may be in the Church's best interest to avoid her in future dealings - it seems prudence is not one of her strong points...