A Model For The Renewal of Ordained Ministry
By François Brassard
Corpus Canada, the national association of married Catholic priests, promotes a different vision of ordained ministry, one that I believe is more in keeping with the traditions of the early Christian church. First, it is inclusive, that is, it is open to anyone who senses the call of the Spirit and who submits that call to the wisdom and acknowledgement of the community. Second, the ordained minister (deacon, priest, bishop) is not a member of a caste system, such as the clergy, and does not operate in the patriarchal, hierarchical manner of the clergy. Rather, the ordained minister is part of the People of God like everyone else, and operates in a collegial manner in fulfillment of a particular function within the faith community. Third, it sees ordained ministry primarily as an exercise of prophetic leadership, which may or may not include presiding over the sacraments. Prophetic leadership is an expression of prophetic obedience. Dr. Patricia Fresen (RC woman bishop) explains this concept with great clarity.
“In the older worldview, obedience was understood as doing what you were told by those in authority. But obedience is not doing what you are told by someone else, unless you are a child. Obedience for adults, as we know, comes from the Latin ob-audire, attentive listening:
-listening in the first place to myself, my own formed conscience, my values, my sense of what is right and wrong, listening to my heart;
-attentive listening to the signs of the times, to what is going on in the world and in the church, to new levels of awareness and new developments within humanity;
-listening, individually and together, to the Spirit, who we believe is always moving and awakening (yes, calling) us to new levels of awareness. As Isaiah says so often: Listen to me, pay attention and your soul will live. (e.g. Is.55:3)
“Why is this obedience called prophetic? I think it is because the prophets in the Hebrew Scriptures and in the New Testament and also, our contemporary prophets like Oscar Romero, Dorothy Day and Nelson Mandela, and yes, Gisela Forster and Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger were and are women and men who ‘listened to a different drum.’ They became aware of what was wrong within their own society and they felt impelled to take a stand, to speak out, to name what was wrong. And, as we know, those in power usually do not want to hear what the prophets say, because it means giving up their positions of privilege and power - or at least sharing privilege and power, and once these are shared the entire system changes from being dualistic to being one in which the equality, dignity and freedom of all are respected.”
In the Summer 2006 issue of “The Journal,” Corpus Canada pursues its vision of ordained ministry by highlighting a prophetic voice, that of Michele Birch-Conery.
Personally, I have a strong conviction that the Women’s Ordination movement and, particularly, the RCWP (Roman Catholic Women Priests) movement that was responsible for Michele’s ordination is grace driven by the Holy Spirit, and that the prophetic leadership of women like Michele will ultimately bring to fruition the vision of renewed leadership in the Catholic Church so much desired by the faithful, including the faithful of Corpus Canada.
I would like to tell you why I feel so hopeful. Over a year ago Connie and I were chosen by Global Ministries University to assist Michele in preparation for her ordination on July 25, 2005. We, and our Corpus mid-island faith community, still work closely with Michele assisting her in her ministry. Personally, I am amazed by what the Spirit has accomplished in and through Michele. Even her fragile physical health has improved. She has shown wisdom and leadership in the delicate beginnings of the RCWP organization in North America. In terms of her pastoral ministry, one must keep in mind that Michele is a ‘worker priest,’ she teaches at North Island College, and so her ministry must work around that. Also, the RCWP movement counsels its ordained members to do everything possible in their pastoral ministry to avoid conflict with the hierarchy. Keeping this in mind, this is what Michele recently wrote when asked by a journalist to describe how she does pastoral ministry ‘outside the Church.’
“It’s been a beautiful experience. I go where I am called. It all opened up wide because of the great media coverage I had from Canada when I was ordained on the St. Lawrence last year. People then knew and had heard of me.
“I gave my first blessing to a couple who recognized me when I landed home at the Cassidy airport in Nanaimo and my second over the BC airwaves on a radio talk show. In Parksville I was stopped, in the aisles of the grocery store, at the mall, in parking lots, as people expressed support and would say ‘it’s about time!’ I was particularly moved by a young woman at the grocery check-out stand. She was so excited she said that she had even watched French TV, so she could get more information. I don’t know if she was a Catholic, but it seemed to me it was my strong action that spoke to her, because she had fire in her eyes and showed hope, and I thought, ‘well, yes, it will give hope to young people that they can make a difference whether they are Catholic or not.’ Every time I go through the bank, the manager smiles and waves, and surely not because he thinks I’m going to get rich. He still does this and a year has gone by.
“I had strong support from my colleagues at North Island College, even though some were Catholic and many were not, and I involved them in my journey. Three of them have become part of a small faith community along with several people from Parksville, and we meet in my home for Eucharist and potluck and just hanging out to talk and share our wisdom and give each other support for what’s going on in our lives. I find that people just love to be accepted and to hang out together in smaller community and to feel with God through each other and me. They leave heartened. We meet every other month at my home. Soon I believe we will be ten including friends from across the street who have children and who would like them baptized. The initiative for this community that meets here came from a married Roman Catholic priest and his spouse, a former Sister of St. Ann. Then the others came because they feel alienated and disenfranchised by the Church and they long for this kind of community of inclusion and acceptance.
“On September 10, 2005 Ministry Without Borders sponsored an outdoor Eucharist and we invited 150 people. Many invitations and requests came from that event, and these have led to ministry opportunities. One thing just leads to another. Some people from Dignity Vancouver were at that event and they invited me to give a weekend retreat completed by a Eucharistic celebration at a private home. We had an amazing time together, as I validated and honoured their prophetic witnessing since they were born, and together we became loving community during the retreat, and I loaded the liturgy of fire that we celebrated with every passage of tenderness and in-dwelling of the Spirit I could find. Afterwards, while still at the home and during another potluck, I administered the sacrament of the anointing of the sick to several people.
“Also, because of the September 10 event, I was invited to speak with the Voice Of The Faithful group in Sidney, and this was a powerful experience for all of us as we explored the importance of standing together as the People of God in support of survivors of priest sexual abuse and for changes in the structures of the Church. As these were all active parish people we could not meet on Roman Catholic church property or celebrate the Eucharist, so we found sanctuary in the Bethel Baptist church, and I surrounded our evening of considerations in a liturgy of light. Afterwards, I passed out shortbread cookies drenched in caramel. They were the size of saucers and so they shared them with each other by breaking them and in a way, you could say we became Christ’s Eucharistic presence to each other. There is always a way to move around with the Spirit if one listens and attends. Mostly, I affirmed the rightness of the prophetic work these people are doing, and for them that was a gift, as they are not always met with support.
“At the September 10 celebration a woman, Patricia Fitzgerald, sent me a round trip ferry ticket to Mayne island. Her late husband, Thomas Fitzgerald, built a chapel on their property before he died. She requested that I bless it on March 25. I gathered with her and a number of her support community, the Victoria Human Exchange Society, and we began our extraordinary journey together. Our liturgies are participatory and so I do not preside on my own; rather I co-celebrate, particularly if there are former clerical priests present. We share out parts of the Eucharistic liturgy, such that we are the community who together make Christ present in the priesthood of the faithful. We have now met five months consecutively and are growing in such a way together that I’m sensing it’s time for us to make a retreat and explore various prayer practices, and also think further what it means to be prophetic witnesses on the margins of the Church in our time.
“Currently, two more potential communities are asking for me and I am thinking of designing a kind of circuit weekend once a month where I go to Nanaimo, then to Victoria and over to Mayne island. I would have hospitality along the way and the candidate/ordinand from Victoria would partner with me in this.
“In a very different kind of ministry, I am the team assistant for bishop Patricia Fresen (Germany) for the Canadian candidates in the training program. Actually, I was just with her in Ottawa in August for the diaconate ordination of one of our candidates, as well as for a retreat with two other Canadian candidates on the path to ordination.
“In November, I will again be with Dr. Patricia Fresen at the Call To Action Gathering in Seattle and will be con-celebrating a Eucharist with her in Olympia before she returns with me to Vancouver Island. Hopefully, we will go to Mayne island where we will spend time in retreat again with two other Canadian candidates on the path to ordination in the West.
“Every day I listen and attend to God and those around me, and sure enough I am always led to respond to some need that comes from the fact that I am ordained.”
The journalist who asked Michele to describe her priestly ministry ‘outside the Church’ is preparing a TV documentary on the women’s ordination movement. When she presented a preliminary proposal to a TV station, a female executive made the following remark: “Personally, I don’t want to know the real reasons why Rome won’t let women be ordained. I want to know why women go to such lengths to be part of an organization that rejects them.” Michele was asked to respond to this last question, and here is her response.
“Why did Ghandi in India, or Nelson Mandela in South Africa go to the lengths they did to change unjust systems and laws? Why did Rosa Parks refuse to go to the back of the bus? Then what did these people start that brought a long walk to freedom? It is the
same thing.
“We challenge an institution saturated in Canon Law with many unjust laws that deeply affect the lives of the people. One law that we challenge in particular is the RC Church's refusal to ordain women. It is based in a theology of prejudice, discrimination and deep
misogyny and sexism. By going ahead with ordinations we challenge all these oppressive behaviours derived from an unjust law that claims women cannot be ordained.
“Furthermore, the institution does not hold all the People of God in unity. Many believe and are waiting for deliverance from these oppressions. Since being ordained, I minister to these people who look for me, and gradually, one priest at a time, one person at a time, there is an awakening in empowerment. This will become the work not only of those of us standing for a non-hierarchical model of priesthood but of the people who desire inclusion and equality. We are working together to transform an institution that desperately needs renewal from the grassroots up and out.
“When I started in 2004, it may have seemed like this was an insane step but Roman Catholicism is the tradition I was born into. I knew, now that others were starting to take steps in ordaining women, that it was my duty to join them and to challenge what has gone wrong. This is not through direct confrontation but in working for change with those who are longing for it. It is a walk of peace, not rebellion, of service and compassion and not of arrogance and the desire for power. It does not at all seem like a far-fetched or insane notion now. There is too much support. I think that what is happening now is part of a re-configuration for equality and justice taking place in many Christian denominations and probably all faith traditions. It will have effects we can't foresee in that others will become empowered to act in many different areas of our public and private worlds to change unjust laws and to become strong in the changes that can then come.
“I have complete peace. The Church leadership’s reactions feel like a flea bite on an elephant because I believe we have broken open what was closed, such that everyone,
no matter their position, will have to re-think and discern what they believe. They will have to re-experience what they thought they knew in the light of what comes to be as we work with the people, especially the marginalized and disenfranchised. I give very little thought to the institution, but rather to what I am called to do for those coming forward to ask for my presence with them. I go where I am called and respond to the needs expressed and I do not forget that the Holy Spirit, particularly in the feminine face of God has prepared me for this. When the time came that the first women were ordained in 2002, I recognized what this meant and now I am on the way with like-minded persons who understand what this is about. Make no mistake. We are now on the move in a way that is not outside the beliefs of the best minds and hearts of women and men in the Church. This is an effort theologically supported and long in the making and it comes from deep inside the truth of a Church that has surely lost the way for being only male, only patriarchal in its conception of reality. Distorted thinking and behaviour come from that and the men inflict as much suffering on themselves as on the women. This violence must stop. We in Roman Catholic Women Priests are moving away from such behaviours towards something different which, perhaps, you must see to believe.”
This movement started with seven courageous women who were ordained to the priesthood on the Danube in 2002. Fifteen more have followed in their footsteps. From the combined group four have been ordained as bishops. And there are over 100 candidates in training for ordination. The pastoral ministry, now and in the future, that flows from this source is a blessing from on high. It fills me and many others with hope that our Catholic Church can become once again a Spirit filled beacon of light and love. It has inspired Connie and myself to found Ministry Without Borders (www.ministry-without-borders.org), a non-profit religious society dedicated at present, though not exclusively, to helping the RCWP movement to flourish.