In a three-page letter dated May 9, Mrs. Houk, a member of St. Alexis in McCandless, advised Bishop Donald Wuerl of her plans. She has received no response. Mrs. Houk also sent a copy of the letter to all 360 priests in the diocese.
Here's the letter if you really want to read it...it's in PDF format.
Scary, but don't be afraid of this:
Mrs. Houk is a cradle Catholic and mother of six. She has served as a pastoral director in two Kentucky parishes, worked on a marriage tribunal, taught catechism and the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults and worked with her husband, John, to prepare engaged couples for marriage.
However, feel free to giggle at this (and pray):"The church has to take a stand for women ... that they are the image of God and are to be respected and treated on an equal, human level. This is really why I have to do what I am doing," she said in a recent interview.
My dear Mrs. Houk:
The Church already knows that you are created in the image of God. The Church already knows that you are to be respected (you..not your views) and that you should be treated as a human. You are a human, for Heaven's sake!
But if you think that your "priesthood" equals equality with men, you're sadly lacking in common sense. And if "this is really why" you "have to do" what you are doing then I respectfully suggest you re-examine your "calling."
Men don't — or shouldn't — assume a vocation in order to play earthly politics, and neither should you.
"I am a Catholic, and will always be a Catholic," writes the soon-to-be-"womanpriest" (her term, not mine)
Following that statement, she demands that Canon 1024 be changed to accommodate...her. And has the bleeping gall to compare her situation to that of those who worked, and still do work, in the American civil rights movement.
Presiding at the ceremony will be Patricia Fresen, Gisela Forster and Ida Raming, who live in Germany and are bishops in Roman Catholic Womenpriests, an international group of Catholics who support women's ordination.
They may support "women's ordination" but they're not "bishops." Sheesh.
Watch out, Cincinnatti!
One of the outspoken disciples in the women's ordination movement is Ruth Steinert Foote, a board member of the Women's Ordination Conference.
Ms. Foote, an active member of a Catholic parish in Cincinnati, is a medical technologist and married to an Episcopal priest.
"This movement is not just about the ordination of women. It is about making the Roman Catholic Church a just institution. If women are made in the image and likeness of God, they have the same potential to be called by God that men do," she said.
Again, I've gotta ask...why wasn't Mary, the Mother of God, a priest???
Anyway, this is just another load of pure hooey...and wacky logic, at best. Ladies, you've got to somehow swallow the biological fact — if not the theological one! — that you are women! And women — even if they're residents of Massachusetts, by the way — cannot act ad Persona Christi, as the bridegroom of the Church!
(And I don't care how many loaves of bread you "blessed" when you were girls, incidently.)
Pray for these ladies, people, please.
Thanks!
