ARTICLES

God of the Unclean

A Visit to San Diego's Womanpriest Mass

BY STANFORD ESPEDAL

A San Diego woman who claims to be a Catholic priest, and has drawn sympathetic attention from the secular media, drew a group of Catholic protesters outside the rented Protestant facility where she conducts services for her followers.

Jane Via, 58, is a prosecutor for the San Diego County District Attorney's office. She holds a doctorate in religious studies from Marquette and a law degree from the University of San Diego. Via is married and the mother of two college-age sons.

She has a history of public dissent from Catholic teaching. In 1985, San Diego Bishop Leo Maher banned Via from speaking at Catholic events in the diocese because she had signed a statement published in the New York Times that challenged the Church's teaching on abortion.

In June 2004, Via was "ordained" to the deaconate in a boat on the Danube River between Germany and Austria. At that time she hid her identity behind a pseudonym to protect her younger son, still attending a local Catholic high school.

On June 24 of this year, Via was "ordained" a womanpriest in a ceremony conducted on board a riverboat on Lake Constance in Switzerland. Officiating were three "bishops" affiliated with a group calling itself "Roman Catholic Womanpriests": Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger, Gisela Foerster, and Patricia Fresen. These three claim to have been secretly ordained by active Roman Catholic bishops who keep their identity in the dark.

If you believe their rhetoric, the revolution these women plan for the Church goes far beyond ordaining women. They envision a "new model of church" in which power is shared equally. According to Patricia Fresen, a South African, such ordinations are only necessary as a transitional thing. "We need to claim for women their equal right with men to be ordained." She speculates, "In a generation or two there may well come a time when ordination can be done away with, and ministries, including the ministry of leadership, will nourish the life of the community without ordaining some."

The Catholic Church has authoritatively declared that any such "ordinations" are null; having no sacramental validity, conferring no supernatural grace. The Church's teaching is set forth in Inter Insigniores, issued by the Holy Office (now called the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) and approved by Paul VI in 1976, and Ordinatio Sacerdotalis (John Paul II, 1994). These documents teach that the Church lacks any authority from Christ to confer ordination to the ministerial priesthood on a woman. In 1995, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI, issued Responsum ad Dubium in which he declared that this teaching belongs to the deposit of the Faith and had been set forth definitively by the Church's magisterium. Hence it is to be held as infallible.

Locally, Bishop Brom has placed Via under interdict, an ecclesiastical penalty whereby a person, while remaining in communion with the Church, is forbidden the use of certain sacraments, especially Holy Communion. And he has forwarded her case to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Fully aware that she faces excommunication, she continues unfazed as the leader of a congregation calling itself the Mary Magdalene Apostle Catholic Community. They meet at 5:00 p.m. on Sundays, renting the facilities of the Mission Hills United Methodist Church.

On Sunday, September 10 the Catholic Crusaders, known for their protesting of aberrations at University of San Diego, had planned a protest of Jane Via and her movement on the sidewalks near their rented church. I came to observe both the service in the church and the protest outside.

When I arrived at the church, a red-haired woman named Donna Dinan warmly greeted me and offered a visitor's name badge and introduced me to her husband Dan, a spokesperson for the group. I asked Dan, a seventy-five-year-old gent with white hair, if he and Donna attended this service in addition to, or in lieu of an authorized Catholic Mass. "In lieu of," he said firmly. "I've been Catholic all my life, and this is where I want to be."

"Why do you support the Womanpriest movement?" I asked.

"Primarily it's a matter of justice," he replied. "Women should be treated equally, and the Church doesn't treat them equally. The Protestant church picked up women as ordained ministers thirty-five years ago, Jews did the same thing thirty years ago, and we're still treating women as second-class citizens. I have four daughters and four granddaughters, and I don't think they should be barred from the priesthood based on their sex."

Referring to Jane Via, he said, "She has given us an opportunity to make a change. The male-dominated hierarchy is not going to make a change."

Dan added, "There were women priests in the early Church, there's do doubt about that!" he asserted.

What's your authority for claiming that?

"Well," he added, "I don't carry it around with me, but I've seen documentation; there are ancient pictures that show women as priests."

I asked if he had any comment on the protesters who had gathered on the sidewalks. "I don't know who they are; it would be presumptuous of me to judge them; I'm sure they're highly motivated people."

Seven Crusaders had taken up positions on both sides of the two-lane street, holding five-by-four-foot white poster-board signs with black stenciled letters. Three of the signs read, "God Punishes Rebels: Numbers 16:33," "Jesus called Peter not Paula: Mt 16:18-19," and "Womanpriest: an Impossibility." One also held a red, sky-blue, and white Crusader's banner on a pole.

I spoke to one of the Crusaders, Susan De Witt. "We're here to protest this so-called Mass being done by a woman who pretends to have been validly ordained a priest," she told me. "We want to let these folks here know that if they think they are going to a Catholic Mass, they're not. It's a mockery."

I repeated Dan Dinan's arguments and asked Susan's response. "Jesus Christ, who is God, instituted a male priesthood, not a female and a male priesthood. As God, all-powerful and omniscient, he could have done anything he pleased, and what he gave us is a male priesthood. That doesn't mean I don't love women; I'm a woman and I don't feel discriminated against. I feel sorry for these people who are being misled. We're here to educate these people, if they're willing to talk to us."

Back inside, Dan Dinan greeted the people: "Welcome to the continuing revolution!" They gave him a big burst of applause. Ninety-two attended the service. Ninety percent appeared to be in their sixties and seventies.

The Womanpriests website extols "creative, inclusive liturgies." This service delivered the goods. It began with the singing of Marty Haugen's hymn to inclusivity, All Are Welcome. Via, wearing a beige chasuble gave an opening benediction: "May the grace of Jesus, the love of God, and the peace of the Holy Spirit be with you." The scriptural form is: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you." Throughout this affair, any use of such words as "Lord," "Father," "King" or "kingdom," as well as all masculine pronouns in reference to God were eliminated.

Via continued with a humanist values lecture in the form of a Kyrie. "O God, we fail you whenever we measure the value of a person by external characteristics rather than internal qualities; God have mercy. Jesus the Christ, we fail you when we refuse to serve those who are rejected by all the religious traditions; Jesus the Christ, have mercy. O God, we fail you when we label others as unclean and unworthy of attention and consideration; God have mercy."

The prayer before the readings asked "Accept all that is unclean in us and help us to accept all that is unclean in others. Stretch us in new dimensions of inclusion that we cannot yet even comprehend."

Via began her sermon noting that in our culture we often use animal names for people we don't like, calling law officers "pigs," calling women a name that refers to female dogs; men, sons of those female dogs; and others an animal that looks like a horse but isn't. These are meant to be dehumanizing. In Jesus' time, Jews looked upon non-Jews as dogs, considered an unclean animal. So the Canaanite woman who came to Jesus for the healing of her daughter was an unclean dog to the Jews. Via claimed that Mark put words in Jesus' mouth that reflected the prejudicial attitude of people in Mark's church: "Let the children first be fed; it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs."

Via said Mark was setting people in his church up for a lesson they didn't want to hear about Jesus' inclusion of those whom they regarded as unclean. They had to understand that all people are clean; in Hebrew, kosher. We also must open our hearts to all those who are considered unclean in our time. Via concluded, "Let us live as Jesus lived. Let us get our hands dirty too."

The Nicene Creed was replaced with a statement authored by Joan Chittister, OSB: We believe in God who made us all and whose divinity infuses life with the sacred. We believe in the multiple revelations of God, alive in every human heart, expressed in every culture, found in all the wisdoms of the world. We believe in Jesus the Christ, who leads us to the fullness of humanity, to what we are meant to become. Through Christ we become new people, called beyond the consequences of our brokenness, lifted to the fullness of life. We believe in the Holy Spirit, the breath of God on earth, who keeps the Christ vision present to souls yet in darkness, gives life to hearts now blind, infuses energy into spirits yet weary, isolated, searching and confused. We believe in the God who is life. Amen to courage, to hope, to spirit of truth, to nature, to happiness, to wholeness, to the place of women in God's plan, to the Christ who calls us beyond the boundaries of ourselves, to forgiveness, and to everything that stretches our hearts to the dimensions of God. In all of this we can surely believe, as God does.

The response to each petition was "God of the unclean, hear our prayer." Hearing "God of the unclean" over and over, I was chilled with the parallel to Baal Zebub, literally, lord of flies, which meant to the ancient Hebrews precisely what these people were invoking: god of the unclean; a name of the Devil.

In accordance with their ideas of the priesthood of all, their version of the Eucharistic prayer -- a feminist inclusivist concoction -- was recited by various members of the congregation. Everyone recited the words of institution in unison.

The Lord's Prayer, undoubtedly distasteful to these folks as it calls God "Father" and asks for the coming of his kingdom, was replaced with: Our God of all creation, the very hallowedness of your name brings life. Your presence with us is your love with us, here and now. Despite our selfish wants we humbly seek only what we need. We seek forgiveness especially for the times that we would not forgive. We seek your powerful love to lead us, to sustain us, to enable us to love as you love. We seek the strength, the wisdom, and the heart to stand defiantly before all that is evil and to be at peace. For yours is the way. Yours is the power. Yours is the glory of love: Now, always, and in all ways.

At the Sign of Peace, everyone engaged in a hug fest lasting about four minutes. After all had received a bite of leavened wheat bread and a sip of Charles Shaw wine, they raised their hands and blessed each other.

I approached Via for an interview, and she asked me to email her questions and she would consider a response. On September 28 I emailed her at the Mary Magdalene Apostle Catholic Community website. I specifically asked her to state where she finds the Church's teaching on feminine ordination defective or wrong. She did not respond.

During the protest, neighbors upset at the Catholic Crusaders' presence and message began to scream at them from their lawns, demanding they leave the neighborhood. One lady hastily fashioned a sign reading "Get Your Hate Out of Our Hood!" Two counter-protestors accosted the Crusaders film crew. They were not part of Via's group, but parishioners of the Methodist church who had attended part of the service. Confronting the film crew, they threatened to destroy their equipment and assault those who were filming. The Crusaders' efforts at peaceful diplomacy failed, so they called the police for assistance. Three squad cars responded. After being briefed about the situation, several officers entered the church, where the counter-protestors had taken refuge at the sight of approaching police vehicles. The counter-protestors were asked to leave the scene and cautioned about their actions. Two police cars remained at the protest until the service concluded and most attendees had left. As the Crusaders departed, the growing number of neighborhood counter-protesters cursed the Crusaders in front of little children and demanded they never return.

The Crusaders returned for another protest on October 15. There were no counter-protesters.

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