San Diego, Calif., Mar 31, 2011 / 01:55 am (CNA).- A former advocate of women's ordination, who later renounced her attempt to be ordained as a deacon and declared her adherence to Church teaching, announced on March 25 that she has been fully reconciled with the Church following a decree from the Vatican.
“The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has lifted any canonical sanctions that I incurred by attempting ordination as a deacon,” wrote Dr. Norma Jean Coon, in an online update to an earlier letter in which she acknowledged that her actions had resulted in excommunication.
Dr. Coon said the bishop of her diocese, Bishop Robert H. Brom of San Diego, had written to inform her of the Vatican congregation's decision that she “may now return to the full practice of our Catholic faith.” Under new rules established in July 2010, attempts to ordain women now fall under the jurisdiction of the doctrinal office, along with other offenses against the priesthood and sacraments. [it is no joke simulating being a priest even if a man "performs" the Mass, it has serious repercussions. Hey Mark Bunag!]
“I have been very touched at the remarkable support of my actions and the prayers offered in my behalf during this trying time,” said Coon. “I wish to thank all those who have prayed for me and for my family.”
On July 22, 2007, Coon participated in an attempted ordination to the diaconate. The event was led by Patricia Fresen, a former Dominican sister from South Africa who claims to have been consecrated as a bishop. [you can dump a truckload of oils on your head and hands and cut the hand of Bishop Duarte Costa, but still you cannot be a deacon, priest or bishop!]
The Catholic Church holds that Fresen – who has been excommunicated – is not a bishop, and that her attempts to ordain other women or men have no sacramental validity.
In her earlier letter renouncing her “alleged ordination” to the diaconate, Coon said she acknowledged “the authority of the Holy Father on these issues of ordination,” including the judgment that Pope John Paul II confirmed in his encyclical “Ordinatio Sacerdotalis.” [Read and learn. This is an ex cathedra encyclical. John Paul II proclaims that the Church did not receive the mandate from her Divine Founder Himself when Christ did not ordain or chose women to be his apostles. And you know what, feminists call Christ "sexist". ugh!]
In that encyclical, the Pope declared that “the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women,” and stated that this judgment was to be “definitively held by all the Church’s faithful.” [And you can hear dissident theologians say that this is like Humanae Vitae...it is not binding. And whose is? Theirs? Ugh! And another Ugh!]
Coon had previously sought to become a priest through a program offered by Fresen's group. But she reconsidered soon after participating in one of the organization's liturgies. “I withdrew from the program within two weeks of the ceremony,” she recounted, “because I realized I had made a mistake in studying for the priesthood.”
Although the attempt to ordain women has no sacramental effect, it is a serious offense from the perspective of moral theology and canon law.
The Church regards a simulated ordination, and any subsequent action in which a non-ordained person acts as a member of the clergy, as a form of sacrilege.
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God bless Dr. Norma Jeen Coon!
And did you know that there are dissident theologians who insist that the Supreme Authority of the Church regarding the issue of women ordination got it all wrong?
Yup. One of them is Agnes Brazal. And she is a member of this group.
Ugh!
I wish I have a dollar every time I squirm in pain.
The blog of a group of Filipino Catholics and their frank commentary on anything that affects their lives as a citizen of the Philippines and as a Roman Catholics.
re: Women's priestly ordination. The Orthodox have a better way to say it that we Catholics can.
ReplyDeleteIt has never been done, it won't be done and it cannot be done. If it could be done, then it should have been done!
However the Church still has authority to confer diaconal ordination on women. The problem is that this tradition died out and we aren't sure about for what ends the women were ordained. Were they ordained to be sacramental deacons at the altar or ministers of service and charity as deaconesses? The Church, Orthodox and Roman Catholic is studying the whole issue.
Dr Coon was ordained as a deacon but this was done by a woman "bishop"! In ancient tradition a male bishop in apostolic succession ordained women as deacons. The Greek Orthodox Church has revived the order of women deacons but only for monastic women. But they are ordained as deaconesses and don't serve at the altar. They are roughly analogous to EMHCs in the Roman Church