{"id":104137,"date":"2013-04-22T12:25:02","date_gmt":"2013-04-22T16:25:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/?p=104137"},"modified":"2013-04-22T12:30:36","modified_gmt":"2013-04-22T16:30:36","slug":"womenpriests-again-the-people-vs-paper-scenario","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/04\/womenpriests-again-the-people-vs-paper-scenario\/","title":{"rendered":"Womenpriests again: The people vs. paper scenario"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/iframe>\n<\/p>Anyone who has ever worked on the religion beat knows the drill.<\/p>\nYou are writing a story about a controversial topic, a topic that people in the establishment of a religious body are not anxious to talk about. The rebels, on the left or the right, are anxious to tell their story.They will talk your ear off, as long as you don\u2019t ask them any challenging questions.<\/p>\nMeanwhile, the establishment leaders \u2014 on the left or the right \u2014 just want the subject to go away. Rather than granting an interview or two, they hand out a printed press release making the usual old arguments against the rebels.<\/p>\nIn other words, you end up with a story in which real people get to debate a piece of paper. It is rarely a fair fight.<\/p>\nI think this is what happened in the following Louisville (Ky.) Courier-Journal<\/em> story about another ordination in the Womenpriests Movement, but I am not sure about that.<\/p>\n(By the way, the <a href=\"http:\/\/romancatholicwomenpriests.org\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">movement\u2019s website<\/a> spells their name \u201cWomenpriests,\u201d as opposed to \u201cWomen Priests\u201d or \u201cWomenPriests.\u201d I keep seeing variations, but, in the future, \u201cWomenpriests\u201d it will be here at GetReligion \u2014 unless they change it again.)<\/p>\nThe top of this story hits all the familiar points, in a people vs. paper scenario. But here is my question: Did the real Catholic officials refuse to tell their side of the story or did the newspaper\u2019s leaders make a decision to turn this into a people vs. paper scenario? In other words, did the Courier-Journal<\/em> team refuse to talk to the Catholics, or did the Catholics refuse to talk to the Courier-Journal<\/em>? More on that later.<\/p>\nBut here is the usual personal-voice opening for a Womenpriests story:<\/p>\n<blockquote>LOUISVILLE, Ky. \u2014<\/strong> Rosemarie Smead sees herself as preparing all her life for the step she\u2019s about to take.<\/p>\nShe was brought up a devout Catholic. She lived for a short time as a cloistered nun. She has theology and counseling degrees. She marched for civil rights in Selma, Ala. \u2014 then worked with troubled children there for years. She forged a career as an Indiana University Southeast professor, training school counselors.<\/p>\nNow the petite 70-year-old from Bedford, Ky., is preparing for what she freely admits is a flagrant defiance of Roman Catholic law \u2014 specifically Canon 1024, which restricts the priesthood to baptized men. \u2026<\/p>\nSmead is scheduled to be ordained by the dissident Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests. The service will take place in a Protestant sanctuary.<\/p>\nIt will be the first such ordination in Louisville by the decade-old Women Priests group, which has been holding such services around the world.<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s illegal, but it\u2019s valid,\u201d said Smead. \u201cIn order to challenge this law, we have to break it.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe story includes other information. Active Catholics support church teachings on this subject, while inactive Catholics want to see women ordained. And the pieces of paper from the local archbishop say what they say. No humans are interviewed on the side of the church.<\/p>\nIt is also interesting to note \u2014 once again \u2014 that the story does not question in any way the apostolic succession of the women bishops, nor does it talk about the role of Old Catholic splinter groups in the history of the Womenpriests ordinations.<\/p>\nInstead, readers are simply told:<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<blockquote>The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests traces its roots to 2002 and says it has ordained about 100 women priests worldwide, including several bishops, many leading small congregations independent from Vatican authority.<\/p>\nBishop Bridget Mary Meehan of the association said its first bishops were ordained by a Roman Catholic bishop whose name has not been disclosed, giving them valid orders in the line of succession from the apostles.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nAnyone who knows Catholic tradition can see the problem there. It takes THREE<\/em> valid bishops taking part in the rites to yield a valid bishop \u2014 not one. A single bishop can ordain priests, but you need three sets of hands in a rite for a bishop.<\/p>\nWhere did the Womenpriests get their other bishops? That\u2019s where reporters \u2014 like it or not \u2014 simply have to dive into the Old Catholic splinter world. Here\u2019s the wording that I used in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/03\/womenpriests-press-coverage-in-a-familiar-strange-mold\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">previous post on the topic<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>The Womenpriests movement is, of course, the latest in a long, long, long line of Catholic splinter churches built on extra-legal ordinations that can usually be traced to rites allegedly performed by anonymous bishops, splinter Old Catholic rites, or both. From the viewpoint of the Catholic Church, these women are simply liberal Protestants and, like it or not, the Vatican is in charge of determining who is and who is not a Catholic priest.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nThe Courier-Journal<\/em> report is also silent on another crucial topic \u2014 the theological orientation of this flock. There is one hint near the story\u2019s end (and in the dizzy video at the top of this post):<\/p>\n<blockquote>Many women priests host small churches, as Smead has begun doing in recent months, calling it Christ Sophia Inclusive Catholic Community. Starting May 11, she\u2019ll be leading monthly services, using space at St. Andrew.<\/p>\nSt. Andrew\u2019s pastor, the Rev. Jimmy Watson, said hosting the service was natural for a congregation that welcomes openly gay members and whose denomination was a pioneer in ordaining women. \u201cThese acts reflect the United Church of Christ\u2019s extravagant sense of hospitality and inclusion,\u201d Watson said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nSo who, precisely, is \u201cChrist Sophia\u201d? What is the content \u2014 doctrinally speaking \u2014 of the word \u201cinclusive\u201d in that parish name?<\/p>\nThese questions open a door into a much, much wider debate about Christology, God and the Goddess, feminist theology and, well the Vatican\u2019s current concerns that many women on the Catholic left have proudly moved beyond Nicene Creed, beyond Jesus and into a brave new theological world.<\/p>\nShould the real, live people interviewed in this story have been asked about all of that? Yes.<\/p>\nWere the traditional Catholic leaders offered a chance to discuss these topics, as opposed to being limited to paper responses? I cannot tell.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anyone who has ever worked on the religion beat knows the drill. You are writing a story about a controversial topic, a topic that people in the establishment of a religious body are not anxious to talk about. The rebels, on the left or the right, are anxious to tell their story.They will talk your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,50,18,12,24,48],"tags":[545,1431,525,15474,332],"class_list":["post-104137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholicism","category-mainline","category-people","category-religion","category-world","category-worship","tag-feminism","tag-goddess-sophia","tag-media-bias","tag-vatican","tag-womenpriests"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Womenpriests again: The people vs. paper scenario<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Anyone who has ever worked on the religion beat knows the drill. You are writing a story about a controversial topic, a topic that people in the\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/04\/womenpriests-again-the-people-vs-paper-scenario\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Womenpriests again: The people vs. paper scenario\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Anyone who has ever worked on the religion beat knows the drill. You are writing a story about a controversial topic, a topic that people in the\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/04\/womenpriests-again-the-people-vs-paper-scenario\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"GetReligion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-04-22T16:25:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-04-22T16:30:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"tmatt\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/04\/womenpriests-again-the-people-vs-paper-scenario\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/04\/womenpriests-again-the-people-vs-paper-scenario\/\",\"name\":\"Womenpriests again: The people vs. paper scenario\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-04-22T16:25:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-04-22T16:30:36+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\"},\"description\":\"Anyone who has ever worked on the religion beat knows the drill. You are writing a story about a controversial topic, a topic that people in the\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/04\/womenpriests-again-the-people-vs-paper-scenario\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/04\/womenpriests-again-the-people-vs-paper-scenario\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/04\/womenpriests-again-the-people-vs-paper-scenario\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Womenpriests again: The people vs. paper scenario\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/\",\"name\":\"GetReligion\",\"description\":\""The press . . . just doesn't get religion." - William Schneider\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1\",\"name\":\"tmatt\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1a42e72927fb665669c4e8531d08ce40?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1a42e72927fb665669c4e8531d08ce40?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"tmatt\"},\"description\":\"Terry Mattingly directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. He writes a weekly column for the Universal Syndicate.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/author\/tmatt\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Womenpriests again: The people vs. paper scenario","description":"Anyone who has ever worked on the religion beat knows the drill. You are writing a story about a controversial topic, a topic that people in the","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/04\/womenpriests-again-the-people-vs-paper-scenario\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Womenpriests again: The people vs. paper scenario","og_description":"Anyone who has ever worked on the religion beat knows the drill. You are writing a story about a controversial topic, a topic that people in the","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/04\/womenpriests-again-the-people-vs-paper-scenario\/","og_site_name":"GetReligion","article_published_time":"2013-04-22T16:25:02+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-04-22T16:30:36+00:00","author":"tmatt","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"tmatt","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/04\/womenpriests-again-the-people-vs-paper-scenario\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/04\/womenpriests-again-the-people-vs-paper-scenario\/","name":"Womenpriests again: The people vs. paper scenario","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-04-22T16:25:02+00:00","dateModified":"2013-04-22T16:30:36+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1"},"description":"Anyone who has ever worked on the religion beat knows the drill. You are writing a story about a controversial topic, a topic that people in the","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/04\/womenpriests-again-the-people-vs-paper-scenario\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/04\/womenpriests-again-the-people-vs-paper-scenario\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/04\/womenpriests-again-the-people-vs-paper-scenario\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Womenpriests again: The people vs. paper scenario"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/","name":"GetReligion","description":""The press . . . just doesn't get religion." - William Schneider","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/76ce2260a572ff41a28fb285de9350f1","name":"tmatt","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1a42e72927fb665669c4e8531d08ce40?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/1a42e72927fb665669c4e8531d08ce40?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"tmatt"},"description":"Terry Mattingly directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. He writes a weekly column for the Universal Syndicate.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/author\/tmatt\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/610"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104137\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}