AUSTRALIA

On January 4, 2000, Bishop Connors of Ballarat hosted a dinner for all the priests in the diocese
including married priests and their wives. He said "We warmly welcome all our brothers in the
priesthood, and a special welcome to those who have resigned and are now married, and to their
wives. Hopefully, this occasion will in some way alleviate a little the hurt, pain, and anger that was
often associated with their leaving." 

On July 15, 2000, Bishop Morris of Toowoomba will host a similar gathering. Brian Gagen writes:
"Little has been heard in the public arena about the desperate shortage of priests in this country...
[But] one discerns a change of heart slowly permeating through the ranks of the Church. It began as a
movement among the laity and moved to the priests and religious. Now even some bishops are
honestly acknowledging the great shortage of manpower, and I use the word deliberately. The place of
woman-power in the priesthood is another vexed issue... Apart from asking the faithful to pray for
vocations, the Church seems to be doing nothing to address the vocations crisis."

   BRITAIN 

The bishops of England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland voted unanimously to celebrate the Jubilee
Year by inviting everyone to make a joyous return to the sacraments. They were setting up a grand
rite of reconciliation to welcome home catholics from all over the British Isles. To their minds, this
was a special occasion. They were proposing an ancient kind of amnesty, often given during so-called
Jubilee years down through the history of the Church. 

On the Sunday before Palm Sunday, they were going to give general absolution to everyone en masse
with no private confessions at all. Archbishop Keith O'Brien said "Then we would set aside
three days in the following week for those who wanted to make a regular confession." There is now
no plan for the general absolution. The Vatican vetoed the plan convinced that it alone is in
possession of the keys of the kingdom and it was not going to hand them over to the bishops.
Archbishop O'Brien also added that the intransigent position of the Vatican on not allowing
divorced and remarried catholics to receive communion is unjust. Certain men in the Vatican keep a
very tight hold on their power, sometimes at the expense of the very catholic people they are meant
to serve.

   IRELAND 

Brothers and Sisters in Christ (BASIC) at <http://www.iol.ie/~duacon/basic.htm> promote the ordination of
women. They are planning a conference in Ireland in 2001. There will be more information about this
in future issues. Two other web sites that deal with women's issues are:
<http://www.womenpriests.org/> and <http://www.vst.edu>.

   USA 

"Women called to priesthood in the RC Church today are not radicals on the fringe of the institution.
They are mature, well-educated regular churchgoers active in their faith communities." This finding
is the core of a new and groundbreaking study of women who experience a call to ordination in the
RC Church (Benevolent Subversives issued by the Women's Ordination Conference). It shows
that women called to priesthood are institutional insiders challenging the structure from within by
their ministries and beliefs. 

These women are deeply dismayed by the state of the priesthood and the institutional church today.
Only 20% of them would accept ordination as it operates today. More than 66% would require shared
decision-making as a must for ordination. They see hierarchy and patriarchy as fundamentally
anti-gospel, and they call for radically new and collaborative models of ministry and governance"
says Karen A. Schwarz, Ph.D., social scientist and author of the study. 

These women are hopeful critics of their church. They have ideas about priesthood that differ from
current practice. They believe that call to priesthood must come from a faith community, and not
only a bishop. "The institutional church can ill afford to lose women like these who are talented,
highly educated, fiercely loyal, and deeply spiritual." says Andrea Johnson, National Co-ordinator of
the Women's Ordination Conference.