I’LL NEVER FORGET TAD GUZIE
...for the paradigm shift he shocked me into eleven years ago.
It was November 1990. Tad was our keynote speaker at our Second National Corpus Canada Conference in Edmonton.

My shock came during question period after one of Tad’s speeches. In this speech he compared the “Macro” church and the “Micro” church. He explained that at times he and his wife Noreen would celebrate Eucharist in their home with a few friends - and NOREEN PRESIDED !

Well, my theology from St. Augustine’s Seminary, Toronto, Canada, told me that could not be a valid Eucharist because Noreen was not ordained. You had to have the indelible mark of the priesthood received from the Bishop at ordination. I had to bring up my objection.

Tad quietly hit me with a ton of bricks.  He said there is no such thing as an indelible mark of priesthood. I was floored ! I remember standing there with my mouth open in disbelief. I had never before heard this from anyone or read it anywhere  I put my two hands upon my breast and looked down as if to see the indelible mark.  I remember the silence in the room as everybody looked from me to Tad and back to me again.  I HAD LOST MY PRECIOUS MARK !
From that moment I was never the same again.

That was eleven years ago.  Our organization was only one year old. We had BIG dreams. To quote the Journal article by Connie Kurtenbach and François Brassard:

 “It was further concluded that an optional married priesthood of men or women was just a matter of time, and the solution to the problem would come from women, and that therefore, Corpus members should work strongly toward achieving true gender equality in the Catholic Church”.

Wow ! Talk about being prophetic ! And just recently there was the worldwide meeting of women in Ireland discussing ordination. You must read the speech by Sister Joan Chittister. Women are surely leading the way.  The wave is growing.

Dr. Tad Guzie was professor of Religious Education at the University of Calgary and adjunct professor at the institute of Pastoral Studies, Loyola University, Chicago. He had authored nine books on sacramental and liturgical theology and given many workshops to priests, religious educators, and liturgists throughout North America. A Jesuit for 26 years, Tad married Noreen and lived in Calgary until he died of cancer this year.

Looking back at the Journal write up of the conference, here are some more tid bits:
The early church was a network of household churches - ecclesiolae - there was no “ecclesia”. Contact between one household and the next was not institutionally organized, but gradually they began to pool resources and worship in larger assemblies.  By the time of the second century we can talk about the emergence of the an “ecclesia”. An ecclesia is basically an assembly of eccelsiolae.