On this feast day of St. Therese of Lisieux, honoured as a Doctor  of the Roman Catholic Church, and a woman who experienced and expressed her  own call to priesthood, CNWE has sent letters to the Canadian Conference  of Catholic Bishops, regional conferences and individual bishops.  This  letter requests that Canadian bishops enter into dialogue with  representatives of CNWE regarding women's ordination.  This action is a  follow-up to the Women's Ordination World-wide (WOW) conference in Dublin,  Ireland at the end of June 2001, attended by women and men from around the  world.

This collaborative initiative of CNWE members across Canada is an  invitation to the bishops to work with CNWE in a process of dialogue at the  national, regional and local levels.  In such a dialogue, our goal is to  listen and hear deeply one another's perspectives, rather than seek to  convince each other of the rightness of our particular positions, no matter  how dearly held.  We believe that such a fruitful dialogue more closely  reflects the gospel ideals towards which we all seek to live.

A  concern of all CNWE members which we raise with the Bishops, is the Vatican's  continued refusal to even consider the issue of women's ordination.   This position, which closes off all possibility of dialogue, is contrary to  both humanitarian and Christian values.  Gender bias is forbidden in  Canadian schools, government, law and workplace.  Such prejudice was  consistently resisted and overturned by Jesus in the gospels. We are  concerned that our children, raised in an egalitarian society where sexist  barriers are being dismantled, find the Roman Catholic Church increasingly at  odds with the value of equality articulated in the gospels, and in Canadian  culture.  We are deeply concerned that the spiritual legacy of the  Church is not being passed on to the next generation.  So many of  our adult children disregard an institution that clearly and  consistently minimizes or fails to acknowledge in practice the full humanity  of women. Furthermore, as the WOW Conference proceedings attest, the issues  of equality and mutuality are of concern not only to women in Europe and  North America, but to women around the world.

Copies of the  resolutions adopted at the WOW conference will be enclosed with the letters  to the bishops, and CNWE women across the country will be available for  contact and interviews.

For more information contact [email protected]

http://www.cnwe.org/ 
 

   Congratulations to Mary Rammerman who was recently ordained priest by Old Catholic Bishop Peter Hickman. 2500 people attended the ordination in Rochester NY.  Mother of three, Mary had a prominent place in Corpus Christi parish until she was forbidden to carry on two years ago. The pastor, Fr. James Callan was also suspended by the diocese, but he continues to serve in "alternate worship."