BBC reports on the secret 'ordination' of a woman...

This morning BBC Radio 4 featured the clandestine 'ordination' of a German girl to the diaconate, with a view to being 'ordained' a priest. You can listen to the program or read about it at this link, but the pictures are not for the faint-hearted!

The 'ordinand' was reported saying this:

"I am a strong woman... other women are in the background but I like to be in the front. That place on the altar is my place..."

After the ceremony, she then said:

I feel very happy and strong..."

The emphasis she made on strength and her own willfulness really struck me. How unlike the attitude of Our Lady whose hallmark is humility! Leaving aside all theological issues and questions of validity, feminism etc, my only comment is that any person, man or woman, espousing such individualistic and pride-filled attitudes is surely not worthy of Holy Orders. Rather, in the words of Mary's Magnificat: "He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts" (Lk 1:51b).

To make matters worse, a woman called Patricia, who had been a Dominican (!) sister for 45 years in South Africa, then said that having lived under apartheid she knew that unjust laws had to be challenged and broken and she equated the injunction against women's ordination with apartheid rules. She said it was a denial of human rights. For all her supposed learning, I'm surprised she felt that ordination was a human right! And all along I thought it was a vocation to service in the Church. Oh dear...

These people need not anticipate Pope Benedict's writ of excommunication. I regret that by their actions and indeed, their words and attitudes, they have testified against themselves, and already excommunicated themselves. I thank the BBC for recording and broadcasting this evidence.

When I first heard the program this morning, my immediate response was to kneel and pray for them. May Mary, Mother of the Church have mercy on us all.