Just once, I’d like to see people use their brains instead of their instincts.

There is no such thing as an ordained catholic priest that is a woman. It just doesn’t happen. In order to be ordained a priest, a candidate must be ordained under the authority of the Vatican. That’s the way the RC church works. If you aren’t ordained under the authority of the Vatican, you aren’t ordained. You cannot call yourself a Roman Catholic priest unless you are ordained such by the Vatican.

This is not debatable.

Keeping that in mind, the following story really got me in a twist:

OTTAWA (AFP) - Nine women, including one Canadian and one American, plan to defy the Vatican and become the first female Roman Catholic priests and deacons ordained in North America during a ceremony on a boat on the St. Lawrence River next month.

The ceremony, which is not sanctioned by the Vatican, is to take place July 25 on the river near Gananoque in eastern Canada following a conference on women as priests at Carleton University in Ottawa.

The location for the ceremony was chosen because organizers considered it to be international waters between the United States and Canada where no diocese has juridiction and thus cannot interfere.

“I only have my faith and my hope and what the global scene says to me that I believe it’s time to take this step,” said former nun Michele Birch-Conery, 65, who was ordained as a deacon last year in Europe. She will be the first Canadian woman to be ordained as a priest next month.

You cannot defy the sanctioning body and claim to be that which the sanction of the body makes you. You cannot “defy” the church by becoming a priest any more than you can “defy” the AMA and become a doctor. You can call yourself whatever you want, but you aren’t that which you are not. In this case, the article from the AFP claims that these women will be ordained as priests.

They will not.

They will have a quaint little ceremony and a feel-good touchy feely reception, and then they will be excommunicated. Why? Because their “ordanation” is not a legitimate one done under the authority of the Catholic Church.

AFP goes on with some token quotes, and then, in the big crescendo and the “leave ‘em thinking” quote hands over this:

Once ordained, the women will not lead a flock or perform liturgies, but Birch-Conery has already been invited to talk about her faith with several small groups.

“We know we may be discredited. But, levels of faith expression have opened for me that I didn’t have before. It’s a calling for me,” she said. “We’ll just have to see if this leads to change.”

It will not lead to change because the very people to whom you are asking acceptance are also the ones who believe in the organization you’re openly defying in your quest to be a “priest.”

This is not a debate about the validity of a woman’s claim to be a priest, a claim I do not think they rightfully have. Moses was given very clear instructions on the ordanation of priests and who they were. They were his sons. Exodus 28 clearly states that Aaron (brother of Moses) and his sons will be the first priests of the Church:

1″Then (A)bring near to yourself Aaron your brother, and his sons with him, from among the sons of Israel, to minister as priest to Me–Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar, Aaron’s sons.

The Vatican has made numerous pronouncements on female priests, all of them opposed. The most straight-forward pronouncement against female priesthood comes in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

VI. WHO CAN RECEIVE THIS SACRAMENT?

1577 “Only a baptized man (vir) validly receives sacred ordination.”66 The Lord Jesus chose men (viri) to form the college of the twelve apostles, and the apostles did the same when they chose collaborators to succeed them in their ministry.67 The college of bishops, with whom the priests are united in the priesthood, makes the college of the twelve an ever-present and ever-active reality until Christ’s return. The Church recognizes herself to be bound by this choice made by the Lord himself. For this reason the ordination of women is not possible.68

There is no such thing as “becoming a priest in defiance of the church.” It’s just not logically possible, and referring to these women as priests should be viewed as an affront to Catholics everywhere. I admire these women for their devotion to God, but I cannot in anyway condone what they’re doing. I know it’s not my place to give a blessing of any kind to their actions or not, however, I see it as offensive to my religion and I refuse to just stand for it and not at least say something.

AFP/Yahoo! via Phil