Prayers for women's ordination draws bishop's fire

MILWAUKEE (CNS) -- A Milwaukee parish's decision to host a prayer service marking the seventh annual World Day of Prayer for Women's Ordination drew an objection from Milwaukee Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan.

About a dozen prayer services took place in the United States and Europe to mark the event, but the March 25 service at St. Matthias Church in Milwaukee was the only one held in a Catholic church, according to organizers.

Dressed in a king white alb with a green, embroidered stole draped over her shoulders, Ginny Kiernan Dahlberg "presided" at the Milwaukee service as part of the worldwide event, organized by the Women's Ordination Conference. About 35 people attended.

St. Matthias agreed to host the prayer service, according to Father David Cooper; pastor, only after consultation with pastoral staff, parish council members, parish trustees and members at large.

However, the consultation process did not include Milwaukee archdiocesan officials or Archbishop Dolan who according to his spokesman, Jerry Topczewski did not learn of the service until hours before it occurred.

Archbishop Dolan "was surprised an organization that was in direct opposition to defined teachings of the church would be welcome at one of our parishes," said Topczewski.

Father Cooper said, "Some worried about fragmentation or causing a division within the parish and some people said I should be worried about my own career, but the general consensus seemed to be that prayer service is a prayer service and, as such, there are not bad prayers."

At the service, intercessory prayers included petitions for the healing of those wounded by the rejection of the priestly all due to gender and/or marital status," and "the whole people of God in all the Roman Catholic Church, to recognize the injustice o denying God's call to women and to married persons."

Dahlberg opened her reflection by quoting St. Catherine of Siena: "Preach the truth as if you had 1,000 voices. It is silence that kills the World."

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