Saturday, November 03, 2012

Canada's first female Catholic priest, of Nanaimo, says church must be more inclusive

http://romancatholicwomenpriests.org/images/Michelle_150.jpgAs the first woman in Canada to be ordained as a Roman Catholic priest, Nanaimo resident Michele Birch-Conery's perspective on the church is nothing if not unique.

At a time when a Vancouver church is appealing to Catholics that have abandoned their faith with a series of television ads set to air on the mainland and Vancouver Island, Birch-Conery feels that in an era of upheaval for the church, it is time for the clergy to abandon its rigid exclusion of women from the priestly ranks and usher in a new era of inclusively.

First becoming a deacon in a ceremony on the Danube River, Birch-Conery was then subsequently ordained as a priest on July 25, 2005 on the deck of a boat floating in international waters on the St. Lawrence River. 

She maintains that the way that she was ordained is valid, and represents just the beginning of the entry of women into the role of "servant leaders" within the Catholic Church.

A group of seven women were the first to be ordained as priests in 2002 by male Roman Catholic bishops in good standing, in a ceremony cloaked in secrecy, said Birch-Conery.

The Vatican swiftly excommunicated the initial group, and dismisses any further claims of women to be priests.

"There's one unjust law in all of the canonical laws that the church is abiding by fiercely," said Birch-Conery, "and that is to not ordain women."

Raised by an adoptive family, Birch-Conery was introduced to the faith early. She became a registered nurse when she was in grad school, and became a nun soon after. She now holds a doctorate in English literature with a focus on feminist literary criticism, and spent 20 years teaching at North Island College in Port Alberni.

She eventually met and maintained a relationship with her birth mother, who was at her side in sweltering 40-degreecelsius weather when she was ordained on the St. Lawrence.

Fifty years ago this month marks the commencement of the second Vatican council (also known as Vatican II), which was essentially an assembly of religious leaders within the Roman Catholic Church that had gathered to discuss doctrinal issues.

Started under Pope John XXIII, Birch-Conery said results of the Vatican II meetings marked a movement towards a more progressive, modern church - for a time.

"The church received a mandate to come into the contemporary world, to be a clearer democracy, to respect people's freedom of conscience, and to create an inclusive priesthood with the people. What that would mean, of course, had to be discovered," said Birch-Conery. 

"Immediately, the whole church went into chaos."

There were bishops at the Vatican II council that didn't fully agree with the progressive, liberatory impulses within it, said Birch-Conery, and immediately began doing what they could to undermine the possibility of its success.

"Now its being rolled back to what the time before the council was like," said Birch-Conery. "And that is really, deeply misogynist."

The Roman Catholic Women-priests Movement seek to challenge the rigid structure of the church rather than target any individuals within the faith. Enacting change from within that structure is preferable to forming a separate sect, said Birch-Conery.

She still considers herself to be in the church, but accepts that she has been excommunicated, which means one cannot receive communion and would be denied burial rites. 

In 2008 the Vatican decreed that any women ordained as priests face automatic excommunication.

At 73, Birch-Conery said her mission now, and that of the Womenpriests Movement, is to simply promote sacramental faith communities that are inclusive. They will continue to ordain women, she said, at last count there being more than 120.

There is also a vigilant desire, as priests, to not become too "clericalist" in nature.

"So using a circle model of communication, more than top-down," said Birch-Conery. "We have to work with how we've been socialized in this church around having power," she added. "Or no power."

The vision Birch-Conery holds for the future of her faith is simple. 

She imagines that Catholicism, like Judaism, will eventually divide into two camps that co-exist, one Orthodox and one more inclusive, with each accepting the other.