Special Sunday
Celebration Service
October
16,
2011:
"Female Journey
to Priesthood and
Vatican Concerns"
with Roman Catholic
Woman Priest
Victoria Rue, M.
Div., Ph.D
Although the
Catholic Church
famously refuses to
ordain woman
priests, a group of
women defied the
order back in 2002,
when seven were
ordained in Germany
by two Catholic
bishops. Since then
a movement to ordain
women as Roman
Catholic priests has
gone international,
as women ordained
other women and
created a wide
network of “Roman
Catholic
Womenpriests,” as
the movement calls
itself.
Victoria Rue, M. Div., Ph.D., one such woman, a
Roman Catholic
Womanpriest, will be
speaking at Sunday
Celebration on
Sunday October 16th.
She will be telling
her journey and the
reaction of the
movement for women
priests and more.
If you are interested in looking at this new
movement - go to her
web site:
www.victoriarue.com.
It is amazing how
many women and some
men are becoming
Roman Catholic
priests outside of
the Vatican.
Bio
Victoria Rue,
M.Div., Ph.D.
is a Roman Catholic
woman priest, a
lecturer at San Jose
State University in
Women's Studies and
Comparative
Religious Studies,
and a theatre
writer/director. She
has directed in Los
Angeles, NYC, and
San Francisco. Dr.
Rue has published
numerous articles
and her book,
Acting Religious:
Theatre as Pedagogy
in Religious Studies,
was published in
2005 by Pilgrim
Press.
In January of l988
Victoria was called
forth by Dignity NYC
to con-celebrate a
Mass with an out gay
priest on 5th
Avenue, across from
St. Patrick's
Cathedral. That
street ordination by
LGBT people led her
in l995 in Oakland,
California, to
co-found A Critical
Mass: Women
Celebrating the
Eucharist. That
same NYC ordination
by LGBT people led
her in 2005 to be
one of four women
ordained as priests*
on a boat on the St.
Lawrence Seaway by
three women bishops.
Victoria is part of
Roman Catholic
Womenpriests which
has over one hundred
women priests in the
United States.
www.romancatholicwomenpriests.org
In San Francisco,
Victoria was called
forth by Trinity
Episcopal Church to
organize a Roman
Catholic community.
In January 2009, Dr.
Rue began presiding
at bi-monthly
Eucharists with
Sophia in Trinity: a
New Catholic
Community. For more
information:
www.sophiaintrinity.org
In the East Bay,
Victoria presides at
a house church the
Namaste Community.
Catholic Community
of the East Bay
meets once a month
on the fourth
Saturday of each
month at 4:00pm. For
more information:
Gwen
animo3@pacbell.net
Dr. Rue is a
frequent lecturer on
the subject of
women’s ordination
in the Roman
Catholic Church. She
was a board member
of the Women's
Ordination
Conference and COR
[Catholics
Organizing for
Renewal]. Her most
recent article can
be found in New
Feminist
Christianity: Many
Voices Many Views,
edited by Mary Hunt
& Diann Neu,
SkyLight Paths
Publishing, 2010.
Victoria also works
in hospice as a
spiritual care
counselor with VNA/Hospice
of Salinas.
Victoria and her
partner Kathryn
Poethig, M.Div.,
Ph.D. met at Union
Theological
Seminary, NYC.
Kathryn is a
candidate in the
ordination process
in the Presbyterian
Church, and is
Associate Professor
Global Studies at
California State
University at
Monterey Bay. They
celebrated their
twentieth
anniversary of
commitment in
September 2008 by
getting married.
They live in
Watsonville,
California.
Please see
Victoria's website
for further
information:
http://www.victoriarue.com.
*According to Lily
Percy’s story for
NPR, the women have
faced significant
challenges, and have
lost “friends and
colleagues within
the Church — many of
whom fear they will
lose their jobs if
they support the
women’s ordination
movement openly.”
But the women are
still firm in their
vocation as priests.
In a interview
posted on the
Womenpriests’
website,
Eileen DiFranco, a
priest based in
Philadelphia, said,
“Amidst the hurts,
the movement grows.
Jesus promised us
that ministry and
discipleship would
not be easy. Faith
in God rather than
fear of the unknown
or of change moves
us women priests
forward.”
The courage of these
women of faith is
compelling, and even
as the institution
of the Catholic
Church seems
increasingly out of
touch with its
adherents, people
like the
Womenpriests prove
that the religion
itself remains
meaningful, even if
people who defy its
boundaries must face
significant
barriers.
**Jules
Hart's Award Winning
Film "Pink Smoke
Over the Vatican" is
the story of the
global movement for
women priests in the
Roman Catholic
Church.
