Newsweek Proclaims Woman is ‘Approved’ Catholic Priest

September 15, 2007 | Filed Under Abortion, Democrats/Leftists, Family, Media Bias, Publius Contributor, Religion, Society/Culture, Uncategorized, Warner Todd Huston |

-By Warner Todd Huston

In keeping with the MSMs constant denigration of organized religion, Newseek has published a story proclaiming a female as an “approved” Catholic priest accepting the claims of rogue Catholic offshoot organizations over that of the official cannon of the real Catholic Church. Everything is relative to the MSM and their fellow nihilists, so the fact that the actual Catholic Church still doesn’t allow the ordination of women as priests doesn’t seem to matter a whole lot to them as they give this woman the benefit of being called a “Catholic priest.” It would be as ridiculous as the MSM calling Bill Clinton a black president… oh, wait. It certainly seems as if “truth” is a meaningless concept to the MSM.

Looking like an aging cheerleader instead of a “priest,” Newsweek featured the story of 25-year-old Jessica Rowley in Higher Calling, published on the 13th. In it they absurdly accept as fact her supposed ordination as a “Catholic priest.”

Sept. 13, 2007 - Last week 25-year-old Jessica Rowley became one of about a dozen women nationwide to make a highly unusual career move: she was ordained a Catholic priest. Rowley’s ordination—which took place at Eden Theological Seminary, a progressive institution in Webster Groves, Mo.—is approved by the Ecumenical Catholic Communion, a group of churches that decline to recognize the authority of the pope but see themselves nevertheless as Catholic. This week Rowley—who is also married—begins working full-time as an associate pastor at Saints Clare & Francis, a breakaway parish in Webster Groves.

Certainly, these offshoot groups have every right to create their own organizations and to reject the tenets of the actual Roman Catholic Church, but they just cannot claim themselves to be Catholics. Even Martin Luther realized he had to come up with a new brand!

To push the envelope as far as possible and stick their finger in the eye of Catholicism, Newsweek focuses on Mrs. Rowley’s plans to become the “first pregnant Catholic priest.”

Are you going to have kids some day?
We’re really looking forward to this symbol. “This is my body given for you.” To be a pregnant priest will just add a whole other dimension to those words.

So will you be the first-ever pregnant priest?
Probably the first Catholic pregnant priest. I’m sure there have been Episcopal priests who’ve been pregnant.

No, sorry. She will not be the “first pregnant Catholic priest.” She may legitimately be a priest in some different organization, but she will not be a Catholic. And doesn’t it seem disconcerting that she not only equates her pregnancy to Christ like qualities that she can acquire but that she imagines that her children might be more like “symbols” she can use to somehow prove her out of the mainstream religious ideas than they are real flesh and blood children?

See, unlike what Newsweek thinks, words mean things. Catholicism has certain tenets and ideas. Whether you agree with them or not, it has a specific canon that cannot be mixed and matched with just any ideas out there and still claim to be Catholic. But, this woman certainly lives up to the assumed ideal popular in the media that everything is relative. Apparently in her “religion” nothing is really wrong. Homosexuality, divorce, abortion, any number of morally abhorrent or traditionally questionable behavior is just AOK with this “Church.”

As president of the Catholic League William Donohue puts it, “If - I think, therefore I am - was good enough for Descartes, Newsweek reasons, then ‘I think I’m a Catholic priest, therefore I am’ is good enough for Jessica. And for Newsweek as well.”

Still, it is sure the only reason this story has been published is because it is itself aberrant behavior on the part of this so-called priest and because it tears at the very basis of the established Church.

In the end, I certainly wish our nice cheerleader priestess the best and hope that she leads many to salvation in Christ. She just won’t be doing it as a Catholic despite Newsweek’s “official” sanction.
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Warner Todd Huston’s thoughtful commentary, sometimes irreverent often historically based, is featured on many websites such as newsbusters.org, townhall.com, men’snewsdaily.com and americandaily.com among many, many others. Additionally, he has been a guest on several radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events. He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the new book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of publiusforum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston