Archbishop says women seeking ordination risk excommunication

Published: 2007-11-08

ST. LOUIS (CNS) -- Two women who say they will be ordained Catholic priests Nov. 11 risk excommunication, as do any Catholics aiding them, Archbishop Raymond L. Burke of St. Louis said in his newspaper column two days before the purported ordination. "The attempted ordination is a violation of what is most sacred to us in the church, one of the sacraments," he wrote in the Nov. 9 edition of the St. Louis Review, archdiocesan newspaper. "It imperils the eternal salvation of the women seeking the attempted ordination and the woman, claiming to be a Roman Catholic bishop, who proposes to attempt the ordination," Archbishop Burke added. "It generates confusion among the faithful and others who are not Catholic regarding an infallible teaching of the Catholic faith." Rose Marie Dunn Hudson of Festus, Mo., and Elsie Hainz McGrath of St. Louis are part of a group called Roman Catholic Womenpriests. Begun in 2002, it claims to have had "womenpriests" ordained every year since then. The two are to be co-pastors of a congregation that will hold services in the city's central west end, according to a statement from the organization.

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