Coming aboard

How cool....we are a blogging family! And what darling youngsters in our clan! I love them all. I hope RD is back home with his crew, (happy birthday!) and certainly hope the weather has improved. Well, I had some interesting experiences this week-end that I could blog about. I belong to a group of women calling ourselves "Willing Disturbers" and last fall we had a couple of women visit us, one of whom is on the road to ordination as a Catholic priest. What, you say? You thought only men could be priests? That is correct, but there are many women out there who are called to priesthood, and they are tired of waiting for the Church to come around and give them their rights as equal baptized members of the Body. So a grassroots movement is afoot to go right ahead with ordination. It started in 2002 in Europe when a male bishop ordained the first seven in international waters on the Danube River. Last summer another group were ordained on the St. Lawrence river in Canada, and this summer another ordination is taking place in Pittsburgh. Of course, it is illicit from the viewpoint of the Vatican, and known women are excommunicated. Never fear, these courageous women are just going forward with their ministries. Anyway, these 2 women who visited last fall told us of a Women's Ordination Conference right here in Santa Barbara, and our group agreed to help and support them. So that was the event of this week-end, at a beautiful retreat center in Santa Barbara (of which there is a whole other story). The day was full, wonderful key-note speakers, discussions, a powerful opening liturgy that was a very visual image of the exclusivity in our Church, and ending with a Mass said by Victoria Rue, an ordained woman priest! I could tell you much more, but after all, this is my first blog. Gotta run now, hope to hear from more of the extended Daly tribe too. Love the website, Char...thanks to you and Jim for getting us connected.