Although the Catholic Church won't recognize Marie Bouclin's calling, members of a dissident sect will
A Greater Sudbury woman will be unofficially ordained as a Roman Catholic priest May 27 at a ceremony in Toronto.
Marie Bouclin, 66, has been involved in a dissident Roman Catholic sect that believes women and married men should be allowed to be ordained as priests and bishops. She has already been ordained a deacon by the group.
A former nun, she left the church, and married in 1968. Her husband and family will attend the ceremonies later this month.
Bouclin said she does not expect to be excommunicated by the church, although the Bishop of Sault Ste. Marie, has said publicly she will be excluding herself from her faith community.
“Except for the seven who were first ordained in 2002, nobody who was subsequently ordained received the writ of excommunication,” she said.
“The Vatican has chosen not to react in any official way other than to say they don't recognize the validity of these ordinations.”
Bouclin will not be considered a priest by the church hierarchy.
Two other women will also be ordained as priests at the same time, and two women and one married man will be ordained as deacons.
The ordination ceremony will be just like the ones usually performed in the Roman Catholic church except that the person performing it will be a woman.
Once she becomes a priest, Bouclin will work to recruit other women and men to be ordained by her sect.
The woman said she's not interested in becoming a priest in the Anglican Church or other faiths which allow women to become ordained.
“I'm a cradle Catholic, and I see the need first of for more equality. That won't exist until the law is changed. It's a church-based law. It's not a God-based law, because the other churches have done it,” she said.
“I also see needs that could be met by qualified women. They are qualified in every way pastorally and academically.”
Married people should be allowed to become priests as well because becoming ordained should be dependent on people's gifts, not the circumstances of their life, she said.
Read the complete story in Northern Life's newspaper this Friday.
