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Fall 2000
Deus
Caritas
A message from the Presiding Bishop
of the Old Roman Catholic Church in North America,
the Most Reverend Francis P. Facione, Ph.D.
With this issue, we complete one
year of publication of New Perspectives. My
brother bishops and I are very grateful for the
outstanding ability of our editor, Ms. Valerie
Kane, whose talent, commitment, and energy are
largely responsible for this accomplishment. Our
goal was to develop a quarterly publication that
would not only present the Old Roman Catholic
Church to the world but also present issues and
controversies impacting the universal Church. By
reason of her experience and faith, Ms. Kane has
successfully led our editorial and publication team
to this end. Thank you, Valerie, for making New
Perspectives a reality.
As our readers are aware, NP has
explored issues of concern to the Church as it
enters the third millennium of Christianity. The
intent has been to inform and to initiate
discussion-perhaps, even debate-on these issues,
considered by many as central to the very essence
of the Church as we understand it. Such is the case
in this, our fall issue. The question of admission
of women to Holy Orders and formal ministry in the
Church is one that is wrenching the hearts of many
and causing pain to all. A question, not easily
discussed, it has become a divisive factor
throughout the Western Church. Within the Anglican
Communion, which approbated ordination of women
more than twenty-five years ago, there is still no
unanimity. Rather, that communion of Churches has
witnessed the genesis of ecclesial bodies
collectively known as Continuing Anglican. These
bodies count among their reasons for existence
opposition to the admission of women to Orders.
Regretfully, the issue has exerted an almost
overwhelming influence on the Churches of the
Utrecht Union as well. To some observers, the force
of that impact may well force a redefinition, if
not disintegration, of the Union as presently
constituted. Not unexpectedly, the same issue
impacts several Old Catholic ecclesial bodies not
aligned with the Utrecht Union, chiefly in North
America. Efforts to foster relationships leading to
convergence may well falter as more of these
Churches opt for the admission of women to Holy
Orders.
The debate over ordination of
women is, perhaps, most vitriolic within Roman
Catholic circles in the United States and Canada.
Outspoken advocates include many women religious, a
number of lay men and women, and many priests and
members of men's religious communities. Each stands
ready to expound at length on his or her view of
the perceived injustice of recent papal
pronouncements maintaining an all-male priesthood
and deaconate.
Clearly this issue is both
emotional and controversial. One may then
legitimately question why the Old Roman Catholic
Church in North America, which does not admit women
to Holy Orders, would explore this matter within
the pages of its journal. The best response to such
a query is that this is an issue that strikes at
the very heart of the historic Church's
understanding of the priesthood, and is one of many
that constitute the current crisis in the Church.
It bears discussing. Indeed, it cries for reasoned
discussion. In the hope that we shall contribute to
such reasoned discussion, we include three varying
views of the controversy in this issue of New
Perspectives.
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