Sunday, June 29, 2008

Fordham Educated Catholic Now Is A Priestess

Pursuing priesthood
Catholic girl grows up, fulfills dream
By MARVIN READ
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN
some excerpts.
She grew up wanting to be a priest - maybe from the time she was just 5 years old, she said.She served as an altar girl in her home parish, loving to be close to the sacramental action and mystery of the Mass.......... So, Mary Elizabeth Conroy, growing up in western Massachusetts in a strong, devoted and somewhat traditional family, more or less learned to bury her ambition. She attended Marymount College, a Catholic college in Tarrytown, N.Y., where she earned a master's degree in business. She earned another master's degree in religious education from Jesuit-run Fordham University in New York City. She went to work for the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and served the needy and poor in Phoenix."At some point, people asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up. And I told them, just like I did when I was a little girl, that I wanted to be a priest."........."
The Episcopal Church once passed a resolution stating that gays and lesbians have full rights to pastoral care. Bishop Robinson was totally above board in this matter, never hiding or denying his sexual orientation, and he was chosen by his (New Hampshire) diocese and confirmed by the nationwide convention. So, there's this huge split in the church now."
Conroy turned very serious as she pronounced, "I'm not sure than the unity of churches is the goal of Christianity. In fact, we're all covered by the love of God, and forcing people to be united - to accept this position or its opposite- is not a good idea."
Link to the full story (here)

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Do some research... at least three young women who were part of the odd semi-third-order-esque Jesuit Volunteer Corps have become lady ministers...

Among my JVC friends and aquaintances? A cradle Catholic living with his GF, an agnostic Lutheran who was living with his GF, a Unitarian who now lives with his boyfriend in NYC...

Oh what has become of the Society of Jesus!

Anonymous said...

Hi SS,

Your comments about JVC are fair enough; I was a JV in the Northwest in the early part of this decade and am certainly aware of some of its shortcomings. I've often called JVC the "McDonald's of Xstian post-graduate service organizations." It's well-established, but it's so big and casts such a big net that the Catholic identity ends up almost totally obscured. Frustrated by this (despite loving the work), I chose a different, MUCH smaller Catholic organization for my second year of work.

But I'm not sure the SJ is directly to blame, seeing as they handed over control of the organization to the laity. It was the lay staff members with whom I had (and still have) the greatest sense of dissatisfaction (to this day, I ignore the organization's plea for donations, while faithfully giving money to the Drop-in Center where i worked). And not just because of their new-agey values. But I won't get into that. It's just that I would hope that the SJ would do at least a *marginally* better job if they were still in charge.

At any rate, if it makes you feel any better about JVC, know at least that I'm a Former JV bachelor who wouldn't dream of living with his girlfriend (that's for the wishy-washy!!) and who thinks cohabitation is one of the signs of the end times. ;)

...oh, and that the work was one of the best things I've ever done.

PAX
Pedantic Classicist.