Ordained women are ‘living as Jesus did’

Re “Female Priest Defies the Catholic Church,” Aug. 14

I was happy and amazed to see that women are finally being allowed by some bishops to publicly live out the priesthood they were admitted to at their baptism, but disheartened to see that so many of our church leaders still condemn that.

I am so grateful that I attended Catholic high school and university in the 1970s, when they taught that priesthood was about love and service rather than pointless and painful elitism. I have always wondered, and still do, if we as women are to accept that we are somehow supposed to live as Jesus lived while being denied that simple right to serve because we lack male genitalia? Jane Via and her fellow ordinates are truly living as Jesus did -- challenging the powers that be for the simple privilege and duty to live as our God asks them to live -- with interestingly similar results.

SUSAN YODICE

San Pedro

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Although I have read several articles in the last year or so about women attempting ordination, this was the most informative. I was impressed with the author’s research, and the clear comments from the various bishops.

Most interesting was the reason that the women conduct their ceremonies on rivers and lakes. I cannot speak to Europe, but in the U.S., their premise on jurisdiction is as false as the rest of their enterprise. Since the First Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1852, dioceses in the U.S. have been congruent with civil jurisdictions. Cities and counties extend their boundaries into rivers and lakes, and so with diocesan boundaries.

PHILIP VAN CAMP

Murrieta

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The Catholic women who were ordained have taken care to preserve the “apostolic succession” prized by the Catholic Church. They are indeed validly ordained, despite their ordination being against church law. They are our brave foremothers, willing to suffer intimidation, firing from jobs and public denunciation to open the Catholic priesthood to women who are called to ordination. They are prophets in our midst.

MARY CASEY FINAN

La Mirada