Muslim mother supports her Catholic priest son

JAKARTA, Indonesia, Oct. 20, 2015–A Muslim mother gave her blessing and support to her son who recently became one of the 11 newly ordained priests from the Societas Verbi Divini (SVD) order in the presence of Archbishop Vincensius Sensi Potokota.

Siti Asiyah, a Muslim mother, accepts his son, Robertus Asiyanto, to be inaugurated as a priest in Ledalero Maumere, October 10, 2015. Photo Credit: katolikkita.com

Robertus Belarminus Asiyanto, 31, was ordained last Oct. 10 at the St. Paul Ledalero Seminary, Maumere, Flores, East Nusa Tenggara. During the ordination rites, he was accompanied by his mother, Siti Asiyah, who was wearing Islamic dress, including the hijab.

Despite her religious beliefs, Asiyanto’s mother laid her hands on her son’s head and said that she was really happy to see her son ordained as a Catholic priest. Everyone in the celebration applauded her gesture and statement, and admired her love for her son as she was in tears while witnessing the ordination rites.

Fr. Leo Kleden, Superior Provincial of SVD Ende Province, said that Asiyanto was born in Flores and spent his early childhood in a Catholic neighborhood. “He has been a Catholic since he was a kid, perhaps since he was in primary school,” he said.

With a strong desire to pursue his priestly calling, Asiyanto proceeded to the seminary, and prior to his priestly ordination, asked for the blessing of his mother as it was really a big thing for him. Asiyanto’s mother said, “follow your heart.”

“She is a remarkable mother. She raised her son well and gave him the freedom to become a priest,” he also added.

The island of Flores is a part of Eastern Nusa Taggara province that has the most prevalent concentration of Catholics in Indonesia – forming the majority of its population. Reports say that it is rare for a Muslim family to willingly and happily accept the conversion of a son to Catholicism and also support his vocation as a priest. (Myraine Joly Carluen – Policarpio)

German pastor wages valiant fight to defend Christianity now under fire in his country

(Facebook/Solidarität mit Olaf Latzel)

Pastor Olaf Latzel says 'if you preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and everyone is clapping his hand, then you have a problem.'

Just like most Western nations, Germany is now being covered by a "profound spiritual darkness," according to Charisma News.

The Christian news source noted that Germany is remembered as the birthplace of the Reformation and was once a base for world Christian missions.

But now, true followers of Jesus Christ in the country are under fire in the media, by their own government and even denounced by fellow Christians whose faith has been subverted, according to Pastor Olaf Latzel of Bremen, Germany.

Latzel knows full well what he is saying since he is one of the prime targets of what he regards as anti-Christian conspiracy in his country.

In today's Germany, Latzel said traditional Christian teaching is now viewed by many as bigoted, hateful, and even "un-Christian."

"I'm only preaching the Gospel in a clear way," Latzel told Charisma News. "I think it is my duty to do this preaching in this way for our Lord."

In his sermons, Latzel speaks his mind out, standing against what he sees as a spirit of compromise that "seems to have swallowed Germany and the German state church," Charisma News said.

As a result, he has infuriated the German government and, sadly, even some German pastors who wanted to reconcile with non-Christians.

Latzel said the fundamental question in the German church today is who God really is.

Latzel said some of his fellow Christian pastors believe that "Allah and Jesus Christ, the Christian God, is the same god."

"But if you ask a Muslim, 'Does your god have a son?' he would say no!" he said. "Our (Christian) God has a son; His name is Jesus Christ. So, they are not the same."

"If you speak out loud and clearly about the truth of the Bible, that there's only one way to heaven and this way is Jesus Christ, there is only one God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and there is no other god beside Him, then you have a problem," he said.

Because of outspokenness and courage to defend his faith, 70 German pastors gathered in Bremen this year under the banner of "diversity" to denounce Latzel.

Accused of making hate speeches, the public prosecutor investigated him but later cleared him.

But this did not stop the Bremen parliament from passing a resolution to condemn him. Charisma News said it was the first time a German pastor was condemned by a German parliament since World War II.

But instead of losing heart, Latzel said the challenges he has to face only makes him stronger.

Latzel, who comes from a family of soldiers, said he is in a "war" between Christ and the devil, and the attacks reassure him.

"This is one sign that you are on the right way in your preaching, when you get problems," Latzel said. "If you preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and everyone is clapping his hand, then you have a problem."

"Because, if you're telling the truth from the Bible, then the devil will come and he will fight against you in several ways; he will fight against the Word of God," he said.

Latzel is the pastor at the historic St. Martini (St. Martin's) Church in Bremen, where the great hymn "Praise to the Lord, the Almighty" was written in 1679 by the church's pastor, Joachim Neander.

Salt Lake City woman is first in Utah to claim ordination to Catholic priesthood

Women who claim their ordinations are recognized by God — if not the Catholic Church — ordained a Salt Lake City woman Sunday, the first woman in Utah to call herself a Catholic priest.

Clare Julian Carbone, a former nun and a hospice chaplain, was ordained Sunday at First United Methodist Church in Salt Lake City. Bridget Mary Meehan of Sarasota, Fla., a bishop of the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests, presided.

Fifty men and women, many of them in Salt Lake City for the Parliament of the World's Religions, joined in the ordination, taking turns touching Carbone's head and arms as they prayed silently over her.

"We are disobeying an unjust law that discriminates against women in our church," Meehan said in an interview. "Our Roman Catholic women priest movement makes the connection that poverty, violence and abuse of women in the world is related to sexism in the church."

Susan Dennin, communications director for the Salt Lake City diocese, said the Catholic Church does not consider the ordination valid and does not condone it.

"The Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City had no prior knowledge of this event and is sad that it is taking place, putting a blemish on the gathering of the Parliament of the World's Religions," Dennin said in an emailed statement Sunday.

The church considers what it calls "attempted ordinations" a sin against the church's sacrament of holy orders, and regards participants as automatically excommunicated.

Pope John Paul II issued an apostolic letter in 1994, saying the church can't change the choice Jesus made when he picked 12 men as his apostles, men who in turn ordained other men to the priesthood.

That hasn't stopped many Catholics from embracing the notion, however, particularly in the United States. A survey last spring by the Pew Research Center found 59 percent of practicing American Catholics favor female ordination.

The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests and a sister group, Roman Catholic Women Priests, have ordained more than 220 women as deacons and priests, mostly in the United States, since 2002. Meehan said they claim apostolic succession because an ordained — and anonymous — male bishop ordained the first female bishops.

But in her homily Sunday, Meehan said Christ also sent out women as apostles, such as Mary Magdalene, the first to witness the resurrected Christ. He sent her to proclaim his resurrection to the others, Meehan said.

"There are more than 12 apostles, news flash to the Vatican," she said, prompting laughter.

Carbone, 65, who has worked as a licensed clinical social worker and was a contemplative Poor Clare nun for many years, said she does not yet know whether a new faith community will sprout in Salt Lake City as a result of her ordination. She has been invited to celebrate liturgies with other women here, she said.

"Many of the women who have been ordained into this movement … their ministries kind of unfold. It's miraculous, it's beautiful."

She recently became a hospice chaplain, she said. "Part of my priestly ministry will be extended, now, to some of those hospice patients."

Kate Kelly, who was excommunicated from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints last year after pushing for female ordination, was among those laying hands on Carbone during the ceremony Sunday. The two embraced afterward.

"This was extremely powerful, just to participate as equals with women and feel that solidarity across denominations," Kelly said.

Christina Gringeri of Salt Lake City, a lifelong Catholic, found the ordination beautiful.

Sacrilege! United Methodist and Episcopalian Churches Join in Prayer to “Bless” an Ohio Abortion Clinic

By Onan Coca / 13 October 2015 / 103 Comments

I’m not sure that anything makes me angrier than watching as self-proclaimed Christians professing to speak for God act in direct contradiction to what the Bible teaches. In recent years, this problem has seemingly grown ever more distressing, as liberal congregations embrace all manner of anti-Biblical lifestyles and philosophies. The latest example of this disturbing trend in the American church comes to us from Ohio, where leaders from United Methodist and Episcopalian Churches have come together to “bless” their local Planned Parenthood abortion mill.

The Reverend Laura Young recently led a prayer rally in front of her local abortion facility as a direct reaction to what she says is the “misguided faith” of pro-life Christians.

From Life News:

Young explained her acceptance of abortion like this: “Christianity, like most faiths, is founded on love. Watching protesters shouting judgment and hate based on what they call religion is horrible. Is that loving God? Is that loving your neighbor as yourself?”

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image: http://cdn1.eaglerising.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Laura-Young-Abortion-Preacher-300x184.jpg

Young also says religious groups are fueling the so-called war on women. She explained, “Women are being attacked at a moral level by the radical Religious Right. They’ve hijacked the political discussion. This event is an opportunity for progressive religious leaders to stop the silence. We need to be in the conversation.”

…

She said, “It breaks my heart to know women are sitting in pews across the country feeling shamed, believing that they’re cursed for making this decision. That’s a question I get a lot on the phone, ‘Am I going to hell?’ When God instead is there to support women through it all.”

…

In a statement the clergy said, “As faith leaders committed to justice, honesty, and liberty, we are troubled by the decades-long campaign of harassment against Planned Parenthood and those they serve. Our faiths demand care for those marginalized by poverty and other oppressions. Faith leaders have supported Planned Parenthood for nearly 100 years because of our shared goals: every person — regardless of income, race, or religion — deserves access to safe, affordable, high-quality health care.”

They concluded, “Our religious traditions call us to offer compassion, not judgment. People who work for Planned Parenthood give care and respect to those in need, doing God’s work. For this we are grateful.”

analysis (and others like her) of what Scripture teaches and how it should influence our thoughts on abortion, but the primary problem here is this: she has chosen to ignore the explicit teaching in the Scripture for a philosophy that she has developed based on her interpretation of the Bible. This is an old story, and as a dear friend once told me, this is exactly how cults are started.

Young has chosen to ignore the explicit commands on sin, murder, sexuality and the preeminence of God and instead has decided that her feelings about the Bible’s general tone are more important. In a nutshell, this is exactly the problem of modern liberal Christianity today, not just on the subject of abortion, but on a wide range of issues.

The apostate church that Young and others like her belong to is destroying the very fabric of our nation and the safety and health of the American church. I shudder to think what judgment awaits these false teachers who will one day stand before our Holy and Righteous God. My hope and prayer is that they repent because the penalty they will face otherwise… is terrifying.

Read more at http://eaglerising.com/24995/sacrilege-united-methodist-and-episcopalian-churches-join-in-prayer-to-bless-an-ohio-abortion-clinic/#CcM7dmDf0mHUbToM.99

An Evangelical discovers the Rosary

This article was written in 2012 for a book, The Healing Rosary by Paulette Kelly.

 I was skeptical.

Sitting there on the couch between my two friends, we began the Rosary.

I had been a Catholic for just over four months, a whirlwind journey that brought me to a November confirmation. It was a shortened RCIA program. I told the priest that I preferred not to wait until Easter to receive Our Lord. He granted my request because of my evangelical Theology degree and my six years as a full-time evangelical prayer missionary. As a missionary I had a dream about the Eucharist. I knew it was true.

The Rosary was a different story!

I knew it wasn’t something I ‘had’ to practice to be a good Catholic. As a former charismatic evangelical, I viewed the Rosary as an object of suspicion, a practice that Catholics felt they ‘had’ to do to be heard by God, or to gain His approval. I was wary of becoming wrapped up in “works”. After all, Jesus and I had a tight relationship and I didn’t think I needed “rote” prayers in order to get His attention.

However, as a member of a faithful parish in a vibrant Catholic community, it was almost impossible to avoid the Rosary. I knew I needed to test it. In the past when I had concerns about something, the Lord had always been faithful to show me His will. I got a sense that I was to try it and involve my two friends.

I summoned all my courage and asked Linda and Margarita if they would pray the Rosary with me on Easter Sunday. We would do it together because I didn’t know how. They would guide me through the prayers and I would follow along.

Sitting on the comfy leather couch, with Linda on my right and Margarita on my left, we began the centuries-old prayer. I really wanted to give it an honest try, so I timidly prayed the prayers with a focused heart, while a part of me was still asking God to keep me from any deception or idolatrous worship.

As we prayed through the decades, it was just as I suspected it would be, I didn’t feel any particular “anointing”.

As we entered into the concluding prayer, “Hail Holy Queen”, something stirred deep within me and I began to cry. It quickly escalated into something that I can only describe as loud, wailing, desperate pleas for help, as my spirit cried out loudly, “Help me Jesus! Help me Father!” This was similar to an inner healing experience I had before becoming a missionary, except this was more powerful. It was like a wrecking ball was knocking down walls I didn’t even know were there, places that hadn’t yet healed.

I found out later my friend Linda was panicking about what the neighbours would think. She handed me a pillow and I gladly used it to muffle the sound of my cries. After several minutes, it was done. I was more whole, somehow, on the inside. Many of the barriers that kept me from the Father and Jesus were no more.

Without even realizing it, I had tapped into a mystery that countless faithful souls before me had experienced: the hidden strength of Our Lady who declares in the Bible, “my soul magnifies the Lord”; and magnify, she did! That experience was all I needed; I decided to pray the Rosary daily. It was the beginning of a beautiful relatiionship with Mary.

I believe that the barriers that were removed that day (whether from childhood self protection or deep wounds, I don't know) enabled me to walk more fully in the Father's will for my life. Now I’m married, and praying the Rosary daily with my husband not only strengthens our relationship with Jesus, but also with one another. We’re convinced that this prayer will help us to live a future marked by unity, faith, hope and love.

PS - Diane was married to Hugh (of this website) January 1st, 2011.

Lord Jesus, let Your prayer of unity for Christians
become a reality, in Your way.
We have absolute confidence
that you can bring your people together,
we give you absolute permission to move.
Amen

Giving of free bibles to Pastors and Clergy in Nueva Vizcaya from the Bible League Philippines

The Director of BLP

Bible League Philippines,Thank you so much for your kindness and generosity!

Hold the Ropes: Why We Should Financially Support Missionaries

It has been a great joy to me that after all this​ time you have shown such interest in my welfare.” I don’t mean that you had forgotten me, but up till now you had no opportunity of expressing your concern, Nor do I mean that I have been in actual need, for I have learned to be content, whatever the circumstances may be. I know now how to live when things are prosperous. Philippians 4:10-12

William Carey, who was a missionary, once said to his financial supporters, “I’ll go down into the mine, if you’ll hold the ropes.”

SAMS missionaries are all around the globe serving in the Anglican community responding to God’s call. We have a call too; to support them and hold their rope for them. Why should we support missionaries, especially financially?

1.Missionaries Teach Us: SAMS missionaries have a passion for serving. They come from several different backgrounds. For instance, Cathy Donahoe serves through physical therapy ministry, Ana Reid serves through community development and has a gift for leadership, and David Chaves has a background in videography and he and his wife, Lucy, minister to young adults. They co-founded i-hope Photography where these young people have learned photography skills to start their own businesses. When we support our missionaries and see what they are doing on the field, we actually learn new things. We learn how people are medically treated, or what the culture is like in the places they serve. We read and see new ways of living, and we discover a new scope on life in general.

2.Missionaries Encourage Us: When we support missionaries, we receive encouragement. We are able to see the work that God is doing through them. When Todd McGregor, a SAMS missionary and the Bishop of Toliara in Madagascar, announced that they were able to open a school last year, imagine what joy his Senders felt. Children can now attend school in that area because of the financial support of a Sender. When our missionaries send prayer requests we feel encouraged to partner with them. Although they could be thousands of miles away we can be uplifted by the bond he we have with our missionaries. When we see what is happening around the world it inspires us to get involved in our communities.

3.You Can Get Involved: When we support missionaries financially there are opportunities to get involved with their ministry. Missionaries are always looking for ways to participate in their service. When we are Senders, they may reach out to us to help on a short-term or team mission partners with our missionaries. We are seeking to see the fulfillment of the Great Commission alongside them.

Before considering getting involved financially, PRAY. If you are feeling called to support SAMS, or a SAMS missionary please visit our giving page. 

New York Archdiocese Will Close 7 More Churches

By ANDY NEWMANMAY 8, 2015

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Noon Mass on Friday at St. John the Martyr on the Upper East Side.CreditChristopher Gregory for The New York Times

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York announced on Friday the shuttering of seven more churches as part of the biggest reorganization in its history, a process of parish consolidations that will leave the archdiocese 20 percent smaller than it was last year.

Three of the churches on the latest list to be closed are in the Bronx, one is in Manhattan and the other three are north of the city. They are added to more than 30 church closings that were announced in November.

The churches whose closings were announced Friday are St. John the Martyr on East 72nd Street on the Upper East Side; St. Joseph on Bathgate Avenue, St. Anthony on Richardson Avenue and Our Lady of Grace on Bronxwood Avenue, all in the Bronx; St. Mary in Newburgh; and St. Joseph in Clinton Corners and Immaculate Conception in Bangall, both in Dutchess County.

Regular Masses and sacraments will no longer be offered at these churches, though they might be open on special occasions. Instead, nearby churches will become parishioners’ new “home” churches.

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St. John the Martyr is among those the archdiocese plans to close.CreditChristopher Gregory for The New York Times

Church officials had announced in November a much larger round of mergers and closings, involving more than 110 parishes that were being combined to create fewer than 60 new ones. This time, 31 parishes are being consolidated into 14. In most of these mergers, however, the church buildings of the former parishes will remain open for Masses and sacraments.

Falling attendance, a shortage of priests and other factors are behind the push to consolidate parishes across the archdiocese, which covers Manhattan, the Bronx, Staten Island and seven counties north of the city. The new round of cuts, however, stands out because of how the archdiocese arrived at the decisions. The earlier group of closings followed more than a year of discussions between parishes and an advisory panel. In the new cases, however, the proposals came directly from Cardinal Timothy M. Dolanand other senior archdiocesan officials.

But the number of churches that are being effectively closed is more modest than expected: In December, the archdiocese released a list of more than a dozen churches it was considering closing.

These from the December list were spared: St. Thomas More on the Upper East Side; St. Gregory the Great on the Upper West Side; St. John Neumann on Staten Island; St. Francis in the northeast Bronx; Our Lady of Carmel in White Plains; and Our Lady of Pompeii in Dobbs Ferry.

No more church closings or mergers are planned, officials said. The decisions are set to take effect on Aug. 1. Combined with the shifts announced last fall, the archdiocese is merging 143 parishes into 69 new ones.

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St. Joseph in the Bronx is also slated to close. No more church closings or mergers are planned, officials said. CreditChristopher Gregory for The New York Times

The result is an archdiocese of 296 parishes — 20 percent smaller than a year ago, when the archdiocese had 368 parishes.

“For too long,” Cardinal Dolan said in a statement, “we have been in the business of maintaining buildings and structures that were established in the 19th and early 20th centuries to meet the needs of the people of that time, but which are not necessary to meet the needs of the church and its people as it exists today.”

At St. John the Martyr on the Upper East Side, a modest church with wooden arches and wallpapered columns, three people came to the noon Mass on Friday. One of them, who gave her name only as Diane and said she had been attending the church “forever,” was realistic and resigned about the closing. She said she would worship instead at St. Jean Baptiste Catholic Church a few blocks away.

“What are you going to do?” she said. “It costs a lot of money to keep it open.”

But another longtime parishioner, Lutzea Satin, said she was devastated.

“My heart is bleeding,” Ms. Satin, who works in finance, said through tears on the telephone. “Right now, my faith is questionable. As a parishioner, and as a Catholic, I’m just hurting. It’s like losing a member of your family.”

A version of this article appears in print on May 9, 2015, on page A15 of the New York edition with the headline: New York Archdiocese to Shut 7 More Churches. 

North Carolina Church Receives Heartwarming Note With 18-Cent Donation

By NICOLE PELLETIERE and MICHELLE MANZIONE

Good Morning America

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North Carolina Church Receives Heartwarming Note With 18-Cent Donation (ABC News)

Sunday's service was business as usual for First United Methodist Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.

But it was one offering that warmed the hearts of everyone at the congregation, and it wasn't the amount of money that moved them.

"After the service we have a couple of people called counters who process the offerings and put them in our safe," Pastor Patrick Hamrick told ABC News. "The secretary called me over and in the envelope was a dime, a nickel, and three cents. That was the 18 cents. We flipped it over and the note was there."

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The note, written by an anonymous donor, said:

"Please don't be mad. I don't have much. I'm homeless. God Bless."

"We were very touched by it," Hamrick said. "I just had a phone call from the person who says that he's the one.”

Barry Collins, a long-time church member and office volunteer, believes the man had eaten breakfast with the church Sunday morning and left the note behind afterwards.

“Every Sunday morning, we serve breakfast to our homeless neighbors,” Collins told ABC News of what is known as the “Muffin Ministry.”

Hamrick, who posted the note on the church Facebook page, told the mystery man that the community could rally together for him should he reveal his identity, but the man chose to remain unnamed.

"He's asked me to keep it between me, God, and the church," Hamrick said. "He's not upset about it, he just feels that he wants to be private. I have to honor it professionally.

"It warmed our hearts because proportionally that gift could be an average middle class person giving a 1,000 dollars," he added. "I feel like he gave everything he had that morning and it's a touching example of someone” who has so little to give.

Rogue Catholic bishops plan to grow schismatic challenge to Rome

By Stephen Eisenhamme

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French Bishop Jean-Michel Faure (2nd R) gives holy communions during a mass in Nova Friburgo near Rio …

NOVA FRIBURGO, Brazil (Reuters) - Two renegade Catholic bishops plan to consecrate a new generation of bishops to spread their ultra-traditionalist movement called "The Resistance" in defiance of the Vatican, one of them said at a remote monastery in Brazil.

French Bishop Jean-Michel Faure, himself consecrated only two weeks ago by the Holocaust-denying British Bishop Richard Williamson, said the new group rejected Pope Francis and what it called his "new religion" and would not engage in a dialogue with Rome until the Vatican turned back the clock.

Williamson and Faure, who were both excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church when the former made the latter a bishop without Vatican approval, are ex-members of a larger dissenting group that has been a thorn in Rome's side for years.

Their splinter movement is tiny - Faure did not give an estimate of followers - but the fact they plan to consecrate bishops is important because it means their schism can continue as a rebel form of Catholicism.

"We follow the popes of the past, not the current one," Faure, 73, told reporters on Saturday at Santa Cruz Monastery in Nova Friburgo, in the mountain jungle 140 km (87 miles) inland from Rio de Janeiro.

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French Bishop Jean-Michel Faure (C) walks during a mass in Nova Friburgo near Rio de Janeiro March 2 …

"It is likely that in maybe one or two years we will have more consecrations," he said, adding there were already two candidates to be promoted to bishop's rank.

The monastery had said Williamson would ordain a priest there at the weekend but he was not seen by reporters, and clergy said it was impossible to talk to him. Faure ordained the priest himself.

Asked what the new group called itself, Faure said: "I think we can call ourselves Roman Catholic first, secondly St Pius X, and now ... the Resistance."

SPLINTER OFF THE SSPX

The Society of St Pius X (SSPX) is a larger ultra-traditionalist group that was excommunicated in 1988 when its founder consecrated four new bishops, including Williamson, despite warnings from the Vatican not to do so.

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French Bishop Jean-Michel Faure (C) attends a mass in Nova Friburgo near Rio de Janeiro March 28, 20 …

It rejected the modernizing reforms of the 1962-65 Second Vatican Council and stuck with Catholicism's old Latin Mass after the Church switched to simpler liturgy in local languages.

Former Pope Benedict readmitted the four SSPX bishops to the Catholic fold in 2009, but the SSPX soon expelled Williamson because of an uproar over his Holocaust denial.

In contrast to Benedict, Pope Francis pays little attention to the SSPX ultra-traditionalists, who claim to have a million followers around the world and a growing number of new priests at a time that Rome faces priest shortages. Their remaining three bishops have no official status in the Catholic Church.

Faure said the Resistance group would not engage in dialogue with Rome, as the SSPX has done. "We resist capitulation, we resist conciliation of St Pius X with Rome," he said.

Faure said he was not sure what it would take for Rome to return to its old traditions but conflict could be a catalyst.

"If there is another World War ... maybe the Church will go back to the way it was before," he said.

The prior of the monastery, Thomas Aquinas, explained the split simply: "The Pope is less Catholic than us."

Under Catholic law, Williamson and Faure are excommunicated from the Church but remain validly consecrated bishops. That means they can ordain priests into their schismatic group and claim to be Catholic, albeit without Vatican approval.

By contrast, women supposedly made priests by dissident Catholic bishops are not validly ordained because Catholic law reserves the priesthood only for men.

(Reporting by Stephen Eisenhammer; Editing by Tom Heneghan and Richard Chang)