French woman claims priesthood
Lyon, France A French woman defied a threat of excommunication by the Roman Catholic Church and held a ceremony proclaiming herself a priest on Saturday.
In a small ceremony on a boat, Genevieve Beney was joined by other women from around the world who have taken similar dramatic action to draw attention to the church’s policy against women priests.
“This is not a rupture with the Roman Catholic Church,” Beney said in a statement read aloud before she boarded the boat. “If there is a rupture on my part, it is with a situation that I consider to be obsolete and unjust to women.”
The Vatican has not commented on the case but has made clear it sees no room for debate about opening up the priesthood to women. The Church says Jesus chose men to be his apostles and that the practice of ordaining only men must stand.
In 2002, seven women – from Austria, Germany and the United States – conducted an ordination ceremony and were promptly excommunicated from the church.
Two of the women who participated in that ceremony – Gisela Forster, of Germany, and Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger, of Austria – led Saturday’s ceremony, along with a third woman who followed in their footsteps, Patricia Fresen of South Africa.
Beney, a theologian, says its time for the church to change.
“We consider ourselves Catholic,” Beney told the Associated Press in an earlier interview. “But we do not agree with the church law … that says only a baptized male can be ordained as a priest.”
The Archbishop of Lyon, Philippe Barbarin, urged Beney earlier this week not to follow through with her plan, saying it “will constitute a serious act of rupture in respect to the Catholic Church.”
“There will be no truth to the words that will be pronounced,” Barbarin said. “For many Catholics, this will be a source of useless injury and suffering.”
Undersea eruption suspected off Japan
Tokyo Japan’s Coast Guard dispatched aircraft today to survey a 3,300-foot-high column of steam rising from the Pacific Ocean off a small Japanese island, in a possible sign of an undersea volcanic eruption, officials said.
The water vapor resembling a huge cloud, was seen from the island of Iwo Jima on Saturday by Japanese troops stationed there, said Hiroshi Shirai, a spokesman for the Maritime Self-Defense Forces.
Several soldiers witnessed the vapor in waters roughly 30 miles southeast of the island, he said. The defense officials who later conducted an aerial survey from a rescue helicopter also found the surface of the water in the area turning red, Shirai said, adding that there might have been an underwater volcanic activity.
Today, Japan’s Coast Guard sent aircraft to the area to conduct a more thorough survey in daylight. Coast Guard officials said officials are still trying to find out what exactly has occurred in the waters, and no further details were immediately available.
The Meteorological Agency said there was no danger of tsunami, which can be caused by undersea seismic activity or landslides. Iwo Jima is about 700 miles southeast of Tokyo.