On the evening of Tuesday May 29, a small group protesting the Vatican’s investigation of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious met in front of Oakland’s Cathedral of Christ the Light. The investigation was prompted by the organization’s promotion of positions not in line with the teaching of the Church.

At least one pastor encouraged his parishioners to attend. In his parish bulletin of May 27, Father Brian Joyce, pastor of Christ the King Church in Pleasant Hill, encouraged parishioners to attend a protest vigil at the Cathedral of Christ the Light in Oakland.

The vigil, which was held on Tuesday, May 29, from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm, was to express support for the dissident nuns. The bulk of the Father Joyce’s message consists of an excerpt from another pastor’s message, that of Father John Kasper of St. Perpetua Church, in Lafayette, also in the diocese of Oakland.

Father Kasper, who cites the New York Times as one of his authorities, offers his opinion as to what motivated the action on the part of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: “I believe that one of the struggles in the current controversy is the reluctance, even fear, on the part of a male hierarchy to open itself to the voice and experience of women.”

That analysis does not explain why the Vatican investigated the Leadership group, and not, say, the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. Father Joyce closes his part of the pastor’s message by saying: “This Tuesday night there will be one such vigil at our own Oakland Cathedral beginning at 6:00 pm. Participants are invited to bring signs, pictures or the name of their favorite Catholic Sister to demonstrate support and affection.”

Father Joyce noted that in his bulletin of the previous week, he had cited a message from a third pastor, Father Anthony McGuire, pastor of St. Matthew’s parish in San Mateo. Father McGuire’s name will be familiar to readers of California Catholic daily as the pastor under whom San Francisco’s Most Holy Redeemer Church began its long slide into infamy.

In the quoted message McGuire opines that he wishes half of the College of Cardinals were women, and opines that “For sure it would head off these frontal attacks by Vatican septuagenarians against women religious. They keep repeating themselves and have proved embarrassing for many Catholics. A recent opinion piece in the San Francisco Chroniclecharacterized it as bullying. I agree with that appraisal.”

The mainstreaming of groups who support the ordination of women is one of the ongoing ministries at Christ the King. On both May 16 and July 20, 2011, CalCatholic explored the ties between Christ the King parish and a group called the Women of Magdala.

The May 16, 2011 article reported that “Roman Catholic Woman Priest” Victoria Rue “celebrates a ‘Eucharistic Gathering” in a “house church” in San Francisco’s East Bay. The event is organized by a group called “The Women of Magdala.” The Women of Magdala was organized in 2004 by parishioners from Christ the King Catholic Church in Pleasant Hill….

The July 18, 2010 parish bulletin of Christ the King carried this blurb for the group: “The Women of Magdala is a name adopted by a group of women and men here in our own neighborhood, including parishioners from St. Stephen’s, Santa Maria, and Christ the King parishes. Welcoming both men and women to join, they meet at Christ the King at 7:15 pm on the second Monday of each month. The group’s mission is to promote an equal role for women in the Catholic Church through liturgy, education and example.”

The July 20, 2011 CalCatholic article “New High Holy Day” reported: “In a July 17 message of the bulletin of Christ the King Church in Pleasant Hill (also posted on the parish’s homepage), the pastor, Father Brian Joyce wrote: ‘On Friday of this week we celebrate what is fast becoming a ‘high holyday’: the feast of St. Mary Magdalen.

“’We’ll have a special observance and homilist at the 8:00 am mass with reception after and then at 7:00 pm in the evening, here in church, Father Tom Bonacci will give a presentation on Mary Magdalen and the Gospel.’”

The group behind the event calls itself the Women of Magdala, and its calendar of events confirms the group is hosting a “Feast of Mary Magdala Liturgy followed by a breakfast reception’ on July 22 at Christ the King parish.” The Christ the King website directory still offers a direct link to the Women of Magdala’s homepage.

Since the articles were published, Maureen Mancuso, who is one of Father Joyce’s parishioners and RCIA instructors, and who is also the webmaster for the Women of Magdala, was ordained a deacon into the Roman Catholic Womenpriests movement.

The ordination, which incurs automatic excommunication, took place on September 18, 2011. Father Joyce’s encouragement may thus be said to have facilitated the excommunication of one of his own parishioners. The May 27 parish bulletin also contains a blurb about Tuesday’s protest, and the contact email given is that for Ms. Gwen Watson, coordinator for the Women of Magdala.

 

READER COMMENTS

Posted Thursday, May 31, 2012 12:07 AM By Abeca Christian
Wow when will the madness stop. So much dissent, what a backward society. Father Brian Joyce Looking for love in all the wrong places!

Posted Thursday, May 31, 2012 3:24 AM By AA
These men should re-study Catholic history and consider whose actions theirs reflects: Saints or Heretics?

Posted Thursday, May 31, 2012 3:29 AM By Thomas edward Miles
There is no reason in hell that a women cannot be a Cardinal!! Women always look better in RED!!!

Posted Thursday, May 31, 2012 4:53 AM By Jose’
Where is the Bishop when all of this happening? Why are these rebel priests still pastors of parishes?

Posted Thursday, May 31, 2012 5:59 AM By Fr. Richard Perozich
Most dissent from church teaching by clerics comes from problems below the waist.

Posted Thursday, May 31, 2012 6:08 AM By PAPA
These Priests need our prayers, how sad to have them continue to defy a good Pope and support the garbage that the wacky women of magdala preach, hopefully these are all old Priests and so called Sisters so that their time on earth is short before they do much more damage to their own souls and that of others taken in by their nonsense..MGB

Posted Thursday, May 31, 2012 6:22 AM By Father Karl
Shame on Fr. Joyce! The scandal and the fact that this priest is leading precious souls to hell is an abomination! Our Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI’s first announcement was ” Pray for me that I may not flee for fear of the wolves!” The worldwide hierarchy of the Catholic Church is full of ravenous wolves. They and their minions take morose delight in spreading falsehoods and lies to the people they are supposed to be preaching the truth. They are also attempting to destroy the holy Catholic Church from the inside. God created man from the ‘slime’ of the earth, but woman He created from man’s own flesh. Men and women were created by God to compliment each other, not to compete with each other. Both are equal in dignity, but they ARE NOT THE SAME! Satan desires war and hostility between men and women, and unfortunately Fr. Joyce has allied himself with others who have joined the dens of Asmodeus in rejecting divinely revealed truth, for the garbage proclaimed by the radical feminazis. His parish is Catholic in name only, and he must be stopped and silenced before more souls are lost to perdition

Posted Thursday, May 31, 2012 6:27 AM By Robert Lockwood
Fathers Joyce and Kasper have long been of the ultra ultra liberal wing of the Catholic Church. The number of Catholics they have misled over a long time cannot be counted. A major problem in the diocese of Oakland for the Bishop has been pastors of this ilk that simply so not do what they are instructed to do either by the Bishop or the Vatican. I live in the middle of these two and cannot count the number of people who no longer attend Sunday Mass because of their ministry. Better to have no priests than bad priests. Unfortunately their influence has spread throughout the diocese making it very difficult to find a parish to be a part of.

Posted Thursday, May 31, 2012 7:07 AM By JLS
I wonder how many of these people attend the Bilderberg parties and wear sheep or goat leggings.

Posted Thursday, May 31, 2012 7:15 AM By Steve Phoenix
So many old dissidents, the dragons’ seed of former Bp. Cummins, so much for Ad Tuendam Fidem (the papal declaration defining the reservation of ordination to the traditional practice for all faithful Catholics). Bp. Cordileone has the Augean stables to clean up after 30 years of drift.

Posted Thursday, May 31, 2012 8:04 AM By MD
How sad, another dissident priest. The Vatican not only had the right, but the duty to stop the heretical teachings of people within the Church. There are many good and holy nuns in the US, but at the same time nuns who contradict their vows by teaching theology that contradicts Church teaching and this has to stop. God Love you.

Posted Thursday, May 31, 2012 8:52 AM By JLS
Has anyone considered that the problem may be senior dementia setting in on some of these characters?

Posted Thursday, May 31, 2012 8:56 AM By Dave N.
Why was the cathedral made available for this protest?

Posted Thursday, May 31, 2012 8:56 AM By St. Christopher
Fr. Joyce should be immediately suspended. His actions are deplorable, including his apparent enabling of a parishoner to incur excommunication. This is what happens when clergy give the appearance of “near approval” of certain options of conscience, such as the use of birth control, abortion, homosexual (and other extra-marital) sex, and, now, assuming a level of prohibited “orders” in the WomenPriest movement. He is a political priest. One can only wonder at the soundness of his homilies, or even of the Mass that he says. Of course, the behavior of his Ordinary also bears close examination as clergy often mimic what they believe to be acceptable to, or even desired by, their superiors. The institutional Church is large crumbling, or done now. Even Benedict said that the Catholic Church will likely be smaller in the future; and the future is now. Unfortunately, Benedict is not the man to enforce Church doctrine at this level, and his Curia, and the Bishops, are largely enemies of the Holy Father. His goal now is to lay the foundation for the growth of tradition, for the incorporation of the SSPX, and for the education of new parishioners regarding their true Faith (and not the simply bizarre rituals, songs, dancing, and all the rest of the “new” and often unCatholic diocesan local life). It is no wonder that people like Ms. Mancuso assume positions that are entirely contraray to licit Catholic behavior — they think that such is fine, as their priest told them so. Stop Father Joyce from any further damage to the souls of his parish.

Posted Thursday, May 31, 2012 9:10 AM By Marie
I remember hearing at one time that the former Oakland Diocese Ordinary Alan Vigneron felt powerless to deal with the radical priests in his Diocese. Not much has changed.

Posted Thursday, May 31, 2012 9:35 AM By The Other Rose
If I were a member of Women of Magdala, I’d be afraid of a heavenly slap in the face from misrepresenting Jesus’ friend, St. Mary Magdalen.

Posted Thursday, May 31, 2012 9:50 AM By The Other Rose
Fr. Rich, like the way you always nail it!

Posted Thursday, May 31, 2012 10:20 AM By jax
Not once is God mentioned in any of this discussion. This is all “I want, I want, gimme, gimme.” Obedience and service to God’s will is apparently irrelevant. Ego abounds! I don’t care what these people do of themselves. However, they lead our children astray: “Maureen Mancuso, who is one of Father Joyce’s parishioners and RCIA instructors…” Sick… these people are just sick. The problem is that they are dead-set on infecting others. It is my contention that since marriages can be annulled (invalidated) if any of the participants entered into it with unfaithful intentions… the holy orders of priesthood are also invalidated for failure to believe and follow the basic tenants of the faith that they claimed to be in communion with. By his actions Mr. Joyce has proven that his personal profession of faith at ordination was false. Thus, God has never recognized his ordination. Thus, as in annulment, a valid ordination did not occur. Mr. Joyce is a priest in the order of Judas. He will answer for leading others astray. Have a pleasant day.

Posted Thursday, May 31, 2012 10:27 AM By goodcause
Why is this happening? Because there is considrable support among the laity for women deacons and priests, and for marriage for males priests. The bishops know this, so there is not as much consternation about this as some would like. I was educated by nuns, most were good women, a few bad apples, but to create a Vatican led campaign to “correct” them while the Vatican is still figuring how to correct its worldwide exercise of criminal behavior in the sex abuse scandal leaves this good Catholic wondering what planet Rome is actually on.

Posted Thursday, May 31, 2012 10:31 AM By pete
This is the swan song of heretics: notice their age! NO YOUNG PEOPLE!

Posted Thursday, May 31, 2012 10:39 AM By Anne T.
“But false prophet also arose among the people , just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themelves swift destruction. And many will follow their licentiousness, and because of them the truth will be reviled. And in their greed they will expoloit you with false words, from of old their condemnation has not been idle, and their destruction has not been asleep.” (2 Peter 2:1). Little sheep, beware of false prophets, wolves in sheep’s clothing. “Do not drink the Kool Aid.”

Posted Thursday, May 31, 2012 10:41 AM By Catherine
Father Joyce is the same priest in the infamous Video Clown Mass. The incredibly goofy skit on the altar during Mass clearly validates what Father Richard Perozich just wrote. The whole skit was a teaching tool to encourage the approval of homosexuality. The clown Mass video took place in 2002. This is the filth within the Church that Pope Benedict XVI spoke about. Our bishops are powerful and they could stop this in a split second because of their authority. There is a distinct reason why many are not putting an immediate end to this abomination and there is a distinct reason why many good bishops have had their hands tied. The laity hands are not tied. Rome knows how bad it is and they are waiting for the laity to speak up. If the evil orchestration of a seemingly harmless personal butler can be effective enough to infiltrate the Pope’s room to retrieve information to leak out to the world, then what was the real motivating factor behind this? Was the initial motivating factor of retrieving this information really an intimidation to cause silence? What underhanded means are being exacted against our good bishops in the United States by those within the Church who despise Church teaching and those individuals the Holy Father calls, “professional Catholics.” God bless you and thank you California Catholic Daily for allowing the faithful to listen to the Magisterium and for allowing the faithful to speak up.

Posted Thursday, May 31, 2012 10:50 AM By Mark from PA
“Women always look better in red!” LOL Thanks for making me smile, Thomas.

Posted Thursday, May 31, 2012 1:09 PM By MacDonald
Jesus prayed “that they be one,” but then we get nutty people doing nutty things, which sadly divides the Church. I am very sorry to read that these LEFT-WING priests are encouraging faithful Catholics to be disobedient and disrespectful to the Pope and to the Holy See — even as RIGHT-WING Marcel Lefebvre was doing long before he got excommunicated. Archbishop Lefebvre, Aug. 29, 1987: “The See of Peter and the posts of authority in Rome being occupied by anti-Christs, the destruction of the Kingdom of our Lord is being rapidly carried out… This is what has brought down upon our heads persecution by the Rome of the anti-Christs.”

Posted Thursday, May 31, 2012 1:42 PM By JLS
Anne T. (10:39), right on. You really hit the “high C” note this time. Perfect Scripture quote … a blessing to read.

Posted Thursday, May 31, 2012 1:45 PM By Joe
If one were to read, “Sisters in Crisis,” then one would understand why the Vatican needed to crack down on the LCWR. The book gives a genesis of the what occurred among women religious, especially during the ’60s and 70’s in the United States. After reading the book one will wonder what took the Vatican so long to address the problem of many of these militant feminists, which is precisely what they are. These women managed to undo what their predecessors accomplished, and the superiors were absolutely devious in the manner they communicated the information of Vatican II to the older sisters of their communities. Some of the troublemakers who helped found the LCWR either left their religious orders, or left the Church entriely. Thank God we have the Nashville Dominicans and other orders like them who separated themselves from the LCWR.

Posted Thursday, May 31, 2012 2:02 PM By Kenneth M. Fisher
These “Women of Madgala” show how little they really know of St. Mary Magdalene”. May God have mercy on their souls. God bless, yours in Their Hearts, Kenneth M. Fisher

Posted Thursday, May 31, 2012 2:12 PM By Kenneth M. Fisher
Here are the E-Mails for Bishop Cordileone: bishop@oakdiocese.org dstall@oakdiocese.org (this is his priest Secretary’s) God bless, yours in Their Hearts, Kenneth M. Fisher

Posted Thursday, May 31, 2012 2:18 PM By Kenneth M. Fisher
I just e-mailed this whole page to Bishop Cordileone through his priest Secretary, Fr. Stall. God bless, yours in Their Hearts, Kenneth M. Fisher

Posted Thursday, May 31, 2012 2:27 PM By Kenneth M. Fisher
By the way, TEM and Mark from PA, Red is not only the color that represent Holy Martyrdom which Cardinals are called to accept, it is also a large part of the colors of the fires of HELL! Be careful that you don’t get to enjoy those colors FIRST HAND! God bless, yours in Their Hearts, Kenneth M. Fisher

Posted Thursday, May 31, 2012 3:42 PM By rosaryfixer
Attending one Mass years ago at St. Perpetua convinced us never to go there again; we found a parish in Walnut Creek that is about as conservative as any around us. Unfortunately most of these priests are not going to change. They are “Vatican II priests,” a total misnomer, but their liberal stance on everything marks them as not keeping up with the Church. Thank God for the seminarians being ordained today; I’ve heard some liberal priests shudder to think that they are mostly “pre-Vatican II priests” and want to return to Tradition. They are also the ones to be martyred in the future if our nation does not turn away from the path the Communists have planned for it.

Posted Thursday, May 31, 2012 4:20 PM By SoCal
Let us pray Psalm 109:7-8 for Father Brian Joyce! 7 When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: 8 Let his days be few; and let another take his office.

Posted Thursday, May 31, 2012 4:23 PM By Robert Bushlow
@goodcause you are kidding yourself. Among those who actually attend Mass weekly and participate in the Sacraments, that type of disobedience is virtually nil.

Posted Thursday, May 31, 2012 4:43 PM By Catherine
Mark from LOL, No one looks better in flames. I see that you are still gravitating towards having your your ears tickled so that you can still cleverly show your real resentment against those men in Rome. BTW, There will be no laughing in hell for those who foolishly plot to undermine Catholic Church teaching. FYI, Fire is also red and extremely hot.

Posted Thursday, May 31, 2012 6:17 PM By Anne T.
What Thomas Edward Miles said is nothing to smile about. It is heresy plain and simple. As Blessed John Paul II clearly stated, “The Church has no authority to ordain women.”