Catholic Women Air Mixed Views On “Mock Mass” Held At Vatican

By Priscilla Hart

ROME – A “mock mass” celebrated by women in St. Peter’s Basilica was denounced by some Catholic women here Thursday but praised by others.

A number of Catholic women theologians and nuns distanced themselves from the Wednesday action of the American nurse from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, described in press accounts as the first Roman Catholic mass in history to be celebrated by a woman.

But several Italian women said they supported the gesture because “women are not respected in the church” and it is “just” that women be permitted to become priests.

Sister Mary Linscott, an administrator at the Vatican’s Congregation of Religious and Secular Institutes and the highest-ranking woman employed at the Vatican, said the mass “was an ill-advised action.”

“The gesture is most unhelpful,” said Rosemary Goldie, an Australian theologian and professor who is attending the ongoing Vatican synod as an observer.

“She may not have meant it that way, but it was a gesture of defiance,” said Goldie, 70, who attended the Second Vatican Council and teaches at the Pontifical Lateran University. “It makes it more difficult for others to advance in the active participation of women in the church.”

Babi Burke, a 44-year-old mother of four, entered St. Peter’s Basilica Wednesday at about 2:30 pm, dressed in a long black robe and priestly stole, according to Marie-Terese Sonmoy, am ex-nun from Belgium. Sonmoy, a friend of Burke’s, accompanied her into St. Peter’s Wednesday afternoon.

“She prayed the first half of the mass before entering St. Peter’s,” Sonmoy said.

After entering the basilica, Burke walked down the main aisle and jumped over a wooden barricade and staged a “mock consecration.”

Burke was then seized by Vatican guards and taken into custody. Also taken into custody briefly were Sonmoy and a passing tourist who had taken a photograph of the “mock mass” in progress. All three were released later Wednesday afternoon, Sonmoy said.

It was not clear Thursday whether Burke had left Italy for France, as she indicated she would.

Sonmoy said the host used by Burke had been legitimately consecrated by a Catholic priest in the United States and then carried to Italy by Burke, Sonmoy said. But she did not say how Burke had obtained the consecrated host. The wine used in the ceremony was purchased in Rome and had not been consecrated, she said.

Sonmoy said Burke did not perform the mass because she herself wanted to become a priest, but to highlight the plight of hundreds of Catholic women who feel called to become priests, have finished their theological studies, but cannot become priests in the Catholic church.

The Vatican issued no official statement concerning the mass.

But Vatican communications office administrator Marjorie Weeke, speaking unofficially, said: “She does help the women’s cause this way.”

Sister Mary Glenn, Assistant Superior General of the Sisters of Divine Providence in Rome called the “mock mass” a poor approach” to the problem of ordaining women, but added that “the attitude of the church towards women, which judges them as deficient, must change.”

Several Italian Catholic laywomen said they supported the American woman’s gesture.

“It seems just to me,” said Lidia Achilli, a Catholic laywoman in Rome. “I know that Jesus chose men as his apostles, but at that time women were not respected.”

The Rev. Gino Concetti, a Vatican theologian, said Ms. Burke, because of action, is “automatically interdicted” – meaning that she is excluded from participating in certain sacraments including communion, AGI Italian News Agency reported.

In order to regain her church rights, Ms. Burke must present herself before a bishop and seek forgiveness, the theologian was quoted as saying.

The International Courier
6 December 1985