"Phoenix Bishop Thomas Olmsted has excommunicated a priest ..."

... who participated in the attempted ordination of a woman in cahoots with a schismatic sect with ties to California.

The priest, Fr. Vernon Meyer, took part in the attempted ordination last month of social worker Elaine Groppenbacher in Tempe. The ‘ordination’ was performed by Bishop Peter Hickman of St. Matthew Ecumenical Catholic Church in Orange, part of the self-styled “Ecumenical Catholic Communion.” Over the last several years, Hickman has been traveling from California to states like Arizona and Colorado to perform the bogus ordinations.

In addition to ordaining women “priests,” the Ecumenical Catholic Communion allows open access to the Eucharist to anyone regardless of faith, permits its priests to marry, allows remarriage after divorce, approves of contraception and artificial insemination, rejects the authority of the pope, and spurns Canon Law.

A similar episode in September 2009 in which Hickman “ordained” two women in Longmont, Colorado, prompted a spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Denver to call the Ecumenical Catholic Communion “a fringe group, like other such groups that disagree with Church teaching. They are in schism."

Read the entire piece in today's edition of California Catholic Daily. Bishop Olmsted's letter on the matter can be read in The Catholic Sun newspaper.

Related IgnatiusInsight.com Articles and Excerpts:

• Women and the Priesthood: A Theological Reflection | Jean Galot, S.J. | From Theology of the Priesthood
• The Real Reason for the Vocation Crisis | Rev. Michael P. Orsi
• Pray the Harvest Master Sends Laborors | Rev. Anthony Zimmerman
• Priestly Vocations in America: A Look At the Numbers | Jeff Ziegler
• Clerical Celibacy: Concept and Method | Alfons Maria Cardinal Stickler | From The Case for Clerical Celibacy
• The Religion of Jesus | Blessed Columba Marmion | From Christ, The Ideal of the Priest
• The Priest as Man, Husband, and Father | Fr. John Cihak

Comments

[catholic-vision.blogspot.com]

Prayers for Bishop Olmsted and gratitude for his fidelity to his office.

[Howard]

BREAKING NEWS: Bishop does his duty. Film at 11.