Woman excommunicated because she was ordained | Local News - WISN Home

 

Milwaukee native is looking forward to seeing the leader of the Catholic church in September, despite being excommunicated by that same church.

• Janice Sevre-Duszynska left Milwaukee in 1985 and headed to Lexington, Kentucky. It was there that she begged for ordination to become a priest.

She told church officials, "Why don't you just let me go to the seminary? You can send me to Mexico, I'll brush up on my Spanish. Put me wherever you want me."

She was told that she could not become a priest because she isn't a man.

WISN 12 News anchor Joyce Garbaciak asked her why she didn't become a priest in a religion that accepts women priests.

"That just doesn't make sense to me at all," she answered. "I'm a daughter of the church, and I won't abandon my family."

Undeterred, she received ordination through the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests in 2008. To learn more, visit its website here.

A spokeswoman for the Archdiocese of Milwaukee reiterated the church's stance that only a baptized man can validly receive sacred ordination.

Sevre-Duszynska has continued her activism for the cause. She invited Milwaukee Jesuit Bill Brennan to celebrate Mass with her in 2012.

He did, and he was stripped of many of his priestly duties because of it.

Brennan died in 2014 and never spoke publicly about the topic of woman ordination until a series of videos he had recorded on his deathbed were released after he died.

Sevre-Duszynska also suffered consequences advocating for women's ordination. She recently received a decree of ex-communication from the church.

She rejects the idea.

"We don't accept excommunication because you're part of a church community when you're baptized," she said. "You can't rescind your baptism."

Julie Wolf, of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee, said the choice belonged to Sevre-Duszynska.

"It's sad when people deliberately separate themselves from their church," she said.

Sevre-Duszynska said her group will be in Philadelphia ordaining bishops at the same time Pope Francis is scheduled to visit. She is nominated to be one of many female priests elevated to bishop.

She hopes that the pope and other leaders of the church will someday be open to the idea of women priests.

"God has created us equally," she said. "We need these men to open up their hearts and take up the example of the gospels." 

 

Woman excommunicated because she was ordained | Local News - WISN Home