Women's ordination 'fallout' and Fr. Cachia.

Peterborough -- Father Edward Cachia of St. Michael's Catholic Church, Cobourg, in the diocese of Peterborough, publicly challenged the Church's teaching on ordination when he professed his solidarity with women's ordination in the Cobourg Daily Star of August 3, 2005 (see C.I., Nov. 2005, p. 29). He said he has advocated women's ordination for years and has concelebrated Holy Mass with "ordained" women.

As the Peterborough Examiner pointed out in an editorial on October 22: "That was a fundamental challenge to the Church. The Eucharist ... is an article of Catholic faith in which it is believed bread and wine are turned directly into the body and blood of Christ. Church law states it is to be practised only by priests, which means only by men."

Peterborough Bishop Nicola De Angelis responded by meeting with Fr. Cachia, who asked to be granted leave to pray and reflect upon his stand. The Bishop asked him to accept Church teaching and to pledge obedience to the Holy Father.

Unfortunately, after six weeks of thinking about it, Fr. Cachia decided to continue his support of women's ordination. Bishop De Angelis, in turn, had no alternative but to relieve him of his duties. It is the bishop's duty to affirm the universal and constant teaching of the Catholic Church, in this case that Holy Orders are reserved to men alone (Ordinatio sacerdotalis, John Paul II, May 22, 1994).

In a news release on October 19, 2005, the Peterborough Chancery pointed out, "Fr. Cachia's refusal to uphold these teachings, to renew and reaffirm his profession of faith in the teachings of the Church and to pledge obedience to the Holy Father, now renders him unfit to serve the Catholic people in the leadership role of a priest." Thus, Fr. Cachia was suspended from his priestly ministry. A number of parishioners pledged financial support for Fr. Cachia and the church choir resigned en masse in protest of the bishop's action (Nat. Post, Oct. 24, 2005).

In a separate letter To the Faithful of the Diocese of Peterborough (Oct. 19, 2005), Bishop De Angelis emphasized that "the gravity of these actions should not be lost to any of us, especially in this Year of the Eucharist, during which the Holy Father has asked us to reflect upon this precious gift to the Church ... The Church has a sacred duty to mandate those who celebrate the Eucharist in order to ensure the integrity of the Sacrament."

The Peterborough Examiner ended its editorial thus: "The Catholic Church has always been a harsh master in matters of requiring the faithful to obey ... So it comes down to a matter of conscience and choice. Fr. Cachia cannot ... refrain from criticizing the Church; the Church cannot ... ignore a rebellion against one of its principal tenets. The outcome, it seems, is both regrettable and unavoidable" (Reprinted by the Tor. Star, Oct. 25).

Father Cachia, who was ordained in 1985, had previously been a priest at St. Paul's Church in Lake field, Ontario, and also a chaplain with the Catholic school board's education centre in Peterborough. In both places dissidents felt encouraged to spread his ideas.

Predictably, the Peterborough unit of OECTA (the Ontario English Catholic Teachers' Association) came out publicly in support of Fr. Cachia. After a discussion with OECTA Provincial General Secretary Greg Pollock, unit President Patty-Anne Bronson opined it would be "acceptable" to start a "massive letter-writing campaign" to Bishop De Angelis in favour of Fr. Cachia. She interpreted this action as "an attempt to become authentic adult members of our faith community." In a letter to teachers, she wrote that if teachers were "sanctioned in any way because of their supportive letter," she would challenge the administration "on the basis of unjust discipline" (editor's emphasis) (News release, Oct. 4, 2005).

In addition to regional newspapers such as the Peterborough Examiner, the Cobourg Daily Times, the Port Hope Evening Guide and Northumberland Today, the four Toronto dailies covered the controversy. The Toronto bi-weekly Catholic New Times strongly supported Fr. Cachia.

On November 1, Catholic Network for Women's Equality (CNWE) issued a call for the Catholic Church to "catapult itself into the twenty-first century to support the ordination of women" (press release).

Comment:

The Catholic community has no interest in maintaining schools where teachers contradict Catholic moral and doctrinal teaching. Doing so does not make these teachers into "adult Catholics" but, rather, reveals them as infantile Catholics who seek to be politically correct. The best discipline for such teachers may be asking them to move to the public schools. That way, they cease to be hypocrites.

Women's ordination had been discussed for thirty years when Pope John Paul H drew up his final conclusions against it in 1994. In 1995, the Pope confirmed that the belief that the priesthood is meant for men alone, as de fide (i.e., held from the beginning of the Church and part of the Catholic faith).

Bishop Nicola De Angelis should be thanked for his defence of Catholic doctrine in the face of dissent. We ask subscribers to pray for our bishops and priests (See also our article, "The 'ordination" of "womenpriests," Oct. 2005, pp. 10-15; also available on our website at www.catholicinsight.com/online/ feminism/article_622.shtml).