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    Fr. Joseph Jenkins

  • The blog header depicts an important and yet mis-understood New Testament scene, Jesus flogging the money-changers out of the temple. I selected it because the faith that gives us consolation can also make us very uncomfortable. Both Divine Mercy and Divine Justice meet in Jesus. Priests are ministers of reconciliation, but never at the cost of truth. In or out of season, we must be courageous in preaching and living out the Gospel of Life. The title of my blog is a play on words, not Flogger Priest but Blogger Priest.

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Honey, You’re Not a Catholic Priest!

The December 29 headline in the KANSAS REFLECTOR read, “Kansan returns to the Catholic Church as the state’s first woman priest,” by Anna Kaminski. The story was published under the sectioned off heading of CIVIL RIGHTS.  All I can say is No, and No. Tina Thompson is not a Catholic priest and vocations in the faith are not entitlements in justice but gifts for service. Further, I suspect Episcopal female clergy might be offended because while Catholicism judges Anglicans orders as null-and-void, they also consider themselves priests. Arguably the more appropriate term here is “priestess,” although there are unavoidable pagan connotations.    

Thompson attempted ordination not in the Catholic Church but in a dissenting, meaning “protestant” sect called Roman Catholic Womanpriests (RCWP).  More than lacking formal recognition, this group is spurned by the Catholic Church.  Those involved with such efforts to circumvent sacramental laws are regarded as excommunicated from true faith. She says the matter is “so much bigger” than her, but it is really all about her. Along with other like-minded women, the issue is rebellion from clearly articulated teachings that stem from long-standing tradition and from Pope John Paul II’s solemn definition. She may be one of hundreds around the world but none of these ladies is a licit or valid priest of the Roman Catholic Church.  Even if a legitimate bishop (possessing apostolic succession) had sought to ordain her, she would still not be a priest as it is not the will of Christ and his Church.    

She says, “We are still the church, but we are different in that we open the tent. We want everyone to feel like they are welcome.” This is a deception. The theological definition of “church” requires both a valid priesthood and Eucharist.  She and her girlfriends have neither.  They can dress up but all they are doing is playing priest.  They are fooling themselves and would seek to do the same to others.  It is terribly sinful because it would cost the gullible both absolution from sin and the saving Eucharist. A priest is a man configured to the incarnate Christ as our high priest.  He is an icon of our Lord.  Some orders and Eastern rite congregations would even have the priest grow the accidental of a beard to help convey his ministerial unity with Jesus. A woman cannot sacramentally signify Christ at the altar. 

Estrangement from the Church for twenty years is hardly proper formation for ministry. Tina Thompson talks about her work as an artist but says next to nothing about the sacrament of Penance and the Eucharist.  She is a fake, not a priest and only tenuously a juridical Catholic because of baptism. The church in which Tina Thompson attempted ordination was not Catholic. Unity Church in Lawrence, Kansas must have rented their facility because, while led by women, it does not even claim bishops.  We read on the website for Unity Church in Lawrence, Kansas: “Unity is an open-minded, accepting spiritual community that honors all paths to God and helps people discover and live their spiritual potential and purpose. A positive alternative to negative religion, Unity seeks to apply the teachings of Jesus as well as other spiritual masters. Unity affirms the power of prayer and helps people experience a stronger connection with God every day.” They also reject the notion of heaven with the saints, asserting, “Heaven is not a place, but a state of consciousness.”  Nonsense! Ordination in such a setting further compromises any claims of Catholicity.  It is literally a NEW AGE movement that is arguably not even Christian. It might be a welcoming tent, but it is not the house that Jesus built. The ordinations are not valid despite her protestations. They have not abided by apostolic succession because while they might have satisfied form, they have substituted invalid matter. The line back to Christ is broken.     

The KANSAS CITY REFLECTOR steps away from its headline and Tina Thompson’s claims by stating: “Women priests do not perform their duties in Catholic churches, and they cannot be officially ordained in one either. They are not recognized and are often excommunicated from the Catholic Church if they are heavily involved before their ordination as Roman Catholic women priests.”

Thompson might claim to be Catholic, but she has turned away from basic truths transmitted by the faith. She does not believe in the indissolubility of marriage and accepts divorce. She also dissents in her approbation for homosexuality.  The aging women of Roman Catholic Womanpriests would redefine, not just Holy Orders, the Church and her values.  None of these imposters in the presbyterate would demand a celibate priesthood. Most would also redefine marriage. No matter what Thompson calls herself, she is a Protestant minister, pure and simple. She says that she was ordained a deacon on August 22, 2024, and a Roman Catholic Women Priest on Nov. 1, 2025. But notice that the article is silent as to who attempted to ordain her. 

After doing research online, it appears that Bishop Paula Hoeffer attempted to ordain her as a priest.  Hoeffer is a former religious sister (Sister of Notre Dame de Namur) who left the convent half a century ago for marriage.  She only became a supposed bishop, herself, in 2025. Her initiation into this fraudulent sacerdotalism was through Joan Houk, still another fake woman bishop. Houk’s elevation into this feigned episcopacy was the work of Patricia Fresen (Germany), Ida Raming (Germany) and Christine Mayr-Lumetzberger (Austria). They were three from the infamous Danube Seven ordained on a river boat in 2002 by Rómulo Antonio Braschi (a priest who defected to found the Catholic Apostolic Charismatic Church of Jesus the King) and Ferdinand Regelsberger (a former Benedictine monk that Brashi consecrated as bishop). It is not a pedigree to be proud about. 

Thompson admits herself, “We’re just a schism, as they say,” and are not in unity with Rome. The fact remains that Rome decides who is or is not a “Roman” Catholic priest. Like so many aging militant feminists, she errantly equates a “male-guided” Church with a “misguided” institution. The article observes, “Her ministry as a priest isn’t yet clear.”  That is an understatement if ever there was one. We are told that her time gravitates toward art. Does this not reduce priesthood to a side-line hobby instead of as a sacrificial vocation?    

Where is the Justice?

Maybe I am handicapped by chronic cynicism? But I am often wary of those who criticize others about how they understand justice when their own appreciation would likely not muster close inspection. The word “justice” like “love” and “rights” has been hackneyed in every possible way, as well as assumed into the ranting politics of left, right and all stances in-between. The Black Lives movement clamors for justice against racism and power. Radical feminists define justice as liberation, not only from males but from their own biology and fertility. Militant Zionists demand a justice for past Jewish martyrs with a retributive justice hard to distinguish from revenge. Marxists demand a one-sided variation of justice reminiscent of Robin Hood, where the people “rise up” to steal from the rich (the bourgeoisie) and give to the poor workers (the proletariat). [In practice a party dictator takes power and all bets about justice are off the table.] While American citizens can rightly demand border security, what becomes of justice without sufficient compassion or mercy, particularly when the poor and the persecuted are lumped with criminals and the gangs from drug cartels? Can a society justly take the lives of the guilty in capital punishment when it wrongly strips the innocent unborn of any right to life? [The late Pope John Paul II said “no,” that any jurisdiction to deprive another of life under the banner of justice is forfeited in a culture of death.]   

It is hard for a civilization to appreciate the cardinal virtue of justice when it is saturated with a parade of vices.  While quick to judge, many people literally do not know what it means to be good or what constitutes the “right thing.” I suspect that is why we see the vast multiplication of surveillance cameras.  Increasing numbers of people feel it is okay to steal, so long as they are not caught.  Intimidation has replaced the virtues.  

What do we as human beings have coming to us and what is “due” or owed to others? This varies from person to person.  Business and general exchange of services relates to commutative justice. The employer should pay his employee an adequate wage. The employee needs to be diligent in providing serves or goods for which he or she is remunerated. Distributive justice is directed toward our relationship with a community. We all have equal rights to the same freedoms and general opportunities. But we do not all have the same resources, talents or obligations. This form of justice respects proportionality. Each person in a society does his or her part for the whole. Finally, there is what we call social justice. Here we often find a conflict between legal definitions and what we regard as just according to both divine positive law and natural law.  

Turning to the Church, we need to cease mimicking the polarity that we find in partisan civil politics. Otherwise, we violate the peace of Christ that we celebrate at the Eucharist. This peace is focused upon our unity in Jesus Christ. How can we possibly appeal to those outside the Church for either evangelization or for social justice while our own believers are at each other’s throats in divergence from one another. We should not compromise the Gospel of Life by making too little of abortion or making too much of capital punishment. There need be no conflict about preserving secure borders and in proportional justice to illegals, distinguishing between desperate families who love the promise of America and the criminal invaders who should be expelled or punished. Neither side should use the justice system to attack political enemies. All should demonstrate a religious respect for the Holy Father, instead of a nasty knee-jerk criticism about the role of women, gays, environmental stewardship or various liturgical concerns. I really hate the current politicization of faith.  We should not be quick to judge or condemn the Catholic character of men and women who voted either for Harris or Trump or someone else in the last election. Neither candidate articulates nor manifests the full kerygma as we understand it. No Catholic should allow his or her party platform or agenda to supplant the demands of the Gospel.  The moral values of the Gospel are what they are. We should all seek to be good Catholics, keeping the commandments and loving God and our neighbor.  We should exhibit a modicum of human respect, even when differences of opinion are severe. This must be the stance from both authority and from the rank-and-file. We need to be contrite about past ridicule and careful not to mock others or to use incendiary language. It is far better to build bridges than to burn them down.