I first visited San Diego almost forty years ago and since have spent more time there, second only to the Tulsa area, than any other place primarily because it is the home of my first-born child. My most recent visit added a third experience with religion that I associate with San Diego. This is my final of three posts describing those three experiences and it is about my encounter with Mary Magdalene Apostle Catholic Community.
Let’s kick it off with the last of the three phenomena, unrelated to my topic, that I call the San Diego trifecta, namely Slomo, here he is:
Dr. John S. Kitchin, M.D., a retired San Diego neurologist trained in psychiatry.
and this photo taken in January, 2020 with him and my Linda :
My third experience with the Religions of San Diego began in June, 2021 when I read this article in the New Yorker.
The article begins with the personal stories of three women, living in Dublin, Ireland, Rochester, New York and Portland, Oregan, telling how they felt called to be priests, but couldn’t do so. It then discusses the Church’s position on ordination only of male priests and dissent from several in the Catholic community about that. Then it describes the ordination of seven women in the Danube River in 2002 by two Bishops not in good standing, followed by more in 2005 at the mouth of the St. Lawrence, the idea being that no diocese has authority in the middle of a river boundary. In 2006 Jane Via was ordained in the Bodensee River between Germany and Austria with others who are now part of the Roman Catholic Women Priests movement.
The world-wide movement is named Roman Catholic Women Priests and here is their website: Roman Catholic Womenpriests-USA:
Jane Via founded the Mary Magdalene Apostle Catholic Community which is featured at the end of the 15 minute video from RCWP site at 12:30. She has a PhD in theology and was a staff attorney with the District Attorney’s office in San Diego. On Sunday, October 16, 2022, we attended the mass at Mary Magdalene Apostle Catholic Community in the evening at the Gethsemane Lutheran Church. We were welcomed and, unlike other Catholic masses I have attended, invited to receive communion.
Here is an interview from December, 2009 with Jane Via hosted by the Osher program at University of California San Diego:
She addresses three challenges she faced in establishing the MMACC. First her experience with breast cancer; second her excommunication by the Church; and third growing an inclusive and relevant community. Let’s listen at 8:45 to her description of the excommunication.
9. Min addresses excommunicated
20. End of argument on her. Then to removing man who ordained her
23. Then on to describe mmacc. Liturgy etc.
30. Describes experience at mmacc.
37 questions start
Here is a video about seven women priests in New Jersey:
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