Some dame in Philly claims that a Jesuit priest “ordained” her 23 years ago. (Hey, it was 1980; the fringe types would try anything back then.)
Here’s some of her reasoning:
“I don’t want to be excommunicated, but I decided that you can’t be excommunicated from something you are,” Heffernan said. “And the doctrine of the church is that we are the church.”
Now, let’s parse this closely: she seems to be figuring as follows: (a) we are the church; (b) I am part of “we”; (c) therefore I am part of the church; also, (d) the church cannot excommunicate itself; “therefore”, (e) the church cannot excommunicate me and did not excommunicate me for schism, simulation of a sacrament, or whatever offense. Just flip through the Code of Canon Law and point to a page at random, and you’ll probably find some violation there.
I guess there is no such thing as excommunication under this gal’s logic, so, hey: I feel a song comin’ on. Everybody join hands and sing along (We Are The World):
We are the Church,
We’re priests, we’re women,
There is no excommunication
and there is no sinnin’:
It’s our voice we’re raisin’,
We’re savin’ our own souls,
We’re gonna have the Church our way eventually…
Eurgh.