5 /5 Mary Bretscher: The Holy Family experience must be something like what the early church was, in the decades immediately after Christ’s time on earth. Members were fired up by the message of Jesus and they were eager to pass it on. No one was excluded. Women played an important role, including that of priest. The physical structures of the church were humble, not fancy.
Over the millennia since its origin, the church acquired layers of bureaucracy and canon law, with the exclusion of women from the priesthood. Though women have played an active role in the church, it has also been a subservient one. There has been an ongoing effort within the Catholic Church to open the priesthood to women. This effort has proceeded very slowly within the patriarchal hierarchy. Roman Catholic Women Priests has concluded that it is time move the church forward and are no longer waiting. Several supportive Catholic bishops have ordained women as priests, assuring them apostolic succession.
In 2014, Reverend Mary Keldermans was ordained as a RCWP, and Holy Family Inclusive Catholic Community was founded.
For people who have grown up Catholic, belonging to Holy Family feels familiar, and ancient, and new, all at the same time. The rituals are familiar. Mass and the sacraments are the same. But there is also a sense of returning to the days of the early church, when everyone was welcomed, and before certain groups were barred from full participation. Simultaneously, it feels like Holy Family has something that is missing from other Catholic churches, or maybe it’s that Holy Family doesn’t have something that the others have: an uncomfortable feeling that some people are excluded. It’s rare that this is spoken of at mass, but the knowledge that excluding women from the priesthood, and of married LGBTQ people from communion is part of the rules is enough to make parishioners feel awkward or even hypocritical. Most people don’t appreciate having to adopt a moral code that goes against their sense of right and wrong. Attending Mass at Holy Family is blessedly free from the burden of these hurtful rules.
By doing, and being, what is right, and by not waiting for the rest of the Catholic world to catch up, Holy Family presents a model of the future church come to fruition in the present. It feels like Holy Family is out ahead of everyone else, at the edge of the envelope. 5 stars to Holy Family for the vision and the bravery.
