I offer a couple of tidbits of Minnesota news, one from the Catholic right and one from the Catholic left.
The ultraconservative Catholic Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) made local news in Minnesota today. This is the breakaway group whose four bishops were excommunicated two decades ago then recently reinstated by Pope Benedict XVI despite controversy over holocaust denials by one of the four, Richard Williamson. Williamson was recently booted out of Argentina where he had been serving.
In Minnesota, the group has reappeared in the news due to the announcement that thirteen seminarians will be ordained by one of the four reinstated bishops, Bernard Tissier de Mallerais. Although the excommunications of the four bishops have been lifted, the Vatican states that the four have no official standing; thus, the ordinations will not be recognized by the church. In an article in the Mpls Star Tribune, Rose Hammes, spokesperson for the Winona Diocese, states:
the men being ordained by the society on Friday would not be eligible to serve as priests in any Roman Catholic diocese.
The St. Thomas Aquinas Seminary of Winona, which is affiliated with SSPX, will host the ordinations.
Meanwhile, in local Minnesota news from the Catholic left, the Catholic Pastoral Committee on Sexual Minorities (CPCSM) has announced that Democratic candidate for governor, Sen John Marty, will speak at The Committee’s annual community meeting on June 22. Marty is sponsor of a pending bill in the Mn Senate that would provide for gender-neutral marriage laws, and he will speak on why as a person of faith he supports marriage equality for LGBT people. Marty’s father is Martin Marty, a well known Lutheran theologian, who has strong ties to St Olaf college of Northfield. The event will take place at St. Martin’s Table.
