Wisconsin priest banned from church for Mass with female priest
A 92-year-old Wisconsin Jesuit has become the latest Catholic priest to be punished by church authorities for celebrating Mass with a woman priest in violation of church rules.
A Milwaukee priest has been banned from saying Mass because he violated the Pope's orders by celebrating Mass with a female priest.
Reuters reported Father Bill Brennan, 92, celebrated Mass last month in Georgia with Janice Sevre-Duszynska of the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests.
Under the Catholic rules, women are forbidden to become priests, but some have been ordained outside the official church, which allows them to celebrate Mass.
The Journal Sentinel reported Brennan, who lives with other retired Jesuits in a retirement home, said that while he knew he risked censure for his actions, he does not regret it.
"Sometimes in our lives we have to trust our conscience and bring about the consequences," Brennan told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.
"I wasn't trying to show off for the ladies."
But the Archdiocese of Milwaukee and the Wisconsin Province of the Jesuits who mutually agreed on the sanctions against Brennan, said in a statement:
"The Province did not approve or sanction the event, and regrets Father Brennan's participation in it."
Brennan has been a tireless worker for the Church, having worked as a missionary in Central America for 16 years before returning to the United States to teach and act as a pastor.