“If,” as Catholic blogger Marc Barnes wrote, “in the course of human events, a cringe-inducing karaoke of an already over-played pop song is your primary response to the philosophical tradition of the Holy Catholic Church, you’ve negated yourself long, long before you’ve been rebutted.” He is talking about the hysterically funny video produced by the Women’s Ordination Conference titled Ordain a Lady.
Comment is superfluous, except to note the lines about ignoring St. Paul, “other churches” that do ordain women, the pope being “in my way,” and “God called me . . . That’s a fact.” What you have left is pretty much the Episcopal Church and we know how well it’s doing. The video has already gladdened the heart of many an obedient Catholic.
January 3rd, 2013 | 9:01 pm
Not once in the video did the women mention the Blessed Virgin Mary. That says a lot.
And the two gentlemen joining the sad sing-along? How emasculating.
January 3rd, 2013 | 9:48 pm
This is satire, right?
January 4th, 2013 | 7:38 am
It’s really hard to believe this isn’t a spoof. This couldn’t possibly be the work of a group trying to get themselves taken seriously. Not simply because it’s so cheesy, but because so many of the references are so campy.
January 4th, 2013 | 8:01 am
Apart from the questions of church and theology, there’s something else remarkable here. Somehow she stays under pitch—singing flat—by exactly the same amount throughout the song. That’s almost impressive—it’s not easy to do that.
Almost impressive, I emphasize, for no matter how hard or easy it may be, it doesn’t sound good at all. It’s more characteristic of parody than of authentic work.
The whole thing smacks of parody, in fact. Did she intend to be taken seriously? Like John in the previous comment, I can’t really tell.
January 4th, 2013 | 9:43 am
I kid you not: while its utter silliness (among other things) suggests that it is, the video is definitely NOT parody. Under ‘Info’, it says it’s sponsored by the ‘Womens Ordination Conference’: http://www.womensordination.org/content/view/8/59/
January 4th, 2013 | 9:46 am
Oh, I don’t know, Tom. I’ve been known to sing consistently flat for a song and I don’t think it’s all that hard.
Mostly, I just feel bad for those poor young women. What are they being told constitutes a vocation? Strong desire and that’s it?
I also feel a bit sorry for St. Therese. That’s a fact.
January 4th, 2013 | 10:02 am
I am a Catholic “lady” myself and could not disagree more with this video. In Spanish we have a phrase, “pena ajena,” which is not completely translatable but means something like being embarrassed for someone else even when you aren´t the least involved in what they are doing; I got the pena ajena feeling watching this video because of its quality and message. Yes, it would be quite a relief to discover that it was actually intended as a parody.
January 4th, 2013 | 10:06 am
Someone please explain the most basic tenets of the spiritual life to these would be “priests.” I just don’t even know where to start with such profound ignorance and obstinance.
January 4th, 2013 | 10:12 am
Terrible song. But a good sentiment – the Catholic Church will continue to die a slow death until it emerges from the tenth century and puts sexism behind it.
January 4th, 2013 | 10:12 am
“What you have left is pretty much the Episcopal Church and we know how well it’s doing.” Yes . . . it’s struggling, though I don’t think that it is because of women priests. The U.S. Catholic Church is struggling, too. How big would it be if its numbers only included people who attended church every Sunday and did not include any people who think that it’s a good idea to open ordination to women?
January 4th, 2013 | 10:13 am
I think, to be fair, the people who made the video did it largely to have fun. I doubt that they feel it will have any impact on women’s ordination.
It is, of course, pretty bad, although it is probably no worse than average Youtube take-offs on popular songs/videos. Actually, many professionally done videos for popular songs are decidedly lame. One of the things that bothers me most in this one is the sloppy approach to “choreography.” If you are going to have a group of dancers in the background who are all supposed to be doing the same thing, you ought to rehearse a few times so that they actually are in something that approaches unison.
The mistake actually was not making the video. It was posting it where other people could see it. :P
January 4th, 2013 | 10:18 am
In several shots they appear to be dancing in front of a ruined chapel.
January 4th, 2013 | 11:36 am
“The U.S. Catholic Church is struggling, too. How big would it be if its numbers only included people who attended church every Sunday and did not include any people who think that it’s a good idea to open ordination to women?”
Even on the most pessimistic poll numbers – a whole lot bigger than the Episcopal Church, which has dioceses smaller than many big Catholic parishes – and, speaking of which, is shedding entire dioceses through schism.
But I agree: women’s ordination is merely a symptom of what has gone wrong with the ECUSA, not the main cause.
January 4th, 2013 | 11:40 am
As one who left ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church in 2006 to adhere myself to the Truth of the Faith, this is nothing short of hysterical!!! “Justice” doesn’t equal a tit-for-tat fairness. Women ordained will not make all things right with the Church – faithful people living a life of obedience to God will.
January 4th, 2013 | 11:48 am
I can understand a group that means to be taken seriously, producing something non-serious for fun.
I can’t imagine them producing this, and still expecting to be taken seriously in the more serious aspects of their movement. That’s where I get hung up. The Catholic schoolgirl stuff, the lack of any even implied serious motivation beyond “I wanna” for their position makes them look like a bunch of rock stars or actors begging to be taken seriously — which never works, unless said celebs actually manage to string together a few serious statements, which happens now and then.
However, I’m beginning to fear that it’s simply a failure of imagination on my part that I can’t imagine it.
January 4th, 2013 | 12:08 pm
To answer Paul’s question: not very big at all. In my experience, most people who support women’s ordination have no interest in the Church or the spiritual life: the issue usually is just a convenient “confirmation” of a rejection already made long ago for different reasons. The issue is also a good cudgel with which to beat the Church. In any case, if the Church is “behind the times” and must “get with the (modern, secular) program,” then there really is no point in listening to the ancient wisdom of the Church, is there? (See Lauríe’s comments.) If the secular world is so morally superior, why bother with trying to conform your life to a higher Truth (let alone getting up on Sunday morning to go to a “mass” officiated by a priestess)?
But I think there is a strange conundrum at work here: one’s immediate response (as in the original post) is, why not just go to the Episcopal Church? But I think that is too easy. Ironically, the advocates for women’s ordination in the Catholic Church are so vociferous because they recognize, however dimly, that the Catholic Church, unlike the Episcopal Church, is the one, true Church. Only ordination within the Catholic Church would give it legitimacy. But they also know, again however dimly, that if the Catholic Church were to ordain women, then it would not be the one, true Church, but a counterfeit church. Hence, they are in the proverbial situation of wanting both to have and to eat their cake. And hence, rather than go over to the Episcopal Church, they prefer to rage against the Catholic Church in impotent fury.
January 4th, 2013 | 12:57 pm
Well, it could have been worse: they could have attempted to use “Gangnam Style”….
January 5th, 2013 | 3:28 am
Laurie ,
You seem to be unaware of the FACTS . The Catholic Church , in the USA and in the entire world is NOT dying a slow death but is growing in numbers . There are more Roman Catholics in the world ( and in the USA ) than there were 2 ,5, 10 or twenty years ago . NOT only that , but there are more RC seminarians in the world (and in the USA ) now than there were 2,5 or 10 years ago . What is my proof source ? The Statistical Yearbook of the Catholic Church , aka the Red Book/White Book ( they’re the same book , the Pope gets the five copies published with white covers — you can purchase the Red Book if you’d like) . What gets reported in the MSM is the reduction in seminarians and church attendance in Europe , but the Catholic Church is , as it’s name implies , “universal” .
Your ” sexism” comment is a red herring . The Church has always championed women and women’s rights . That’s why we show hyper dulia to Mary , why there are female Doctors of the Church , why a Catholic sister created the largest religious broadcasting network in the world ( EWTN ) and why the first women CEO’s in North America were Roman Catholic Nuns — go figure !The Catholic Church is a church of sacraments , and because the sacraments were created by God , the RC Church does not have the authority to change these sacraments . The Catholic Church could no more validly ordain( sacrament of Holy Orders ) women than it could validly baptize with motor oil or confect the Eucharist…
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