Catholic University to Give Award to Goddess-Worshipping Theologian
Sister Elizabeth A. Johnson advocates calling God 'She Who Is'
By Thaddeus M. Baklinski
Miami, November 13, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Department of Theology and Philosophy of Barry University which is run by the Dominican Sisters of Adrian, Michigan, will give an Award for Theological Excellence in January to radical feminist theologian Sister Elizabeth A. Johnson, a professor at Jesuit run Fordham University.
Sister Elizabeth, who advocates goddess worship, actively dissents from the Church's infallible teaching on the invalidity of women's ordinations and promotes the cause of world government and a one-world religion.
In her book She Who Is (Crossroad, 1993) Sister Elizabeth announced "that the time has come to stop addressing God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and to begin addressing Him as 'She Who Is.'" For this she won awards and a promotion to "Distinguished" Professor of Theology at Catholic Fordham University.
Here she joins the ranks of such notables as Sister Sandra Schneiders, IHM, professor of New Testament at Berkeley's Jesuit School of Theology, who has vilified the Faith for two decades. In Beyond Patching (Paulist, 1990) Schneiders wrote that "every aspect" of the Catholic faith "is not just tainted but perverted by the evil of patriarchy. It is not that the tradition has some problems; the tradition is the problem."
In an article in the National Catholic Reporter, Nov 17, 2000, Sister Elizabeth said women have long been "denied equality with men in access to sacred ties, places, actions and even identity," and "women have been consistently robbed of our full dignity as friends of God
and prophets," by the likes of St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas.
She bemoans the church statements forbidding the ordination of women, that in her words, "locate the image of Christ in the male body rather than in the whole person being made christomorphic by entering into the dying and rising of Christ." That Jesus Christ was a man seems to elude her.
Sister Elizabeth endorses Call To Action, a radical anti-Catholic group founded in the 1960’s to agitate within the Catholic Church to overturn Catholic teaching on the sanctity of life, marriage and the meaning of the priesthood. The group has been excommunicated for “causing damage to the Church of Christ” (Giovanni Cardinal Battista Re, Apostolic Signatura) and being “totally incompatible with the Catholic faith” (Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz, Lincoln, Nebraska).
When asked for a comment on the award being given to Sr. Elizabeth, the office of the Archbishop of Miami had difficulty finding someone who would make a statement.
Barry University was founded in 1940 by Patrick Barry, Bishop of St. Augustine, and Reverend Mother M. Gerald Barry, Prioress General of the Dominican Sisters of Adrian, Michigan.
The University is listed as a "Gay-Friendly University" by the Conference for Catholic Lesbians.
To express concerns to the Archdiocese of Miami contact:
Archbishop John C. Favalora
9401 Biscayne Boulevard
Miami Shores, FL 33138
Phone: (305) 757-6241
Fax: (305) 754-1797
To express concerns to Barry University contact:
Sister Linda Bevilacqua, OP, Ph.D., President of Barry University
11300 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami Shores, FL 33161-6695
Phone number: 305-899-3014
Toll-free: 1-800-756-6000, ext. 3014
and
William J. Heffernan, Chairman
Barry University Board of Trustees
11300 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami Shores, FL 33161-6695
Phone number: 305-899-3100
Toll-free: 1-800-695-2279